Biocatalyst of Nanocomposite using Functionalized Low-Cost Activated Carbon from Zea mays L. (maize) Husk Leaf with Lipase for Hydrolysis of Olive Oil

The expansion of agricultural land and commercial food industries to meet rising global demands have imparted new challenges to the environment and human activities. Poor management of the generated waste by-products perpetually contributes to increased ecological burden. This study proposed the use of chemically-functionalized activated carbon sourced from Zea mays L. husk leave (FZHLAC) as support for the covalent immobilization of Candida rugosa lipase (CRL). This work aims to establish the protocol of preparing functionally satisfactory FZHLAC immobilized CRL (CRL-FZHLAC) and to assess its efficacy in hydrolyzing olive oil as the model reaction. Results of FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM, TGA, X-ray diffraction and BET confirmed that CRL-FZHLAC was successfully prepared with an enzyme loading of 13% (v/v). Maximum activity for hydrolysis (71.24 µmol/min/g) was achieved under an optimized condition of 50 °C, 200 rpm at pH 8 with reusability up to 5 cycles. Hydrolysis at 70 °C best fitted the first order reaction while the activation energies varies from 55.37 to -41.22 kJ/mol. The findings showed that CRL-FZHLAC is prospectively useful as biocatalysts to carry out a variety of aqueous-based biotransformation reactions