Immobilized lipase from Hypocrea pseudokoningii on hydrophobic and ionic supports: Determination of thermal and organic solvent stabilities for applications in the oleochemical industry

Abstract

Hypocrea pseudokoningii purified lipase was immobilized on hydrophobic supports (phenyl-sepharose, butyl-sepharose, octyl-sepharose, Hexyl Toyopearl, Lewatit, Purolite, Decaoctyl sepabeads) and ionic supports (Duolite, DEAE-agarose, PEI-agarose, MANAE-agarose, and Q-sepharose). The immobilization processes resulted in derivatives with excellent thermal stabilities, increasing the half-life up to 500-fold. The derivatives had excellent stability to organic solvents compared to the crude lipase. In the presence of 50% ethanol, hexyl and Decaoctyl derivatives increased by about 6- and 3.5-fold their stability to organic solvents, respectively. When tested for methanol, phenyl-sepharose derivative also increased their stability to organic solvents in approximately 2-fold. Octyl-sepharose derivative was fully stable for 48 h in the presence of propanol, which showed a half-life of about 7.5 h. The greater activation of the derivatives occurred using 50% cyclohexane, in which the hexyl derivative obtained an increase in the activity of 9-fold and phenyl and octyl derivatives had their activity increased by 6-fold. The lipase showed activity on different oils. Therefore, the adsorption of lipases in low ionic strength and highly hydrophobic supports is shown to be a simple and rapid tool for the immobilization of H. pseudokoningii lipase. These derivatives strongly increase the chances of this biocatalyst for industrial application.