Biodiesel fuel production by the transesterification reaction of soybean oil using immobilized lipase

The enzymatic alcoholysis of soybean oil with methanol and ethanol was investigated using a commercial, immobilized lipase (Lipozyme RMIM). The effect of alcohol (methanol or ethanol), enzyme concentration, molar ratio of alcohol to soybean oil, solvent, and temperature on biodiesel production was determined. The best conditions were obtained in a solvent-free system with ethanol/oil molar ratio of 3.0, temperature of 50°C, and enzyme concentration of 7.0% (w/w). Three-step batch ethanolysis was most effective for the production of biodiesel. Ethyl esters yield was about 60% after 4 h of reaction.

[1]  J. Asenjo,et al.  Factors affecting the esterification of lauric acid using an immobilized biocatalyst: Enzyme characterization and studies in a well‐mixed reactor , 1995, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[2]  Alexander M. Klibanov,et al.  Enzymatic reactions in organic media , 1996 .

[3]  Ram Prasad,et al.  TRIGLYCERIDES-BASED DIESEL FUELS , 2000 .

[4]  M. Iso,et al.  Production of biodiesel fuel from triglycerides and alcohol using immobilized lipase , 2001 .

[5]  Yomi Watanabe,et al.  Enzymatic alcoholysis for biodiesel fuel production and application of the reaction to oil processing , 2002 .

[6]  M. Tüter,et al.  Immobilized Candida antarctica lipase-catalyzed alcoholysis of cotton seed oil in a solvent-free medium. , 2002, Bioresource technology.

[7]  D. Combes,et al.  Efficient lipase catalysed production of a lubricant and surfactant formulation using a continuous solvent-free process. , 2002, Journal of biotechnology.

[8]  C. Shieh,et al.  Optimization of lipase-catalyzed biodiesel by response surface methodology. , 2003, Bioresource technology.

[9]  Uwe T. Bornscheuer,et al.  Improvement in lipase-catalyzed synthesis of fatty acid methyl esters from sunflower oil , 2003 .

[10]  Dehua Liu,et al.  Comparative study on lipase-catalyzed transformation of soybean oil for biodiesel production with different acyl acceptors , 2004 .

[11]  J. V. Gerpen,et al.  Biodiesel processing and production , 2005 .

[12]  M. Sharma,et al.  Prospects of biodiesel production from vegetable oils in India , 2005 .

[13]  Dehua Liu,et al.  Study on the kinetics of enzymatic interesterification of triglycerides for biodiesel production with methyl acetate as the acyl acceptor , 2005 .

[14]  Teodoro Espinosa-Solares,et al.  Macroscopic mass and energy balance of a pilot plant anaerobic bioreactor operated under thermophilic conditions , 2006, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.