Lipase-Catalyzed Ethanolysis Of Sunflower Oil In CO2 Expanded Media

T. FORNARI, G. MABE, E. HERNANDEZ, D. TENLLADO, C. TORRES, G. REGLERO AND J. SEÑORÁS

Barcelona, España

Congreso; 11th European Meeting on Supercritical Fluids. New perspectives in supercritical fluids: Nanoscience, Materials and Processing; 2008

The ethanolysis of sunflower oil catalyzed by Pseudomonas cepacia lipase was carried out at 40 °C using dense carbon dioxide (CO2) as reaction medium. At 130 bar a liquid phase was observed containing ca. 45% w/w of CO2 dissolved in the reaction mixture. The kinetic behavior was studied by sampling at different periods of time. The ethanolysis reaction in CO2-expanded media was compared with the reaction performed without CO2 in a sealed flask at ambient pressure, at the same temperature, same charge of substrates and using the same batch of immobilized lipase. In both cases, the biocatalyst showed similar degree of deactivation after the respective ethanolysis reactions. The experimental data obtained for the respective reactions was correlated using a simplified kinetic model.