Green biodiesel

Teixeira, C.B., Madeira Junior, J.V., Macedo, G.A., 2014. Biocatalysis combined with physical technologies for development of a green biodiesel process. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 33,333-343. 

Glycerol as a by-product from biodiesel production can be considered as a green chemical feedstock for subsequent catalytic transformation. In contrast to traditional petrochemical feedstocks, the present one is highly functionalized, its transformation requiring selective defunctionalization. 

M. Toda, A. Takagaki, M. Okamura, J. N. Kondo, S. Hayashi, K. Domen, and M. Hara, Green chemistry Biodiesel made with sugar catalyst, Nature, 438 (2005) 178. 

Considering the worldwide increase in biodiesel production, the market price of glycerol could be decreased from the current 1.34-2.00/kg to 0.45-1.12/kg making glycerol a major building block for bulk chemical production (Werpy and Petersen, 2004). Glycerol conversion could be accomplished by green chemical... 

Dunn, R. O. 2006b. Oxidation Kinetics of Biodiesel by Non-Isothermal Pressurized-Differential Scanning Calorimetry. In Proc., 34th Annual NATAS Conference. Bowling Green KY North American Thermal Analysis Society. 

Some of the renewable resources for the production of green energy are vegetable oils and animal fats. The use of neat lipids as transportation fuel has not been very successful due to their high viscosity which is leading to engine problems. The production of biodiesel (alkyl esters of fatty acids) is one of the best alternatives, and the blending of biodiesel with petroleum diesel is now widespread in Europe and in the U.S. 

Considerable attention is currently being focused on the use of renewable vegetable oils as feedstocks for the production of biodiesel. The latter has obvious benefits in the context of green chemistry and sustainability (i) since it is plant-derived its use as a fuel is C02-neutral, (ii) it is readily biodegradable, (iii) its use results in reduced emissions of CO, SOx, soot and particulate matter. 

Recently, biodiesel has been used as a solvent in free radical-initiated polymerization reactions (Figure 5.8). It should be noted that in contrast to polymerization reactions in some other green solvents, including SCCO2, there is no need to modify the initiator for reactions in biodiesel. All the resulting polymers except poly(methyl methacrylate) were soluble in the biodiesel. Lower molecular weights were obtained compared with conventional polymerization... 

The main improvement of the Ecofining technology compared to the conventional FAME biodiesel is that it allows refiners to obtain a synthetic fuel that has a similar chemical composition and similar chemical-physical properties to petroleum diesel. For this reason the product can all be easily blended with conventional refinery products. Moreover, the integrated production of the green diesel allows the refiner to... 

Table 8.1 Green diesel fuel properties versus mineral ULSD and conventional biodiesel (FAME).

Ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) Biodiesel (FAME) Green diesel... 

The quality of vegetable oil, in particular the fatty add distribution and the degree of unsaturation can affect the properties of FAM E biodiesel, but they do not affed the properties of green diesel. 

Figure 8.8 LCA analysis comparison of green diesel versus FAME biodiesel and a petroleum diesel energy consumption per unit of diesel energy.

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