Influence of additives in the transesterification of crude coconut oil catalyzed by Burkholderia cepacia lipase immobilized onto agro-industrial waste fibers

In this study was verified the influence of different additives in the transesterification reaction of the crude coconut oil catalyzed with lipase from Burkholderia cepacia immobilized by physical adsorption onto palm fiber originated from agroindustrial wastes. Reactions was performed under the conditions: molar ratio 1:7 (oil:alcohol), 10 % biocatalyst immobilized for 96 h at 40 °C in the presence in different concentrations of additives (water, tert-butanol, molecular sieve and protic ionic liquids). The results showed that the use of all the additives in this study did not increase conversion to ethyl esters. The maximum conversion in the absence of the additives was 72 %, in the presence of water 45 ± 2 %, molecular sieve 53 ± 2 % and tert -butanol 59 ± 2 %, respectively, all in the lowest concentrations. For ionic liquids, those with higher alkyl chains had the highest conversions, but lower than in their absence.