Production of structured lipids by lipase-catalyzed interesterification in a flat membrane reactor

The application of membrane technology to the enzymatic production of specific structured lipids has been investigated in this work. Membrane screening was carried out in a membrane diffusion cell,Twenty-six flat membranes of different materials were tested using rapeseed oil and capric acid. The suitable membranes were selected in terms of higher fatty acid and lower rapeseed oil permeation rates. The stability of membranes and the effect of fatty add chain length on effluent fluxes were also investigated. Reaction experiments were carried out in a membrane reactor between medium-chain triacylglycerols and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from fish oil. Lipozyme IM was used as the biocatalyst. The incorporation of PUFA into medium-chain triacylglycerols was increased by about 15% in a PUFA 90-h reaction by simultaneous separation of the released medium-chain fatty acids, compared to no separation under the same reaction conditions. It has thus clearly been demonstrated that membrane-assisted separation improved the incorporation of acyl donors into oils beyond the reaction equilibrium defined by the original substrate concentration.