Kinetic study for the ethanolysis of fish oil catalyzed by lipozyme(®) 435 in different reaction media.

The ethanolysis of fish oil in various reaction medium (tert-pentanol, n-hexane and solvent free system) catalyzed by the immobilized commercial lipase Lipozyme(®) 435 (Candida Antarctica) at atmospheric pressure has been studied in this work. The effect of some kinetic parameters, such as the amount of lipase, temperature and the initial reactant molar ratio ethanol:oil on monoacyglyceride and ethyl ester yield has been analyzed. Experimental data were successfully correlated by a simple kinetic model based on the elementary reactions proposed in this work.