Enzymatic Transformation of Palm Oil in Biodiesel Using Porcine Pancreatic Lipase Immobilized on Hybrid Matrix

Porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) immobilized on a hybrid matrix (polysiloxane polyvinyl alcohol, POS-PVA) was used to catalyze the transesterification of the palm oil with different short chain alcohols (ethanol, propanol and butanol) in solvent free system. The commercial biocatalyst, Lipozyme IM20, was used for comparison. The reaction system oil/ butanol showed to be the most suitable substrate to perform the reaction with both enzymatic preparations, attaining similar yields higher than 75%. Lower yields (< 55%) were achieved for the other reaction systems, and the immobilized pancreatic lipase showed better performance than Lipozyme IM20 in all cases. Based on the potential application of PPL immobilized on POS-PVA, further experiments were performed to determine the oil/butanol molar ratio under which the formation of butyl esters and productivity are maximized