Lipase‐Mediated Synthesis of Biodiesel Using Blended Alcohol in a Packed‐Bed Reactor System

The use of lipases in biodiesel production has gained attention as a more sustainable and efficient alternative to chemical catalysts, attributed to their operational reusability and minimal environmental impact. As an innovative approach in this study, a blended alcohol composed of 20 mol% methanol and 80 mol% 1‐butanol was employed as the acyl acceptor in the enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel. Lipozyme TL IM‐catalyzed transesterification was conducted in a packed bed reactor to produce biodiesel from soybean oil and the blended alcohol, using tert ‐butanol as the solvent. The effects of tert ‐butanol amount, temperature, and water content on biodiesel synthesis were investigated as a function of the reaction time. Optimum conditions were a tert ‐butanol to soybean oil volume ratio of 1:3. a temperature of 30°C, and a water content of 0.3% (based on the total substrate weight). The highest biodiesel yield of approximately 93% was obtained under the optimum conditions. In addition, a biodiesel yield of approximately 80% was obtained in the continuous process over 60 reaction cycles.