Issue 3, 2022

Enzymatic ethanolysis of high free fatty acid jatropha oil using Eversa Transform

Abstract

The reduction of the cost of enzymatic biodiesel is crucial to make it competitive with more well-known and settle technologies; therefore, there is a need for a single-step process for the conversion of high free fatty acid oils into fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) using a low-cost lipase. Jatropha oil, with high free fatty acid (FFA) content (9.4%), was transformed into biodiesel using a lipase (Eversa Transform 2.0 Novozymes) as the catalyst and ethanol as the alcohol. The optimization of reaction yields was carried out using a factorial design (FD) and response surface methodology (RSM). The obtained models were used to determine the optimum operating conditions for an upscaling scenario, and provided a thorough understanding of the reaction mechanism. The factorial design was developed with the varying temperature (between 30 and 40 °C) and amount of catalysts (between 5 and 9 wt%), while the alcohol/oil molar ratio was kept constant at 6 : 1. It was found that the highest achievable yields, within the range of operating conditions tested, were reached when the catalyst concentration was 4.2%, the alcohol/oil molar ratio was 6 : 1 and the operation temperature was 36 °C with model R2 = 91.77 for the linear model. Within these operating conditions, the yield of FAEE was above 98%. The FAEE produced can be used as a promising substitute for petroleum-based diesel fuels, since it fulfills the European Biodiesel Standard EN 14214 in all aspects tested except for the oxidation time.

Graphical abstract: Enzymatic ethanolysis of high free fatty acid jatropha oil using Eversa Transform

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 nov 2021
Accepted
21 jan 2022
First published
09 feb 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Energy Adv., 2022,1, 159-168

Enzymatic ethanolysis of high free fatty acid jatropha oil using Eversa Transform

A. Bouaid, H. Acherki, M. H. Bonilla and J. M. Marchetti, Energy Adv., 2022, 1, 159 DOI: 10.1039/D1YA00057H

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