In this work, the enzymatic synthesis of pentyl acetate obtained from acetic acid and pentan-1-ol using the commercial immobilized lipase Lipozyme^®435 was studied. Specifically, the effects of several variables of the process on the kinetics were shown, such as the initial concentration of the acetic acid, the alcohol/acid molar ratio, and the possible reuse of the enzyme, while other variables, such as temperature, agitation, and the enzyme/acid ratio were held constant. The kinetics were determined by assessing the acetic acid concentration throughout the reactive process. Experimental data were correlated with the rate equation consisting of a modified version of the Bi–Bi Ping-Pong mechanism. The results showed that when no hydrophobic solvents were used with the reagents in stoichiometric proportion, a high molar fraction of acetic acid (x_0,acid ≈ 0.50) caused the loss of enzymatic activity, achieving a conversion of only 5%. However, when there was an excess of pentan-1-ol, the reaction occurred successfully. Under optimal conditions (solvent-free conditions, x_0,alcohol/x_0,acid = 2, and x_0,acid = 0.33), it was found that the enzyme could be reused up to 10 times without a loss of activity, reaching conversions higher than 80% after 8 h. Therefore, those conditions are advantageous in terms of productivity.

A numerical application has been carried out to determine the thermophysical properties of more than fifty pure liquid compounds involved in the production process of cyclohexanone, whose real values are unknown, in many cases. Two group-contribution methods, the Joback and the Marrero–Gani methods, both used in the fields of physicochemistry and engineering, are employed. Both methods were implemented to evaluate critical properties, phase transition properties, and others, which are required for their use in industrial process simulation/design. The quality of the estimates is evaluated by comparing them with those from the literature, where available. In general, both models provide acceptable predictions, although each of them shows improvement for some of the properties considered, recommending their use, when required.