Production of Renewable Liquid Fuels for Diesel Engine Applications – A Review

Abstract— Today it is very much essential to use renewable fuels for power generation and transport applications because of energy security, environmental concerns, foreign exchange savings and socio-economic issues. The new process technologies developed during the last years made it possible to produce biodiesel from different vegetable oils comparable in quality to that of fossil diesel fuels with added attractive advantages. The transesterification process is well-established and becoming increasingly important, but there remain considerable inefficiencies in existing transesterification processes. There is an imperative need to improve the existing biodiesel production methods from technological, economical and environmental viewpoint and to investigate alternative and innovative production processes. In view of this, the review is carried out on biodiesel production and this study mainly highlights the different techniques used in the production of biodiesel from different edible and non-edible oils, advantages and limitations of each technique, and the optimization conditions for each process. The emerging technologies which can be utilized in this field of research are also investigated.