Recent Updates of Biodiesel Production: Source, Production Methods, and Metagenomic Approach

Abstract

AbstractThe fossil fuels are considered to be the main energy sources and fulfill the need of whole energy requirement of the world in the present time. The major fossil fuels or petroleum products that are generally used worldwide are petrol, diesel, and liquid petroleum gas (LPG). These fuels have few disadvantages like they produce several harmful gases which play a major role in the environmental pollution. There are very less sources of fossil fuels found on earth and that may be finished after a certain time period. Hence, it is very important to develop an alternative energy that can fulfill the need of energy in the future. There are several renewable energy sources like solar energy, hydrothermal energy, as well as biofuels. Among these energy sources, biofuel is considered as the better alternative option of fossil fuel due to its easy transportation and widely available production sources. Bioethanol, biomethanol, biogas, biohydrogen, and bio-oils are the major categories of biofuel. Biodiesel is the alternative energy source of diesel and produced from various biological sources like plant, algae, microbial biomass, and edible as well as non-edible vegetable oils. There are different methods such as pyrolysis, dilution, as well as transesterification used for the biodiesel production. Several microbial enzymes show an effective role in the digestion of biomass into biodiesel. These microbial enzymes may be produced from bacterial and fungal species. The metagenomic methods play a major role in the identification along with screening of desired microbial species for the production of biomass-degrading enzymes. The metagenomic approaches are much important in the enhancement of the biodiesel production. The biodiesel production in India and the world are increasing day by day. In this study, the authors have been focused on the source of biodiesel, methods of production, as well as metagenomic approaches for biodiesel production.KeywordsBiodieselSource of biodieselProduction methodsMetagenomicsMicroalgae