A lipase from Candida cylindracea immobilized by adsorption on microporous polypropylene fibers was used to selectively hydrolyze the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acid residues of menhaden oil at 40 degrees C and pH 7.0. At a space time of 3.5 h, the shell and tube reactor containing these hollow fibers gives a fractional release of each of the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acid residues (i.e., C14, C16, C16:1, C18:1) of ca. 88% of the corresponding possible asymptotic value. The corresponding coproduct glycerides retained over 90% of the initial residues of both eicosapentaenoic (EPA; C20:5) and docosahexaenoic (DHA; C22:6) acids. The half-life of the immobilized lipase was 170 h when the reactor was operated at the indicated (optimum) conditions. Rate expressions associated with a generic ping-pong bi-bi mechanism were used to fit the experimental data for the lipase catalyzed reaction. Both uni-and multiresponse nonlinear regression methods were employed to determine the kinetic parameters associated with these rate expressions. The best statistical fit of the uniresponse data was obtained for a rate expression, which is formally equivalent to a general Michaelis-Menten mechanism. After reparameterization, this rate expression reduced to a pseudo-first-order model. For the multiresponse analysis, a model that employed a normal distribution of the ratio of V-max/K-m with respect to the chain length of the fatty acid residues provided the best statistical fit-of the experimental data.