Foukis_2018_Mol.Catal_455_159

The enzyme catalyzed esterification of butyric acid by ethanol under anhydrous conditions in n-hexane, through continuous removal of the formed water, follows a ping pong bi-bi reaction mechanism; immobilized lipase-B from Candida antarctica on acrylic resin (Novozyme 435) was used as biocatalyst. For first time, the kinetic data of an enzymatic bi-substrate reaction generating simultaneous double dead-end substrate inhibitions were processed by surface fitting through multiparametric non-linear equations. Both anhydrous CH3CH2OH and/or CH3CH2OD were employed in an attempt to apply the technique of kinetic isotope effects and validate the selection of the best system among two (ping pong bi-bi and ordered bi-bi), which could describe the aforementioned reaction.