Effect of Solvent-Co-solvent Mixtures on Lipase-Catalyzed Transesterification of Canola Oil

In this work, various solvent-co-solvent mixtures were established to enhance both enzyme activity and mass transfer of substrates in the enzymatic transesterification of canola oil catalyzed by Candida antarctic lipase. The solvent-co-solvent mixture comprised a hydrophobic solvent and a hydrophilic co-solvent. Dependent upon the co-solvent, at low co-solvent concentrations, the yield of biodiesel was enhanced because of the improvement in the dispersion of methanol in the co-solvent media. However, at higher co-solvent concentrations, the biodiesel yield was reduced because of the inactivation of lipase. The polarity of solvent-co-solvent mixtures was correlated with the yield of biodiesel to assess the potential relationship between the polarity of reaction media and lipase activity. The effect of the water content on lipase activity in the transesterification reaction was also ascertained.