Table 2.

Points of comparison between chemical and enzymatic esterification reaction

Characteristics	Chemical	Enzymatic
Type of catalyst	Chemical catalyst like sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, sodium methoxide, para-toluene sulphonic acid etc	Lipases from animal, plant and microorganisms
Temperature	Reaction is usually carried out at higher temperature (150–200 °C)	Reaction is carried out at moderate temperature below 50 °C
Bi-product formation	Many undesirable by-products are formed and hence product needs purification	Insignificant or no by-products are formed
Eco-friendly	No, since it produces many by-products which are toxic in nature	Yes, it is cleaner and eco-friendly
Challenges	It produces toxic products and final product is dark in color hence processes like bleaching, deodorization, purification is necessary	Little change in temperature, pH of reaction medium affects the activity of enzyme
Rate of reaction	Rate of reaction is faster; hence less time is required for completion of reaction	Rate of reaction is very slow; hence more time is required for completion of reaction
Economical aspect	Chemical catalyst are inexpensive, hence the process is economical as compared with enzymatic process	Enzymes are very expensive, which increases the cost of production