Turbo thin film continuous flow production of biodiesel from fungal biomass

Abstract

Direct biodiesel production from wet fungal biomass may significantly reduce production costs, but there is a lack of fast and cost-effective processing technology. A novel thin film continuous flow process has been applied to study the effects of its operational parameters on fatty acid (FA) extraction and FA to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) conversion efficiencies. Single factor experiments evaluated the effects of catalyst concentration and water content of biomass, while factorial experimental designs determined the interactions between catalyst concentration and biomass to methanol ratio, flow rate, and rotational speed. Direct transesterification (DT) of wet Mucor plumbeus biomass at ambient temperature and pressure achieved a FA to FAME conversion efficiency of > 90% using 3 wt./v % NaOH concentration, if the water content was ≤ 50% (w/w). In comparison with existing DT methods, this continuous flow processing technology has an estimated 90-94% reduction in energy consumption, showing promise for up-scaling.

Waste rubber seeds as a renewable energy source: direct biodiesel production using a controlled crushing device

“…The saponication was detected in high sodium hydroxide concentration for both biomass proved by low biodiesel conversion obtained while no soap was observed when using low concentration. 12,14,42,43 It is worth noting that water contained in rubber seeds did not affect the biodiesel conversion even when using a homogeneous base catalyst. 12,14,44 Therefore, the effect of sodium hydroxide in methanol in the CCD-assisted DT of rubber seeds was determined at a concentration ranging from 0.5 to 7 wt/v% in reaction condition of ratio seeds : methanol of 1 : 2 (wt/v), reaction time of 7 minutes and rotational speed of 5000 rpm.…”

“…Even though the rubber oil contains FFA that exceeds the minimal amount to conduct base-catalyst transesterication, the CCD-assisted DT rubber seeds could run without any saponication detected using low catalyst concentration 12,14 and with high biodiesel conversion. As recorded above, the acid catalyst could not catalyse the DT in a short reaction time.…”

“…Application of micro-uidic thin lm devices in the DT of various oleaginous biomass could produce biodiesel at ambient temperature and pressure with the conversion occurring at >90% and interestingly water did not affect the transesterication reaction. [12][13][14] Even though those processes run in a continuous system, upscaling is a major challenge due to infrastructure constraints. In contrast, a batch-DT production system showed a promising result to apply as the current biodiesel production industry use mechanical agitation.…”

Tuning Surface Morphology of Fluorescent Hydrogels Using a Vortex Fluidic Device

“…One study reported the preparation of silica hydrogel using a VFD without the need for auxiliary reagents (solvent, acid, or base), promoting a new route for green chemistry. It was reported that the condensation of VFD- The VFD is a relatively low-cost research platform assisting efficient micromixing of chemicals and reactions, material synthesis, and both top-down and bottom-up strategies for the manufacture of nanoscale materials with complex structures, suggesting a range of benefits over conventional methods [63][64][65]. We successfully utilized a VFD for one-step fabrication of several physically and ionically crosslinked hydrogels with simultaneous control over their properties and surface morphology [66].…”

Growth and Fatty Acid Profile of the Aspergillus terreus in Different Culture Media and Temperatures

“…The sustainable exploration of this biodiversity has contributed to the discovery of fungi aiming their use as a source of commercially exploitable products, and among the products that can be obtained from this enormous biodiversity are fatty acids, which are important for human health, demonstrating potential in the production of food or pharmaceutical additives, and this is due to their biological activities (Maron et al, 2018;Tonato et al, 2018). Another applicability of fatty acids developed by fungi would be their incorporation in animal feed and possibly also in the production of biodiesel, from the conversion of triacylglycerides into fatty acid methyl esters, called FAME (Sitepu et al, 2019).…”