Lipase-catalyzed process in an anhydrous medium with enzyme reutilization to produce biodiesel with low acid value

One major problem in the lipase-catalyzed production of biodiesel or fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) is the high acidity of the product, mainly caused by water presence, which produces parallel hydrolysis and esterification reactions instead of transesterification to FAME. Therefore, the use of reaction medium in absence of water (anhydrous medium) was investigated in a lipase-catalyzed process to improve FAME yield and final product quality. FAME production catalyzed by Novozym 435 was carried out using waste frying oil (WFO) as raw material, methanol as acyl acceptor, and 3 Å molecular sieves to extract the water. The anhydrous conditions allowed the esterification of free fatty acids (FFA) from feedstock at the initial reaction time. However, after the initial esterification process, water absence avoided the consecutives reactions of hydrolysis and esterification, producing FAME mainly by transesterification. Using this anhydrous medium, a decreasing in both the acid value and the diglycerides content in the product were observed, simultaneously improving FAME yield. Enzyme reuse in the anhydrous medium was also studied. The use of the moderate polar solvent tert-butanol as a co-solvent led to a stable catalysis using Novozym 435 even after 17 successive cycles of FAME production under anhydrous conditions. These results indicate that a lipase-catalyzed process in an anhydrous medium coupled with enzyme reuse would be suitable for biodiesel production, promoting the use of oils of different origin as raw materials.