Sunday, July 26, 2009
P3

Enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel from palm oil deodorizer distillate

Igor N.S. Correa1, Susana L. Souza1, Marly Catran1, Erika C. G. Aguieiras2, Márcio F. Portilho3, and Marta A.P. Langone4. (1) Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua Sao Francisco Xavier 524, PHLC, sl. 427, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, (2) Pós-graduação em Tecnologia dos Processos Químicos e Bioquímicos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, (3) Cenpes/Petrobras, Rio de Janeiro, (4) Ppgeq, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, PHLC, IQ, sl 427, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Biodiesel production has received considerable attention in the recent past as a biodegradable and nonpolluting fuel. The industrial process of biodiesel production is transesterification reaction of triglycerides from vegetable oils with methanol in the presence of an inorganic catalyst. An alternative route to biodiesel is based on esterification of free fatty acids present in high concentration in certain feedstock as in the by-product obtained from the vegetable oil refining.  The objective of this work was to study the synthesis of mono alkyl esters (biodiesel) from esterification of palm oil deodorizer distillate (PODD) with ethanol, using commercial immobilized lipases. Lipases are a family of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of fats, transesterification, alcoholysis and esterification among other reactions. Largely used due to their high activity, selectivity, and the moderate conditions in which they operate. This work investigated the effect of reaction parameters such as: ethanol concentration and its feeding technique to the reactor, temperature, enzyme concentration and type of immobilized commercial lipase as well as enzyme reuse. The stepwise ethanolysis resulted in higher conversions of fatty acids. The fatty acids conversion increased when temperature was increased from 50 to 60 ºC. Higher conversions (90 %) of fatty acids were obtained with Novozym 435 (Novozymes). One of the major advantages of using immobilized enzymes is the possible reuse of the enzyme preparation a means of reducing the total costs of reaction. The enzyme reuse was investigated under the optimum conditions obtained. Conversions lower than 10% are obtained after the third reuse.  

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