Consecutive lipase immobilization and glycerol carbonate production under continuous-flow conditions†
Abstract
Several value-added products can be produced from glycerol and among these products glycerol carbonate (GC) has received much attention in recent years because of its physical properties and wide application in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. As a continuation of our efforts to produce GC under environmentally acceptable conditions, we proposed a consecutive approach where lipase B from Candida antarctica was immobilized on Accurel MP1000 (CalBAcc) under continuous-flow conditions followed by glycerol carbonate production by a cascade process of triacylglycerol hydrolysis, biodiesel synthesis and esterification of the remaining glycerol with dimethyl carbonate towards GC production. Results of the immobilization of lipase B from Candida antarctica on a continuous-flow protocol demonstrated that a short residence time of 25 minutes could lead to 83% of protein loading. Screening of glycerol carbonate production in a packed bed reactor revealed that CalBAcc and N435 showed the best results of conversion and selectivity, with more selectivity by CalBAcc, that could lead to quantitative yields and excellent selectivities of the desired glycerol carbonate at residence times of 176 minutes when working with soybean and palm oil. Comparatively, the results obtained with CalBAcc were better than the ones with Novozym 435 since no full conversion was observed.
- This article is part of the themed collection: Catalysis in Flow Chemistry