A Raman spectroscopic approach to investigate the production of biodiesel from soybean oil using 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium ionic liquids with intermediate chain length

Johanna Abrahamsson, Emil Andreasson, Niklas Hansson, David Sandström, Ellinor Wennberg, Manuel Maréchal and Anna Martinelli

Applied Energy, 2015, vol. 154, issue C, 763-770

Abstract: We present a Raman spectroscopic study of the conversion of soybean oil into biodiesel by methanol using the lipase B enzyme pseudomonas cepacia as the bio-catalyst and 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium ionic liquids (CnC1Im) as co-solvents, where the alkyl chain length is varied from ethyl (n=2) to decyl (n=10). We have limited this study to a low reaction temperature, 40°C, and a low enzyme concentration to investigate the possibility of producing biodiesel with low energy and cost demands. We also demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy is a powerful and straightforward method to estimate the yield of the transesterification reaction, by analysis of the characteristic CO stretching mode found in the range ∼1730–1750cm−1. Our results indicate that both reaction yield and reaction rate increase with the chain length, but also that for chains longer than decyl further improvements are marginal. We discuss these results from the viewpoint of local interactions and local structure of the investigated ionic liquids.

Keywords: Biodiesel; Ionic liquids; Raman spectroscopy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915006029
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:154:y:2015:i:c:p:763-770

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.04.123

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().