A novel hydrophilic support, CoFoam, for enzyme immobilization

Lipases from different sources (porcine pancreas,Mucor mieheiand Candidaantarctica B) were covalently immobilized on a hydrophilic polyurethane composite (CoFoam). Their hydrolytic activities assayed with tributyrin were 0.55, 2.1 and 447 U g−1, respectively. The activity of the C. antarctica B composite in the synthesis of methyl oleate in hexane was 8.8 U g−1 compared to 60.6 U g−1 for commercial Novozyme 435. The advantage of the CoFoam composite lies in the low pressure drop in a packed-bed reactor at fairly large flow rates. For example, at flow rates of 10–12 l min−1, the pressure drop over 15 cm is typically 3 kPa.