Enzymatic production of sustainable jojoba fatty alcohols: A Biorefinery approach

Abstract

To evaluate jojoba oil (JO) in high-added-value products, a new biorefinery strategy was used, consisting of enzymatic transesterification employing a branched 2-ethylhexanol (EH) chain alcohol. The suggested biorefinery approach utilizes an integrated process to produce jojobyl alcohols (JAs) mixture (11-eicosenol, 13-docosenol, and 15-tetracosenol) as the principal product for pharmaceutical applications. Since it meets the European Biodiesel Standard EN 14214 in all tested aspect with the exemption of the viscosity, the remaining fraction of fatty acid ethyl-hexyl esters (FAEHEs) could be a potential alternative to traditional fuels. Factorial design (FD) and response surface methodology (RSM) were used to investigate and improve the effects of variables such as temperature and catalyst concentration on the production of both fractions. The derived models can be used to estimate the best operating parameters for an up-scaled industrial process with the least number of tests possible, resulting in cost savings. However, from a technical perspective, the best feasible yield for the more valuable JAs fraction should be achieved, using a catalyst concentration of 5.7%, a temperature of 63 °C, and a 6:1 alcohol/oil molar ratio. Conversion rates of 63.5% and 36% for JAs and FAEHEs, respectively, could be produced under these conditions. The crystallization method was used to separate JAs from FAEHEs. The tetrazolium dye reduction (MTT) test was used to assess in vitro cell viability in HEK293T cells. The findings revealed that a 1 μmolL−1 oily liquid mixture of jojobyl alcohols components (cis-11-eicosenol, cis-13-docosenol, and cis-15-tetracosenol) had no influence on cell cycle progression, has no harmful impacts in the examined cells, and could be employed as a therapeutic compound. The product preparation is a green engineering process that is clean, solvent-free, and uses a highly selective catalyst to reduce water and energy utilization, as well as the integrated process's downstream processing.