Use of ethanol with triolein for fatty acid ethyl ester as biodiesel fuel in a Novozym® 435 fixed-bed reactor

The biodiesel fuel ethyl oleate (fatty acid ethyl ester, FAEE) was produced using Novozym® 435 (immobilized lipase) by transesterification of a mixture of ethanol and triolein in a fixed-bed reactor operated in circulating batch mode. The miscibility of the mixtures during transesterification was predicted thermodynamically and the conversion ratio of triolein was studied as a function of reaction time. The yield of ethyl oleate increased when the feed molar composition of ethanol was increased. The glycerin by-product could be removed from the enzyme particles by the circulating feed mixture. The inactivation of Novozym® 435 by glycerin was also examined in the circulating batch mode experiments, and an effective reaction model was proposed to describe the inactivation of Novozym® 435 and ethanol effect during the transesterification reaction by using the modified Michaelis-Menten equation.