Biodiesel Production through Heterogeneous Catalysis Route: A Review

Joseph VL Ruatpuia, Gopinath Halder, Samuel Lalthazuala Rokhum

Science Vision 22 (1), 1-19 | Published on 25 April 2022 | https://doi.org/10.33493/scivis.22.01.01

Abstract

Depletion of oil reserves, increasing prices of petroleum products, and environmental concerns related to air pollution are the main driving forces for utilizing renewable energy resources to replace fossil fuels. Vegetable oils can be used to produce biodiesel. Biodiesel is obtained by transesterification of vegetable oil with alcohol using homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts. Commercial homogeneous catalysts in the biodiesel production industry are facing challenges such as separation difficulties and severe corrosion which will lead to the increment of production and maintenance cost. Herein, this paper focuses on the comprehensive review of literature reported on the usage of heterogeneous catalyst used in biodiesel production. Compared to other commercial catalysts, the usage of heterogeneous catalyst possesses several advantages such as abundantly available, cheaper raw materials, reusable, non-toxic and biodegradable. Carbon material synthesized from biomass which acts as the efficient support for active sites due to its high porosity and surface area characteristic has been studied widely.

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