“Ethyl acetate production by inmobilized esterases from sporeforming microorganisms.”

FLAVIA LOTO; CINTIA ROMERO; MARIO BAIGORI; LICIA PERA

Rosario, Santa Fé

Congreso; XLII Reuniòn anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB)”.; 2006

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB)

Introduction: Ethyl acetate (EAc) is an important raw material for many applications in chemical industry including coatings, adhesives, perfumes, and plasticizers. Enzymatic biotransformations has the advantage of high specificityand much simpler processes in comparison to chemical synthesis and various resolving reagents. The aim of this work was to evaluate the production of EAc using immobilized esterases from spore-forming microorganisms. Methods: Standard Bacillus subtilis (168) and spore-forming microorganisms isolated from different sources (A14, A55, A60, M2) were used throughout this study. Microorganisms were grown in LB at 37ºC. Both cells were harvested by centrifugation and polyacrylamide gelentrapped supernatant were used, as source of enzyme. Esterifications were performed during 24h in n-hexane using acetic acid and ethanol as substrates. Ester synthesis was determined by acid titration with NaOH. Quantitative analyses of EAc were done by thin layer chromatography using chloroform as developing solvent. Result and Conclusion: Good productions of EAc in all systems assayed were observed. The highest yield was obtained with the polyacrylamide gelentrapped supernatant from the isolation M2 showing a conversion of 93%. This result indicates that gel entrapment method offers a good way for ester synthesis. This work was supported by grants PIP 6062 and PIP 6203.