A Study on Ethanolysis and Methanolysis of Coconut Oil for Enzymatically Catalyzed Production of Biodiesel

Abstract

Biodiesel production by enzymatic catalysis has been the subject of much research for developing processes that can potentially compete with other types of catalysis. The objective of this study was to investigate the variables that influenced the transesterification of coconut oil catalyzed by immobilized lipase for biodiesel production. A full 24 factorial design with the variables temperature (40˚C - 60˚C), enzyme concentration (3% - 7%), oil-ethanol ratio (1:6 - 1:10) and alcohol type (methanol-ethanol) was performed. The best conversion result (80.5%) was obtained using ethanol with a higher temperature, molar ratio and enzyme concentration. The obtained yields showed that the results attained with ethanol were more significant when compared to methanol.