| Summary: | Lipase catalyzed glycerolysis processing is of industrial interest since it can be carried out at ambient temperatures and atmospheric pressures. Previously, glycerolysis conducted in a column packed with immobilized lipase were highly potential to ensure a high MAG formation in a short time. In spite of optimal reaction conditions a complex heterogeneous reactant mixture with a glycerol in oil emulsion occurs. Hence, the movement of material from phase to phase as well as through the catalyst pores becomes important since it can influence the performance of the immobilized enzyme reactor. To examine which basic features that need to be considered to obtain an industrially beneficial procedure continuous and easily operated glycerolysis was studied in different lipase packed columns. Immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B was used to catalyze the glycerolysis reaction between glycerol and sunflower oil dissolved in a binary tert-butanol:tert-pentanol medium. Practical design-related issues such as required reaction time, enzyme capacity, expansion of the enzyme during wetting, and the effect of different column length-to-diameter ratios, fluid velocities and particle sizes of the enzymes were evaluated.
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