Hydrolysis of ricebran oil in a fluidised†bed recycle reactor using immobilised lipase on nylon†6

A recycling fluidises‐bed Immobilised enzyme reactor for the hydrolysis of ricebran oil employing an inexpensive Nylon‐6 matrix as the immobilisation carrier is described. The catalyst has high initial activity and excellent long term stability. The tractor design exploits the fact that fluidisation permits the use of small catalyst particles, so overcoming the yield‐limiting diffusion‐associated problems encountered in the case of conventional fixed‐bed reactors. The conventional fluidised‐bed reactor did not plugging and high pressure drop problems typical of fixed‐bed reactors. Conversion yields of 72% were achieved in the reactor, which generally showed superior performance to that of a fixed‐bed design. Copyright © 1995 SCI