(2016) Bioresource Technology_Pseudo catalytic transformation of volatile fatty acids into fatty acid methyl esters

Jung J.-M., Cho J., Kim K.-H., Kwon E.E.

(Elsevier Ltd) Bioresource Technology ISSN: 9608524 Vol.203 Issue. Article No. DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.12.048

Instead of anaerobic digestion of biodegradable wastes for producing methane, this work introduced the transformation of acidogenesis products (VFAs) into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) to validate the feasible production of short-chained fatty alcohols via hydrogenation of FAMEs. In particular, among VFAs, this work mainly described the mechanistic explanations for transforming butyric acid into butyric acid methyl ester as a case study. Unlike the conventional esterification process (conversion efficiency of ~94%), the newly introduced esterification under the presence of porous materials via the thermo-chemical process reached up to ~99.5%. Furthermore, the newly introduced esterification via the thermo-chemical pathway in this work showed extremely high tolerance of impurities: the conversion efficiency under the presence of impurities reached up to ~99 ±. 0.3%; thus, the inhibition behaviors attributed from the impurities used for the experimental work were negligible. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean Government ( MSIP ) (No. 2914RA1A004893 ). The third author acknowledges partial support made by a grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) (No. 2009-0093848 ).