JPS62100288A - Production apparatus for microorganism-containing capsule - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain microorganism-containing capsules having uniform particle diameters, by extruding microorganism suspension from the inner wall of a nozzle, releasing a film-forming agent solution along the outer wall of the nozzle, forming liquid drops which cover the microorganism suspension with the film-forming agent solution and introducing them into a gelatinizing solution bath. CONSTITUTION:An inverted cone type rotary container 1 is set on the top of a hollow vertical shaft 2 and a great number of nozzles 7 are set at equal intervals at the outermost peripheral part of the rotary container 1. A pipe 12 to feed a film-forming agent solution is laid at the central part above the rotary container 1, a solution bath to feed the film-forming agent solution is set at a lower top part of the rotary container 1 and the film-forming agent solution is introduced from the lower top part to the nozzle 7 with rotation of the rotary container 1. A microorganism suspension is fed from a hollow part of the hollow vertical shaft 2 to an inner part of the rotary container 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a microorganism-containing capsule in which a microorganism suspension is confined inside a polymer coating agent.

[Conventional technology]

As a device for manufacturing relatively large microorganism-containing capsules with a particle size of about 1 to 5 m, the microorganism suspension is simultaneously discharged from the inner tube of a concentric double tube and the coating agent liquid is released from the outer tube to form droplets.
One possibility is to drop it into the gelling agent solution. With this device, droplets are obtained in which the outside of the microbial suspension in the central part is covered with the coating agent solution, and the coating agent is further thickened in the gelling agent solution, and microbial-enclosing capsules are continuously obtained. It will be done.

However, in order to obtain a large number of capsules, a large number of concentric double tubes must be provided, which poses a problem of complicating the apparatus.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

An object of the present invention is to provide an entire device that can obtain a large amount of microorganism-containing capsules with a simple device.

[Means and actions for solving the problem] We focused on the fact that a device that uses the centrifugal force of a rotating container to generate droplets from a nozzle installed at its periphery is simple and can produce a large amount of droplets. We devised a device in which the suspension is discharged from the inside of the nozzle, the coating agent liquid is discharged along the outer wall of the nozzle, and the microbial suspension is not encapsulated.

That is, the device of the present invention supplies a microorganism suspension into the inside of the rotating container from the lower top of the rotating container in the form of an inverted cone that rotates around a vertical axis, through nozzles provided at equal intervals around the periphery of the rotating container. At the same time, the coating agent solution supplied from the lower top of the rotating container to the side outer wall and the upper surface is released along the outer wall of the nozzle, thereby enveloping the microorganism suspension in the coating agent solution. The present invention is characterized in that the liquid droplets are formed, and the liquid droplets scattered around the rotating container fall into the gelling agent liquid and are gelled.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention.

The inverted cone-shaped rotating container 1 is moved horizontally by a hollow rotating shaft 2 connected to the lower top, a motor 3, and a bell) 4.

The microbial suspension 5 is supplied into the rotating container l by a pump 6 through the hollow part of the rotation@2, and is uniformly discharged from each nozzle 7 provided at equal intervals around the rotating container 10. .

The coating agent liquid 8 is sent by a pump 9 to a coating agent liquid tank], 0, and the liquid level is maintained at a position near the top of the rotating container 1 immersed in the liquid. Due to the centrifugal force caused by the rotation of the rotating container 1 and the surface tension of the liquid itself, the coating agent liquid spreads uniformly over the outer side wall of the rotating container 1 in the form of a film and reaches the periphery. Further, the coating agent f 8 is supplied by the pump 11 from above the center of the rotary container 1 through the supply pipe 12, and spreads uniformly over the upper surface of the rotary container 1 in the form of a film to reach the periphery. These coating agent liquids are further discharged uniformly from each along the outer wall of the nozzle 7. At this time, if the coating agent liquid is a polymerizable agent that requires a polymerization catalyst, the polymerization catalyst liquid 13 is
4. The coating agent liquid tank 10 and the supply pipe ll are connected by the pump 15.
It is supplied to the coating agent liquid inside.

At the tip of the nozzle 7, the coating agent liquid becomes a droplet 16 while containing the microorganism suspension. The droplet 1b falls into the gelling agent liquid 18 in the gelling agent liquid tank 17, and the outer coating agent liquid gels, forming a microorganism-containing capsule 19.

As shown in Fig. 2, the nozzle 7 is installed in the same horizontal plane with the tip direction kept at a constant angle with respect to the centrifugal direction, thereby preventing the coating agent liquid flowing on the outer wall of the nozzle from shifting due to the rotation of the rotating container l. It is possible to obtain capsules in which microorganisms are completely encapsulated in the coating agent.

Coating agents include natural polymer substances, acrylic resins, acrylimide resins, acrylamide resins, epoxy resins, styrene resins, vinyl resins, melamine resins, polyurethane resins, polyethylene glycol acrylate resins, and polyethylene. Glycol methacrylate resin or the like can be used.

Experiment 1 The apparatus shown in Fig. 1 was used with an inner diameter of 1.5n++n and an outer diameter of 2.5n.
A rotating container was used in which 20 nozzles each having a length of 61 mm were provided at equal intervals around the periphery of the inverted conical container. All nozzles are in a horizontal plane, and in order to prevent the coating liquid flowing on the outer wall of the nozzle from being biased, the nozzles were installed so that the tip direction was 40° with respect to the centrifugal direction.The rotation radius of the nozzle tip was 35+ m. .The apex angle of the rotating container is 110°, and the rotation speed is 500.
Rotated at rpm.

As a microorganism suspension, a mixture of 20,000 μ/l of activated sludge and 0.6% of sodium alginate as a forming aid was used. Further, a polyurethane prepolymer to which 25% of methyl ethyl ketone as a plasticizer was added was used as a coating agent liquid.

Activated sludge-sodium alginate mixed solution is supplied from the hollow part of the rotating shaft into the rotating container at a rate of 150 ml/min,
1 from the top and center of the top surface of the polyurethane prepolymer
It was supplied continuously at a flow rate of 5 ml/min.

When the droplets scattered around are transferred to a roller in the gelling agent solution, the sodium alginate in the droplets becomes calcium alginate which is insoluble in water, and the polymerization of the polyurethane prepolymer is completed and gelatinized, resulting in an average particle size of 2.3 m. Spherical activated sludge-containing capsules were continuously obtained.

Experiment 2 The same apparatus as Experiment 1 was used. The rotation speed of the rotating container is 50
It was set to 0 rpm.

Activated sludge concentrated to 40,000 η/l was used as a microbial suspension. In addition, NN as a crosslinking agent is used as a coating agent liquid.
A 30% solution of polyethylene glycol dimethacrysote mixed with 2% of '-methylenebisacrylamide was used, which was further mixed with 0.8% of sodium alginate as a molding aid.

Activated sludge is poured into the rotating container from the hollow part of the rotating shaft for 80 minutes.
ml/min, and the polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate-sodium alginate mixture was continuously fed from the top and the center of the top surface at a flow rate of 36 rnll min. At the same time, a 10% solution of NNN'N'-tetramethylethylenediamine, which is a polymerization promoter, was supplied as a polymerization catalyst liquid to the top and the center of the upper surface at a flow rate of 4 rrtl/min. When the droplets scattered around were dropped into a gelling agent solution of 2% calcium chloride and 1% potassium sulfate solution, the sodium alginate in the droplets turned into calcium alginate, which is insoluble in water, and further The polymerization of polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate was completed and gelatinized, and spherical activated sludge-containing capsules with an average particle size of 2.5 capsules were continuously obtained.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, microorganism-containing capsules can be efficiently manufactured.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of an apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view showing how nozzles are installed in a rotating container according to the present invention. l... Rotating container, 2... Rotating shaft 5... Microbial suspension, 7... Nozzle 8... Coating agent liquid,
10... Coating agent liquid tank 12... Supply pipe,
16...Liquid drop 17...Gelling agent liquid tank, 18
...gelling agent liquid. Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] an inverted cone-shaped rotating container that rotates around a hollow vertical axis;
means for supplying a microbial suspension into the rotary container from the lower top of the rotary container via the hollow part of the vertical shaft; A plurality of nozzles that discharge the suspension to the outside, a supply pipe that supplies the coating agent solution from above the center of the rotating container toward the top surface of the rotating container, and a coating agent liquid that is placed near the top of the lower side of the rotating container. Production of a microorganism-containing capsule characterized by comprising a coating agent liquid tank that holds a surface and a gelling agent liquid tank that receives droplets scattered from the nozzle by rotation of a rotating container into the gelling agent liquid. Device.