Enzyme hydrolysis of soybean oil in a slug flow microsystem

In this paper, we report on the development of a continuous microfluidic reaction system for hydrolysis of soybean oil catalyzed with Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (Lipolase 100 L). The microfluidic reaction system generates water–oil emulsions in the form of a hydrodynamically well controlled slug flow and automatically separates the oil phase after the hydrolysis by employing two microfluidic separators. All elements of this reaction system were tested at different hydrodynamic conditions and showed the ability to operate in a wide range of reactant flow rates. 25–30% conversion of triglyceride was reached in setting the residence time of the emulsion mixture to 10 min. This conversion increased to almost 50% for the residence time of 1 h. These results are comparable with those published for the same enzyme reaction system. This feature along with the benefits stemming from the use of microfluidics make our developed system a useful, easy to control and easy to scale-up technology for fast production of fine chemicals. Moreover, our calculations indicate that our slug flow system allows for significant savings of the mechanical energy.

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► A slug flow microfluidic system is used for enzyme hydrolysis of soybean oil.
► The system consists of a generator, reaction capillary, and two separators.
► A primary separator enables continuous separation of the oil product.
► 30% conversion of triglycerides was obtained within 10 min.
► The system is characterized by low pressure drop and large interfacial area.