Biodiesel: Features, Potential Hurdles, and Future Direction

Kumar, Yogendra; Das, Lipika; Biswas, Koushik Guha

doi:10.1007/978-981-16-4509-9_5

Yogendra Kumar⁷,
Lipika Das⁸ &
Koushik Guha Biswas⁷

Part of the book series: Clean Energy Production Technologies ((CEPT))

330 Accesses
5 Citations

Abstract

The need for cleaner and greener fuels has considerably evoked much interest in the worldwide renewable energy scenario. Biodiesel is one such biofuel that is widely used as green fuels and can replace conventional fuels. Over the years several methodologies have been employed to produce biodiesel, and these production processes have been modified over the period utilizing the latest technologies and optimizing the feedstocks. The main difference between conventional diesel and biodiesel is its source. Biodiesels are made of naturally occurring fatty acids or oils. Biodiesel consists of fatty acid methyl/ethyl esters (FAMEs/FAEEs) derived from vegetable oil or animal fats in the presence of alcohol and acid/base catalyst. Recently there have been many modifications in the feedstocks and their generation to optimize the yield. The key and the most promising features of biodiesel are clean burning fuel, no toxicity, reduced emission, and being safer and biodegradable. However, a high methanol/oil ratio, limited conversion, and high operational cost make large-scale production less competitive. Process intensification strategies like microreactors, microstructured reactors, and microchemical technologies could play a vital role to make the process more economical and competitive. Despite several advantages, present biodiesel production processes face issues like high catalyst separation and recovery cost, high alcohol/oil ratio, and less logistic viability. However, some of these issues could be solved using innovative heterogeneous/enzymatic catalyst-embedded systems in the future. This study is a comprehensive outlook of biodiesel in a modern context with production challenges and hurdles. Furthermore, the study also suggests some future process intensification alternatives to overcome conversion and yield issues that make biodiesel production commercially feasible and competitive.

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Department of Chemical Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Jais, Uttar Pradesh, India
Yogendra Kumar & Koushik Guha Biswas
Department of Chemical Engineering, Haldia Institute of Technology, Hatiberia, West Bengal, India
Lipika Das

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Yogendra Kumar
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Lipika Das
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Koushik Guha Biswas
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Oil & Gas Research Center, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
.Sanket J. Joshi
Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India
Ramkrishna Sen
Department of Sciences and Humanities, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Atul Sharma
Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand
P. Abdul Salam

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Kumar, Y., Das, L., Biswas, K.G. (2022). Biodiesel: Features, Potential Hurdles, and Future Direction. In: Joshi, ..J., Sen, R., Sharma, A., Salam, P.A. (eds) Status and Future Challenges for Non-conventional Energy Sources Volume 2. Clean Energy Production Technologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4509-9_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4509-9_5
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