Enzymatic Synthesis of Furfuryl Alcohol Ester with Oleic Acid by Candida antarctica Lipase B and Its Kinetic Study

Abstract

This study investigated the successful enzymatic production of furfuryl oleate and its detailed kinetic study by Michaelis–Menten model. Esterification of oleic acid and furfuryl alcohol by Candida antarctica lipase B (Novozym 435 preparation) in a solvent free system was studied in the present work at 1:1 molar ratio of furfuryl alcohol and oleic acid. About 99 % conversion (on the basis of oleic acid) has been achieved within 6 h at 5 % enzyme concentration. Ping-pong bi-bi mechanism (inhibition phenomenon taken into account) was applied to describe the ratios as a complex kinetic model. The kinetic parameters were determined using MATLAB language programme. The two initial rate constants KA and KB respectively were found out by different progress curves plotted with the help of MATLAB language programme. It was concluded from the results that furfuryl alcohol considerably inhibited the enzymatic reaction while oleic acid had negligible inhibitory effect. It was clearly seen that the initial rate was increased with the increase in the furfuryl alcohol concentration until 2 M/L after which there was a drop in the initial rate depicting the inhibitory effect of furfuryl alcohol. Surprisingly, it has been observed that addition of 0.1 mol of product activated the esterification reaction. Finally, the model was found to be statistically fitting well with the experimental data.