CHAPTER 5: Lipase-Catalyzed Reactions in Pressurized Fluids

Lipases as biocatalysts have shown great importance in biotechnological, industrial and economic scenarios. These enzymes are used as technological tools, with prospects for development, due to their present ability to perform highly specific biotransformations, making them popular in many industries. Supercritical fluids are one of the best neoteric solvents for the purpose of synthesizing valuable chemicals, finding great demand in the food, pharmaceutical, textile, flavor and fragrance industries, as their versatile properties such as high diffusibility and low viscosity enhance the mass transfer rate of substrates to the active sites of enzymes, thus resulting in higher reaction rates. Therefore, the focus of this chapter is to elucidate the mechanism of action of lipases in supercritical fluids, considering the main factors that contribute to the stability of these enzymes and maintaining their catalytic activity in esterification, transesterification, interesterification and hydrolysis processes.