Two products one catalyst: Emulsifiers and biodiesel production combining enzymology, nanostructured materials engineering and simulation models

Abstract

Crises are the driving force of the inventions that have led man to overcome himself. The challenge that concerns us today is to maintain our lifestyle with the energy expenditure involved. In the present work, it’s proposed the production of emulsifiers such as monoglycerides (MG) and diglycerides (DG) and biodiesel (FAEE) from renewable sources using Pseudomonas fluorescens lipase immobilized over Ca modified mesoporous SBA-15 supports (LPF/Ca/SBA-15) as biocatalyst. Using a packed bed reactor thermostated at 37 °C, the catalyst was capable to convert sunflower oil and commercial ethanol (96 wt%) into FAEE (35.0 wt%), MG (12.2 wt%) and DG (43.2 wt%). From these results, a separation by vacuum distillation was simulated. A good separation of the biodiesel in the top of the column at approx. 325 °C and the emulsifiers in the bottom of the column at 484 °C, was obtained.Thus, from interdisciplinary technologies such as enzymology, nanostructured materials design and computer simulation, a project for the production and purification of two products, emulsifiers and biodiesel, with one catalyst is offered.