Biodiesel is a promising substitute for petroleum diesel, and has been commercialized and utilized in
many countries. Conventional chemical or physical methods used for biodiesel production face the drawbacks
of high energy consumption or intensive use of chemicals. In contrast, using lipase-catalyzed
transesterification for biodiesel synthesis is clean, effective, and water tolerance. Therefore, in this work,
a self-developed Burkholderia lipase was immobilized onto hydrophobic magnetic particles (HMPs) for
biodiesel production. Transesterification with the immobilized lipase could be repeatedly carried out
six times without severe activity loss. The optimal conditions for the enzymatic transesterification were
identified as: room temperature, 200 rpm agitation, 10% water content, and a methanol-to-oil molar ratio
of 4:1. Under these conditions, the conversion of oil to fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) reached nearly
70% within 12 h, giving a biodiesel production rate of 43.5 g/L/h.