A kinetic study of biotransformation from valencene to nootkatone in an oscillatory baffled reactor

In this paper we report our kinetic study of an oxidation reaction from valencene to nootkatone using enzyme in an oscillatory baffled reactor. The aims of this work are to elucidate the reaction mechanism and evaluate reaction kinetics. Towards these objectives, a full kinetic model using the Langmuir–Hinshelwood method was established and applied to the experimental data, allowing reactor schemes and orders to be confirmed and reaction rate constants to be extracted. Our full kinetic analysis suggests that most of the reversible reaction steps can be treated as irreversible, simplifying the overall reaction schemes. The effect of mass transfer on the kinetics was also investigated.