Lipase/enzyme catalyzed biodiesel production from Prunus mahaleb: A comparative study with base catalyzed biodiesel production

Many industrial applications involve the transesterification of natural oils and fats. In the present work, methyl esters were transesterified from white mahlab oil (WMO) using methanol via base and lipase-catalyzed reactions. The oil content of the mahlab seeds was found to be 31%. The composition of the fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) produced from the WMO was analyzed by GC/MS, revealed α-eleostearic acid (40.7%), oleic acid (29.8%) and linoleic acid (26.6%). The effects of the reaction conditions (i.e., time, temperature, the amount of catalyst, methanol/oil molar ratio, water content and the amount of solvent) on FAME's yield were appraised. The important fuel properties of the FAME's were measured and compared with ASTM 6751 and EN 14214 biodiesel standards.