Lipase-catalyzed reactions compared with chemical

Some element reactions for BDF production can be applied widely to oil and fat processing. Since enzyme-catalyzed reactions proceed efficiently under mild conditions, they are suitable for the treatment of materials including unstable compounds. Furthermore, enzymes can convert only a desired compound to its other molecular form because of the strict substrate specificity compared with chemical catalysts. We hope that much attention will be focused on the superiority of enzyme, and that lipase reactions will be applied more and more as the practical process in the oil and fat industry. 

Lipases (triacylglycerol hydrolases, EC 3.1.1.3) are enzymes that catalyze reactions such as hydrolysis, interesterification, esterification, alcoholysis, acidolysis, and aminolysis [1]. There is an increasing interest in the development of lipase applications to oleochemical transformations to obtain esters of long-chain fatty acids, as monoalkyl esters of fatty acids [2]. Utilization of lipase as a catalyst for the production of biodiesel, defined as a mixture of monoalkyl esters, is a clean technology due to its nontoxic and environmental fnendly nature, requiring mild operating conditions compared with chemical method [3]. 

An IL solvent system is applicable to not only lipase but also other enzymes, though examples are still limited for hpase-catalyzed reaction in a pure IL solvent. But several types of enzymatic reaction or microhe-mediated reaction have been reported in a mixed solvent of IL with water. Howarth reported Baker s yeast reduction of a ketone in a mixed solvent of [hmim] [PFg] with water (10 1) (Fig. 16). Enhanced enantioselectivity was obtained compared to the reaction in a buffer solution, while the chemical yield dropped. 

Specificity is one of the most striking properties of enzyme molecules. Enzyme specificity can be defined as a comparative difference in rates of catalysis of certain reactions. After an enzyme is identified as a hpase, several specificities within the class are identified or can be expected to occur. The main advantage of lipases, which differentiate enzymatic reactions from chemically-catalyzed reactions, is lipase specificity. Lipases have turned out to be very useful enzymes for catalyzing various types of reactions with a rather wide substrate specificity. The fatty acid specificity of lipases has been exploited to produce structured lipids and to enrich lipids with specific fatty acids to improve the nutritional characteristics of lipids (24). Certain lipases display positional specificity (regiospecificity) toward fatty acyl groups in a TAG molecule as well as fatty acid selectivity. 

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