Enzymatic alcoholysis of palm kernel oil in n-hexane and SCCO2

The use of biocatalysts in supercritical CO2 (SCCO2) has received widespread attention in recent years. Biocatalysts have the advantage of substrate specificity under mild reaction conditions and SCCO2 has several advantages over liquid solvents such as high solute diffusivities and low viscosity, which can accelerate mass transfer-limited enzymatic reactions. Concerning the enzymatic alcoholysis of vegetable oils, very little experimental data have been reported in the literature. Also. to the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive study available comparing conventional and supercritical media for this reaction. In this context, the main objective of this work is to compare enzymatic ethanolysis of palm kernel oil taking place in both SCCO2 and in n-hexane as solvents. For this purpose, a Taguchi experimental design with two levels and four variables was adopted for each system to allow the investigation of the influence of process variables on the reaction conversion and on the enzyme activity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.