Ultrasonic emulsification assisted immobilized Burkholderia cepacia lipase catalyzed transesterification of soybean oil for biodiesel production in a novel reactor design

Gabriel Murillo, Sameh S. Ali, Jianzhong Sun, Yunjun Yan, Pietro Bartocci, Nessma El-Zawawy, Maha Azab, Yaojia He and Francesco Fantozzi

Renewable Energy, 2019, vol. 135, issue C, 1025-1034

Abstract: Increasing energy demands coupled with decreasing fossil fuel resources create an urgent need to switch over bio-based fuel, such as biodiesel. In a newly designed reactor, the production of biodiesel was conducted with soybean oil (SBO) in solvent-free system through transesterification by immobilized Burkholderia cepacia lipase under the influence of ultrasonic emulsification. Effects of operational parameters viz. methanol-to-oil molar ratio, water concentration, immobilized enzyme concentration, and temperature on fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) yield were investigated. Molar ratio and enzyme concentration showed a significant linear correlation with biodiesel yield (r = − 0.8 and 0.6; respectively). Linear regression analysis of both parameters later revealed a significant prediction ability for biodiesel with a yield of 78.8 and 31.7%, respectively. FAME yield was 30% at 7 h in the pretreatment reactor. Without ultrasonic emulsification, the yield was significantly enhanced to 64% for the same reaction time in the packed-bed reactor. However, the reaction time was further reduced significantly under the influence of ultrasonic emulsification coupled with immobilized lipase as a catalyst and resulted into higher biodiesel yield of 68.6% at 3 h. Clearly, ultrasonic emulsification-assisted immobilized lipase catalysis of SBO might be a potential alternative route to conventional methods of biodiesel production.

Keywords: Biodiesel; Burkholderia cepacia lipase; Ultrasonic emulsification; Packed-bed reactor; Soybean oil; Transesterification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:135:y:2019:i:c:p:1025-1034

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2018.12.080

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