Application of immobilized <scp> <i>Burkholderia cepacia</i> </scp> lipase on clay in the production of ethyl esters

Abstract The present work aimed to use commercial Spectrogel clay (type C) as a support for immobilizing Burkholderia cepacia lipase to produce ethyl esters. The highest yield in ethyl ester production was obtained under the following conditions: 1% water (kg kg −1 oil), oil‐to‐ethanol molar ratio of 1:3, and 15% immobilized biocatalyst (kg kg −1 oil). A kinetic assay was conducted under the optimal conditions obtained to validate the experiment, which already showed a high yield within 6 h (78.82 ± 2.28% for LBC‐ADS and 89.42 ± 2.65% for LBC‐CB) and reaction equilibrium in 18 h (84.76 ± 0.36% for LBC‐ADS and 98.05 ± 1.24% for LBC‐CB). Heterogeneity tests were conducted at 1 and 12 h of reaction to analyze the interaction between the support and the enzyme, showing that after the removal of the biocatalysts after 1 h of reaction, there was no significant release of enzymes into the reaction medium.