Combination of Biocatalysis and Sonochemistry in the Ethyl Oleate Production

Objectives: Fatty acid alkyl esters (FAAEs) are a family of natural neutral lipids and can be produced cleanly and sustainably by esterification of free fatty acids (FFAs) with short chain alcohol using enzymatic catalysts. In this study, the use of lipases was evaluated in enzymatic esterification...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current Biotechnology
Main Authors: de Almeida, Natália Alves, Rosset, Isac George
Other Authors: Fundação Araucária
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/2211550111666220224110106
https://www.eurekaselect.com/article/download?doi=10.2174/2211550111666220224110106
https://www.eurekaselect.com/201401/article
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Summary:Objectives: Fatty acid alkyl esters (FAAEs) are a family of natural neutral lipids and can be produced cleanly and sustainably by esterification of free fatty acids (FFAs) with short chain alcohol using enzymatic catalysts. In this study, the use of lipases was evaluated in enzymatic esterification of oleic acid with ethanol using the combination of biocatalysis and sonochemistry (ultrasound) in the absence of co-solvents. Methods: Reaction parameters, such as type of lipase, amount of enzyme, reaction time, alcohol hydration level and enzyme turnover were evaluated for the enzymatic synthesis of ethyl oleate. Results: C. antarctica lipase provided yields above 95% in less than 10 h with 10% (w/w) of lipase. The use of hydrous ethanol (5% of water) showed a slight drop in yield but remained above 90% of ethyl oleate production. C. antarctica lipase showed no loss efficiency even after 10 reaction cycles. Conclusion: The combination of biocatalysis and ultrasound radiation provided a high yield, showing that the combination of these tools may be a good choice for the enzymatic synthesis of ethyl oleate.