Influence of feedstock source on the biocatalyst stability and reactor performance in continuous biodiesel production

A biodiesel process in a packed bed reactor was used as a model system to show the strong dependence of the reactor behavior on the developing of chemical environment within the reactor. Ethanolysis runs of babassu and macaw palm oils were carried out in a solvent-free system using Burkholderia cepacia lipase immobilized on silica–PVA matrix. The best performance was found for the reactor running on macaw palm oil, which resulted in a stable operating system and an average yield of 87.6 ± 2.5%. This strategy also gave high biocatalyst operational stability, revealing a half-life of 478 h.