Transesterification reaction catalysed by Novozym 435 in supercritical carbon dioxide

Transesterification reaction between a substrate having two functional groups (ethylene glycol) with ethyl acetate in the presence of lipase Novozym 435 was carried out to study the effect of supercritical CO2 (scCO2) on the conversion and selectivity of the reaction. It was demonstrated that in the presence of scCO2 the equilibrium conversion could be considerably higher than that in the absence of scCO2. scCO2 could also enhance the selectivity of ethylene glycol monoacetate (EGMA) and suppress the formation of ethylene glycol diacetate (EGDA), and selectivity could be tuned by CO2 pressure.