Studies on production of biodiesel from sterculia foetida ceiba pentandra and persea americana seed oil using homogeneous catalyst

Abstract

Fossil fuel based energy sources are not sustainable because of environmental impacts economic dependence and energy security issues Thus it is important to find an alternative energy source that is renewable sustainable and environment friendly This pushes the attention in areas such as biomass hydrogen fuel cells and solar cells Carbon neutral renewable liquid fuels are needed to replace the petroleum derived transport fuels Among all the renewable biofuel sources biodiesel from renewable feedstocks including edible non edible oils animal fats and micro algae seems more promising as an alternative sustainable as they are biodegradable and non toxic Currently feedstock alone represents more than 75 of the overall biodiesel production cost Therefore selecting the best feedstock is vital to ensure low production cost It has also been found that the continuity in transesterification process is another choice to minimize the production cost Biodiesel is currently not economically feasible and more research and technological development are needed Thus it is important to promote biodiesel research and make their prices competitive with other conventional sources of energy Exploring ways to reduce the high cost of biodiesel is of much interest in recent biodiesel research So the use of cheap and non edible vegetable oils animal fats and waste oils as raw feedstocks for biodiesel production is an effective way to reduce the cost of biodiesel newline