Fatty acid alkyl esters: perspectives for production of alternative biofuels

Abstract

The global economy heads for a severe energy crisis: whereas the energy demand is going to rise, easily accessible sources of crude oil are expected to be depleted in only 10-20 years. Since a serious decline of oil supply and an associated collapse of the economy might be reality very soon, alternative energies and also biofuels that replace fossil fuels must be established. In addition, these alternatives should not further impair the environment and climate. About 90% of the biofuel market is currently captured by bioethanol and biodiesel. Biodiesel is composed of fatty acid alkyl esters (FAAE) and can be synthesized by chemical, enzymatic, or in vivo catalysis mainly from renewable resources. Biodiesel is already established as it is compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure, non-toxic, and has superior combustion characteristics than fossil diesel; and in 2008, the global production was 12.2 million tons. The biotechnological production of FAAE from low cost and abundant feedstocks like biomass will enable an appreciable substitution of petroleum diesel. To overcome high costs for immobilized enzymes, the in vivo synthesis of FAAE using bacteria represents a promising approach. This article points to the potential of different FAAE as alternative biofuels, e.g., by comparing their fuel properties. In addition to conventional production processes, this review presents natural and genetically engineered biological systems capable of in vivo FAAE synthesis.

Isolation and description of a Korean microalga, Asterarcys quadricellulare KNUA020, and analysis of its biotechnological potential

“…6). Long-chain fatty alcohols have been widely used in the cosmetics and soap industries and have recently gained particular interest as biofuels to replace petroleum-derived compounds (Kalscheuer et al 2006, Fortman et al 2008, Röttig et al 2010, Steen et al 2010. Therefore, this algae-derived hexadecenol also has potential to be used as a petroleum additive.…”

Transesterification of Triglycerides by Dried Biomass of Aspergillus sp.

“…Comparatively, low yields 71 EE were obtained when the time interval of alcohol addition was 12 h, due to reversible nature of reaction. When the time interval of the addition of ethanol is greater than 8 h, the alcohol added at initially gets completely utilized in the reaction resulting in a reverse reaction and subsequent decrease in yield of products 10,18 .…”

“…Among the established whole-cell biocatalyst systems, filamentous fungi have proven to be the robust biosystems in terms of scale-up industrial applications. The successful use of Rhizopus oryzae, R. chinensis, recombinant Saccaromyces cerevisiae and most recently Aspergillus niger as whole-cell biocatalysts has recently been indicated through recent reports and reviews 18 . Our research group has earlier established the potential of a fungus isolate, Aspergillus sp.…”

“…Industrialization of biodiesel production using enzyme catalysis however has been limited due to high production and purification cost of lipase, lipase inactivation by acyl acceptors such as methanol, desorption from immobilization support, and fouling in packed bed bioreactors. These hurdles have led to pave a new path in research of biodiesel production leading towards utilization of lipase producing whole cells as catalysts which have been recently studied by a various research groups 18 .…”

Electrochemical Methods in Analysis of Biofuels

“…Presented discussions will be restricted to bioethanol and biodiesel, the most used transportation liquid biofuels nowadays. More general discussions about biofuels can be found in the literature [22] including the production of other biofuels [23,24], technologies for biofuel production [25,26] economic [27] and environmental [28,29] aspects related to biofuels.…”