Patent ID: 8241875

Claim:
A process for producing fatty acids, comprising the steps of alternately supplying an oil phase substrate and a water phase substrate to an enzyme column packed with an immobilized enzyme, flowing the substrates in the same direction in said enzyme column, and hydrolyzing said oil phase substrate, wherein the water phase substrate supplied at a time in the enzyme column provides an immiscible layer having a thickness L w represented by equation (1) below and in the range between 5 and 150 mm: L w =( V w / S )× T w ×(1/ε) (1); and wherein the oil phase substrate supplied at a time in the enzyme column provides an immiscible layer having a thickness L o represented by equation (2) below and in the range between 10 and 250 mm: L o =( V o / S )× T o ×(1/ε) (2); wherein V w is the feed flow rate of the water phase (mm 3 /second), V o is the feed flow rate of the oil phase (mm 3 /second), S is the cross section (mm 2 ) of the enzyme column, T w is the supply time (seconds) of the water phase, T o is the supply time (seconds) of the oil phase, and ε is the void fraction of the enzyme column, and wherein the value of L w /L o is from 0.2 to 1.