Review on transesterification of non-edible sources for biodiesel production with a focus on economic aspects, fuel properties and by-product applications
Introduction
In recent years, efforts have been made to find eco-friendly and renewable alternatives for fuel due to the depletion of fossil resources and increases in the crude oil price. Biodiesel is an eco‐friendly and a sustainable biofuel with fossil fuel–like properties. Therefore, it has been accepted as an alternative to conventional diesel and is now used in blends with petrodiesel by several countries [1]. Between 2000 and 2017, biofuel production increased 10-fold from 16 billion to 143 billion liters [2]. By 2016, the worldwide biodiesel production was over 32.6 million tons. Moreover, the global biofuel market is estimated to grow at an annual growth rate of 5.4% from 2017 to 2024, and the worldwide capacity of biodiesel production is anticipated to reach 12 billion gallons by 2020 [3], [4]. Brazil, the USA, Malaysia, Argentina, Netherlands, Spain, Philippines, Belgium, Indonesia, and Germany are among the 10 countries that fulfill more than 80% of the global biodiesel demand [5], [6].
The second and third generation of biodiesel is produced from non-edible crops (vegetable and algal oil) and oil waste (waste animal oil and WCO), respectively. Also, the feasibility of using a wide range of feedstocks, process optimization, and cost reduction for biodiesel production has been challenging for over 20 years. This has led to the search for low-cost alternatives, such as non-edible resources and animal-based feedstocks [7]. Hence, the use of oil waste sources (WCO and animal fats) is increasing for industrial-scale biodiesel production, which makes the entire production process more sustainable [8].
As reported by Atabani et al. [9], more than 350 oil-bearing crops identified worldwide as potential sources for biodiesel production. Various feedstocks, such as vegetable oil, waste animal fats, WCO, and algal oil, has been evaluated for biodiesel production [10]. Additionally, biodiesel can be produced from terrestrial plants that have limited availability. The food-based crops such as vegetable oils are presumed to be the dominant source for biodiesel production. Vegetable oils are categorized into edible oils (e.g. canola oil and sunflower oil) and non-edible oils (e.g. Jatropha and Karanja oil). The Palm, soybean and rapeseed oil are the most important feedstock sources for biodiesel production. In 2017, the global biodiesel production was attributed to palm oil (31%), soybean oil (27%), rapeseed oil (20%), which followed by WCO (10%), waste animal fats (7%) and other (5%) [11]. As reported by Gui et al. [12], the potential of different edible, non-edible and waste for biodiesel production since many years ago have been investigated. Therefore, the main sources for biodiesel production are dividing into two different categories (edible and non-edible) as shown in Fig. 1.
Besides, the advantages and disadvantages of non-edible oils are shown in Table 1.
The biodiesel production from animal fats and WCO is increasing in the USA and Europe [21]. As reported by Atabani et al. [22], the cost of produced biodiesel from edible oil is higher than that of petroleum fuels. According to Gebremariam and Marchetti [23], the cost of biodiesel production can be decreased by reducing capital investment, increasing biodiesel yield by improving technology, and reducing the cost of raw materials. To achieve this goal, the economic aspects of biodiesel production should be evaluated by finding alternatives to available technologies, catalyst, and feedstock.
Section snippets
Biodiesel production methods
In general, there are four common methods for biodiesel production as follows:
- 1.
Blending or dilution is defined as the simplest and oldest used method with a blend of preheated vegetable/animal oils and petrodiesel in the ratio of 10–40% (w/w) [24].
- 2.
Microemulsification is solubilization of vegetable or animal oils in an alcoholic solvent and surfactants. It is work based on the formation of micro-emulsions by using various alcoholic solvents with colloidal microstructures to reach the required
Non-edible sources for biodiesel production
Based on the surveyed literature, WCO, waste animal oil, non-edible vegetable oil, and algae were considered as an alternative for edible sources, which are explained in details in the following sections.
Economic aspects
Some parameters such as the cost of feedstock and the selling price of produced biodiesel and their by-products (glycerol) have a direct effect on the economic feasibility of biodiesel production. As reported by Atabani et al. [9], the average cost of producing biodiesel and diesel fuel is $0.50 and $0.35 per liter, respectively. The biodiesel production price can be calculated using the Eq. (1):
The
Fuel properties of produced biodiesel from non-edible sources
To ensure engine performance without any difficulties, biodiesel quality should meet worldwide standards because it is produced from different sources. A wide range of sources, such as edible and non-edible vegetable oils and waste animal fats, can be used as potential fuel for complete replacement of diesel in Compression Ignition (CI) engines [190].
The properties and qualities of biodiesel must be in accordance with the internationally recognized specification for biodiesel standard, which
By-product applications
The biodiesel production would be economically affordable by the conversion of by-products to value-added products [206]. Crude glycerol is the main by-product of biodiesel production since the large amounts (8% to 10%) can be produced in the transesterification process. As reported by Rastegari et al. [207], the global inventory of glycerol is predicted to reach approximately 41.9 billion liters by 2020. Oil cake/meal (solid residues obtained after oil extraction from the seeds), salt and
Future prospects based on recent studies
The most important parameters for effective biodiesel production are the type of catalyst and feedstock. In fact, raw material selection and catalyst type play significant roles in the economic viability of biodiesel production. The challenges for feedstock selection include storage and transport, oil extraction and conversion process, fuel characterization and property analysis, optimization and production processes [59]. Due to several limitations of traditional homogeneous and heterogeneous
Conclusion
In this review, we focused on the recent findings on biodiesel production from non-edible sources and the economic aspects, properties of produced fuel and the application of glycerol as the main by-product. The following points can be concluded from this review:
- •
WCO, a non-edible source, produced high yields of biodiesel (greater than90%) using different heterogeneous catalysts, whereas reaction temperature, reaction time, and catalyst loading had minimal effect on the production yield.
- •
The
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this work from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSICT) (No. 2017R1A4A1015393 and 2019R1A2C2089232).
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