TY - JOUR AB - Conversion of feedstocks containing high free fatty acid contents to alkyl esters is limited by the currently used alkali-catalyzed biodiesel synthesis process. In this study, esterification of palm fatty acids to ethyl esters was studied using heterogeneous cross-linked protein coated microcrystalline (CL-PCMC) lipase. Optimization of biocatalyst synthesis by variation of matrix components and organic solvents showed that highly active CL-PCMCs could be prepared from Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase with glycine as the core matrix in acetone. The optimized reaction contained 20% (w/w) glycine-based CL-PCMC-lipase, a 1:4 fatty acid molar equivalence to ethanol in the presence of an equimolar amount of tert-butanol which led to production of 87.2% and 81.4% (mol/mol) of ethyl ester from palmitic acid and industrial palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), respectively after incubation at 50 degrees C for 6h. CL-PCMC-lipase is more catalytically efficient than protein coated microcrystalline (PCMC) lipase, Novozyme (R) 435 and Lipolase 100T for both free fatty acids and palm fatty acid distillate. The CL-PCMC-lipase showed high operational stability with no significant loss in product yield after 8 consecutive batch cycles. The glycine-based microcrystalline lipase is thus a promising alternative economical biocatalyst for biodiesel production from inexpensive feedstocks with high free fatty acid contents. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. AD - Natl Ctr Genet Engn & Biotechnol, Enzyme Technol Lab, Klongluang 12120, Pathumthani, Thailand AN - WOS:000296115700012 AU - Raita, M. AU - Laothanachareon, T. AU - Champreda, V. AU - Laosiripojana, N. DA - Dec DO - 10.1016/j.molcatb.2011.07.020 IS - 1-4 J2 - J Mol Catal B-Enzym KW - biodiesel LA - English N1 - 836ml PY - 2011 SN - 1381-1177 SP - 74-79 ST - Biocatalytic esterification of palm oil fatty acids for biodiesel production using glycine-based cross-linked protein coated microcrystalline lipase T2 - Journal of Molecular Catalysis B-Enzymatic TI - Biocatalytic esterification of palm oil fatty acids for biodiesel production using glycine-based cross-linked protein coated microcrystalline lipase UR - ://WOS:000296115700012 VL - 73 ID - 6885 ER -