A review on lipase-catalyzed reactions in ultrasound-assisted systems

Abstract

The named "green chemistry" has been receiving increasing prominence due to its environmentally friendly characteristics. The use of enzymes as catalysts in processes of synthesis to replace the traditional use of chemical catalysts present as main advantage the fact of following the principles of the green chemistry. However, processes of enzymatic nature generally provide lower yields when compared to the conventional chemical processes. Therefore, in the last years, the ultrasound has been extensively used in enzymatic processes, such as the production of esters with desirable characteristics for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and food industry, for the hydrolysis and glycerolysis of vegetable oils, production of biodiesel, etc. Several works found in the open literature suggest that the energy released by the ultrasound during the cavitation phenomena can be used to enhance mass transfer (substrate/enzyme), hence increasing the rate of products formation, and also contributing to enhance the enzyme catalytic activity. Furthermore, the ultrasound is considered a "green" technology due to its high efficiency, low instrumental requirement and significant reduction of the processing time in comparison to other techniques. The main goal of this review was to summarize studies available to date regarding the application of ultrasound in enzyme-catalyzed esterification, hydrolysis, glycerolysis and transesterification reactions.

Lipase-catalyzed ethanolysis of Jatropha curcas L. oil assisted by ultrasonication

“…Many interesting works using ultrasound to enhance biodiesel conversion with reaction catalyzed by enzymes are described in the literature (Waghmare et al, 2015;Lerin et al, 2014;Awadallak et al, 2013;Batistella et al, 2012;Fiametti et al, 2012;Kumar et al, 2011). However, we have not found reports that describe the ethanolysis of Jatropha curcas oil under ultrasound irradiation.…”

“…This effect has been attributed to the deposition of glycerol on the enzyme surface (Santin et al, 2014;Michelin et al, 2015). Lerin et al (2014) reported that the residual enzyme activity and the product conversion are directly dependent of the energy used (potency and frequency), exposure time (to irradiation), substrates and solvents used in the reaction. The observed decrease in FAEE production and residual activity as a function of cycle number can also be related to the denaturation (alteration) of protein structure originated from the heat-induced destruction of noncovalent interactions, i.e., the breakage of the weak ionic and hydrogen bonding that stabilizes the three dimensional structure of the enzyme (Yadav and Lathi, 2006).…”

Easy preparation of enantiomerically enriched heteroaromatic alcohols through lipase-catalyzed acylation with succinic anhydride under unconventional activation

“…Many interesting applications have been found in enzymatic transesterification either by microwave [19][20][21][22] or ultrasound [23,24] especially with secondary alcohols [25][26][27][28][29]. Catalysts are generally significantly more active and can also be more selective [30].…”

Enzymatic hydrolysis of non-treated sugarcane bagasse using pressurized liquefied petroleum gas with and without ultrasound assistance

“…The use of ultrasound at appropriated intensity can increase the enzyme activity, intensifying the process, improving mass transfer and diffusivities of enzyme/substrates [10e12]. Although is common to find studies reporting the enzymatic synthesis using supercritical fluids [13] or ultrasound [14], the literature is poor using supercritical fluids or ultrasound [6,15,16] for hydrolysis of biomass.…”