Immobilization of lipase on the surface of a micro tube and continuous transesterification

Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) was cross-linked efficiently, using a reagent containing glutaraldehyde (GA), paraformaldehyde (PA), and a polylysine reagent. For the reaction under micro-flow conditions, CALB was immobilized on the inner surface of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) tube, by flowing the cross-linking reagents in an appropriate flow rate. The immobilized CALB formed a membrane-like structure on the inner surface of the tube and showed catalytic activity for transesterification. Although the enzyme activity was not high at the immobilized CALB, the productivity of micro-flow reaction using immobilized CALB was higher than that of batch-wise reaction using free CALB.