Enhanced Productivity in Glycerol Carbonate Synthesis under Continuous Flow Conditions: Combination of Immobilized Lipases from Porcine Pancreas and Candida antarctica (CALB) on Epoxy Resins

Among several value-added products from glycerol, glyceryl carbonate (GC) has gained prominence during the recent years because of its attractive physicochemical properties and the wide range of industrial applications. As a continuation of our efforts on GC production under environmentally benign conditions, in this work, we have applied a combination of two new biocatalysts containing lipases from porcine pancreas and Candida antarctica immobilized on epoxy resins for GC production via an integrated reaction between triacylglycerol and dimethyl carbonate under both batch and packed-bed reactors. Under continuous flow conditions, the 1:1 (w/w) combination of the home-made immobilized biocatalysts was able to lead to complete conversion of GC with >99% selectivity against 88% demonstrated by the commercial preparation Novozym 435. The new continuous flow biocatalytic system demonstrated a final productivity of 16 x 10(-2) g of GC/h/U of the biocatalyst.