Monday, May 4, 2009
5-72
Enzymatic conversion of butyric acid to butyl butyrate in a packed bed reactor
Ji-Hye An, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Yong Hwan Kim, Dept. of Chemical engineering, Kwangwoon University, 447-1, Wolgye-Dong, Nowon-Gu, Seoul, South Korea, and Byoung-In Sang, Center for Environmental Technology Research, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 39-1 Hawolgok, Sungbuk, Seoul, 136-791, South Korea.
Continuous enzymatic synthesis of butyl butyrate by esterification has studied in a packed bed reactor (PBR) using Novozym 435 (Candida antarctica lipase B immobilized on macroporous polyacrylate resin). Several solvents such as toluene, heptane, hexane, 1,4 dioxane and tetrahydrofuran were screened for the esterification and heptane showed the highest conversion. The optimum temperature for butyl butyrate synthesis was founded in batch reactor (50 ml) to be 45 °C. The maximum esterification reaction was obtained when the molar ratio of butyric acid to butanol is 0.5 or less. For continuous butyl butyrate production, PBR system was developed and fluid residence time was determined.