Abstract
Enzymatic synthesis of cetyl palmitate was performed in a solvent-free system at 65°C using immobilized Candida antarctica lipase. Batch reactions at controlled water activity showed that the yield could be increased from 88.8 to 99.1% by decreasing the water activity from 1 to 0.05. A continuous reactor configuration was constructed, where two tubular reactors were run in sequence with a separation container in between, in which the water phase was separated from the wax ester phase. The reactor was run for 1 wk at low flow rate (0.005 g/min) with very good operational stability and a productivity of 7.2 g d−1 using 0.4 g of biocatalyst. The activity of the individual preparations decreased during operation. The first reactor had only 30% activity left after 1 wk of operation whereas the second reactor showed only a 10% decrease. This difference in enzyme stability is a direct result of the different water activity in the two reactors.
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Wehtje, E., Costes, D. & Adlercreutz, P. Continuous lipase-catalyzed production of wax ester using silicone tubing. J Amer Oil Chem Soc 76, 1489–1493 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-999-0190-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-999-0190-4