Pseudomonas cepacia lipase immobilized onto the electrospun PAN nanofibrous membranes for biodiesel production from soybean oil

Lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia has good transesterification activity and can be employed for biodiesel production. For recycled uses, polyacrylonitrile nanofibrous membrane was fabricated by electrospinning method and activated by amidination reaction for immobilizing P. cepacia lipase. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra confirmed that the lipases were covalently attached to the nanofibers. After enzyme immobilization, the immobilized P. cepacia lipase was used as the catalyst for transesterification reaction to convert the soybean oil to biodiesel by adding methanol as the reactant. The effects of methanol concentration, methanol-to-water ratio, reaction temperature, fatty acid content and the reusability were investigated by using the immobilized P. cepacia lipase. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the biodiesel conversion of soybean oil achieved 90% after reacting 24 h. In examining the reusability, the immobilized P. cepacia lipase still retained 91% of its initial conversion capability after 10 times reused.