Super phosphoric acid catalyzed esterification of Palm Fatty Acid Distillate for biodiesel production: physicochemical parameters and kinetics

In the present study the esterification of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), a by-product from palm oil industry, in the presence of super phosphoric acid (SPA) catalyst was studied. The effects of various physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, PFAD to methanol molar ratio and amount of catalyst on the conversion of biodiesel were investigated. The percent conversion of FFA and properties of the biodiesel were determined following standard methodologies. Percent conversion of biodiesel was found to increase with the increase in PFAD to methanol molar ratio and at 1:12 molar ratio and 70°C temperature 95% conversion was achieved. Thermodynamic parameters were also evaluated in terms of Gibbs free energy, enthalpy and entropy at different molar ratio and temperatures. Both pseudo first and second order irreversible kinetics were applied to a wide range of experimental data. However, according to regression coefficient (R2) the second order described better experimental behavior of kinetic data

Biocatalysts for selective introduction of oxygen

Three types of oxygenase biocatalysts are treated in detail in this review: the non-haem iron alkene mono-oxygenases, the haem and vanadium haloperoxidases, and flavin-based Baeyer-Villiger mono-oxygenases. Other oxygenases are briefly included for comparison. Characteristics of the biocatalysts are presented, and the scope and limitations concerning their applicability for the selective introduction of oxygen are discussed. Key issues include catalytic activity, productivity, cloning and expression, as well as process engineering aspects. Various bottlenecks are identified for the different biocatalysts and measures to increase the number of oxygenase reactions in practical use are discussed