Biochemical Engineering Journal 39 (2008) 185–189

Enzymatic production of biodiesel from Jatropha oil:

A comparative study of immobilized-whole cell and
commercial lipases as a biocatalyst
Sriappareddy Tamalampudi a , Mahabubur Rahman Talukder e , Shinji Hama d ,
Takao Numata b , Akihiko Kondo b , Hideki Fukuda a,c,∗
a Department of Molecular Science and Material Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University,
1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
b Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University,

1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan

c Organization of Science and Technology, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada-ku,

Kobe 657-8501, Japan

d Bio-energy Corporation, 9-7-2 Minaminanamatsu, Amgasaki 660-0053, Japan
e Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, 1 Pesek Road, Jurong Island, Singapore 627833, Singapore

Received 27 March 2007; received in revised form 17 July 2007; accepted 15 September 2007

Abstract
The large percentage of biodiesel fuel (BDF) cost associated with feedstock oil and enzyme. In order to reduce the cost of BDF production, the
lipase producing whole cells of Rhizopus oryzae (ROL) immobilized onto biomass support particles (BSPs) was used for the production of BDF
from relatively low cost non-edible oil from the seeds of Jatropha curcas. The activity of ROL was compared with that of commercially available
most effective lipase (Novozym 435). Different alcohols as a hydroxyl donor are tested, and methanolysis of Jatropha oil progresses faster than
other alcoholysis regardless of lipases used. The maximum methyl esters content in the reaction mixture reaches 80 wt.% after 60 h using ROL,
whereas it is 76% after 90 h using Novozym 435. Both the lipases can be used for repeated batches and both lipases exhibit more than 90% of their
initial activities after five cycles. Our results suggest that whole-cell ROL immobilized on BSP is a promising biocatalyst for producing BDF from
oil.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Lipase; Transesterification; Filamentous fungi; Immobilized cells

1. Introduction to enzyme and substrate oils are of prime interest in the recent
BDF research.
Biodiesel (BDF) produced by alcoholysis of vegetables oils Jatropha curcas, an agro-forestry crop is a genus comprising
or animal fats is viewed as promising renewable resources of 70 species growing in topical and sub-tropical countries. Jat-
fuel. The use of BDF is becoming increasingly important due to ropha grows as a natural habitat across sub-Sahara Africa, India,
diminishing petroleum reserves and environmental regulations. South East Asia and China. It grows rapidly, takes approximately
BDF is expensive in comparison with petroleum-based fuel and 2–3 years to reach maturity and generate economic yields. It has
60–75% of the cost is associated with feedstock oil [1]. There- a productive lifespan in excess of 30 years. The fatty acid com-
fore, the exploring ways to reduce the cost of BDF with respect position of Jatropha oil is similar to other edible oils but the
presence of some anti-nutritional factors such as toxic phorbol
esters renders this oil unsuitable for cooking purposes [2]. Jat-
∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Molecular Science and Material
ropha oil is thus a promising candidate for BDF production in
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodaicho, Nada-
terms of availability and cost.
ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. Tel.: +81 78 803 6192; fax: +81 78 803 6192. BDF is industrially produced via chemical catalysis using
E-mail address: fukuda@kobe-u.ac.jp (H. Fukuda). strong bases as a catalyst. The strong base process suffers

1369-703X/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.bej.2007.09.002
186 S. Tamalampudi et al. / Biochemical Engineering Journal 39 (2008) 185–189

from several drawbacks such as difficulty in recovery of glyc- BSPs containing immobilized R. oryzae and Novozym 435 were
erol, removal of base catalyst from product and the treatment used.
of alkaline wastewater. The utilization of lipases for the pro-
duction of BDF has been reported as an effective means of 2.3. Air-lift bioreactor cultivation
circumventing the aforementioned problems [3,4]. The first dif-
ficulty of using lipase is that it is more expensive than the Seed culture of R. oryzae was grown in 500 ml Sakaguchi
base catalyst like NaOH. Immobilized lipase is distinguished flask containing 100 ml basal medium with 1% glucose. After
from free lipase because of its easy recovery from the reac- cultivation for 24 h, the seed culture was transferred to air-lift
tion mixture facilitating its repeated use. Several researchers bioreactor containing 10 l basal medium with 30 g/l olive oil
[5–7] have reported that the commercially available Novozym and 12,000 BSPs. The bioreactor was maintained at 2.5 vvm at
435 (Candida antarctica lipase B immobilized on acrylic 30 ◦ C. During the growth, R. oryzae cells were naturally immo-
resin) was the most effective catalyst among tested lipases bilized in BSPs during the cultivation in air-lift bioreactor. After
for the production of BDF. However, laborious and expen- cultivation, the BSP-immobilized cells were separated from the
sive purification processes of this lipase from culture broth culture medium by filtration, washed with tap water and dried
are restricting its application for BDF production in industrial at room temperature for around 24 h followed by cross linking
scale. with glutaraldehyde.
Here, we report that whole cells of lipase producing Rhizo-
pus oryzae (ROL) immobilized onto biomass support particles
2.4. Glutaraldehyde treatment of immobilized cells
(BSPs) made of reticulated polyurethane foam can catalyze the
alcoholysis of Jatropha oil more effectively than Novozym 435.
To stabilize the lipase activity, separated whole-cell bio-
The advantage of using whole cells of R. oryzae immobilized
catalysts were incubated with 0.1 vol.% glutaraldehyde (GA)
onto BSP over Novozym 435 is that no labor intensive and cost
solution at 25 ◦ C for 1 h. BSPs were separated from the GA
associated lipase purification steps prior to the immobilization
solution and were shaken in phosphate buffer at 4 ◦ C for few
is required because the whole cells of R. oryzae can sponta-
minutes, washed with tap water for 1 min followed by drying at
neously immobilized onto BSPs during cultivation. Moreover,
room temperature for 1 day.
Jatropha oil makes the biodiesel fuel production more feasi-
ble for industrial applications than the other edible vegetable
oils. 2.5. Alcoholysis

2. Materials and methods Alcoholysis was carried out at 30 ◦ C in 50 ml screw-capped

vessel with reciprocal shaking at 150 rpm. A typical reac-
2.1. Materials tion mixture consisted of Jatropha oil (5 g), alcohol–oil molar
ratio (3:1) and lipases (0.2 g) for the complete conversion of
Jatropha oil was obtained as a gift from Dr. Jayaveera, triglycerides to methyl esters. Reaction was started by adding
Jawaharlal Technological University (JNTU), Oil Technolog- lipase into pre-incubated reaction mixture. The alkyl ester con-
ical Research Institute, Anantapur, India. The saponification tents were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) as
value of Jatropha oil is 210. The water content in Jatropha described below [8]. The activity of lipases is expressed as
oil is 1.5 wt.%. Candida antarctica lipase B immobilized on amount of methyl esters (ME) produced per hour per gram
macro-porous acrylic resin (Novozym 435) was purchased from lipase.
Sigma–Aldrich Japan K.K, Tokyo, Japan. According to the man-
ufacturer, the enzyme belongs to the class of triacylglycerol 2.6. Analysis
hydrolases (EC 3.1.3.3), with a declared activity of ≥10,000 U/g
(propyl laurate units per gram). All other chemicals are of ana- Samples (150 ␮l) were taken from the reaction mixture at
lytical grade. specified time and centrifuged at 12,000 rpm for 5 min to obtain
the upper layer. The upper layer (80 ␮l) and tricaprylin (20 ␮l)
2.2. Microorganism and culture medium were precisely weighed into a 10 ml bottle, to which a small
amount of anhydrous sodium sulfate and hexane (3 ml) were
R. oryzae IFO 4697 which has 1,3-positional specificity added. Tricaprylin and sodium sulfate served as the internal
lipase was used as the whole-cell biocatalyst. The organism was standard and dehydrating agent, respectively. A 1.0 ␮l aliquot
maintained on 4% potato dextrose agar (Difco, Sparks, MD, of the treated sample was injected into GC-18A gas chromato-
USA) slants. R. oryzae was grown in basal medium containing graph (Shimadzu Corp., Kyoto, Japan) connected to a DB-5
1% glucose/olive oil, polypepton 70 g, NaNO3 1.0 g, KH2 PO4 capillary column (0.25 mm × 10 m, J&W Scientific, Folsom,
1.0 g and MgSO4 ·7H2 O 0.5 g in 1 l distilled water. Reticulated CA, USA). The column temperature was held at 150 ◦ C for
polyurethane foam particles (Bridge Stone Co. Ltd., Osaka, 0.5 min, raised to 300 ◦ C at 10 ◦ C/min, and maintained at this
Japan) with a particle voidage of more than 97% and a pore temperature for 3 min. The temperature for injector and flame
size of 50 pores per linear inch were used for the immobiliza- ionization detector (FID) were set at 245 and 250 ◦ C, respec-
tion of R. oryzae. In all the methanolysis experiments, 0.2 g of tively.
 S. Tamalampudi et al. / Biochemical Engineering Journal 39 (2008) 185–189 187

Fig. 2. Effect of methanol–oil molar ratios on lipases activities. Reaction con-

ditions: Jatropha oil 5 g; lipases 0.2 g; reaction temperature 30 ◦ C; reaction time
Fig. 1. Effect of different alcohols on lipase activities. Reaction conditions:
60 min.
Jatropha oil 5 g; alcohol–oil molar ratio 1:1; lipases 0.2 g; reaction temperature
30 ◦ C; reaction time 60 min.
foam may adsorb more methanol than acrylic resin particles
3. Results and discussion so that activity of ROL decreased more rapidly than that of
Novozym 435.
3.1. Effect of alcohol type on biodiesel production
3.3. Effect of lipases loaded
More commonly used alcohols for biodiesel production are
methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol. The short chain nor- In order to investigate the effect of the weight of lipase
mal alcohols were employed in the transesterification reaction in enzyme on methanolysis of Jatropha oil, the amount of lipase is
order to know their effect on whole-cell R. oryzae and Novozym varied while keeping the amount of oil constant. Fig. 3 shows
435 (Fig. 1). Although, both the lipases can able to catalyze the that the specific activity of ROL remains constant up to lipase
reaction, ROL is more efficient than Novozym 435 regardless amount equivalent to 6 wt.% of Jatropha oil, while it is only
of alcohol type. Among alcohols tested, methanol is most active 2 wt.% in case of Novozym 435. This result suggested that
for production of biodiesel from Jatropha oil and the activities the amount of Novozym 435 added was much greater than the
of lipases decrease with the increase in alcohol chain length. required and external mass transfer resistance had limited the
Due to low molecular weight and higher polarity, methanol may rate of transesterification reaction.
easily diffuse and access the lipase enzyme localized in the cell
membrane of R. oryzae [9] resulting in higher reaction rate. 3.4. Time course methanolysis of Jatropha oil

3.2. Comparison of ROL and Novozym 435 resistance to Since the concentration of methanol more than 1/3 Mequiv.
methanol has adverse effects on Novozym 435 and ROL, the time course

For the complete conversion of palm oil to methyl esters,

at least 3 Mequiv. of methanol (i.e. methanol–oil ratio 3:1)
need to be added in the reaction mixture. However, maximum
1/2 Mequiv. of methanol is generally miscible with vegetable
oils and the insoluble methanol in reaction mixture inactivates
lipases [10,11]. The activities of ROL and Novozym 435 at dif-
ferent methanol–oil ratios are thus investigated to compare their
tolerance to methanol (Fig. 2). Activities of lipases increase
with the increase in methanol–oil ratio up to 1 corresponding to
1/3 Mequiv. of methanol. Both lipases activities are decreased
after methanol–oil ratio 1 and compared with Novozym 435,
ROL is more susceptible to be poisoned by methanol. The
porous materials used for immobilizing ROL and Novozym
435 are polyurethane foam and acrylic resin particles, respec-
tively. These materials could adsorb polar compounds such
as methanol. When methanol–oil ratio is high, the immiscible
Fig. 3. Effect of lipase loaded on methanolysis Jatropha oil. Reaction conditions:
methanol droplets attached to the materials reducing or blocking Jatropha oil 5 g; alcohol–oil molar ratio 1:1; reaction temperature 30 ◦ C; reaction
the entry of Jatropha oil (apolar) to lipases [10]. Polyurethane time 60 min.
188 S. Tamalampudi et al. / Biochemical Engineering Journal 39 (2008) 185–189

Fig. 4. Time course methanolysis of Jatropha oil at different water content. The molar equivalent of methanol is added by three successive addition of 1/3 Mequiv.
of methanol at 0, 4 and 17 h for ROL (a) and at 0, 20 and 63 h for Novozym 435 (b). Reaction conditions: Jatropha oil 5 g; lipases 0.2 g; reaction temperature 30 ◦ C.

Table 1
Recyclability of the whole-cell biocatalyst (ROL) and Novozyme 435
Cycle number ROL Novozym 435

ME content (%) Residual activity (%) ME content (%) Residual activity (%)

1 80.2 100 75.1 100

2 78.3 97.6 73.2 97.4
3 78.2 97.5 71.6 95.3
4 75.5 94.1 70.5 93.8
5 73.1 91.1 70.5 93.8

of methyl esters production was carried out by three successive directly used for the next batch. The time of methanolysis using
additions of 1/3 Mequiv. of methanol. The progress of methanol- ROL and Novozym 435 are kept constant at 60 and 90 h, respec-
ysis reaction catalyzed either by ROL or Novozym 435 is shown tively for each reaction cycle. Table 1 shows that no significant
in Fig. 4a and b, respectively. In case of ROL, ME content reaches decrease in BDF content is observed after five repeated cycles
80% after 60 h at added water 5% (v/v), above which (e.g. at and both lipases exhibit more than 90% of their initial activities.
10% water) methyl ester yield decreased. Since acyl migration It is observed that ROL is easier to separate from reaction mix-
occurs with the intracellular lipase of immobilized cell and water ture because of its larger size (4 mm × 4 mm) compared with
may improve the cell permeability, the rate of methanolysis cat- Novozym 435 (<1 mm in diameter).
alyzed by ROL increases in presence of added water. However,
excess water reduces methanolysis as it also acts as a competitive 4. Conclusions
inhibitor for lipase-catalyzed esterification or transesterification
[12]. In case of Novozym 435, the rate of methanolysis decreases Whole-cell R. oryzae immobilized onto BSP catalyzes the
with increase in water content and ME content reaches 75% after methanolysis of Jatropha oil more efficiently than Novozym 435.
90 h at 0% added water. The results suggest that ROL catalyzes The presence of water in Jatropha oil has significant effect on
methanolysis of Jatropha oil more efficiently than Novozym 435. the rate of methanolysis and ROL exhibits highest activity in
In addition, ROL is active even at 5–10% water content in Jat- presence of 5% (v/v) added water. In contrast to ROL, Novozym
ropha oil, while Novozym 435 needs nearly anhydrous reaction 435 activity is inhibited by the presence of added water and
medium. Shimada et al. [11] reported that water (>500 ppm) it needs nearly anhydrous media for efficient catalyzing. The
in soybean oil decreased the rate of methanolysis catalyzed by results obtained here suggest that whole-cell ROL immobilized
Novozym 435. It should be mentioned that crude vegetable oil onto BSP can be used as low cost biocatalyst for production of
usually contains 3–5% water. Therefore, the step for removing biodiesel from crude Jatropha oil. Furthermore, expensive down
water from crude Jatropha oil can be avoided when ROL is used stream processing steps for lipase enzyme and refining methods
for production of biodiesel. for the Jatropha oil can be avoided.

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