Biodiesel and fatty esters

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of biodiesel (basically a mixture of fatty esters) as renewable fuel, covering the market developments and trends, chemical composition and characteristics, properties and performance, complementary use as diesel fuel, main synthesis routes (e.g. esterification or trans-esterification), various catalysts used for manufacturing (e.g. homogeneous, solid acids and solid base catalysts) and industrial production processes (e.g. batch, continuous, supercritical, enzymatic, multi-step, reactive separations).