Processes and systems for catalytic manufacture of wax ester derivatives
View Patent ↗Processes for transesterifying wax esters. Implementations may include: providing a feedstock including wax esters, contacting the feedstock with a lipase, and catalytically transesterifying the wax esters in the feedstock with the lipase to form a transesterified product. An oxidative stability index (OSI) of the transesterified product may be greater than an OSI of the feedstock.
1 . A process for enzymatically transesterifying wax esters with one another, the process comprising the steps of:
contacting a feedstock with a transesterification enzyme catalyst, wherein the feedstock comprises a) feedstock wax esters that comprise jojoba wax esters and hydrogenated jojoba wax esters, and b) an original amount of a feedstock tocopherol, and wherein the transesterification enzyme catalyst comprises a lipase enzyme catalyst; and
enzymatically transesterifying the feedstock wax esters using the transesterification enzyme catalyst to cause transesterification of the feedstock wax esters with one another to form a reaction product mixture comprising enzymatically transesterified wax esters and the original amount of the feedstock tocopherol, and wherein the reaction product includes 5 weight percent or less fatty methyl esters and free fatty alcohols.
2 . The process of claim 1 , further comprising the step of monitoring the formation of monounsaturated wax ester content as the enzymatically transesterifying step progresses.
3 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the feedstock and the reaction product mixture each have a dropping point and wherein the process further comprises the step of including a percentage of the hydrogenated jojoba wax esters in the feedstock that increases the dropping point of the reaction product mixture relative to the dropping point of the feedstock.
4 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the enzymatically transesterifying step occurs in a temperature range from 10° C. to 70° C.
5 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the mixture includes added tocopherol.
6 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the enzymatically transesterified wax esters are randomized relative to the jojoba wax esters and the hydrogenated jojoba wax esters in the feedstock.
7 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the feedstock includes 20% to 50% by weight of the hydrogenated jojoba wax esters.
8 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the feedstock includes 20 weight percent to 30 weight percent of the hydrogenated jojoba wax esters.
9 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the feedstock includes 30 weight percent to 50 weight percent of the hydrogenated jojoba wax esters.
10 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the lipase enzyme catalyst comprises an amino acid sequence of SEQ. ID No. 1.
11 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the lipase enzyme catalyst comprises an amino acid sequence of SEQ. ID No. 2.
12 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the lipase enzyme catalyst comprises an amino acid sequence of SEQ. ID No. 1 and the amino acid sequence of SEQ. ID No. 2.
13 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the lipase enzyme catalyst comprises a 1,3 lipase enzyme.
14 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the lipase enzyme catalyst comprises an insertion lipase enzyme.
15 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the process is a continuous process.
16 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the process is a batch process.
17 . A process for preparing a randomized wax ester composition comprising enzymatically randomized wax esters and an antioxidant, comprising the steps of:
contacting a feedstock with a transesterification enzyme catalyst, wherein the feedstock comprises a) feedstock wax esters that comprise jojoba wax esters and hydrogenated jojoba wax esters, and b) the antioxidant, and wherein the transesterification enzyme catalyst comprises a lipase enzyme catalyst; and
enzymatically randomizing the jojoba wax esters and the hydrogenated jojoba wax esters in the feedstock with one another using the lipase enzyme catalyst to provide the randomized wax ester composition comprising the antioxidant and the enzymatically randomized wax esters, and wherein the reaction product includes 5 weight percent or less fatty methyl esters and free fatty alcohols.
18 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the feedstock tocopherol comprises a natural tocopherol and an added tocopherol.
19 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the reaction product comprises the original amount of the feedstock tocopherol.
20 . The process of claim 1 , further comprising the step of adding a tocopherol to the feedstock.