Enzymatic production of biodiesel from cotton seed oil using t-butanol as a solvent

DANIELA BEATRIZ ROYON; MIRTA ELIZABETH DAZ; GUILLERMO VON ELLENRIEDER; SILVANO LOCATELLI

BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY

Elsevier

Año: 2006

0960-8524

The enzymatic production of biodiesel by methanolysis of cotton seed oil was studied using immobilized Candida antarctica lipase as catalyst in  t-butanol solvent. Methyl ester production  and triacylglycerol disappearance were followed by  HPLC chromatography. It was found, using a batch system, that  enzyme inhibition caused by undissolved methanol was eliminated by adding t-butanol to the reaction medium, wich also gave a noticeable increase of reaction rate and ester yield. The effect of t-butanol,  methanol concentration and temperature on this system was determined. A methanolysis yield of 97% was observed after 24 h at 50ºC with a mixture containing 32.5% t-butanol, 13.5% methanol, and 54% oil and using 0.017g catalyst (g oil)-1. With the same mixture,  a 95% ester yield was obtained using a one step fixed bed continuous reactor with a flow rate of 9.6ml h-1 (g enzyme)-1. Experiments with the continuous reactor over  500 h did not show any appreciable decrease in ester yield.