Kinetics of hydrolysis of tetrahydrofurfuryl butyrate in a three phase system containing immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica

Hydrolysis of tetrahydrofurfuryl butyrate (THFB) in heptane was carried out at 30degreesC in a triphasic system by using stoichiometric amounts of water and immobilized Candida antarctica lipase (Novozym 435) as catalyst. The three phase system has several advantages in hydrolysis reaction due to the very high solubility of the hydrophobic substrate in the organic medium and suppression of enzyme inhibition by the products alcohol and acid, which are partitioned into the bulk organic phase. The effects of various parameters such as speed of agitation, concentration of the ester, quantity of water, temperature, catalyst loading, and reusability of the enzyme were systematically studied in detail. The catalyst reusability studies showed that the deactivation was reversible. The reaction was free from external mass transfer and intra-particle diffusion limitations. Based on the initial rates and concentration profiles, the hydrolysis reaction was found to obey the ping-pong bi-bi mechanism with inhibition by the reactant water. This also demonstrates the significance of the three phase hydrolysis by enzyme catalysis. It indicates that by taking stoichiometric amounts of reagents, inhibition due to reactants can be reduced in a three phase system and the reusability of the catalyst also can be improved. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.