ANALYSIS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A PACKED BED REACTOR TO PRODUCTION ETHYL ESTERS FROM CRUDE VEGETABLE OIL USING LIPASE IMMOBILIZED IN SILICA MODIFIED WITH PROTIC IONIC LIQUID

The objective this study was to evaluated the influence of silica modified with protic ionic liquid (PIL) on an immobilized biocatalyst by covalent binding of Burkholderia cepacia lipase (BCL) in a PBR and in the transesterification reaction, by characterization and mass transfer of the system studied. The results showed that maximum conversion of ethyl esters was 39 ± 1.73% at 96 h (IB on control silica) and 47 ± 2.0% in 72 h (IB on modified silica). The PIL also influenced the analysis of residence time distribution (RTD) with the mean time ranging from 14.94 (control silica) to 25 min (modified silica). Variation of the reaction parameters (temperature, flow rate and molar ratio) positively influenced the mass transfer coefficient (kc) which varied from 0.95 × 10−4 to 2.39 × 10−4 m s−1 (IB on control silica) and from 1.22 × 10−4 to 3.06 × 10−4 m s−1 (IB on modified silica).