Application of immobilized lipase to hydrolysis of triacylglyceride

Lipase from Candida cylindracea was immobilized by entrapment with photo-crosslinkable resin prepolymers or urethane prepolymers, and by covalent binding or by adsorption to different types of porous inorganic or organic supports. All of the immobilized lipase preparations thus obtained showed some activity for hydrolysis of olive oil. Lipase entrapped with a hydrophobic photo-cross-linkable resin prepolymer exhibited the highest activity, which was about 30% of that of the free counterpart. Entrapment method enabled lipase to gain operational stability. Semicontinuous hydrolysis of olive oil using immobilized lipase was also accomplished in a packed-bed reactor with a recycling system. In this reactor, immobilized lipase was observed to have the sufficient activity and stability.