Enzymic synthesis of fructose monooleate in a reduced pressure pilot scale reactor using various acyl donors

Enzymic synthesis of fructose esters was studied under reduced pressure. Different acyl donors were tested, and immobilized Candida antarctica lipase was used as biocatalyst. Influences of pressure, nature of the acyl donor, molar ratio sugar/acyl donor were investigated. Pressure had the greatest influence. At 200 mbar, more than 90% of fructose was acylated compared to 50% under atmospheric pressure. This is explained by the evaporation of reaction by-product (methanol or water) that shifted the equilibrium. C. antarctica lipase catalyzed sugar ester synthesis very efficiently using rapeseed oil as acyl donor. Moreover, synthesis performed with an equimolar mixture of both substrates gave promising results. Although the reaction rate was slower than synthesis performed with an excess of fatty acid, fructose monooleate concentration was still high (44 g l(-1) instead of 56 g l(-1)) and the residual acyl donor concentration was very low. Downstream processes for the recovery of pure fructose monooleate were simplified in this case. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.