Chemical reaction equilibria for the solvent-free ethyl oleate síntesis

M. BRIOZZO; M. L. FORESTI; G.TRUBIANO; M. L: FERREIRA; D. BORIO; V. BUCALÁ

Zacatecas, México

Congreso; Chemical Reactor Engineering X: Innovations in Chemical Reactor Engineering; 2005

Enzyme-catalyzed reactions are superior to conventional chemical methods owing to the mild reaction conditions, high catalytic efficiency and the inherent selectivity of natural catalysts which leads to much purer products. In this work, immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica was used for direct esterification of oleic acid and ethanol. The reaction was performed in a solvent free system, according to the amount of water in the reaction medium (either initially added or produced by the chemical reaction) one or two liquid phases were detected. Several experiments showed that the highest conversion of the fatty acid takes place when two liquid phases coexist. Therefore, the optimal operating conditions indicate the need of studying the liquid-liquid equilibrium together with the chemical equilibrium.