Enzymatic transesterification of soybean ethanolic miscella for biodiesel production

BACKGROUND Biodiesel production is not economically competitive with petroleum diesel particularly when using virgin and refined vegetable oils. Rich‐in‐oil miscella obtained from the extraction of soybean oil with ethanol may be a promising feedstock for taking off the refining process, simultaneou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of chemical technology and biotechnology (1986) 2013-11, Vol.88 (11), p.2098-2106
Main Authors: Sangaletti, Naiane, Cea, Mara, Regitano-d'Arce, Marisa Aparecida Bismara, de Souza Vieira, Thaís Maria Ferreira, Navia, Rodrigo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
alternative feedstock
Applied sciences
Biodiesel
Catalysts
Chemical engineering
environmentally friendly
Enzymes
Ethanol
Ethyl alcohol
ethyl ester
Exact sciences and technology
Extraction
Novozym®435
Solvents
Transesterification
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Summary:BACKGROUND Biodiesel production is not economically competitive with petroleum diesel particularly when using virgin and refined vegetable oils. Rich‐in‐oil miscella obtained from the extraction of soybean oil with ethanol may be a promising feedstock for taking off the refining process, simultaneously introducing an environmental friendly step by replacing hexane by ethanol as a renewable solvent in the oil extraction process. The aim of this study was to investigate the production of biodiesel from the oil–ethanol miscella by direct transesterification using Novozym®435 as catalyst and ethanol as acyl acceptor; simultaneously optimizing the process by response surface methodology and enzyme reuse. RESULTS The best experimental conditions indicated by the empirical model were temperature 40 °C, oil:ethanol molar ratio 1:4.5 and catalyst concentration 9.5% for 24 h, reaching 85.4% fatty acid ethylic esters (FAEE) yield. Tert‐butanol used as co‐solvent increased the ethyl esters yield from 18%, keeping a high FAEE yield (over 70%) for more than 3 cycles of enzyme reuse. CONCLUSIONS Rich miscella has great potential as a low cost feedstock for biodiesel production when Novozym®435 is used as catalyst, simultaneously introducing an environmentally friendly step by using the renewable solvent ethanol in the extraction and transesterification. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry
ISSN:0268-2575
1097-4660
DOI:10.1002/jctb.4080