Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain monoalkyl esters or fatty acid methyl

ester. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as vegetable oil with an alcohol such as methanol, producing fatty acid esters. Biodiesel can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually blended with petrodiesel to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel-powered vehicles.

Biodiesel is the most common biofuel in Europe.

Plant oils are oils derived from plant sources, as opposed to animal fats or petroleum. Plant oils are basically mixtures of varying amounts of triglycerides. When oils are split into glycerine and fatty acids, the resulting mixture contain three molecules of fatty acid for each molecule of glycerine.

While there are a large number of triglycerides in nature, the triglycerides of seven acids, namely, lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic, constitute the majority of plant oils.
The properties of plant oils, therefore, depend on the characteristics of the triglycerides present.

There are two distinct types of plant oils:

Fixed oils such as coconut and castor oils, which do not readily evaporate on exposure to air. Essential oils such as citronella and cinnamon oils, which readily evaporate on exposure.

Fixed oils are usually extracted by: Crushing and pressure Boiling Chemical solvents Essential oils are almost always extracted by distillation, many of them from flowers such as ilang-ilang oil. Some fixed oils that are liquid at relatively high temperature become solid in ambient temperatures. These fixed oils from plants are used for diesel fuel production. While essential oils are used in the production of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and perfumes.

The oil from oil-producing plants is usually concentrated in the fruits (flesh or pulp) and seeds (mainly embryo). The roots, stalks, branches, and leaves may also contain some oil but, in very small amounts. The oil yield per unit weight of material being processed is an important parameter in assessing the cost of extraction required to produce the desired product, which is the oil. This table presents the typical amounts of oil that can be extracted from some plants or crops:

When a molecule of the fatty acid contains the maximum amount of hydrogen, the acid is called a saturated fatty acid. Myristic, lauric, palmitic and stearic acids are saturated fatty acids. These fatty acids are usually solid at ambient temperature such as palm oil (shown below).

When the molecule of the fatty acid does not contain the maximum amount of hydrogen, the acid is called an unsaturated fatty acid.
Oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids are unsaturated fatty acids. These fatty acids are usually liquid at ambient temperature.

Extraction of oils is the first step in producing biodiesel. This step may involve several different types of operations or processes depending on the kind of feedstock.

There are two main processes for extracting oil from seed feedstock. They are:
mechanical press extraction solvent extraction

In mechanical press extraction, the oil seed is first heated to about 43C. The oil seed is then crushed in a screw press releasing the oil. The solvent process extracts more of the oil contained in the oil seed but requires more costly equipment. The process uses a solvent to dissolve the oil. After extraction, a distillation process separates the oil from the solvent.

Solvent extraction produces oil with a higher degree of purity than the mechanical press process.

Biodiesel is produced by transesterifying the vegetable oil to achieve a viscosity close to that of petrodiesel. These oils as alternative fuels are extremely viscous; with viscosities ranging from 10 to 17 times greater than that of petrodiesel. The purpose of the transesterification process is to lower the viscosity of the oil. During the process of transesterification, an alcohol reacts with the triglyceride oils (plant oils) to form fatty acid alkyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerine. The most common form of this process uses methanol to produce methyl esters (commonly referred to as fatty acid methyl ester or FAME) as it is the cheapest alcohol available, although ethanol can be used to produce an ethyl ester and higher alcohols such as isopropanol and butanol have also been used.

The reaction requires heat and a strong base catalyst such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. This is the simplified chemical reaction which produces biodiesel:

The complete process for the production of methyl ester (biodiesel) from plant oil basically involves five steps: acid esterification, transesterification, methanol recovery, biodiesel refining, and glycerine refining. This is simplified process flow diagram:

Acid Esterification The oil feedstock containing more than 4% free fatty acids is first filtered and then pre-processed to remove water and unwanted solids. The pretreated oil is then fed to the acid esterification process. Sulphuric acid (catalyst), which is dissolved in methanol, is then mixed with the pretreated oil and heated. The free fatty acids are thereby converted to biodiesel. Once the reaction is complete, it is dewatered and then fed to the transesterification process. Transesterification The plant oil, which contains less than 4% free fatty acids, is first filtered and then pre-processed to remove water and contaminants. The pretreated oil is then fed directly to the transesterification process along with any products of the acid esterification process. Potassium hydroxide (catalyst), is dissolved in methanol and then mixed with the pretreated oil. Once the reaction is complete, the major co-products, biodiesel and glycerine, are separated into two layers.

Methanol recovery The methanol is usually removed immediately after the biodiesel and glycerine have been separated. This is done to prevent the reaction from reversing itself. The recovered methanol is cleaned and recycled back to the beginning of the process. Biodiesel refining Once separated from the glycerine, the biodiesel goes through a series of purification steps to remove excess alcohol, residual catalyst and soaps. These consist of multistage washings with clean water. The product biodiesel is then dried and sent to storage. Glycerine refining The crude glycerine contains unreacted catalyst and soaps that must be neutralized with an acid. The water and alcohol are also removed to produce 50%-80% crude glycerine. Further purification produces glycerine with a purity of 99% or higher which is suitable for use in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

Some advantages of biodiesel as fuel are: renewability lubricating qualities higher combustion efficiency lower sulphur content higher biodegradability

Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that allows for low concentration biodieseldiesel blends to run on conventional unmodified engines. It can be stored anywhere where petroleum diesel fuel is stored. Biodiesel is much safer to handle and transport due to its high flash point. The higher heating values (HHVs) of biodiesels are relatively high. The HHVs of biodiesels (3941 MJ/kg) are slightly lower than that of gasoline (46 MJ/kg), petrodiesel (43 MJ/kg) or petroleum (42 MJ/kg), but higher than coal (3237 MJ/kg).

Some disadvantages of biodiesel are: higher viscosity lower engine speed and power engine compatibility higher cost

Other disadvantages of biodiesel in comparison with petrodiesel are the lower energy content and fuel pumping difficulty from higher viscosity. This increases fuel consumption when biodiesel is used in comparison to pure petrodiesel.

The first generation biofuels are those that are characterized by well understood technologies. The development and use of first generation biofuels are encouraged by the desire to reduce oil and coal imports, support the rural economy, and to decrease the accumulation of greenhouse gases. The second generation biofuels address many of the problems and concerns associated with first generation biofuels. To develop second generation biofuels, research and development work has been directed towards advanced technologies such as:
biodiesel enzymes higher carbon fixation in roots improved oil recovery

Through advances in genetic develop crops that are:

engineering,

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disease-resistant viable even in degraded lands require much lower inputs of chemicals and water