Synthetic resin-bound truncated Candida antarctica lipase B for production of fatty acid alkyl esters by transesterification of corn and soybean oils with ethanol or butanol

A gene encoding a synthetic truncated Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) was generated via automated PCR and expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Western blot analysis detected five truncated CALB variants, suggesting multiple translation starts from the six in-frame ATG codons. The longest open reading frame, which corresponds to amino acids 35-317 of the mature lipase, appeared to be expressed in the greatest amount. The truncated CALB was immobilized on Sepabeads? EC-EP resin and used to produce ethyl and butyl esters from crude corn oil and refined soybean oil. The yield of ethyl esters was 4-fold greater from corn oil than from soybean oil and was 36% and 50% higher, respectively, when compared to a commercially available lipase resin (Novozym 435) using the same substrates. A 5:1 (v/v) ratio of ethanol to corn oil produced 3.7-fold and 8.4-fold greater yields than ratios of 15:1 and 30:1, respectively. With corn oil, butyl ester production was 56% higher than ethyl ester production. Addition of an ionic catalytic resin step prior to the CALB resin increased yields of ethyl esters from corn oil by 53% compared to CALB resin followed by ionic resin. The results suggest resin-bound truncated CALB has potential application in biodiesel production using biocatalysts.