Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2006, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (6): 537-540.

• Articles • Previous Articles    

Ethyl Lactate Synthesis by Lipase in Organic Media

ZHAO Tiantao1,2, GAO Jing2*, ZHANG Lijie1, QUAN Xuejun1   

  1. 1 School of Bioengineering, Chongqing Institute of Technology, Chongqing 400050, China; 2 School of Chemical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China
  • Received:2006-06-25 Online:2006-06-25 Published:2010-08-28

Abstract: Esterification of lactic acid and ethanol by lipase under double substrate inhibition was studied. The best solvent is tert-butyl alcohol and the best lipase is Novozym 435 (immobilized on a macroporous acrylic resin) for this reaction system. The optimization of reaction conditions was studied in detail. When the molar ratio of acid to alcohol is 1∶8, the temperature is 60 ℃, the concentration of acid and lipase is 0.3 mol/L and 45 g/mol, and the revolution is 200 r/min, a yield of 77% was reached. Novozym 435 has a high stability. A yield of 60% for ethyl lactate can be obtained with Novozym 435 even after it was used continuously six times.

Key words: lipase, lactic acid, ethanol, esterification, ethyl lactate, double substrates inhibition