Olive husk oil transesterification in a fluidized bed reactor with immobilized lipases

In the present work, olive husk oil was continuously transesterified by immobilized lipases in a fluidizedbed reactor (FBR). Preliminary fluidization tests were run to find the fluidization flow rate for the system under study.Subsequently, the reactor was operated continuously performing high productivity, as compared to literature data onpacked bed reactors (PBR) for biodiesel production and to batch data reported in this work. The system was also run ina recycle configuration aiming at studying the effect of repeated passages of the substrates within the reactor, withoutchanging fluidization conditions (i.e. decreasing the fresh feed flow rate to the system by increasing the recycle flowrate, without changing the flow rate entering the reactor). Tests at different recycle ratios were performed to investigatethe effect on the process performance of different dilution degrees within the reactor and fresh flow rates fed to thesystem and to find optimal operating conditions.