Study of Soybean Oil Hydrolysis Catalyzed by Thermomyces lanuginosus Lipase and Its Application to Biodiesel Production via Hydroesterification.
The process of biodiesel production by the hydroesterification route that is proposed here involves a first step consisting of triacylglyceride hydrolysis catalyzed by lipase from Thermomyces lanuginosus (TL 100L) to generate free fatty acids (FFAs). This step is followed by esterification of the FFAs with alcohol, catalyzed by niobic acid in pellets or without a catalyst. The best result for the enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis was obtained under reaction conditions of 50% (v/v) soybean oil and 2.3% (v/v) lipase (25 U/mL of reaction medium) in distilled water and at 60°C; an 89% conversion rate to FFAs was obtained after 48 hours of reaction. For the esterification reaction, the best result was with an FFA/methanol molar ratio of 1:3, niobic acid catalyst at a concentration of 20% (w/w FFA), and 200°C, which yielded 92% conversion of FFAs to soy methyl esters after 1 hour of reaction. This study is exceptional because both the hydrolysis and the esterification use a simple reaction medium with high substrate concentrations.
Laboratório de Biotecnologia Microbiana (LaBiM), Centro de Tecnologia, Instituto de Química, lab. 549-1, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21945-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
Elisa d'Avila
Ed
Cavalcanti-Oliveira
Priscila Rufino
PR
da Silva
Alessandra Peçanha
AP
Ramos
Donato Alexandre Gomes
DA
Aranda
Denise Maria Guimarães
DM
Freire