Biodiesel production from vegetable frying oil and ethanol using enzymatic catalysis

• Autor(a) principal: Paulo Ferreira
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Helena Sousa, Nídia Caetano
• Tipo de documento: Livro
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/7097
• topic: Engenharia química, Engenharia química; Chemical engineering, Chemical engineering

The aim of this work was the evaluation and optimization of conditions for Fatty Acid Ethyl Ester (FAEE) production. The influence of variables such as catalyst (NaOH, Lipozyme RM IM, Lipozyme TL IM, Novozym 435), alcohol (methanol, ethanol 96% v/v, ethanol 70% v/v), reaction temperature (35 38°C), oil: alcohol molar ratio (1:3; 1:9; 1:18) and reaction time (8 and 24h) was studied. Comparing alkaline homogeneous with enzymatic catalysis, we could observe that the former one produced a higher yield and lower selectivity, in addition to minor problems related to corrosion of the equipment used in the process. Enzymatic catalysis also presents another benefit, which is the fact that it allows no side reactions producing byproducts, therefore reducing the costs on subsequent purification. In this context, enzymatic catalysts have been studied as an alternative to FAEE production, so that separation processes can be simplified and associated costs reduced. Experimental runs when Lipozyme TL IM was used lead to the best results. Yields ranging from 21 to 60% where achieved in 8 hours reaction time. However, the highest yield (90%) was obtained using 96% v/v ethanol, an alcohol : oil ratio of 1:3, 24 hours reaction time and temperature range of 35-38ºC.