A review on feedstocks, production processes, and yield for different generations of biodiesel

Production and comparison of fuel properties, engine performance, and emission characteristics of biodiesel from various non-edible vegetable oils: A review

The over-exploitation of non-renewable resources leads to the depletion of energy reserves, as well as a rise in the price of petroleum-based fuels. Thus, there is a need to find suitable and sustainable substitutes for conventional fuels. The main features required for an alternative fuel are availability and renewability, or lower dependence on restricted resources accompanied with no or lower pollution. Due to their eco-friendly and non-toxic nature, biodiesel has been attracting increasing interest. Biodiesel production can be accomplished using various raw materials, catalysts, and technologies. In recent years, nanocatalyst technology has been widely used for biodiesel production due to its numerous advantages, such as large surface area, reusability and high activity of the nanocatalyst. This review provides an overview of biodiesel production with a description of various kinds of feedstock used, their advantages and disadvantages. Further, it offers a detailed description of different classes of biodiesel, including a characterization, assessment of qualities and limitations, and quality analysis of each type. Various methodologies used for biodiesel production are also elucidated, focusing on the potential of nanocatalyst processes. The aspect of nanocatalyst regeneration and reuse is also considered. This review delivers a comprehensive overview of biodiesel synthesis by discussing recent trends and challenges in this field, which will further the development of economically sustainable biodiesel production.

Recent advancement in biodiesel production methodologies using various feedstock: A review

This paper analyzes the performance and emissions of biodiesel from different feedstocks. The main goal of this paper is to provide information to the engineers, industrialists and researchers who are interested on biodiesel and to emphasise biodiesel as a promising alternative replacement for fossil fuels. A substantial number of literatures from highly rated journals in scientific indexes were cited preferentially since 2000. The performance and emissions indicators such as brake torque, brake power, BTE, EGT, BSFC NOx, PM, CO, CO2, HC and smoke density have been evaluated in comparison to pure diesel. The results showed that different sources of biodiesel feedstocks give different results to engine performance and emissions. Surprisingly some of the research yielded favourable results towards the biodiesel as compared to pure diesel. The study concluded that biodiesel can be used in compression ignition engine as a replacement of diesel fuel to fulfil the global energy demand. However, further research on about optimisation, cost-effectiveness and availability of biodiesel needs to be carried out to help ensure that biofuel will be able to fully replace fossil fuel.

Effects of biodiesel from different feedstocks on engine performance and emissions: A review

Biodiesel, which could be derived from plant oils and animal fats, is considered as a promising substitute for petroleum diesel fuel because of its advantages, such as renewability, biodegradability, less environmental toxicity, and superior combustion efficiency. The feedstock used for biodiesel production primarily include edible oils, non-edible oils, waste oils, and animal fats. Consistent scientific investigations are performed to locate innovative oil resources and minimize the utilization of expensive food-grade oils for biodiesel production. The extensive research information is available on the determination of physico-chemical properties of different plant oils. This review will present a general information related to the existing varieties of oil feedstocks, their lipid content, and fatty acid composition. This article further discusses different methods employed to enable the usage of plant oils as biofuel, such as its direct use, blending, thermal cracking, microemulsion, and alcoholysis process. Among the possible methodologies for biodiesel production, alcoholysis process, in the presence or absence of a catalytic material, have been frequently employed. The benefits and limitations of using homogeneous, heterogeneous, enzyme catalysts, and supercritical method for the alcoholysis process are comprehensively discussed. In the current article, efforts have been made to review the recent inventions in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic materials utilized for biodiesel production. The present study shall provide a tool for the selection of an optimal catalyst for a large-scale biodiesel production.

A review on recent advancement in catalytic materials for biodiesel production.

Combustion performance and emission characteristics study of pine oil in a diesel engine

Pine oil-biodiesel blends: A double biofuel strategy to completely eliminate the use of diesel in a diesel engine

This review work focuses on biofuels with lower viscosity and cetane number and their mode of operation in a diesel engine. Though there were a number of review works describing the production, characterization and utilization of biodiesel, synthesized from vegetable oils, a comprehensive summary on other category of biofuels endowed with lower viscosity and cetane number has not come to light so far. In this backdrop, this review work would bring forth the existence of biofuels having lower viscosity and cetane number, classify them under one category and elucidate their operational feasibility in a diesel engine. Considerably, alcohol based fuels such as methanol, ethanol and butanol, and plant based light biofuels such as eucalyptus oil and pine oil have been chosen and classified as LVLC (less viscous and lower cetane) fuels in the current work. Besides describing the operation feasibility of these fuels, an extensive exploration of their physical, thermal and critical properties as well as their compositional attributes has been made. Despite their distinct properties, these fuels have found use in diesel engine by various strategies and apparently, they could be used in blends with diesel/biodiesel, dual fuel mode and as sole fuel. In this regard, herein, a detailed summary on operation of these fuels in the reported three different modes is clearly explained and their engine characteristics such as performance, combustion and emission are briefed.

S. Vedharaj

Papers

Combustion performance and emission characteristics study of pine oil in a diesel engine

Pine oil-biodiesel blends: A double biofuel strategy to completely eliminate the use of diesel in a diesel engine

Feasibility of using less viscous and lower cetane (LVLC) fuels in a diesel engine: A review

Impact of ignition promoting additives on the characteristics of a diesel engine powered by pine oil–diesel blend

Experimental investigation of kapok (Ceiba pentandra) oil biodiesel as an alternate fuel for diesel engine