Supercritical fluid assisted, integrated process for the synthesis and separation of different lipid derivatives.

The partial synthesis of ethyl esters from corn and fish oil was carried out in a stirred tank at supercritical conditions and the products were separated from the reaction mixture using the supercritical fluid. Corn oil can be almost completely converted to ethyl esters under optimized conditions and the rate of reaction is comparable to atmospheric pressure conditions. Some concentration of polyunsaturates occurs in the partially converted glyceride fraction of fish oil, as the enzyme used, Lipozyme TL-IM, allows preferential esterification of the saturates and mono-unsaturates that are concentrated in positions 1 and 3 of the triglycerides. By judicious selection of the processing conditions, good separation of ethyl esters from the partially reacted glycerides was achieved.