Nanocatalysts in Biodiesel Production

Abstract

The industrialization and continuous rise in the global population extensively increase the demand for fossil fuels. However, depleting fossil fuel reservoirs, environmental concerns raised due to the emission of greenhouse gases, climate change, and global warming force us to search and shift to renewable energy sources. In this context, biofuels can be used as green fuels because of their renewable and carbon-neutral nature. Production of biofuels, particularly biodiesel attraction, is a great interest all over the world. Biodiesel can be produced using different techniques like transesterification, pyrolysis, microemulsification, dilution, the supercritical fluid method, etc. using a variety of feedstocks such as vegetable oils, animal fats, and microbial oils. Transesterification of vegetable oils using various homogeneous, heterogeneous, and biocatalysts is the most preferred approach used for biodiesel production. The conventional catalysts like heterogeneous catalysts are found to have promising catalytic activity and higher biodiesel conversion rate, but their certain limitation restricts their uses in large-scale production. Therefore, nanocatalysts are being used as modern tools in biodiesel production due to their several advantages over conventional catalysts like higher catalytic activity, economic viability, selectivity, easy recovery, and reusability. Considering these facts, in the present chapter special focus has been given on the role of different nanocatalysts in biodiesel production. Moreover, other important aspects like conventional catalysts used in biodiesel production, their advantages and limitations, the role of nanotechnology in biodiesel production, etc. are also discussed.