Biodiesel production with enzymatic technology: progress and perspectives

Abstract

Rapid changes in the global climate resulting from anthropogenic activities and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil resources are encouraging commercial and academic research to seek out new routes for the production of sustainable fuels. Biodiesel, as a renewable fuel, has long been recognized as one of the solutions to meet energy demand in a climate‐constrained world. Although, several routes have been devised for biodiesel production, the enzymatic route has attracted substantial research interest. Here we discuss enzymatic esterification / transesterification technology and its contribution to the green synthesis of biodiesel. This review provides a comprehensive assessment of the fundamentals of enzymatic reaction, such as the impact of different reaction components (lipase, acyl acceptor, substrate, and reaction media) on the process parameters, along with recent developments in improving enzymatic biodiesel production, such as different lipases, combinations of lipases, and two‐step methods. Kinetics and the mechanism of enzymatic reaction when lipase is used as a catalyst are also explained in greater detail. Finally, the opportunities and challenges for the development of potentially sustainable and eco‐friendly enzymatic biodiesel technology are discussed. © 2021 Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Biodiesel production from candlenut oil using a non-catalytic supercritical methanol transesterification process: optimization, kinetics, and thermodynamic studies

“…Although the second-order rate constant is commonly used for adsorption studies, the second-order rate equation has also been employed to describe the kinetic behavior of liquid–liquid conversion. 25 The present study used a second-order rate model to describe the kinetic behavior of biodiesel production from candlenut oil using scMeOH transesterification. The production of biodiesel from candlenut oil can be expressed as follows: where k s is the second-order rate constant (g mg −1 min −1 ), C t is the weight of biodiesel upon scMeOH transesterification at a given time t (mg g −1 ), and C s is the equilibrium concentration of the biodiesel produced via scMeOH (mg g −1 ).…”

“…Although the second-order rate constant is commonly used for adsorption studies, the second-order rate equation has also been employed to describe the kinetic behavior of liquid-liquid conversion. 25 The present study used a second-order rate model to describe the kinetic behavior of biodiesel production from candlenut oil using scMeOH transesterication. The production of biodiesel from candlenut oil can be expressed as follows:…”

“…The main disadvantages of the two-step process include the long reaction time and low recovery of the catalyst. 6,[24][25][26] In the literature, few studies have reported the use of a two-step transesterication technique for candlenut biodiesel production. Pham et al 26 produced candlenut biodiesel via a two-step transesterication method.…”

Approach to microalgal biodiesel production: Insight review on recent advancements and future outlook

“…Apart from chemical catalysis, the lipase group of enzymes has particularly grabbed attention as biocatalysts owing to the comparable conversion of triglycerides into biodiesel. 80 The lipase enzyme is categorized as hydrolytic in nature and performs the high conversion of biodiesel with diverse feedstocks including waste oils and having high FFA levels under mild operating conditions. 81 In the literature, lipase for biodiesel synthesis has been recovered from a variety of microorganism such as Rhizopus oryzae, Cabdida cylindracea and Aspergillus oryzae.…”

Lipases: Sources of Acquisition, Ways of Production, and Recent Applications

“…The performance of studies at a laboratory scale, pilot projects, as well as process optimization have advanced the field of catalysts. These studies help to improve enzyme activity and productivity [199].…”