Cross-linked lipase in hybrid matrix for biodiesel production from crude Jatropha curcas oil

Immobilization of lipases is gaining much attention these days due to the wide variety of reactions catalyzed by them. Moreover, the lipases play an important role in biodiesel production. In this study, lipase from Burkholderia cepacia was first cross-linked with glutaraldehyde followed by entrapment into hybrid matrix of equal proportions of alginate and β-carrageenan natural polymers. The immobilized lipase gave promising results with stability parameters like pH, temperature, solvent, storage, enzyme leakage, and hydrolytic activity. A significant reduction of 65.76% of enzyme leakage was obtained with this immobilized lipase. Moreover, a 100% yield of biodiesel was produced from crude Jatropha curcas oil using this immobilized lipase

Stability studies of immobilized Burkholderia cepacia lipase and its application in biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas Oil

This chapter focuses mainly on biodiesel production from the future green gold namely Jatropha curcas. The importance of this plant as biodiesel-feedstock, oil extraction methods from the seeds, and different routes of biodiesel production are discussed in the first part. Nowadays, immobilization of lipase has gained immense potential in the biofuel industry mainly to reduce the production costs and to make the method more economical. Different approaches of lipase immobilization are briefed in the second part. The final part of this chapter shows stability studies of Burkholderia cepacia lipase immobilized in hybrid matrix and its application and biodiesel optimization from crude J. curcas oil

Modeling of free fatty acid content in the deodorization process of palm oil refinery using six sigma with response surface methodology

The present study aims to minimize the free fatty acid (FFA) content in Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil of FELDA Vegetable Oils Sdn. Bhd. and KUNAK Refinery Sdn. Bhd. (Sawit Kinabalu) by using Six Sigma with Response Surface Methodology. Process flow of the deodorizing section of the palm oil refinery have been studied. Unit operations from the process flow were identified and the parameters readings from 2011 till 2013 were tabulated. Only parameters' readings from year 2011 and 2012 were used. This data went through multiple regressions and the process parameters were narrowed down from 32 parameters to only six parameters. Then, few tests were conducted such Normality Test and so on. The R-Square value 94.65% correlated the actual and predicted value for validation data set. In the verify phase, it can be 95% confidence interval that the difference between the mean numbers is between -0.00514 and 0.00920 higher in actual value than the predicted value. To achieve 0.050% FFA, the optimal process variables were 340.1°C for boiler temperature (G760T), 64 BAR for boiler pressure (G760P), 270.1°C for heat exchanger (TE704), 68.6°C for pre-distillate fatty acid recycler (TE705), 43.1°C for hot well (TE750) and 12 BAR for steam header B (STEAMB). In this study, the equation model was developed to estimate the actual FFA content and predict the FFA content. Hence, this model can be directly used in the palm oil refinery to predict the FFA content and to optimize

Fundamental studies on jatropha biodiesel production using lipase immobilized in hybrid matrix

Immobilization of lipases is gammg importance due to a broad variety of industrial applications they catalyze. In this study, lipase from Burkholderia cepacia was first cross linked with glutaraldehyde followed by entrapment into hybrid matrix of alginate and K -carrageenan polymers. The effect of various parameters like pH, temperature, reusability, enzyme leakage, solvent and storage stability on immobilized lipase were studied. A higher activity yield of 89.26% was observed after immobilization. The immobilized lipase_ also retained 84.02% of its initial activity following two weeks of storage in T/Ca (Tris-CaCh)buffer at 4 ° C. Comparative kinetic parameters Km and Vmax values were found to be 0.39 µM and 10 µmol/min for free lipase and 0.45 µM and 9.09 µmol/min for immobilized lipase respectively. A significant enzyme leakage reduction of 65. 76% was observed as compared to the enzyme immobilized in hybrid matrix without crosslinking. The immobilized lipase also gave better results for hydrolysis of olive oil. Reduced enzyme leakage, higher thermal stability and better storage stability were the salient features achieved by this method of enzyme immobilization. By this work, an improved entrapment approach of lipase cross linking followed by entrapment onto a hybrid matrix of alginate and K -carrageenan was studied. This enhanced crosslinked matrix is a step closer in design of a better immobilized lipase for the biofuel industry. Lipase immobilization has gained immense potential in the biofuel industry mainly to reduce the production costs and to make the method more economical. The first part of this work was to immobilize cross linked Burkholderia cepacia lipase on a hybrid matrix of sodium alginate and K- carrageenan natural polymers. The second part of this project focused on stability studies of the immobilized lipase. The third and the final part of the work focused on production of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas oil using the above hybrid lipase

Production of precision K-Carrageenan Microcapsule by Co-Flowing Microfluidic system

The formation of hydrogel microcapsule using microfluidic device was investigated in this project. The primary objective of this work is to evaluate the potential of co-flowing microfluidic device in producing quality microcapsule. The first part of this work involved the construction of a co-flowing microfluidic device that can be used to produce hydrogel particle. The second part of the project focused finding the effect of process parameters on the droplet/microcapsule formation behavior and droplet/microcapsule properties. The third part aimed at developing a mathematical model to predict the droplet/microcapsule size from the affecting parameters. The final part investigated the scale-up potential of the studied system. In this research, three types of droplet formation modes were distinguished: dripping, narrowing jetting and widening jetting. The transition points between each type of breakup modes were found to be influenced by the interplay among inertial force, viscous force and interfacial force of the system. The transition points were then compared to a theoretical model. It was also found that the droplet size produced in liquid-liquid system affected by the combined influence of the liquids properties, flow dynamics combinations and geometry of the system setup. A two-stage model was developed and was found to be consistent with the experimental data and the average absolute deviation (AAD) lies within 5% of the calculated values. On the other hand, the breakup mechanism of liquid jets in liquid-liquid system was found to be consistent with the Rayleigh's instability theory and the drop size was well predicted from existing model. In the scale-up study, it was suggested that the droplet formation in the system should remain in the dripping mode. Using the two­stage model, a simulation was performed to scale-up the productivity of the liquid-liquid dispersion system. Optimum operating conditions was able to be determined through the simulation

Growth behaviour of microbial cells immobilised within hydrogel spheres

The effect of immobilization on cell growth in MRS medium and cell survival during exposure to acidic medium were studied in this project. The growth kinetic models of L.casei 01 were developed using initial rate method and Lineweaver-Burke plot. Growth kinetics of immobilized cell was found to follow a competitive model

A cost effective integrated process for production of probiotic cells as poultry antibiotic substitute

The overall aim of this project was to develop a cost-effective probiotic cell production system for poultry use by integrating encapsulation technology to existing process technologies. The research focused on three areas 1) to study the effect of process parameters on encapsulation process 2) to study the effect of capsule designs, materials and fermentation conditions on cell production in repetitive batch fermentation 3) to study the effect of process parameters on drying of encapsulated cells and their stability. A detailed study on the effect of process variables on size and shape of capsules for encapsulation applications has been conducted. The prediction models for shape and size of beads or capsules produced through the extrusion method were developed. They could be used for optimization and to evaluate process limitations. The effect of different encapsulation materials (i.e. alginate, pectin, chitosan) were used for cell production in repetitive batch fermentations. Coated pectin-core capsules were found to be more stable than the alginate and alginate/pectin core capsules. However, alginate was preferred as it is more economical. Subsequent studies focused on improving the stability of alginate capsules during repetitive batch fermentations. Encapsulation cell fermentation was found to improve productivity of cell production by 40% which could give significant economic advantage to manufacturer. The effect of drying method and condition on the cell survival and stability were investigated next. Incorporation of_ suitable additives was found to be critical in stabilizing the cells which may also give significant economic advantage manufacturers. In addition, packed-bed drying has been shown to be a potential drying method to replace freeze-drying as the method involves lower capital and operating cost

Adsorption of Lead Ions from Aqueous Solution onto Activated Carbon

The adsorption of lead ions from aqueous solutions was performed using commercial activated carbon. The adsorption equilibrium data for lead ions found to follow both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The kinetic process of lead ions adsorption onto activated carbon was found to fit the pseudosecond-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic parameters of the adsorption demonstrate that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermics

Studies on Aspergillus oryzae Mutants for the Production of Single Cell Proteins from Deoiled Rice Bran

Ethyl methyl sulphonate was used to induce point mutation in Aspergillus oryzae (MTCC 1846). Incubation with ethyl methyl sulphonate for 1 h resulted in 98 % killing of spores. By screening the survived colonies three hypermorphs were found (Shan1, Shan2 and Shan3). These three mutants along with the A. oryzae (MTCC 1846) were used for the production of single cell proteins. They grew profusely on deoiled rice bran and produced higher percentage of protein. Among the three mutants Shan2 had higher protein content in the pH range of 3–7 and temperatures 36–45 °C, maintaining low quantities of nucleic acids. The specific growth rate of Shan2 was higher on the media containing substrates like glucose, maltose and cellulose. Shan2 had higher content of amino acids when compared with FAO standard and A. oryzae (MTCC 1846), but the amino acid content of Shan2 was approximately equal to that of soyabean meal. The comparative protein content of Shan2 and A. oryzae (MTCC 1846) was 57 and 43 %, respectively, while their nucleic acid content was 3 and 7.2 %, respectively. Protein enrichment of 18.9 % in Shan2 resulted from the cultivation on deoiled rice bran as compared to protein content of the A. oryzae (MTCC1846) indicating that Shan2 possessed good amenability for SCP production