Study of Soybean Oil Hydrolysis Catalyzed by Thermomyces lanuginosus Lipase and Its Application to Biodiesel Production via Hydroesterification

Table 3

Esterification reactions of FFAs of soybean oil. The reactions were carried out using a molar ratio of FFAs/alcohol of 1:3 for methanol and 1:4 for ethanol, 20% (w/w of FFAs) of the catalyst niobic acid in pellets, at 200^ºC and 1 hour reaction time.

Alcohol	Catalyst	FFAs % (w/w)		Conversion*
		Initial	Final
Methanol	No	90.6%	15.1%	83.3%
	Yes	91.3%	7.3%	92.0%
Ethanol	No	90.6%	19.9%	78.0%
	Yes	91.3%	15.8%	82.7%

^∗Conversion was calculated based on the initial concentration of FFAs.