The enzymatic synthesis of a highly hydrophobic product (dipeptide precursor) in which the reaction is accompanied by the mass transfer of the reaction product to the organic phase and the substrates to the water phase is considered. Equations describing both continuous and batch processes are formulated. The range of variability in the operating parameters of such a bioreactor is specified, and the correlations reported in the literature to describe mass transfer in the membrane contactor are validated. The proposed process was verified experimentally, and good agreement between the determined and calculated concentrations was obtained in both phases.

Biological regeneration of water and organic sorbents used in the absorption of hydrophilic and hydrophobic pollutants, respectively, was studied. In both cases biodegradation takes place in a membrane bioreactor. In the case of organic sorbents regeneration of the biodegradation process is integrated with the extraction of a given pollutant to water phase. In experiments carried out in this work, the proposed systems were tested using a strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens. For hydrophilic compounds experiments were performed using alcohols (1-butanol and 2-propanol) as model substrates. Applying the mathematical model of a membrane bioreactor elaborated previously, the values of pollutant concentration were determined and positively verified in the experiments. This system of water sorbent regeneration is fully satisfying. The process of biodegradation integrated with extraction was analysed on the basis of model compounds such as benzene and toluene. The study confirmed a possibility of organic sorbent (silicone oil) regeneration. However, due to a very high partition coefficient of benzene or toluene between the organic and aqueous phases, the process could be considered only for the case of their high concentrations in the gas directed to absorption.