Gas-chromatographic determination of the degree of conversion of microbiological synthesis products into biodiesel

Abstract

In the development of promising methods for the production of biodiesel from different raw materials, it was proposed to perform the comparative evaluation of the degree of conversion of the source material and the effectiveness of the heterogeneous catalyst used by the gas-chromatographic determination of the resulting amount of glycerol with the direct injection of a reaction mixture (or end products) into the column without derivatization. A Bruker 430 GS gas chromatograph with a flame-ionization detector and a quartz capillary column in the isothermal regime was used for determining the glycerol formed. The degree of conversion was evaluated in a study of the transesterification of sunflower oil and microalgae lipids with the use of the enzyme catalyst Novozym 435. For comparison, the degree of conversion was determined by HPLC–MS based on the triglyceride content of the reaction mixture.