Materials and Methods for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

Biodiesel research has rapidly advanced during the last decades. Though reports have addressed discretely some of the problems associated with land usage, carbon footprint and key issues related to biodiesel research, detailed descriptions of overall processes are still not compiled. The major problem related to edible oil, the widely used feedstock, has been partially solved by the use of waste-derived oils and microbial lipids, but they both are in their infancy stage. Enzymes edges over chemical catalyst due to the greener production process and energy non-intensive nature. Though cost of the enzyme and process scalability is still the major bottle- necks, several attempts have been made to minimize the production cost by using immobilizing system on continuous mode. Purification of crude biodiesel is another challenge and some recent advancement like membrane separation has showed some promise over conventional water washing techniques. We review: (1) different methods of biodiesel production, (2) raw materials, (3) issues related to the enzyme-catalyzed process (4) purification techniques, (5) envi- ronmental aspects and (6) government policies and biodiesel economy. Transesterification using alternative lipid sources and enzymes as eco-friendly cata- lyst could be the possible way for sustainable biodiesel production. Higher yield and productivity with the compliance through international standards are the key challenges in this direction. This review will provide a holistic perceptive of the present scenario to produce economically and industrially feasible biodiesel