Magnetic responsive Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase for biodiesel synthesis

Abstract The low cost lipase derived from Thermomyces lanugionous was chosen to conjugate with Fe3O4 nanoparitcles as a magnetic responsive lipase (MRL) biocatalyst. The structure of MRL was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis confirmed the lipase conjugated to Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Optimized conditions for the process of biodiesel production by MRL were investigated by the response surface methodology (RSM) and the Box-Behnken design (BBD). The optimized conditions for biodiesel production by MRL were as follows. The molar ratio of methanol to oil was 4.0, water content was 1.5 % as oil weight, the dosage of MRL to oil was 9.0 % (W/W) under 41 °C for 28 h. Under the optimized conditions, the yield of FAMEs by MRL reached 82.20 %. Further experiments showed that the MRL could be used 10 cycles and the yield of FAMEs decreased slightly by 10.97 %. These results indicated that Fe3O4 nanoparticle carrier could efficiently improve the FAMEs synthesis and enhance the MRL stabilization and reusability in the biodiesel production.