Comparative study on hydrolysis of oils by lipase immobilized biocatalytic PS membranes using biphasic enzyme membrane reactor

Abstract

In the present study the hydrolysis of olive, palm and castor oil had been carried out to yield valuable free fatty acids by using immobilized Candida rugosa lipase. This study was designed to achieve high yield of lipase immobilization by investigating different factors (applied pressure, time, and lipase concentration) for ultrafiltration process of immobilization. A biphasic enzyme membrane bioreactor was fabricated having aqueous-organic two-phase system with lipase immobilized polysulfone. Effect of operating variables on the performance of this biphasic EMR was investigated with the hydrolysis of olive oil, palm oil and castor oil.It was found that the optimal conditions for highest degree of hydrolysis (%) were temperature 37°C, pH 8.0, at concentration of 0.05M in iso-octane and initial reaction time was 24h. In optimal conditions, degree of hydrolysis for olive oil, palm oil and castor oil was 38.5%, 35.4% and 21.2% respectively. Reusability feature was also studied and only ∼20% decrease in activity was observed after five cycles.