Image sets from Wiki Science Competition 2017 in China

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Biodiesel synthesis

Uploaded by User:GabrielHustJsu, details
Experiments made in the Key laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology. Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China.

Enzymatic biodiesel produced with immobilized lipase, at the bottom it was produced glycerol. Biodiesel synthesis with enzymes as catalysts. The enzymes are immobilized in resins and the milky liquid at the bottom of the flask is glycerol, a by-product of the transesterification reactions.
It consists in the production of biodiesel at the top (yellowish color). At the bottom are glycerol as by-product and water as one of the substrates used to activate the enzymes. The image shows vegetable oil and methanol in a flask, the solid particles are the immobilized enzymes that will perform the catalytic reactions to produce biodiesel.
It is a technique used to transform the methanol into very small droplets that will be immersed into the vegetable oil. This is made in order to facilitate more effective catalytic reactions for biodiesel production. The liquid shown is an emulsion of used vegetable oil with microdroplets of methanol immersed into the lipid media, thanks to the effect of ultrasonic emulsification which allows the generation of the microdroplets through the application of thousands of revolutions per minute and the cavitation effect. The hose was installed to pump the liquid into a packed-bed reactor to undergo the transesterification reactions to synthesize biodiesel.
In order to produce biodiesel, it is necessary to add an excessive amount of methanol. Once the bio fuel is produced it is required to recover the excess of alcohol through distillation. Biodiesel with excess of methanol are heated in a distiller to remove the alcohol. The bubbles indicate a successful separation of the two substances.
This image shows the attempt to produce biodiesel with free lipase, waste vegetable oil and methanol. The reaction was unsuccessful due to the agglomeration of the free enzymes, producing a dramatically reduction in its catalytic efficiency. Most of the free lipases used for biodiesel production fail to catalyze, because due to inner forces the enzymes use to agglomerate, producing a very low conversion efficiency. One strategy to overcome this problem is to immobilize the enzymes in solid carriers.
Biodiesel production through enzymatic catalysis produces a very clean glycerol as is shown in the image, the method to produce it was through a packed-bed reactor where the emulsified substrates were pumped and the transesterification reactions were successfully developed.The image describes biodiesel synthesis through enzymatic catalysis. The milky substance at the bottom is the by-product of transesterification reactions, glycerol.
Ultrasonic irradiation is a well-known technique used to enhance the mass transfer during transesterification reactions for biodiesel synthesis. Some of the physical effects of ultrasonic irradiation is the acoustic streaming and cavitation bubbles that generate micro emulsions that facilitate the reactions to produce the bio fuel. The image shows how the acoustic streaming generated an empty area inside a batch reactor with immobilized enzymes for biodiesel synthesis, showing how powerful and effective is this technique.