• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.735-741
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• 2008

In our previous study, a surfactant-coated Candida rugosa lipase immobilized in microemulsion-based organogels was exploited for the synthesis of ethyl isovalerate. In the present study, we are focusing on the effective reuse of lipase immobilized in microemulsion-based organogels (MBGs) in terms of retainment of the catalytic activity. As water is one of the co-products in esterification reactions, the removal of water becomes a priority to allow the reaction to work in the forward direction and to prevent back hydrolysis. Taking this fact into consideration, the lipase-containing microemulsion-based organogels were given pretreatment and/or several intermittent treatments with dry reverse micellar solution of AOT in organic solvent during repeated cycles of ester synthesis. The pretreated MBGs with dry reverse micellar solution exhibited lower water content and higher initial rates of esterification in comparison with untreated freshly prepared MBGs. The esterification efficiency of untreated MBGs started decreasing after 5 cycles of reuse and was almost completely lost by the end of the $8^{th}$ cycle. In contrast, pretreated MBGs exhibited a gradual decrease in esterification efficiency after 5 cycles and retained about 80% of the initial activity at the end of the $8^{th}$ cycle. The intermittent treatment of MBGs after every 3 cycles resulted in enhanced reusability of immobilized lipase for up to 9 cycles without significant loss in esterification activity, after which it resulted in a slow decrease in activity with about 27% lower activity at the end of the $12^{th}$ cycle. Furthermore, the treatment conditions such as concentration of AOT in liquid dessicant and time of treatment were optimized with respect to our system. The granulated MBGs proved to be better in terms of initial esterification rates (1.2-fold) as compared with the pelleted MBGs.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.543-548
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• 2002

The enantioselective esterification of racemic ibuprofen catalyzed by a Candida rugosa lipase was studied according to reaction conditions such as a lipase concentration, reaction temperature, alcohol chain length and alcohol concentration. The S-(+)-ibuprofen alkyl esters prepared were converted to S-(+)-ibuprofen by hydrolysis with sulfuric acid as a catalyst. High conversions in the esterifications were obtained at 60$^{\circ}C$ and an equimolar ratio of octanol to ibuprofen. The initial reaction rate of the esterification decreased with increasing octanol concentration. Conversion and initial reaction rate increased with increasing alcohol chain length. Values of enantiomeric excess(ee) according to esterification reaction conditions did not change below 60$^{\circ}C$. On the other hand, values of conversion and ee for the chemical hydrolysis of S-(+)-ibuprofen alkyl esters were independent of alcohol alkyl chain length. Optical resolution of racemic ibuprofen was achieved by lipase catalyzed esterification and chemical hydrolysis. The separation method provided a high yield and enantioselectivity for the production of S-(+)-ibuprofen from racemic ibuprofen.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.286-290
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• 2007

The esterification efficiency of several ionic liquids has been investigated to determine the feasibility for the conversion of free fatty acids to alkylester. Five ionic liquid catalysts having strong acidity, BPC[$AlCl_3$], BMIM[$Bf_4$], BMIM[$Pf_6$], EMIM[$Ntf_2$], BMIM[Otf], have been employed in this work. BPC[$AlCl_3$] has the highest esterification efficiency among the ionic liquid catalysts. Over 90% conversion efficiency has been achieved in the esterification of the simulated used cooking oil by BPC[$AlCl_3$] with two hours reaction time. Since BPC[$AlCl_3$] has several advantages such as high esterification activity, ease of separation from reaction mixture and reusability after treatment procedure, it will be a promising catalyst for the conversion of free fatty acids to esters in waste fats.

• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.102-110
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• 2012

In this study, the production of bio-diesel from animal oil by esterification and trans-esterification was investigated. There were three different extraction methods for oil extraction from raw animal fat. Heterogeneous catalysts such as Amberlyst-15 and Amberlyst BD-20 and a homogeneous catalyst such as sulfuric acid were used for esterification. Among three catalysts, the removal efficiency of Free Fatty Acid (FFA) was the highest in sulfuric acid. Response surface method was carried out to find the optimal esterification condition of sulfuric acid and methanol. After the esterification under the optimal condition, this animal fat was used for the trans-esterification. Animal oil used for trans-esterification was below 1% of FFA content and 0.09% of water content. The catalysts for trans-esterification were KOH, NaOH and $NaOCH_3$. To investigate the effects of catalyst type and amount on trans-esterification, The amount of catalyst were changed with 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 wt%. The molar ratio of methanol/oil was changed with 4, 6, 9 and 12. The amount of catalyst was fixed to 0.8 wt%. The KOH catalyst showed the highest FAME conversion for trans- esterification, and the optimal methanol/oil weight ratio was 6. In the experiments of various catalysts and methanol molar ratios, the highest content of FAME is 96%. However, this FAME content was below Korean bio-diesel standard which is 96.5% of FAME content. After distillation, FAME content increased to 98%.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.313-319
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• 2013

To produce biodiesel efficiently from fish oil containing 4% free fatty acid, esterification and trans-esterification were carried out with Vietnam catfish oil, which was kindly provided from GS-bio company. Heterogeneous solid acid catalysts such as Amberlyst-15 and Amberlyst BD-20 and sulfuric acid as homogeneous acid catalyst were used for the esterification of free fatty acids in the fish oil. Sulfuric acid showed the highest removal efficiency of free fatty acid and the shortest reaction time among three acid catalysts. The base catalysts for trans-esterification such as KOH, $NaOCH_3$ and NaOH were compared with each other and KOH was determined to be the best transesterification catalyst. Some solid material, which assumed to be saponified product from glycerol and biodiesel, were observed to form in the fish oil biodiesel when using $NaOCH_3$ and NaOH as the transesterification catalyst. The initial acid value of fish oil was proven to have a negative effect on biodiesel conversion. Of the three catalysts, KOH catalyst transesterification was shown to have high content of FAME and the optimal ratio of methanol/oil ratio was identified to be 9:1.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.243-249
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• 2005

Esterification of lactic acid with alcohols catalyzed by Amberlyst-type ion exchange resins and sulfuric acid was carried out in a batch reactor with total /or partial recycle of distilled condensates, respectively. The esterification of lactic acid in the total-recycling reactor (n-butanol/lactic acid = 4, $100^{\circ}C$) was promoted by decreasing the residual water and increasing the mole ratio of n-butanol/lactic acid. Also, it was confirmed that methanol with simple structure and tert-butanol with superior substitution reactivity were more effective in increasing the conversion of esterification reaction, compared to ethanol, n-butanol, and iso-butanol. In a partial-recycling reactor (n-butanol/ammonium lactate = 4, $115^{\circ}C$), the conversion of ammonium lactate into butyl lactate with 1.0 wt% Amberyst-type resins was higher in comparison to that with 0.2 mol $H_2SO_4$ (per 1.0 mol ammonium lactate). The esterification was gradually occurred during the initial stage of reaction in the presence of solid catalyst, whereas the initial addition of $H_2SO_4$ did not affect the initial rate of esterification reaction because of ammonium sulfate formation by the neutralizing reaction of ammonium lactate with sulfuric acid.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.550-557
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• 2005

The multivariate statistical analysis methods, using both multiple linear regression(MLR) and partial least square(PLS), have been applied to predict the reactor properties and the product quality of a direct esterification reactor for polyethylene terephthalate(PET) synthesis. On the basis of the set of data including the flow rate of water vapor, the flow rate of EG vapor, the concentration of acid end groups of a product and other operating conditions such as temperature, pressure, reaction times and feed monomer mole ratio, two multi-variable analysis methods have been applied. Their regression and prediction abilities also have been compared. The prediction results are critically compared with the actual plant data and the other mathematical model based results in reliability. This paper shows that PLS method approach can be used for the reasonably accurate prediction of a product quality of a direct esterification reactor in PET synthesis process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.13-20
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• 2009

The risk assessment of thermal hazard to identify chemical or process hazard during early process developments have been considered. The early identification of thermal hazards associated with a process, such as rapid heats of reaction, exothermic decompositions, and the potential for thermal runaways before any large scale operations are undertaken. This paper presents to evaluate the safe operating parameters/envelope for exist plant operations. The assessment of thermal hazard with operating conditions such as amount of process materials, inhibitor, and catalyst on esterification process in manufacture of concrete mixture agents are described. The experiments were performed by a sort of calorimetry with the Multimax reactor system as a screening tool. The aim of the study was to evaluate the thermal risk of process material and mixture in terms of safety security to be practical applications in esterification process. It suggested that we should provide the thermal hazard of reaction materials to present safe operating conditions with cause of accident through this study.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.2361-2367
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• 2010

$TiO_2-ZrO_2$ was prepared with surfactant through a sol-gel method. Catalysts containing 5 - 35% $H_3PO_4$ were prepared using these oxides. Subsequently the catalytic performance of prepared catalysts was determined for liquid phase esterification of aromatic acids. $H_3PO_4/TiO_2-ZrO_2$ has been used as catalyst to synthesize various novel esters by esterification of some aromatic acids with aliphatic alcohols (2-propanol, 1-butanol, iso butanol, 3-pentanol, 1-hexanol, heptanol, cyclo heptanol, octanol and decanol). Under optimized conditions, maximum yields and selectivity (100%) to the corresponding ester, was obtained by using 25 wt % $H_3PO_4/TiO_2-ZrO_2$ as catalyst. The Catalyst can be easily recycled after reaction and can be reused without any significant loss of activity/selectivity performance. No by-product formation, high yields, short reaction times, mild reaction conditions, operational simplicity with reusability of the catalyst are the salient features of the present synthetic protocol. The reaction was carried out under solvent-free condition.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.211-214
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• 2006

Immobilized Candida antarctica lipase was used to catalyze the separation of ketoprofen into its components by means of esterification followed by the enzymatic hydrolysis of the ester product. In this study, ketoprofen underwent esterification to ethanol in the presence of isooctane. When the reaction was complete, 58.3% of the ketoprofen had been transformed into an ester. The ketoprofen remaining in solution after the reaction was complete consisted primarily of its S-enantiomer (83.0%), while the 59.4% of the ketoprofen component of the ester consisted of its R-enantiomer. We then subjected the ester product to enzymatic hydrolysis in the presence of the same enzyme and produced a ketoprofen product rich in the R-enantiomer; 77% of this product consisted of the R-enantiomer when 50% of the ester had been hydrolyzed, and 90% of it consisted of the R-enantiomer when 30% of the ester had been hydrolyzed. By contrast, the R-enantiomer levels only reached approximately 42 and 65%, respectively, when 50 and 30% of the racemic ester was hydrolyzed under the same conditions.