Biodiesel production catalyzed by liquid and immobilized enzymes: Optimization and economic analysis

摘要: Abstract In this work, the use of enzymes as alternative catalysts for production biodiesel was evaluated. Due to high price enzymes, process optimization and economical evaluation is essential evaluate feasibility their use. Two alternatives were proposed. The first one evaluated liquid enzyme while second analyzed immobilized transesterification castor oil. Both investigated an integral part whole plant optimized considering profit objective function. For annual capacity 250,000 tons, with resulted in higher total investment costs due complex steps separation. However, cost requires that reused at least 300 times obtain a similar enzyme-based process, which 0.78 US$/kg 51.6 million US$/year defined capacity.