Methanolysis of seed oils in flowing supercritical carbon dioxide

The direct methanolysis of triglycerides in flowing supercritical carbon dioxide by an immobilized lipase is described. The reaction system consists of two syringe pumps for substrate addition and another two syringe pumps for delivering CO₂ at 24.1 MPa. Corn oil is pumped into the carbon dioxide stream at a rate of 4 μL/min, and methanol is pumped at 5 μL/min to yield fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) at >98% conversion. Direct methanolysis of soy flakes gives FAME at similar yields. This combined extraction/reaction is performed at 17.2 MPa and 50°C. The fatty acid profiles obtained for these seed oils matches those obtained by classical chemical synthesis.