Transport of organic acids through a supported liquid membrane driven by lipase-catalyzed reactions.

We have developed a lipase-facilitated supported liquid membrane. Lipase-catalyzed reactions were coupled with a supported liquid membrane (SLM) to transport organic acids through the SLM. We succeeded in the rational transport of organic acids through the SLM using lipase-catalyzed reactions and observed that there were differences in the transport behavior of various organic acids due to the substrate specificity of lipase. Subsequently, various parameters, such as the alcohol concentration in the feed phase, the pH in each aqueous phase, an organic solvent in the SLM, and the kind of lipase, were investigated. We found that the optimum conditions were 65 vol% alcohol concentration, pH 6.3 in each aqueous phase, isooctane as the liquid membrane phase and Candida rugosa lipase as the esterification biocatalyst.