Biodiesel production from canola oil using immobilized lipase

In the present work, lipase (triacylglycerol hydrolase, EC 3.1.1.3) Novozyme 388 was immobilized onto celite 545 using both adsorption and covalent method. The maximum immobilization yield was obtained as 78.50% when lipase immobilized by covalent method and the highest specific activity was 5.81 U/mg protein for adsorption method. The properties of the support and immobilized derivative were evaluated by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Immobilized enzyme was used for biodiesel production by transesterification of crude canola oil and methanol. Maximum methyl esters yield was obtained as 98%. Celite 545 activated with polygluturaldehyde proved to be stable after even 10 reuses with each batch of 6 h and lost little activity when was subjected to repeated use. However, the immobilized lipase without polyglutaraldehyde on support material was lost its whole activity after five repeated reuses.