Continuous lipase esterification using process intensification technologies

BACKGROUNDNowadays, developing continuous enzymatic processes, especially when a two-phase medium is required, remains a great challenge. So, there is a need to provide a technical solution for generating highly controlled interfacial area in a small volume. In this study, four types of reactors conventionally used for chemical process intensification and marketed by Corning, Chart Industries, NiTech Solutions and AM Technology, were tested for continuous lipase-catalysed esterification in two-phase medium. RESULTSThe NiTech oscillating reactor proved to be the more efficient to transform the input mechanical power into mass transfer performance while proposing easily adjustable residence time. Nevertheless, Corning and Chart heat-exchanger reactors were shown to be very suitable candidates even if mass transfer performances depend on the flow-rate and therefore are not uncoupled from the residence time. This results in a less convenient choice of operating conditions. The Coflore system was not so convincing but it may be due to the injection device not well adapted to this system. CONCLUSIONThis work demonstrates that novel technologies, recently proposed for intensification of chemical processes, are indeed very suitable and provide a relevant alternative to conventional processes for enzymatic reactions and therefore for two-phase reactions limited by the interfacial area value. Also, it has been shown here that the model reaction considered could be a simple way to characterize mass transfer performances of these technologies. (c) 2013 Society of Chemical Industry