TAF PUBLISHING

Fatty acid is an important intermediate substance in oleochemical industry. The demand of fatty acid is predicted to increase significantly in the future due to increasing demand of oleochemical products, specifically biofuel production through decarboxylation of fatty acids. For decades, fatty acid has been commercially produced via thermal hydrolysis of triglyceride, which requires high temperature and high pressure. Technology of fatty acid production in mild temperature and low energy consumption is currently developing through enzymatic triglyceride hydrolysis, which is also known as lipolysis. The economic feasibility of this technology is enhanced by immobilization of lipolytic enzymes, which frequently utilizes hydrophobic beads as immobilization supports. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of hydrophobic beads on non-enzymatic hydrolysis of triglyceride. Experimental data suggest that higher conversion of triglyceride hydrolysis was attained with the use of several hydrophobic beads: polypropylene, polyethylene, and polystyrene. This phenomenon was not shown in utilization of hydrophilic materials, such as silica gel, silica stone, and rice bran acetone powder. It is hypothesized that the higher hydrolysis conversion is caused by mass transfer facilitated by hydrophobic beads, while in hydrophilic materials, water substrate was adsorbed and lowered the hydrolysis conversion. Experimental data show that performance of solids in triglyceride hydrolysis is not only affected by hydrophobicity, but also strongly affected by pH and surface area. Utilization of hydrophobic beads provides a low-cost and low-energy consumption to initiate triglyceride hydrolysis at room temperature, in the presence or the absence of lipolytic enzymes.