The study aimed at developing a process for making a wood coating wax based on the principles of green chemistry. The research was conducted within the Swedish interdisciplinary research programme Greenchem. Wax esters are attractive since they are non-hazardous, biodegradable and can be produced in an atom-efficient process from building blocks obtained from renewable resources. Four wax esters were prepared in a solvent-free process using an immobilised lipase as catalyst. When the water was removed during the process from what was initially an equimolar mixture of the starting materials carboxylic acid and alcohol by a stream of dry air passed through the reactor, there was a 95-99% conversion to the ester. The enzymatic process consumed 34% less energy and generated less waste than chemical esterification using a strong acid as catalyst. Two of the esters worked well in the industrial wood coating equipment employed and produced surfaces resistant to water and somewhat less to fat stains.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.