Monday, April 30, 2007
6-46

Comparison between alkali-catalysis and lipase-catalysis processes for biodiesel production

Otavio L. Bernardes1, Wallace M. Antunes2, Fabio Merçon1, Claudia O. Veloso2, Cristiane A. Henriques2, and Marta A. P. Langone2. (1) Programa de Pós-graduação em Quimica, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - Instituto de Quimica, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524 - PHLC - sala 310, Rio de Janeiro, 20559900, Brazil, (2) Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia Quimica, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - Instituto de Quimica, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524 - PHLC - sala 310, Rio de Janeiro, 20559900, Brazil

Biodiesel, an alternative fuel for diesel engines, is becoming increasingly important due to depleting of petroleum reserves and growing environmental concerns. Presently, the industrial production of biodiesel fuel is performed by methanolysis of vegetable oils using alkaline catalyst as alkali hydroxides and alcoholates. A disadvantage of alkali catalyzed procedures is that the homogenous catalysts are removed with the glycerol layer after the reaction and cannot be reused. The use of heterogeneous catalysts represents an environmentally benign alternative to conventional ones. The aim of the present study was to compare the catalytic performance of biocatalyst (commercially immobilized lipase, Lipozyme RM IM) and heterogeneous catalysts (basic oxides) on transesterification of soybean oil with methanol.  The results indicate that the basic solids catalyzed the syntheses of methyl esters with yield higher than 70% at 130oC.  Experiments at 50oC with stoichiometric molar ratio of the reactants (methanol/oil molar ratio = 3) gave 40 % methyl esters yield using Lipozyme RM IM. These results show that the catalysts used are efficient to produce biodiesel with the advantages of heterogeneous processes like easy separation, recovery and reuse of the catalyst.

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