Abstract
Compared to chemical processes of biodiesel production, enzymatic processes have a range of advantages such as being environmentally friendly, offering low energy consumption, and following a simple process setup. In this chapter, biodiesel production using lipases as catalysts is reviewed. For comparison, the current chemical technology for biodiesel production is introduced, covering transesterification reactions with acid and alkali catalysts as well as two-step transesterifications. For the enzymatic approach, reactions and systems for the enzymatic biodiesel production are elaborated in the first place so that a basic understanding of the system can be built. This is followed by the analysis of the mechanism and kinetics of enzymatic biodiesel synthesis based on the Ping-Pong Bi Bi mechanism, and system parameters are further elucidated for the kinetic understanding. Furthermore, the effect of reaction conditions is evaluated for the enzyme-catalyzed biodiesel production process, including reaction temperature, alcohol donor, water content, lipase loading, reaction time, and (co)solvent systems. In the last part, industrial processes for enzymatic biodiesel production technology are covered.