Effects of catalyst loading and reusability on transesterfication of waste sunflower oil using immobilized lipase Thermomyces Lanuginosa

Abstract

In this study, waste sunflower oil was used in transesterification reaction for biodiesel synthesis. Immobilize Thermomyces Lanuginosa (TL) lipase on Mg-Al hydrotalcide was used as a catalyst due to the high cost of enzymes in industrial applications. However, it is important that lipases can be used repeatedly without losing their activities. So we  investigated that reusability and quantity of immobilized lipase in biodiesel synthesis reactions. Acording to the experimantal studies, The fatty acids methyl ester (FAME) content reduced by 45% (from 95% to 50%)  after the fourth using of immobilized lipase. On the other hand, the FAME content increased when lipase quantity was increased from 1% to 5%. FAME content reached to highest value of 95%, using enzyme content of  5%. This research recommended that the applicability of using optimum quantitiy of immobilized TL lipase on hydrotalcite for biodiesel synthesis.