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

• Published in: Journal of chemical technology and biotechnology (1986) 2023-09, Vol.98 (9), p.2295-2304
• Main Authors: Montiel, M. Claudia, Serrano‐Arnaldos, Mar, Yagüe, Clara, Ortega‐Requena, Salvadora, Máximo, Fuensanta, Bastida, Josefa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Batch reactors; Biotechnology; CalB lipase; Chemical technology; Cold storage; Cosmetics; Enzymatic activity; enzyme immobilization; Esters; green metrics; Immobilization; Lipase; Natural products; Optimization; plant simulation; process optimization; Proteins; Reactors; Simulation; Sustainability; Sustainable development; Synthesis; wax esters; Waxes; Whaling
• ISSN: 0268-2575; 1097-4660
• DOI: 10.1002/jctb.7462

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. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).