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 (OBR). A full kinetic model using the Langmuir-Hinshelwood formalism was established and applied to the experimental data, allowing reactor schemes and orders to be confirmed and reaction rate constants to be extracted. The analysis of reaction rate constants suggests that most of the reversible reaction steps can be treated as irreversible, simplifying reaction schemes. The effect of mixing intensity on the kinetics was also investigated.