Immobilizing Lipase Catalyst for Biofuel Production - A Potential Path to a Greener Tomorrow

摘要

Clean renewable energy is one of the burning problems of this century. Fossil fuels, global warming, carbon emissions threaten the survival and expansion of the human race as a whole. In this critical juncture, it is imperative that we shift to renewable, cleaner fuels and reduce our dependence on the conventional fossil fuels we've been accustomed to use. Lipase is an enzyme which catalyzes the hydrolysis of lipids resulting in the formation of saturated as well as unsaturated fatty acid chains and glycerol. The saturated/unsaturated fatty acid chains being highly reduced releases a huge amount of energy on complete oxidation. This not only acts as a clean viable substitute to the fossil fuels we use but also reduces the pollution caused by the disposal of used waste vegetable oils which aren't fit for human consumption. Lipase, being an enzyme can be reused and this technique is much more efficient and less polluting than the conventional base/acid catalyzed transesterification conventionally employed in biodiesel production nowadays. Immobilizing lipase offers some significant advantages over traditional means and is being adopted by more and more industries. In this project we have attempted to produce and optimize enzymatic production of biodiesel using lipase obtained from lipid metabolizing microbial consortia. We have also tried to execute and optimize lipase immobilization to a substrate. Immobilizing lipase on a biopolymer substrate offers some significant advantages over traditional means and is being adopted more and more in industrial practices.