Integration of reaction and separation with lipases: an overview

• Author(s): Paiva, Ana L. ; Malcata, F. Xavier
• Date: 1997
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/6610
• Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Subject(s): Enzyme; Catalysis; Separation; Integration
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Integration of reaction and separation steps in processes involving lipases is currently undergoing fast progress because it provides a convenient way to alleviate limiting kinetic factors that are common in biological reactions, viz. decreased product inhibition, increased product solubility, shifted chemical equilibria, increased selectivity, and reduced number of downstream unit operations and process streams (with concomitant increases in the efficiency of separation). It is the aim of this work to briefly review the processes that have been developed to achieve integration of lipase-catalytic action with separation. These processes fall within one of the following categories: solid/liquid systems (e.g. membrane reactors for microencapsulated lipases in reversed micelles), solid/fluid systems (e.g. supercritical reaction/extraction processes), solid/liquid/vapour systems (e.g. reactive distillation), and solid/vapour systems (e.g. evaporative esterification).