The immobilization of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) on raw and alkaline pre-treated sugarcane bagasse by physical adsorption (ADS) and covalent bond (LC) methods was studied. The saturation of the support with 2 mg of HRP/g of support by LC immobilization reached 35% of immobilization efficiency and 39 units of the immobilized enzyme (U). Regarding the HRP immobilization on sugarcane bagasse without pretreatment and using the same HRP loading, it was observed a reduction in the efficiency of immobilization and in the number of immobilized units for both methods, ADS (13.98% and 15.46 U) and LC (15.79% and 17.46 U). The sugarcane bagasse with alkaline pretreatment experiment, on the other hand, exhibited higher potential for HRP immobilization by LC. The supports and biocatalysts were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), showing greater availability of hydroxyl groups in the pretreated support and the typical amide I and amide II bands that corroborate the effectiveness of the enzyme immobilization on sugarcane bagasse. In the same way, the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) confirmed a higher weight loss in the region I for the derivative immobilized by LC, suggesting the presence of water favored enzymatic activity.

This work investigated the effect of microwave irradiation (MW) on the ethanolysis rate of soybean and sunflower oils catalyzed by supported Novozyme 435 (Candida antarctica). The effects of tert-butanol, water addition and oil:ethanol molar ratio on transesterification were evaluated under conventional heating (CH), and under optimum reaction conditions (with no added water in the system, 10% tert-butanol and 3:1 ethanol-to-oil molar ratio). The reactions were monitored up to 24 h to determine the conditions of initial reaction velocity. The investigated variables under MW (50 W) were: reaction time (5.0-180 min) and mode of reactor operation (fixed power, dynamic and cycles) in the absence and presence of tert-butanol (10% (w/w). The measured response was the reaction conversion in ethyl esters, which was linked to the enzyme catalytic activity. The results indicated that the use of microwave improved the activity at fixed power mode. A positive effect of the association of tert-butanol and MW irradiation on the catalytic activity was observed. The reaction rate improved in the order of approximately 1.5 fold compared to that under CH with soybean oil. Using soybean oil, the enzymatic transesterification under MW for conversion to FAEE (fatty acid ethyl esters) reached >99% in 3h, while with the use of CH the conversions were about 57% under similar conditions.