Biodiesel production catalyzed by immobilized lipases offers the possibility of easy reuse of the catalyst, which is very important to minimize costs and to make this process economically feasible. In this study, the reuse of three commercial immobilized lipases (Novozym 435, Lipozyme RM IM, and Lipozyme TL IM) was investigated in ethanolysis of soybean oil. The effect of the use of solvents (ethanol, butanol, and hexane) to wash the immobilized lipases before the enzyme reuse was evaluated, as well as the lipase reuse without solvent washing. The washing with butanol and ethanol led to the lowest decrease in ester yield after the first batch and allowed the highest glycerol removal (>85 %) from biocatalysts. The biocatalysts were incubated at 50 °C for 2 h in these three solvents. Esterification activities of the enzyme preparations, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses of the beads, and protein content in organic phase were evaluated before and after incubation in the solvent. SEM analysis showed a significant change in beads morphology of Novozym 435 after contact with hexane. For Lipozyme TL IM lipase, this effect was visualized with ethanol.
Keywords: Biodiesel; Butanol; Ethanol; Hexane; Immobilized lipase; Reuse; Soybean oil; Transesterification.