Enzymatic Approach to Biodiesel Production
- 29 September 2007
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
- Vol. 55 (22), 8995-9005
- https://doi.org/10.1021/jf071724y
Abstract
The need for alternative energy sources that combine environmental friendliness with biodegradability, low toxicity, renewability, and less dependence on petroleum products has never been greater. One such energy source is referred to as biodiesel. This can be produced from vegetable oils, animal fats, microalgal oils, waste products of vegetable oil refinery or animal rendering, and used frying oils. Chemically, they are known as monoalkyl esters of fatty acids. The conventional method for producing biodiesel involves acid and base catalysts to form fatty acid alkyl esters. Downstream processing costs and environmental problems associated with biodiesel production and byproducts recovery have led to the search for alternative production methods and alternative substrates. Enzymatic reactions involving lipases can be an excellent alternative to produce biodiesel through a process commonly referred to alcoholysis, a form of transesterification reaction, or through an interesterification (ester interchange) reaction. Protein engineering can be useful in improving the catalytic efficiency of lipases as biocatalysts for biodiesel production. The use of recombinant DNA technology to produce large quantities of lipases, and the use of immobilized lipases and immobilized whole cells, may lower the overall cost, while presenting less downstream processing problems, to biodiesel production. In addition, the enzymatic approach is environmentally friendly, considered a “green reaction”, and needs to be explored for industrial production of biodiesel.Keywords
This publication has 78 references indexed in Scilit:
- Large‐scale biodiesel production from microalga Chlorella protothecoides through heterotrophic cultivation in bioreactorsBiotechnology & Bioengineering, 2007
- Repeated production of fatty acid methyl ester with activated bleaching earth in solvent-free systemProcess Biochemistry, 2006
- Lipase-mediated Transformation of Vegetable Oils into Biodiesel using Propan-2-ol as Acyl AcceptorBiotechnology Letters, 2006
- Lipase localization in Rhizopus oryzae cells immobilized within biomass support particles for use as whole-cell biocatalysts in biodiesel-fuel productionJournal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 2006
- Efficient production of fatty acid methyl ester from waste activated bleaching earth using diesel oil as organic solventJournal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 2004
- Regeneration of immobilized Candida antarctica lipase for transesterificationJournal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, 2003
- Lipase-catalyzed production of biodiesel fuel from vegetable oils contained in waste activated bleaching earthProcess Biochemistry, 2003
- Biodiesel fuels from vegetable oils via catalytic and non-catalytic supercritical alcohol transesterifications and other methods: a surveyEnergy Conversion and Management, 2002
- Lipase catalyzed methanolysis of vegetable oils in aqueous medium by Cryptococcus spp. S-2Process Biochemistry, 2001
- Synthesis of Fatty Acid Esters by Recombinant Staphylococcus epidermidis Lipases in Aqueous EnvironmentJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2001