Esterification of fatty acids using Candida antarctica lipase A in water-abundant systems

The feasibility of using native lipase A from Candida antarctica (CAL-A) to esterify fatty acids with water-insoluble alcohols in the presence of excess water was investigated in stirred-tank reactors. For high reaction rates, a ratio of water:substrates of 0.6–1.4:1 (v/v) was required. CAL-A showed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biotechnology Letters
Main Authors: Brenneis, Rudolf, Baeck, Burkhard
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/26231
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-0928-1
Description
Summary:The feasibility of using native lipase A from Candida antarctica (CAL-A) to esterify fatty acids with water-insoluble alcohols in the presence of excess water was investigated in stirred-tank reactors. For high reaction rates, a ratio of water:substrates of 0.6–1.4:1 (v/v) was required. CAL-A showed higher substrate selectivity for the esterification of saturated palmitic acid with branched-chain 2-ethyl-1-hexanol than for unsaturated oleic acid with linear alcohol (1-decanol). After 18 h at 70 °C in a 1.5 l bulk stirredtank reactor, an 2-ethyl-1-hexyl palmitic acid ester was obtained near 100 % yield [molar ratio palmitic acid:2-ethyl-1-hexanol ~1:1.25, with 1.11 % (w/w) Novocor ADL (based on palmitic acid weight)].