On-line conversion estimation for solvent-free enzymatic esterification systems with water activity control

Lipases as Effective Green Biocatalysts for Phytosterol Esters’ Production: A Review

Lipases are versatile enzymes widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries. They are green biocatalysts with a high potential for industrial use compared to traditional chemical methods. In recent years, lipases have been used to synthesize a wide variety of molecules of industrial interest, and extraordinary results have been reported. In this sense, this review describes the important role of lipases in the synthesis of phytosterol esters, which have attracted the scientific community’s attention due to their beneficial effects on health. A systematic search for articles and patents published in the last 20 years with the terms “phytosterol AND esters AND lipase” was carried out using the Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases, and the results showed that Candida rugosa lipases are the most relevant biocatalysts for the production of phytosterol esters, being used in more than 50% of the studies. The optimal temperature and time for the enzymatic synthesis of phytosterol esters mainly ranged from 30 to 101 °C and from 1 to 72 h. The esterification yield was greater than 90% for most analyzed studies. Therefore, this manuscript presents the new technological approaches and the gaps that need to be filled by future studies so that the enzymatic synthesis of phytosterol esters is widely developed.

Kinetic Model with Effect of Water Content for Enzyme-Catalyzed Citronellyl Laurate Esterification Process

A kinetic model with effect of water content for enzyme-catalyzed citronellyl laurate was developed. These models incorporate the combined influences of established kinetics model with the function model on the effect of initial water content with kinetic parameters. The model development was carried out by performing a linear and nonlinear regression based on the behavior of the kinetic parameter profiles and validated with experimental data. Using the developed models, the influence of water content towards the enzyme-catalyzed initial rate of reaction was theoretically explained. It has been shown that the proposed model have good agreement between experimental data and intends to capture the effect of water content towards the conversion of ester. With this model, the optimal value of initial water content for this process could be estimated.

A water activity control system for enzymatic reactions in organic media

A water activity control system for enzymatic synthesis in organic media, for litre-scale reactors has been constructed. Water activity, a(w), is a key factor when using enzymes in non-conventional media and the optimum value varies for different enzymes. The control system consists of a water activity sensor in the headspace of a jacketed glass reactor (equipped with narrow steel tubes to introduce air), gas-washing bottles containing blue silica gel (a(w)=0) and water (a(w)=1), a PC to monitor water activity and a programmable logic controller (PLC) to control the water activity. The system was evaluated by adjusting water activity in the medium, with a deviation from the set point of less than +/-0.05. Synthesis of cetyl palmitate, under controlled water activity and catalysed by two different lipase preparations, namely, Novozym 435 (immobilised Candida antarctica lipase B) and immobilised Candida rugosa lipase, were also performed. Novozym 435 catalyses reactions very well at extremely low water activity while C. rugosa lipase shows low activity for a(w)<0.5.

Adverse effect of chloride impurities on lipase-catalyzed transesterifications in ionic liquids

The adverse influence of chloride impurities on the lipase-catalyzed transesterification in ionic liquid is described. The activity of lipase from Rhizomucor miehei exponentially decreased with increasing Cl(-) content in 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl] amide, [Omim][Tf(2)N], and the activity of lipase in [Omim][Tf(2)N] mixture containing 2% [Omim] [Cl] was only about 2% of the activity in pure [Omim][Tf(2)N]. The activity of lipase from Candidantarctica linearly decreased at about 5% with every 1% increase in [Omim][Cl] with there being no activity in [Omim][Tf(2)N] containing about 20% [Omim][Cl].