Kinetic study of glycerolysis of palm olein for monoacylglycerol production by immobilized lipase

Kinetic study of monoacylglycerol production by glycerolysis of palm olein using immobilized lipase has been investigated. A mathematical model took into account mechanism of glycerolysis reaction using palm olein as substrate was developed. The kinetic parameters were estimated by fitting experimental data of glycerolysis reaction of palm olein by immobilized lipase PS on Accurel EP-100. There was a good agreement between experimental results and those predicted by proposed model equations under various enzyme, water, glycerol and palm olein concentrations. From proposed model equations, the synergic effect of glycerol and palm olein concentrations was simulated. The simulation results show that the behavior of high substrate concentrations obtained high initial production rates but low yields of monoacylglycerol. Thus, at high concentrations of palm olein and glycerol of 7.16 and 19.14 mM, respectively, high initial production rate of monoacylglycerol of 0.338 mM h−1 and acceptable yield of 82% were obtained. On the other hand, the highest yield of monoacylglycerol of 100% was obtained at comparatively low palm olein concentration of 2.39 mM and excess glycerol concentration of 19.14 mM.