Biotechnological utilisation of fusel oil, a food industry by-product a kinetic model on enzymatic esterification of i-Amyl alcohol and oleic acid by Candida antarctica Lipase B

Fusel oil is a by-product of distilleries, its main component is i-amyl alcohol, which can form ester compounds. Esterification of oleic acid and i-amyl alcohol by Candida antarctica lipase B (Novozym 435 preparation) in n-heptane solvent was studied in this work. Ping-pong bi-bi mechanism (inhibition phenomena taken into account) was applied as a complex kinetic model. The parameters of the model were determined by numerical methods. It was found that four-parameter model fitted well with the experimental results and described properly the enzymatic reaction.