Kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis of methyl ricinoleate

Abstract

Ricinoleic acid is an unsaturated hydroxy fatty acid that naturally occurs in castor oil in proportions of up to 85-90%. Ricinoleic acid is a potential raw material and finds several applications in coatings, lubricant formulations and pharmaceutical areas. Enzymatic hydrolysis of castor oil is preferred over conventional hydrolysis for the preparation of ricinoleic acid to avoid estolide formation. A kinetics analysis of the enzymatic hydrolysis of Methyl Ricinoleate in the presence of Candida antarctica Lipase B was carried out in this study by varying reaction temperature (40-60 °C) and enzyme concentration (2-5%). The optimal conditions were found to be 6 h reaction time, temperature 60°C, buffer to methyl ricinoleate ratio 2:1(v/w) and 4% enzyme concentration to achieve a maximum conversion of 98.5%. A first order reversible reaction kinetic model was proposed to describe this reaction and a good agreement was observed between the experimental data and the model values. The effect of temperature on the forward reaction rate constant was determined by fitting data to the Arrhenius equation. The activation energy for forward reaction was found to be 14.69 KJ·mol-1.