Biodiesel Production via Trans-Esterification Using Pseudomonas cepacia Immobilized on Cellulosic Polyurethane

Biodiesel Production from Transesterification with Lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia Immobilized on Modified Structured Metal Organic Materials

This research presents the modification of MOF-199 and ZIF-8 using furfuryl alcohol (FA) as a carbon source to subsequently fix lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia and use these biocatalysts in the transesterification of African palm oil (APO). The need to overcome the disadvantages of free lipases in the biodiesel production process led to the use of metal organic framework (MOF)-type supports because they provide greater thermal stability and separation of the catalytic phase, thus improving the activity and efficiency in relation to the use of free lipase, disadvantages that could not be overcome with the use of other types of catalysts used in transesterification/esterification reactions for the production of biodiesel. The modification of MOFs ZIF-8 and MOF-199 with FA increases the pore volume which allows better immobilization of Pseudomonas cepacia lipase (PCL). The results show that these biocatalysts undergo transesterification with biodiesel yields above 90%. Additionally, studies were carried out on the effect of (1) enzyme loading, 2) enzyme immobilization time, (3) enzyme immobilization temperature, and (4) pH on the % immobilization of the enzyme and the specific activity. The results show that the highest immobilization efficiency for the FA@ZIF-8 support has a value of 91.2% when the load of this support was 3.5 mg/mg and has a specific activity of 142.5 U/g protein. The FA@MOF-199 support presented 80.3% enzyme immobilization and 125% U/g specific activity protein. We established that the specific activity increases in the period from 0.5 to 5.0 h for the systems under investigation. After this time, both the specific activity and the % efficiency of enzyme immobilization decrease. Therefore, 5.0 h (immobilization efficiency of 95 and 85% for FA@MOF-199, respectively) was chosen as the most appropriate time for PCL immobilization. Methods of adding methanol, with three and four steps, were tested, where biodiesel yields greater than 90% were obtained for the biocatalysts synthesized in this work (FA@ZIF-8-PCL and FA@MOF-199-PCL) and above 70% for free PCL, and the maximum yield was reached at a molar ratio between methanol and APO of 4:1 when using the one-step method under the same reaction conditions (as mentioned above). Only the results of FA@ZIF-8-PCL are presented here; however, it should be noted that the results for biocatalyst FA@MOF-199-PCL and lipase-free PCL presented the same behavior. The order of biocatalyst performance was FA@ZIF-8-PCL > FA@MOF-199-PCL > PCL-Free, which demonstrates that the use of FA as a modifier is a novel aspect in the conversion of palm oil into biodiesel components.

Mechano-chemical and biological energetics of immobilized enzymes onto functionalized polymers and their applications

Enzymes of commercial importance, such as lipase, amylase, laccase, phytase, carbonic anhydrase, pectinase, maltase, glucose oxidase etc., show multifunctional features and have been extensively used in several fields including fine chemicals, environmental, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, energy, food industry, agriculture and nutraceutical etc. The deployment of biocatalyst in harsh industrial conditions has some limitations, such as poor stability. These drawbacks can be overcome by immobilizing the enzyme in order to boost the operational stability, catalytic activity along with facilitating the reuse of biocatalyst. Nowadays, functionalized polymers and composites have gained increasing attention as an innovative material for immobilizing the industrially important enzyme. The different types of polymeric materials and composites are pectin, agarose, cellulose, nanofibers, gelatin, and chitosan. The functionalization of these materials enhances the loading capacity of the enzyme by providing more functional groups to the polymeric material and hence enhancing the enzyme immobilization efficiency. However, appropriate coordination among the functionalized polymeric materials and enzymes of interest plays an important role in producing emerging biocatalysts with improved properties. The optimal coordination at a biological, physical, and chemical level is requisite to develop an industrial biocatalyst. Bio-catalysis has become vital aspect in pharmaceutical and chemical industries for synthesis of value-added chemicals. The present review describes the current advances in enzyme immobilization on functionalized polymers and composites. Furthermore, the applications of immobilized enzymes in various sectors including bioremediation, biosensor and biodiesel are also discussed.

Green Synthesized Magnetic Nanoparticles as Effective Nanosupport for the Immobilization of Lipase: Application for the Synthesis of Lipophenols

In this work, hybrid zinc oxide-iron oxide (ZnOFe) magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized employing Olea europaea leaf aqueous extract as a reducing/chelating and capping medium. The resulting magnetic nanoparticles were characterized by basic spectroscopic and microscopic techniques, namely, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), exhibiting a spherical shape, average size of 15-17 nm, and a functionalized surface. Lipase from Thermomyces lanuginosus (TLL) was efficiently immobilized on the surface of ZnOFe nanoparticles through physical absorption. The activity of immobilized lipase was found to directly depend on the enzyme to support the mass ratio, and also demonstrated improved pH and temperature activity range compared to free lipase. Furthermore, the novel magnetic nanobiocatalyst (ZnOFe-TLL) was applied to the preparation of hydroxytyrosyl fatty acid esters, including derivatives with omega-3 fatty acids, in non-aqueous media. Conversion yields up to 90% were observed in non-polar solvents, including hydrophobic ionic liquids. Different factors affecting the biocatalyst performance were studied. ZnOFe-TLL was reutilized for eight subsequent cycles, exhibiting 90% remaining esterification activity (720 h of total operation at 50 °C). The green synthesized magnetic nanoparticles, reported here for the first time, are excellent candidates as nanosupports for the immobilization of enzymes with industrial interest, giving rise to nanobiocatalysts with elevated features.

Immobilized GDEst-95, GDEst-lip and GD-95RM lipolytic enzymes for continuous flow hydrolysis and transesterification reactions

In this study lipolytic biocatalysts GD-95RM, GDEst-95 and GDEst-lip were immobilized by encapsulation in calcium alginate beads_. All three immobilized biocatalysts demonstrated significantly increased thermal stability at 60-70 °C temperatures and the activity of GD-95RM lipase increased by 50% at 70-80 °C following the immobilization. Moreover, encapsulated GDEst-95 esterase retained higher than 50% lipolytic activity after 3 months of incubation with butanol (25%) and ethanol (50%); GDEst-lip enzyme possessed 50% activity after 2 months of treatment with ethanol (25%) and methanol (25%); and GD-95RM lipase displayed higher that 50% activity after two-week incubation with methanol (50%). All three immobilized enzymes displayed long-term storage capability (>50% activity) at least until 3 months at 4 °C. It was also detected that immobilized GD-95RM and GDEst-lip can perform flow hydrolysis of both avocado oil and p-NP dodecanoate in prototype packed-bed column reactor. The analysis of continuous transesterification of avocado or sunflower oil with ethanol or methanol as substrates confirmed that encapsulated GD-95RM and GDEst-lip enzymes is a useful approach to produce fatty acid alkyl esters.

A comprehensive review on incredible renewable carriers as promising platforms for enzyme immobilization & thereof strategies

Enzymes are the highly versatile bio-catalysts having the potential for being employed in biotechnological and industrial sectors to catalyze biosynthetic reactions over a commercial point of view. Immobilization of enzymes has improved catalytic properties, retention activities, thermal and storage stabilities as well as reusabilities of enzymes in synthetic environments that have enthralled significant attention over the past few years. Dreadful efforts have been emphasized on the renewable and synthetic supports/composite materials to reserve their inherent characteristics such as biocompatibility, non-toxicity, accessibility of numerous reactive sites for profitable immobilization of biological molecules that often serve diverse applications in the pharmaceutical, environmental, and energy sectors. Supports should be endowed with unique physicochemical properties including high specific surface area, hydrophobicity, hydrophilicity, enantioselectivities, multivalent functionalization which professed them as competent carriers for enzyme immobilization. Organic, inorganic, and nano-based platforms are more potent, stable, highly recovered even after used for continuous catalytic processes, broadly renders the enzymes to get efficiently immobilized to develop an inherent bio-catalytic system that displays higher activities as compared to free-counter parts. This review highlights the recent advances or developments on renewable and synthetic matrices that are utilized for the immobilization of enzymes to deliver emerging applications around the globe.

Biodiesel production from transesterification of Serratia sp. ISTD04 lipids using immobilised lipase on biocomposite materials of biomineralized products of carbon dioxide sequestrating bacterium

Production of biodiesel from lipids of Serratia sp. ISTD04 by lipase of Pseudomonas sp. ISTPL3 immobilised on biocomposite materials to increase the enzyme stability and reusability was studied. Lipase extracted, partially purifiedand immobilized onto activated biochar, impregnated with calcite obtained from biomineralization-based conversion of CO₂ from ISTD04, and bioactive ceramics materials, Na₂Ca₂Si₃O₉ prepared by chemical process. The composition, structure and texture of biocomposite materials determined by SEM and EDS methods. The composition of synthesized biodiesel was determined by GC-MS. The results imply that the immobilized lipase on activated biochar impregnated with calcite gave the maximum yield of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME:97.41%) followed by immobilized lipase on biochar (FAME:94.91), immobilized lipase on glass-ceramic (FAME:91.50%) and NaOH (FAME:85.63%). The reusability of lipase immobilized on activated biochar impregnated with calcite retained 75.11%and 50% catalytic activity after 5 and 10 cycles of transesterification reaction, respectively.

New Task-Specific and Reusable ZIF-like Grafted H6P2W18O62 Catalyst for the Effective Esterification of Free Fatty Acids

The catalytic esterification of free fatty acids is an important reaction pathway for chemical synthesis and biodiesel production, wherein efficient heterogeneous catalysts are sought to replace mineral acids. Herein, the esterification of oleic acid together with some familiar fatty acids is demonstrated with methanol over a heterogeneous heteropolyacid-functionalized zeolite imidazolate framework [H6-n P2W18O62 n-/ZIF(H n His.)+n ]. This new heterogeneous catalyst (named as HPA/ZIF(His.) throughout the text) with an average particle size of 80 nm was prepared via condensation of histamine with zinc chloride and characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and scanning electron microscopy. According to the performed characterizations, an HPA loading of 40.5 wt % is obtained for HPA/ZIF(His.) from ICP-OES analysis. Moreover, a typical type-IV isotherm with similar adsorption-desorption properties as seen for ZIF-8 is attained. In addition, TGA measurement confirms less stability of HPA/ZIF(His.) compared to that of pure ZIF(His.). The catalytic performance of the nanomaterial is evaluated with respect to temperature, catalyst loading, and methanol/oleic acid ratio and leads to a high yield of methyl ester (>90%) under reflux for 4 h. The preliminary kinetic studies confirm a pseudo-first-order kinetic model for the esterification of oleic acid. To explore the scope of the HPA/ZIF(His.) catalyst in methyl ester production, other free fatty acids with various chain lengths are also successfully tested. Although the nanocatalyst loses a part of its activity during reuse, however, it is stable over at least four recycles as confirmed by XRD and FT-IR. Eventually, the response surface methodology (RSM) is used as a statistical modeling approach to get the best-optimized reaction conditions compared to the performed single-variable benchmarking experiments. Therefore, the central composite design (CCD) and RSM attained a platform to determine the relationship among the reaction time, acid/methanol molar ratio, and catalyst dosage.

Biodiesel and Hydrogen Production in a Combined Palm and Jatropha Biomass Biorefinery: Simulation, Techno-Economic, and Environmental Evaluation

The biodiesel from lignocellulosic materials has been widely recognized as an alternative fuel to meet energy requirements worldwide, facing fossil fuel depletion, and emerging energy policies. In this work, the biorefinery approach was applied for biodiesel production from jatropha and palm oils in order to make it economically competitive by the utilization of residual biomass as the feedstock for obtaining hydrogen via steam reforming of glycerol and gasification. The linear chains for hydrogen and diesel were simulated using UniSim software and main stream properties were collected from the literature or predicted by correlations. The proposed scheme of biorefinery was analyzed through environmental and techno-economic assessment to identify the feasibility of this process to be implemented. Three different blends of oils (JO10-PO90, JO20-PO80, and JO30-PO70) were considered in the environmental analysis to determine alternatives for reducing potential environmental impacts (PEIs). It was found that the acidification potential highly contributed to the environmental impacts attributed to the use of fossil fuels for heating requirements, and JO30-PO70 blend exhibited the lowest PEI value. The economic indicators were calculated to be 8,455,147.29 $USD and 33.18% for the net present value and internal rate of return, respectively. These results revealed that the proposed combined biomass biorefinery is feasible to be scaled up without causing significant negative impacts on the environment.

Facile synthesis of polyoxometalates tethered to post Fe-BTC frameworks for esterification of free fatty acids to biodiesel

Phosphomolybdic acid was sequentially incorporated into a highly porous metal–organic framework by a one-pot synthesis method, and the prepared composite was used as an efficient and stable solid acid catalyst for biodiesel production.