Integrated cleaner biocatalytic process for biodiesel production from crude palm oil comparing to refined palm oil

An integrated cleaner biocatalyst process is performed for biodiesel production from crude palm oil (CPO) and refined palm oil (RPO). It was evaluated on process efficiency in terms of high pu-rity of biodiesel as well as by-product without purification, less wastewater, less time consum-ing and simple downstream process. A first saponification step was carried out in both of CPO and RPO, a high purity of glycerol (86.25% and 87.5%) was achieved, respectively, while, free fatty acids (FFASs) in soap were obtained after hexane extraction. High yields of FFASs were obtained from both CPO and RPO (98.83% and 90.94%). Subsequently, the FFAs were esterified to biodiesel by a biocatalyst of immobilised lipase. The highest biodiesel yields of 92.14% and 92.58% (CPO and RPO) were achieved. Remarkably, biodiesel yields obtained from CPO and RPO could reach satisfied values as well as a biocatalyst used could reuse much more than 16-17 cycles.