Kinetics of the Pre-Treatment of Used Cooking Oil Using Novozyme 435 for Biodiesel Production

AbstractThe pretreatment of used cooking oil (UCO) for the preparation of biodiesel has been investigated, using Novozyme 435, Candida antarctica Lipase B immobilized on acrylic resin, as the catalyst. The reactions in UCO were carried out using a jacketed batch reactor with a reflux condenser. The liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was developed to monitor the mono-, di and triglyceride concentrations for this work and it has been shown that it is possible to obtain linear calibration curves. This work showed that Novozyme 435 will catalyse the esterification of FFAs and the transesterification of mono- and diglycerides typically found in UCO when Novozyme 435 is used to catalyse the pretreatement of UCO for the formation of biodiesel