In order to achieve quantitative conversions of all employed reactants, but without
the need for excess glycerol, two major problems had to be resolved:
1. A simple method was required for the continuous separation of the desired pro-
ducts from the reaction mixtures.
2. Simultaneously, an effective recycling method for all undesirable materials was
needed, including 2-monoacyl-glycerols, diacylglycerols and triacylglycerols.
Both goals were achieved simply by employing a compartmental separation of the
two steps of the process – synthesis and isolation (Figure 15). The enzymatic ester-
ification is carried out in the reactor vessel with stoichiometric amounts of glycerol
and the corresponding acyl donor under the desired reaction conditions. The solution
of the reaction mixture obtained in this way is circulated into a second vessel (termed
6.5 Enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of isomerically pure 1(3)-monoglycerides 109
Figure 15. Regioisomerically pure 1(3)-sn-monoglycerides: synthetic process.
Figure 16. Synthesis of monoglycerides: the apparatus.