(519d) Biosynthesis Of Sucrose Laurate Using Alkaline Protease Portex

Sugar fatty acid esters are non-ionic surfactants used widely in food and pharmaceutical industries. Study on enzymatic synthesis of sucrose laurate via a transesterification reaction of sucrose with vinyl laurate in an organic solvent mixture consisting of 2-methy-2-butanol and dimethyl sulfoxide will be presented. Several lipases and proteases were examined and an alkaline protease Protex 6L from Bacillus licheniformis was found to be the most efficient enzyme. Parameters affecting the productivity including sucrose solubility, substrate feeding procedure, water content, and enzyme excipients were investigated in small scale fed-batch reactor. Our results showed that feeding procedure has a significant effect on the yield of sucrose monolaurat; while the presence of excipient such as KCl and sucrose did not show much improvement for ester synthesis. A maximum productivity of 2.4 mmol-product/gram enzyme/h was obtained. That is about 6-fold higher than the best productivity reported in literature.