Glymes as new solvents for lipase activation and biodiesel preparation

Oleochemical Industry Future through Biotechnology

“…Recently glymes was used as a solvent with novozym 435 for catalyzing the transesterification of soybeanoil with methanol. It was found that soybean oil is fully miscible with glymes, which forms a homogeneous reaction mixture 36 .…”

“…Losses of hydraulic fluids are claimed to be as high as 70-80 , resulting in severe contamination of soil, groundwater and air 36 . Therefore, there has been an increasing demand for environmentally compatible lubricants or biolubricants, particularly in areas where they may come in contact with water, food or people.…”

“…To facilitate mixing of oil and methanol, McMahon packings were set into the PTFE tubes. The reservoir tank and reaction columns were maintained at 30 C by circulating water 36 .…”

“…Based on density difference between the products, where in a given space in the glycerol-separating tank, the glycerol byproduct forms droplets and accumulates at the bottom of the separation tank because of its high density and hydrophilicity. Then, the outflowing liquid consisting mainly of fatty acid methyl esters and residual glycerides was collected as the effluent, into which methanol was further added until the comple- tion of the reaction 36 . Figure 3 a, b show a photograph for a system consisting of a reservoir tank and five reaction columns connected in series.…”

“…The reaction mixture was supplied to the upper portion of the columns using a diaphragm metering pump and poly tetra fluoro ethylene PTFE tubing. To facilitate measurement of glycerol removal, a glycerol-separating tank was placed under the reaction column 36 . Based on density difference between the products, where in a given space in the glycerol-separating tank, the glycerol byproduct forms droplets and accumulates at the bottom of the separation tank because of its high density and hydrophilicity.…”