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US 8,617,866 B2Granted
Robust multi-enzyme preparation for the synthesis of fatty acid alkyl esters
OwnerSobhi Basheer, Maisa Haj +1inventors
InventorsSobhi Basheer, Maisa Haj, Muhammad Kaiyal
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Abstract
Disclosed is an enzymatic process for the preparation of fatty acid alkyl esters, particularly fatty acids methyl esters (biodiesel) in a solvent-free microaqueous system, from a fatty acid source and an alcohol or alcohol donor, employing a robust lipase preparation that comprises at least two lipases separately or jointly immobilized on a suitable support, where one of the lipases has increased affinity to partial glycerides, another is sn-1,3 positional specific, and an optional third lipase has high selectivity towards sn-2 position of the glycerol backbone of the fatty acid source.
Claims21
A process for the preparation of alkyl esters of fatty acids in solvent-free microaqueous system comprising:
- providing a fatty acid triglyceride source, stepwise adding a free alcohol or alcohol donor, to said fatty acid source in the presence of a lipase preparation and allowing the reaction to proceed under suitable conditions, until said fatty acid source triglycerides are converted to fatty acid alkyl esters, wherein said lipase preparation comprises at least three lipases, said lipases being separately or jointly immobilized on a support which is any one of hydrophobic aliphatic polymer-based support and hydrophobic aromatic polymer-based support, and wherein at least one of said lipases has increased affinity for partial glycerides, at least one of said lipases is sn-1,3 positional specific, and at least one of said lipases has high selectivity towards sn-2 position of the glycerol backbone, wherein said sn-1,3 positional specific lipase is selected from the group consisting of Thermomyces lanuginose, Rhizomucor miehei, Mucor miehei, Pseudomonas sp., Rhizopus sp., Mucor javanicus, Penicillium roqueforti, Aspergillus niger, Acromobacter sp. and Burkholderia sp., and said lipase having increased affinity for partial glycerides is selected from the group consisting of Candida antarctica B, Candida antarctica A, Candida rugosa, Alcaligenes sp. and Penicillium camembertii.
A solvent-free microaqueous process for the preparation of short-chain alkyl esters of fatty acids, comprising:
- (a) providing a fatty acid triglyceride source, stepwise adding a short-chain alcohol, or any other alcohol donor, to said fatty acid source in the presence of a lipase preparation and allowing the reaction to proceed under suitable conditions, until the conversion of the fatty acid acyl groups comprised in said fatty acid source to fatty acid short-chain alkyl esters reaches at least 70%, wherein said lipase preparation comprises at least one lipase immobilized on a support, or a mixture of at least two lipases, or a mixture of at least three lipases jointly or separately immobilized on a support, wherein each said support is any one of hydrophobic aliphatic polymer-based support and hydrophobic aromatic polymer-based support, while continuously removing the formed glycerol from the reaction mixture, to yield an organic phase containing mainly residual un-reacted glycerides and the formed fatty acid short-chain all esters;
- (b) reacting the said organic phase with a short-chain free alcohol, or any other alcohol donor, in the presence of a lipase preparation as defined in step (a) under suitable conditions, until the conversion of the fatty acid acyl groups comprised in said fatty acid source to short-chain alkyl esters of fatty acids reaches at least 95%.
A process for the preparation of fatty acid short-chain alkyl esters in a solvent-free microaqueous system comprising:
- providing a fatty acid triglyceride source, stepwise adding a free short-chain alcohol or short-chain alcohol donor, to said fatty acid source in the presence of a lipase preparation and allowing the reaction to proceed under suitable conditions, until said fatty acid source triglycerides are converted to fatty acid alkyl esters, wherein said lipase preparation comprises a first lipase and a second lipase, said lipases being separately or jointly immobilized on a hydrophobic support which is any one of hydrophobic aliphatic polymer-based support and hydrophobic aromatic polymer-based support and wherein said first lipase exhibits higher transesterification activity towards triglycerides compared to its activity towards partial glycerides, and said second lipase exhibits higher transesterification activity towards partial glycerides compared to its activity towards triglycerides, and wherein said two lipases show a synergistic effect in their transesterification activity to obtain the final product.
A process for the preparation of fatty acid short-chain alkyl esters, in a solvent-free microaqueous system, comprising:
- providing a fatty acid triglyceride source, stepwise adding a free short-chain alcohol, or any other short-chain alcohol donor, to said fatty acid source in the presence of a lipase preparation and allowing the reaction to proceed under suitable conditions, until said fatty acid source triglycerides are converted to fatty acid short-chain alkyl esters, wherein said lipase preparation comprises a first lipase and a second lipase, said lipases being separately or jointly immobilized on a hydrophobic support which is any one of hydrophobic aliphatic polymer-based support and hydrophobic aromatic polymer-based support and wherein said first lipase releases intermediates that are at least one of monoglycerides and diglycerides in a first transesterification reaction polymer-based support, which are favored by said second lipase for transesterification with an alcohol to form fatty acid alkyl esters.
A process for the preparation of fatty acid short-chain alkyl esters in solvent-free microaqueous system, comprising:
- providing a fatty acid triglyceride source, stepwise adding a free alcohol or alcohol donor, to said fatty acid source in the presence of a lipase preparation and allowing the reaction to proceed under suitable conditions, until said fatty acid source triglycerides are converted to fatty acid alkyl esters, wherein said lipase preparation comprises a first lipase and a second lipase, said lipases being separately or jointly immobilized on a hydrophobic support which is any one of hydrophobic aliphatic polymer-based support and hydrophobic aromatic polymer-based support and wherein said lipases exhibit different substrate specificities that maintain their transesterification activity to triglycerides when used together, while at least one of said two lipases decays in the transesterification reaction medium when used separately with triglycerides as substrate but exhibits high transesterification/esterification activity with partial glycerides and fatty acids as substrates, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.