Food waste biodiesel

Animal fats (mainly lard, taUow, and chicken), insects, soapstocks, or microorganisms for oil production (eg, microbial oil from yeast, microalgae, molds, bacteria, and cyanobacteria) were compared as cheap sources of biomass for renewable biofuel production by the author and her coworkers in 2014 and can be consulted (Pinzi et al., 2014). Biodiesel production from microbial oil, food waste, or algae, among others, as well as challenging techniques for sustainable processing, is covered later in this book. 

Currently, the main raw materials used to produce biodiesel are the vegetable oils extracted from oleaginous plants. The cost of these materials currentiy represents about 70% of the total production costs. This means that the most suitable vegetable oils are those from crops with the highest productivity per hectare or low-cost oils such as waste oils. These days, the high fossil fuel prices, the collapse of food for biodiesel initiatives, and concerns about increased levels of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere have all created awareness of the need for alternative fuel solutions. Microalgae have optimistically emerged as one of the potential lowest-cost feedstocks for biodiesel production (Robles-Medina et al., 2009). 

Table 20.3 Biodiesel production from food waste... 

By 2006, the U.S. had 77 ethanol plants producing more than 3 billion gallons of ethanol per year. Canada produced an additional 60 million gallons. Corn was the feedstock in 62 of the 77 U.S. plants. Other feedstocks included seed corn, corn and barley, corn and beverage waste, brewery waste, cheese whey, corn and milo, corn and wheat starch, potato waste and various sugars. The U.S. had 11 additional plants under construction and 55 proposed. West Central Soy processes soybeans to a food grade oil. Alcohol and a catalyst are then used to produce biodiesel fuel and glycerin. 

Using the proposed technologies, waste steams which can no longer enter anymore the food chain are converted into biodiesel or biofuel. 

Bio-fuels should be not in competition vith food. Therefore, new technologies need to be developed to efficiently convert cellulosic, fiber or wood-based, waste biomass into fermentable sugars. Similarly, to make biodiesel competitive as a transport fuel, efforts should be directed to diversify the use of raw materials and to improve the processes while making them more economic by developing added-value uses for by-products such as glycerol. Catalysis plays a critical role in achieving these objectives [9]. 

Waste oils, from restaurants and household disposals and being creating serious problems of environmental control and food safety, have been considered as good raw material for biodiesel production. Immobilized Candida antarctica lipase was found to be effective for the methanolysis of waste oil. A three-step methanolysis protocol could be used to protect lipase from inactivation by methanol. Compared with one-step reaction, it needs a longer time to reach the reaction equilibrium. So, efforts should be made to increase enzymatic reaction rate. Reports on the enhancement of the activity of certain enzymes by applying ultrasonic irradiation on the enzymes led us to investigate its effects on the enzymatic transesterification of waste oil to biodiesel in a solvent free system. 

Wastes edible oil, originated from restaurants and household disposals, is creating serious problems of environmental control and food safety. Production of biodiesel with waste edible oil as feedstock not only could reduce disposal problems, but, more importantly, would decrease the cost of biodiesel. 

Biodiesel, i.e., fatty add methyl or ethyl ester from rapeseed, soybeans, sunflowers or palm oil waste oils, e.g from food... 

Other biofuels that are also becoming a major part of the world economy include biodiesely a substitute for petroleum-derived diesel fuel. Biodiesel is typically produced from crops that have a high oil content, such as soybeans and canola. It can also be produced from animal fats and waste vegetable oil from the food and restaurant industry. 

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