Immobilization of Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase on a new hydrophobic support (Streamline phenyl™): Strategies to improve stability and reusability

This paper establishes an efficient protocol for the immobilization of Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL) on a hydrophobic resin, Streamline phenyl. The biocatalyst produced by TLL immobilization on Streamline phenyl resin was named iTLL. In addition, strategies to improve stability and reusability of iTLL were performed using polyethylenimine (PEI) or/and glutaraldehyde (GA), producing iTLL-GA, iTLL-PEI, iTLL-PEI-GA biocatalysts. The immobilization yield was about 50%, using 1 mg/g of enzyme loading, and the immobilized enzyme activity was about 77 U/g, achieving about 100% of recovered activity. Desorption assays of the enzyme from the support using 0.6% cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and thermal and operational stability assays were performed. Although iTLL-PEI-GA lost about 50% of its initial activity after PEI and GA modifications, it was the most thermally and operationally stable (increases its stability about 66% if comparing with soluble enzyme at 65 ºC and maintenance 90% of its initial activity after 5 cycles of pNPB hydrolysis at 25 °C and pH 7.0). Furthermore, it showed almost no desorption of enzyme molecules with 24 h of CTAB incubation. Moreover, the streamline phenyl demonstrated a high TLL loading potential, with no diffusion limitations up to 14 mg/g. These characteristics allow future application of the iTLL-PEI-GA biocatalyst in fluidized bed reactors.