Green deep eutectic solvent assisted enzymatic preparation of biodiesel from yellow horn seed oil with microwave irradiation

• Yellow horn seed oil was used for biodiesel production.
• DES was used for enzymatic biodiesel preparation under microwave irradiation.
• Process and mechanism of enzymatic transesterification in DES were clarified.
• Conversion yield could be up to 95% at optimum conditions in our new approach.

In this study, biodiesel was produced from yellow horn seed oil through transesterification using immobilized enzyme Novozym 435 in green deep eutectic solvents (DESs) medium with microwave irradiation method. Eleven DESs were prepared, DES-2 (molar ratio chloride/glycerol 1:2) was proved to be the most effective solvents. Under the optimum conditions, 8% dosage of Novozym 435, methanol/oil ratio 6:1, microwave power 400 W, temperature 50 °C, and reaction time 120 min, 95% conversion yield was achieved. Furthermore, recovered enzymes were used for four successive reaction cycles without any significant loss of enzyme activity. The usage of DES could greatly retain the enzyme activity, increase conversion yield, and make it easy to separate the product. In general, preparation of biodiesel with enzyme in green DESs would be an alternative for traditional transesterification method.

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