Biofuels and Bioenergy

Biography

Dr Naser Aliye Feto is a protein engineer by training. He has successfully engineered colour variants of green fluorescent proteins for improved thermostability, folding kinetics and pH-sensitivity. He is a founding head of OMICS Research Group and OMICS Research Facility furnished with the state-of-the-art scientific equipment. He is currently supervising 2 Postdocs and 3 PhD, 7 Masters and 2 Honor students working on a number of cutting-edge research projects. His OMICS Group uses OMICS (Metagenomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics) approach to address any scientific questions or develop biotechnological products. He is a recipient of Faculty Research Achievement Award for 2015, Vice-Chancellor’s 2016 “WOW” Award for his commitment and active participation in his respective role. He also received a 2017 Certificate of Acknowledgement for contribution to research at Vaal University of Technology.

 

naserf@vut.ac.za

Abstract

 

Comparative analysis of different enzyme immobilization techniques for efficient production of biodiesel

Naser Aliye Feto

Vaal University of Technology, South Africa

 

Abstract

Unlike fossil-diesel, biodiesel is an attractive alternative fuel because it is green, nontoxic, renewable and biodegradable. Moreover, biodiesel has low emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulphur oxides and particulate matter making its combustion emission profile favourable. In addition, compared to fossil-diesel, biodiesel has shown a higher combustion efficiency, flash point, and cetane number and better lubricant efficiency. Hence, with added advantage in reducing greenhouse effect. Production of biodiesel can be catalysed using either chemical or enzymatic method. Also, the chemically-catalysed biodiesel production needs a relatively clean material, such as pure vegetable oil. Besides, alkaline catalysis has the disadvantage of its high sensitivity to both water and free fatty acids present in the oils. Whereas, the enzymatically-catalysed biodiesel production can make efficient use of recycled cooking oil, animal fats and other sources of lipids. Even if the enzymatic approach can make use of cheap feedstock, it has certain limitations such as enzyme being a costly material limiting the use of free enzymes at an industrial scale, since free enzymes are prone to proteolytic-degradation or thermal denaturation & obviously cannot be recycled in its free form. However, immobilization of the enzyme will increase the stability of the biocatalyst and make it recyclable depending on the technique and materials used for immobilization. There are a number of breakthrough in developing different immobilization techniques. However, the sustainability and efficient enzymatic-production of biodiesel depends on proper immobilization of the biocatalyst. Therefore, in this article different immobilization techniques are discussed and the relatively superior immobilization technique for efficient enzymatic-production of biodiesel is outlined.  

 

Keywords: Biodiesel, enzyme, esterification, fossil-diesel, immobilization