Abstract
Energy security and environmental concerns, related to the increasing carbon emissions, have prompted in the last years the search for renewable and sustainable fuels. Biodiesel, a mixture of fatty acids alkyl esters shows properties, which make it a feasible substitute for fossil diesel. Biodiesel can be produced using different processes and different raw materials. The most common, first generation, biodiesel is produced by methanolysis of vegetable oils using basic or acid homogeneous catalysts. The use of vegetable oils for biodiesel production raises serious questions about biodiesel sustainability. Used cooking oils and animal fats can replace the vegetable oils in biodiesel production thus allowing to produce a more sustainable biofuel. Moreover, methanol can be replaced by ethanol being totally renewable since it can be produced by biomass fermentation. The substitution of homogeneous catalyzed processes, nowadays used in the biodiesel industry, by heterogeneous ones can contribute to improve the biodiesel sustainability with simultaneous cost reduction. From the existing literature on biodiesel production, it stands out that several strategies can be adopted to improve the sustainability of biodiesel. A literature review is presented to underline the strategies allowing to improve the biodiesel sustainability.
Highlights
Energy security and environmental concerns, related to the increasing carbon emissions, have prompted in the last years the search for renewable and sustainable fuels
Many of them can be used in the transport sector, like [10]: bioethanol: ethanol produced from biomass and/or the biodegradable fraction of waste; biodiesel: a methyl-ester produced from vegetable or animal oil, of diesel quality; biogas: a fuel gas produced from biomass and/or from the biodegradable fraction of waste, that can be purified to natural gas quality, to be used as biofuel, or wood gas; biomethanol: methanol produced from biomass; biodimethylether: dimethylether produced from biomass, bio-ETBE: ETBE produced based on bioethanol
Biodiesel obtained by alcoholysis of fats is a feasible low carbon fuel to replace the conventional fossil diesel helping to mitigate the anthropogenic carbon emissions
Summary
Worldwide energy demand has been growing in the last decades (Figure 1a). According to the U.S. Replacing fossil fuel with more sustainable energies, maximizing the use of renewable ones, is increasingly important, to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and to improve energy supply security [3]. These concerns have led to changes in global environmental policy. Figure to achieve the proposed targets is thein increase in the use of2015 biofuels an for alternative energy source. The EU has set a new binding national target of minimum energetic incorporation of 14% for the share of energy from renewable sources consumed in transport until 2030. In the transport sector an increase in biofuels production due to all alternative fuel options is predicted, which will be required achieving deep emission reductions [9]
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