Study of Second and Third Generation Biofuel feed Stocks

Abstract

The continues use of petroleum based fuels is now recognized as unsustainable because of the decrease in its amount and the harmful effect caused by its use to the environment due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There is a need to find renewable, carbon neutral transport fuels for economic and environmental sustainability. A possible alternative is biodiesel derived from oil crops. It is renewable and carbon neutral. Unfortunately, biodiesel from oil crops possess food vs. fuel dilemma. To overcome this problem, the combined use of different feed stocks for biofuel production can be done. Both second generation feed stock-waste cooking oil and third generation feedstock-microalgae can together help in fulfilling the global demand for energy. The use of waste oil for biodiesel production can be done both on industrial level and even in houses, universities, armed forces premises, small scale and also large scale hotel businesses. Whereas, the production of algal based biofuel is required to be done only on industrial and commercial level in order to utilize it as potential alternative. Therefore, cost-effective technologies are desired to produce biofuels that are suitable for drop-in use in cars, trucks, and jet planes. These advanced biofuels can be sustainably manufactured from waste oil, cellulosic and algal feed stocks. Biomass conversion technologies are also needed to produce chemical intermediates and high-value chemicals. The aim of this project is to study potential feed stocks for sustainable production of biodiesel, the environment friendly use of a waste product, i.e. waste cooking oil for generating our own source of energy and the screening of methods to enhance the algal based feed stock to generate large amounts of biodiesel. It also focusses on the use of the by-products generated during the reaction of biodiesel production in a valuable and economically benefitting manner.