Lipases in liquid formulation for biodiesel production: Current status and challenges

Abstract

Enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel showed advantageous characteristics in relation to other technologies once it works under bland conditions, no generation of wastewater, no occurrence of saponifications reactions and production of a biodiesel with high quality. Although many researches still apply immobilized lipases, the high costs associated with this biocatalyst hamper the economic viability of the process. Lipases in free/soluble/liquid formulation employed to biodiesel production via hydroesterification reaction have attracted interest from researchers because they are more cost effective than the immobilized form, making the enzymatic route more competitive. In addition, soluble lipases present higher reaction rates, reducing the time required to obtain a satisfactory biodiesel yield. Despite the fact that already exist industrial plants producing biodiesel with the assistance of lipases in liquid formulation, results of researches show that the process still needs to overcome some drawbacks. This paper is a comprehensive and critical discussion on the publications where soluble lipases were applied on biodiesel synthesis, as well as the challenges that the technology faces and its current status in pilot and industrial applications.

Kinetic Study of Liquid Lipase-catalyzed Glycerolysis From Olive Oil Using Lipozyme TL 100L

“…The majority of studies that address enzymatic glycerolysis to obtain MAG and DAG use immobilized lipases as reaction catalyst [11,12]. The use of lipases in liquid formulations, as the novel Lipozyme TL 100L recently launched by Novozymes A/S, can be observed in scarce researches [13][14][15]. These papers evaluated only factors of process such as molar ratio of the system, the source and type of the enzyme activation.…”

Immobilized Biocatalysts of Eversa® Transform 2.0 and Lipase from Thermomyces Lanuginosus: Comparison of Some Properties and Performance in Biodiesel Production

“…In any case, due to these problems of unsuitable immobilization support selection and the costs of the immobilization processes, and thanks to the relatively low price and high activity of some of the liquid lipase commercial formulations, there is a growing interest in the use of liquid enzyme formulations for the production of biodiesel [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. In fact, Novozymes ® has launched an enzyme formulation, currently called Eversa ® Transform 2.0 (ET), which has been proposed to be used as a biocatalyst in the production of biodiesel in liquid form [62][63][64][65][66][67][68].…”

Novel thermostable lipase produced by a thermo-halophilic bacterium that catalyses hydrolytic and transesterification reactions

“…The biodiesel has several advantages such as non-toxic, biodegradable, good lubrication, low sulphur content, high flash point and environment-friendly ( Sajjadi et al., 2016 ). The use of lipase in biodiesel industry offers several benefits, such as easy product separation, minimum wastewater treatment, and minimum side reactions, which make it a desirable biocatalyst ( Wancura et al., 2019 ).…”