Development of a process for the production of natural flavour compounds by enzymatic esterification with continuous water removal using pervaporation

"Fragrance and flavour compounds are widely used additives in e. g. nutrition and cosmetic industries. Extraction of those compounds is often limited by the availability of the natural sources and it is season depending. Chemical processes allow continuous synthesis of so-called artificial or nature identical aroma compounds. Moreover biotechnology offers the possibility of the production of natural aroma compounds by enzymatic synthesis in systems free of additional organic solvents. Esters are a large group of flavours. They result from a reaction of an alcohol and an organic acid which can be enzymatically catalyzed by lipases. Here an integrated process of enzymatic esterification and pervaporation was developed. The reaction takes place in an excess of the reactant alcohol, used simultaneously as a solvent for the reaction. By means of pervaporation the produced water is separated from the mixture to shift the equilibrium reaction towards higher conversions.