Biodiesel From Conventional Feedstocks - Biotechnology in China: Biofuels and Bioenergy - page 53

Biodiesel From Conventional Feedstocks

Wei Du and De-Hua Liu

Abstract At present, traditional fossil fuels are used predominantly in China,
presenting the country with challenges that include sustainable energy supply,
energy efficiency improvement, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2007, China issued The Strategic Plan of the Mid-and-Long Term Development
of Renewable Energy, which aims to increase the share of clean energy in the
country's energy consumption to 15% by 2020 from only 7.5% in 2005. Biodiesel,
an important renewable fuel with significant advantages over fossil diesel, has
attracted great attention in the USA and European countries. However, biodiesel is
still in its infancy in China, although its future is promising. This chapter reviews
biodiesel production from conventional feedstocks in the country, including
feedstock supply and state of the art technologies for the transesterification reac-
tion through which biodiesel is made, particularly the enzymatic catalytic process
developed by Chinese scientists. Finally, the constraints and perspectives for
China's biodiesel development are highlighted.

Keywords Biodiesel Conventional feedstocks Greenhouse gas emission
Renewable energy

Contents

1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 54

2 Conventional Oil Feedstocks Used for Biodiesel Production ........................................... 55

2.1 Low-Grade Oils and Waste Oils/Greases .................................................................. 55

2.2 Potentials of Oil Plants for Large-Scale Biodiesel Production................................. 55

3 Current Technologies for Biodiesel Production ................................................................. 57

3.1 Homogeneous Catalyst-Mediated Process ................................................................. 57

3.2 Heterogeneous Catalyst-Mediated Process ................................................................ 59

3.3 Lipase-Mediated Process ............................................................................................ 60

3.4 Biodiesel Production in a Supercritical Fluid System .............................................. 62

3.5 Processing of By-Product Glycerol............................................................................ 63

W. Du ( ) D.-H. Liu

Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University,
100084 Beijing, China
e-mail: [e-mail]

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