Continuous Synthesis of Vitamin E Succinate in an Immobilized Enzyme Microreactor

As a high-value-added product, vitamin E succinate has an important effect in antitumor. However, the traditional synthesis methods of vitamin E succinate are often limited by high temperature, high pressure, long reaction time, and other reasons. This hinders their application in the pharmaceutical industry. In this study, a wall-coated immobilized enzyme microreactor was prepared by coating the sol solution embedded with lipase CALB into the microchannel, and the catalytic synthesis of vitamin E succinate was carried out through the microreactor. The optimum synthesis conditions were obtained by response surface optimization: a substrate flow rate of 25.33 μL/min, a substrate molar ratio of 4.17, a substrate concentration of 13.50 g/L, and a reaction temperature of 52.41 °C. At this time, the yield of vitamin E succinate can reach 65.10%. After that, the kinetic parameters of the synthesis of vitamin E succinate in the microreactor and the batch reactor were determined, respectively. The results showed that K_m was 265.3 mM in the batch reactor and 18.6 mM in the microreactor (at a flow rate of 25 μL/min). It was further proven that the immobilization of lipase in the microchannel can fully combine the advantages of microchannel and enzyme catalysis. It is expected to provide a new and potential route for the efficient production of vitamin E succinate.