Statistical Optimization of Biodiesel Production from Salmon Oil via Enzymatic Transesterification: Investigation of the Effects of Various Operational Parameters

• Published in: Processes
• Main Authors: Vegneshwaran V. Ramakrishnan, Deepika Dave, Yi Liu, Winny Routray, Wade Murphy
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: biodiesel; Atlantic salmon; marine by-products; biocatalytic transesterification; response surface methodology; Chemical technology; TP1-1185; Chemistry; QD1-999; antartic*; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9040700; https://doaj.org/article/02d5e256533d43f18dce9caffb09c930

The enzymatic transesterification of Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ) oil was carried out using Novozym 435 (immobilized lipase from Candida antartica ) to produce biodiesel. A response surface modelling design was performed to investigate the relationship between biodiesel yield and several critical factors, including enzyme concentration (5, 10, or 15%), temperature (40, 45, or 50 °C), oil/alcohol molar ratio (1:3, 1:4, or 1:5) and time (8, 16, or 24 h). The results indicated that the effects of all the factors were statistically significant at p -values of 0.000 for biodiesel production. The optimum parameters for biodiesel production were determined as 10% enzyme concentration, 45 °C, 16 h, and 1:4 oil/alcohol molar ratio, leading to a biodiesel yield of 87.23%. The step-wise addition of methanol during the enzymatic transesterification further increased the biodiesel yield to 94.5%. This is the first study that focused on Atlantic salmon oil-derived biodiesel production, which creates a paradigm for valorization of Atlantic salmon by-products that would also reduce the consumption and demand of plant oils derived from crops and vegetables.