Enzymatic enrichment of n-3 fatty acids in the form of glycerides

1. A process for enzymatic preparation of n-3 fatty acid C 1 -C 6 alkyl esters, comprising:

(a) providing an oil comprising n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, at from about 5% to about 60% w/w, said n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids being present as fatty acyl groups bonded to glycerol backbone of glycerides and optionally of polar lipids in said oil and/or as free fatty acids, wherein said oil further comprises free or esterified saturated fatty acids, mono-, di- and tri-unsaturated fatty acids;

(b) adding to said oil, water or alkaline aqueous buffer solution at an amount of 1-10% w/w of said oil, to give a reaction medium with pH of from about 5 to about 9;

(c) adding to the reaction medium obtained in step (b) an Alcaligenes sp. lipase (Lipase QLM™) preparation in which said Alcaligenes sp. lipase is immobilized on a polymeric resin support at a load higher than 10,000 units of said lipase per 1 g of polymer support, wherein said resin comprises alternating hydrophobic domains and mild hydrophilic domains, wherein said lipase exhibits high selectivity towards saturated, mono-, di- and tri-unsaturated fatty acids in their free form or when bound to glycerol or to polar lipids, and is capable of simultaneously or consecutively transesterifying and/or esterifying said fatty acids;

(d) providing a C 1 -C 6 alkyl alcohol and adding said alcohol to the reaction medium of said oil, said water or alkaline aqueous buffer solution and said lipase preparation obtained in step (c), to form a reaction mixture comprising said oil, said lipase preparation, said water or aqueous buffer solution and said alcohol, wherein said oil reacts with said alcohol, and allowing the reaction between said oil and said alcohol to reach a conversion of about 70% of said oil to fatty acid alkyl esters;

(e) stopping the reaction by removing said Alcaligenes sp. lipase preparation from said reaction mixture, said reaction mixture then forming an upper organic phase and a lower phase, and collecting the organic upper phase/fraction of the reaction mixture containing fatty acids alkyl esters (FAEEs), mono-, di- and the residual tri-glycerides, in addition to free fatty acids byproducts and excess of alcohol;

(f) reacting said organic phase obtained in step (e) with a C1-C6 alkyl alcohol in the presence of Thermomyces lanuginosa lipase (TL) immobilized on a polymeric resin support, wherein said resin comprises alternating hydrophobic domains and mild hydrophilic domains and allowing the reaction between said organic phase and said alcohol to continue until at least 97% w/w, at least 98% w/w, at least 99% w/w and up to 100% of fatty acyl groups in said oil are converted to their C1-C6 alkyl esters;

(g) stopping the reaction by removing said TL lipase preparation from the reaction mixture followed with evaporation-of the reaction medium to remove excess of alcohol and water; and

(h) isolating n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid alkyl esters concentrate from the reaction mixture by fractional distillation.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said resin support for both said Alcaligenes sp. lipase and said TL lipase comprises alternating hydrophobic domains comprising cross-linked divinylbenzene monomers, cross-linked styrene monomer or cross-linked styrene and divinylbenzene monomers and mild hydrophilic domains comprising acrylic and/or methacrylic esters.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the weight ratio between said hydrophobic resin domains and said mild hydrophilic domains is from about 10:0.1 to about 1:10, respectively.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said Alcaligenes sp. lipase preparation and said TL lipase preparation maintain at least 70% of their catalytic activity over at least 20 reaction cycles using the same batch of each said Alcaligenes sp. lipase preparation and TL lipase preparation.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said organic upper phase/fraction is collected by a method selected from the group consisting of gravity separation, centrifugation or passing the reaction mixture through a column packed with a glycerol/water-adsorbing resin.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said isolated 3-n polyunsaturated fatty acid alkyl esters obtained in step (h) are further reacted with glycerol, in the presence of a lipase derived from Candida antarctica B (CALB), which lipase is capable of transesterifying the n-3 fatty acyl moieties of said alkyl esters to said glycerol wherein said lipase is optionally immobilized on a suitable polymeric resin support, wherein the reaction system comprises water at up to about 1% per weight of said isolated 3-n polyunsaturated fatty acid alkyl esters, and allowing the reaction to proceed until a mixture of glycerides comprising more than 50% triglycerides of the total formed glycerides is formed after removal of unreacted of glycerol and distillation of excess of fatty acids/fatty acid alkyl esters, and alkyl alcohol and/or water as by-products.

7. The process according to claim 6 , wherein said polymeric resin support on which said CALB is immobilized, comprises alternating hydrophobic domains and mild hydrophilic domains.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said n-3 fatty acid moieties in said oil are any one of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) moieties, and any mixture of at least two thereof.

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are present in free form or as fatty acid moieties of mono-, di- or tri-glycerides, or polar lipids of an oil.

10. A process for enzymatic preparation of n-3 fatty acid C 1 -C 6 alkyl esters comprising:

(a) providing an oil comprising n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, specifically from about 5% to about 60% w/w, said n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids being present as fatty acyl groups bonded to glycerol backbone of glycerides and optionally of polar lipids in said oil and/or as free fatty acids, wherein said oil further comprises free or esterified saturated fatty acids, mono-, di- and tri-unsaturated fatty acids;

(b) adding to said oil, water or alkaline aqueous buffer solution at an amount of 0.2-10% w/w of said oil, to give a reaction medium with pH of from about 5 to about 9;

(c) adding to the reaction medium obtained in step (b) an Alcaligenes sp. lipase (Lipase QLM™) preparation in which said Alcaligenes sp. lipase is immobilized on a suitable hydrophobic polymeric resin support at a load higher than 10,000 units of said lipase per 1 g of polymer support, wherein said resin comprises alternating hydrophobic domains and mild hydrophilic domains, wherein said lipase exhibits high selectivity towards saturated, mono-, di- and tri-unsaturated fatty acids in their free form or when bound to glycerol or to polar lipids, and is capable of simultaneously or consecutively transesterifying and/or esterifying said fatty acids;

(d) providing a C 1 -C 6 alkyl alcohol and adding said alcohol to the reaction medium of said oil, said water or alkaline aqueous buffer solution and said lipase preparation obtained in step (c), to form a reaction mixture comprising said oil, said lipase preparation, said water or aqueous buffer solution and said alcohol, wherein said oil reacts with said alcohol, and allowing the reaction between said oil and said alcohol to reach a conversion of about 70% of said oil to fatty acid alkyl esters;

(e) stopping the reaction by removing said Alcaligenes sp. lipase preparation from said reaction mixture, said reaction mixture then forming an upper organic phase and a lower phase, and collecting the organic upper phase/fraction of the reaction mixture containing fatty acids alkyl esters (FAEEs), mono-, di- and the residual tri-glycerides, in addition to free fatty acids byproducts and excess of alcohol;

(f) reacting said organic phase obtained in step (e) with a C 1 -C 6 alkyl alcohol in the presence of Thermomyces lanuginosa lipase (TL) immobilized on a polymeric resin support, wherein said resin comprises alternating hydrophobic domains and mild hydrophilic domains, and allowing the reaction between said organic phase and said alcohol to continue until at least 97% w/w, at least 98% w/w, 99% w/w and up to 100% of fatty acyl groups in said oil are converted to their a C 1 -C 6 alkyl esters;

(g) stopping the reaction by removing said TL lipase preparation from the reaction mixture followed with evaporation of the reaction medium to remove excess of alcohol and water; and

(h) isolating n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid alkyl esters concentrate from the reaction mixture by fractional distillation.

11. The process according to claim 10 , wherein said C 1 -C 6 alkyl alcohol is ethanol or methanol, and said C 1 -C 6 alkyl esters are respectively ethyl or methyl esters.

12. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said C 1 -C 6 alkyl alcohol is ethanol or methanol, and said C 1 -C 6 alkyl esters are respectively ethyl or methyl esters.

13. The process according to claim 7 , wherein said polymeric resin support on which said CALB is immobilized comprises alternating hydrophobic divinylbenzene and/or styrene domains, and mild hydrophilic acrylic and/or methacrylic esters domains.

14. The process according to claim 9 , wherein oil is fish or an oleaginous oil.

15. The process according to claim 1 , wherein said process is carried out in a fixed-bed, a packed-bed, a fluidized-bed or a stirred-tank reactor.