Effect of external mass transfer on activation energy of butyl oleate ester synthesis using a whole cell biocatalyst

In the present research, synthesis of butyl oleate ester from oleic acid and butanol using loofa-immobilized Rhizopus oryzae as a whole cell biocatalyst (LIC) was studied in which hexane was used as the hydrophobic solvent. Decrease of mass transfer limitations as result of the interface formation b...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shabnam Shahhoseyni, Bahram Nassernejad, Farzaneh Vahabzadeh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Tehran 2016-06-01
Series:Journal of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://jchpe.ut.ac.ir/article_57840.html
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Summary:In the present research, synthesis of butyl oleate ester from oleic acid and butanol using loofa-immobilized Rhizopus oryzae as a whole cell biocatalyst (LIC) was studied in which hexane was used as the hydrophobic solvent. Decrease of mass transfer limitations as result of the interface formation between the two immiscible substrates, positively affected on the reaction progress (87% as the ester product yielded within 10 h). By applying Arrhenius equation, the activation energy of the ester synthesis was determined as Ea=18.2 kJ/mol within temperature range of 15-45°C. It was notable to test appearance of the nonlinearity in Arrhenius plot which was indicative of presence of two sections. The reaction limited region was 15-35°C; Ea=27 kJ/mol and diffusion limited region was >35°C; Ea=6.8 kJ/mol. Eventually, in this research, influence of external mass transfer on activation energy with reference to the catalytic role of the LIC in the ester synthesis was discussed.
ISSN:2423-673X
2423-6721