AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ENZYMATIC BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM LINSEED OIL

Abstract

XIII Abstract Biodiesel, being a green energy biofuel, has an outstanding potential as an alternative to petroleum diesel fuel. The reaction environment and other factors like catalyst cost prove the biodiesel from conventional methods more expensive than petroleum fuels. Beside all these requirements the conventional methods of biodiesel production lead to the formation of glycerol as by-product which is unavoidable. This crude glycerol is of no value unless purified, which indeed a very complicated process and thus costly too. It makes the pure glycerol produced by this method uneconomical. For the same reason, an economical method is needed to be developed which either can reduce the cost of pure glycerol produced or replace the glycerol as byproduct with one having better economic value than glycerol. In this study, the ultrasonic aided inter-esterification reaction method using enzyme as catalyst, is investigated to convert fats and oils to biodiesel fuel i.e. fatty acids of methyl ester (FAME) and an additive triacetin (TA) completely. Linseed oil has been used as vegetable oil feedstock and methyl acetate as the reaction solvent. The results obtained from experiments are optimized using Taguchi design methods. The 12:1 MAOMR and 1.25% catalyst loading at 30oC temperature are found as optimum process parameters.