Biodiesel Production from Sunflower Oil Using Extracellular Lipase as Catalyst

Biodiesel consists monoalkyl esters of long chain fatty acids. It is produced from vegetable oil or fats by transesterification with methanol using chemical/enzyme lipase. This process has, therefore, been widely utilized for biodiesel fuel production in a number of countries. The enzymatic process offers several advantages over the chemical routes. The handicap of increase in process cost because of the cost of the enzyme can be overcome by using efficient production process for enzyme and using reusable derivatives of enzymes, such as extracellular enzyme. In the present investigation, therefore, optimization of process parameters for high lipase production by the microbes viz., Mucor racemosus, Rhizopus nigricans and Aspergillus terreus using Czapek’ Dox medium were carried out. Culture filtrates were used as extracellular crude enzyme source, as catalyst for conversion of sunflower oil to biodiesel and the parameters such as quantity of enzyme and methanol needed for significant yield of biodiesel was standardized.