High-temperature conversion of fats: Cracking, gasification, esterification, and transesterification

Abstract

Burning fossil fuels increases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Alternative sources of energy are necessary to control global warming. Diverse synthetic methods transform vegetable oils, animal fats and inexpensive carbon sources to biofuels. This chapter reviews the main chemical and thermal processes that transform triglycerides into fuels. We collected the most cited and recent scientific publications about high-temperature transesterification, thermal and catalytic cracking, and gasification reactions and their respective technologies.