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Development of an industrial sustainable process for wax esters production: enzyme immobilization, process optimization, and plant simulation

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J of Chemical Tech Biotech - 2023 - Montiel - Development of an industrial sustainable process for wax esters production .pdf(889.68 KB)
Date
2023-06-10
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Authors
Montiel, M.C. ; Serrano-Arnaldos, M. ; Yagüe, C. ; Ortega Requena, Salvadora ; Máximo, F. ; Bastida, J.
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Publisher
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Ingeniería Química
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.7462
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
BACKGROUND: As a result of the ban on whaling, there has been a shortage of spermaceti, a natural product with applications in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. A green and sustainable process for the biocatalytic synthesis of a wax ester mixture analogue to natural spermaceti is presented in this paper. RESULTS: Immobilization of Candida antarctica lipase B by covalent binding to Purolite® Lifetech™ ECR8285 allowed for an immobilized derivative with 124.5 mg protein/g support (69.3% protein immobilization yield) that maintains 100% of its enzymatic activity after 12 months of cold storage and presents negligible loses of activity after 9 consecutive reaction cycles. The optimization of the synthesis process in a batch reactor resulted in conditions that, at 70 °C, 350 rpm, and 1.25% w/w of biocatalyst, achieved a conversion of 97% after 1 h of reaction. The simulation of a spermaceti production plant was carried out using the process simulation software aspenONE suite v10. The plant was designed for a continuous operation during 9 h per day, with a reactor of 20.25 L of working volume and a residence time of 1 h. The production of this plant would be 173.25 kg spermaceti/day, with a product purity of 99.55%. CONCLUSION: The main novelty of this work is the design of a spermaceti production plant, using the most sustainable methodologies and resulting in a product with exceptional characteristics and minimal waste generation. Moreover, a new lipase immobilized derivative is also described. The good values of sustainability indicators point to the viability of its industrial implementation.
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CalB lipase , Enzyme immobilization , Green metrics , Plant simulation , Process optimization , Wax esters
Citation
Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10201/138450
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