Progress on biodiesel production with enzymatic catalysis in China / 生物工程学报

This paper reports the progress of biodiesel production with enzymatic catalysis in Beijing University of Chemical Technology, one of the leaders in biodiesel R & D in China, which includes screening of high-yield lipase production strains, optimization and scale-up of the lipase fermentation process, lipase immobilization, bioreactor development and scale-up, biodiesel separation and purification and the by-product glycerol utilization. Firstly, lipase fermentation was carried out at industrial scale with the 5 m3 stirred tank bioreactor, and the enzyme activity as high as 8 000 IU/mL was achieved by the species Candida sp. 99-125. Then, the lipase was purified and immobilized on textile membranes. Furthermore, biodiesel production was performed in the 5 m3 stirred tank bioreactor with an enzyme dosage as low as 0.42%, and biodiesel that met the German biodiesel standard was produced. And in the meantime, the byproduct glycerol was used for the production of 1,3-propanediol to partly offset the production cost of biodiesel, and 76.1 g/L 1,3-propanediol was obtained in 30 L fermentor with the species Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Synthesis of biodiesel from crude oil by immobilized lipase / 生物工程学报

We used immobilized lipase from Candida sp. 99-125 to produce fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) from crude oil and methanol. We studied the effects of phospholipids on activity of immobilized lipase, reaction velocity, stability of immobilized lipase and the stability of immobilized lipase in crude and refined oil. Results showed that the activity of the lipase immersed in petroleum ether with 1% phospholipids dropped more quickly than the lipase in petroleum ether without phospholipids. When soybean oil was used without phospholipids as material, the FAMEs yield of 15 min was 26.2%, whereas the yield decreased to 12.4% when there were 5% phospholipids in the soybean oil. However when the phospholipids content was below 1%, the stability of the lipase did not change obviously. The lipase was stable when used to catalyze crude soybean oil and crude jatropha oil, after 10 cycles the FAMEs yield was still above 70%. This lipase showed great potential for industrial production of biodiesel from crude oil.