Biofuel Extraction Techniques

3Extraction Techniques for Biodiesel Production

Soumya Parida^1* and Subhalaxmi Pradhan²

¹ Department of Applied Science and Humanities, G. L. Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management, Greater Noida, India

² Division of Chemistry, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Galgotias University, Gautam Budh Nagar, India

Abstract

The increasing exhaustion of fossil fuels and the negative environmental consequences of their excessive usage have prompted the development of sustainable biomass-based fuels. Biodiesel is a biomass-based fuel that is gaining attraction as a viable substitute to petroleum-based fuel. Apart from being derived from renewable sources, it has a very low emission profile and can be used directly or in blended form in existing engines without any modifications that make it an attractive substitute to petrodiesel. Chemically it comprises of a mixture of fatty acid alkyl esters prepared by the alcoholysis reaction of triglycerides with a lower alcohol in the absence or presence of a catalyst (either acidic or basic). Both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts and enzyme catalysts have been used till date. The current chapter discusses all the techniques of extraction of biodiesel that have been used to date along with the recent process of intensification technologies that are adopted to progress the conventional methods of synthesis of biodiesel.

Keywords: Biodiesel, transesterification, catalysts, intensification methods

3.1 Introduction

Fuel costs have ...