The process of immobilized lipase catalyzed transesterification of cottonseed oil for biodiesel production was optimized by response surface methodology. With fatty acid methyl ester conversion rate as index, the effects of reaction time, reaction temperature, immobilized lipase amount (on the basis of cottonseed oil mass), molar ratio of methanol to cottonseed oil and volume ratio of tert-butanol to cottonseed oil on the conversion rate were studied. The optimal reaction conditions were determined as follows: reaction time 19.128 h, reaction temperature 37.801℃, immobilized lipase amount 12.070%, molar ratio of methanol to cottonseed oil 4.949, volume ratio of tert-butanol to cottonseed oil 0.323. The verification test showed that the conversion rate reached 92.9%, which had a high degree of agreement with the response suface methodology predicted value (94.3%). |