Enzymatic synthesis of vanillin catalysed by an eugenol oxidase

[Display omitted] •A new biocatalytic process for natural vanillin synthesis catalyzed by an eugenol oxidase is presented.•EUGO immobilised onto Epoxy-agarose-UAB was re-used up to 5 cycles showing a conversion higher than 80% and a yield higher than 50% in the last cycle.•The biocatalyst yield was improved more than 2-fold compared to the soluble enzyme.•This bioprocess offers an efficient method of producing natural vanillin which could compete with chemical methods that supply the market. Vanillin is one of the most important flavours produced in the world. Due to its increasing value and its demand, mainly in the food industry, several ways to obtain it at lower prices are under study. One of the routes is based on the oxidation of vanillyl alcohol by Eugenol oxidase (EUGO), which has high potential to be used at industrial scale owing to the high space time yields that can be obtained at lab scale (2.9 g L−1 h−1 of vanillin). Additionally, EUGO can be immobilised efficiently onto different supports (MANA-agarose, Epoxy-agarose and Purolite 8204F) which can be reused several times to perform the oxidation preserving good stability and improving more than 3-fold the biocatalyst yield.