Advances in nanocatalysts design for biofuels production

The exploitation of nanocatalysts, at the boundary between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, is tracking new efficient ways to produce renewable biofuels in environmentally friendly conditions. Their solid state makes them recyclable, and their nanomateric particle size enables high activities approaching those offered by homogeneous catalysts, as well as novel and unique catalytic behaviors not accessible to solids above the nanometer range. Furthermore, the use of magnetically active materials has led to the development of nanocatalysts easily recoverable through the application of magnetic fields. In this mini-review, latest achievements in the production of advanced biofuels using stable, highly active, cheap and reusable nanocatalysts are described. Specifically, biodiesel and high density fuels have been chosen as major topics of research for the design of catalytic nanomaterials

Heterogeneous catalysis for sustainable biodiesel production via esterification and transesterification

Concern over the economics of accessing fossil fuel reserves, and widespread acceptance of the anthropogenic origin of rising CO2 emissions and associated climate change from combusting such carbon sources, is driving academic and commercial research into new routes to sustainable fuels to meet the demands of a rapidly rising global population. Here we discuss catalytic esterification and transesterification solutions to the clean synthesis of biodiesel, the most readily implemented and low cost, alternative source of transportation fuels to meet future societal demands

Biodiesel production from vegetable oil: Process design, evaluation and optimization

To investigate the effect of reactor performance/configuration of biodiesel production on process parameters (mass & energy consumption, required facilities etc.), two diverse production processes (from vegetable oil) were implemented/designed using Aspen HYSYS V7.2. Two series reactors were taken into account where overall conversion was set to be 97.7% and 70% in first and second processes respectively. Comparative analysis showed that an increase in conversion yield caused to consumption reduction of oil, methanol, cold energy and hot energy up to 9.1%, 22%, 67.16% and 60.28% respectively; further, a number of facilities (e.g. boiler, heat exchanger, distillation tower) were reduced. To reduce mass & energy consumption, mass/heat integration method was employed. Applying integration method showed that in the first design, methanol, cold and hot energy were decreased by 49.81%, 17.46% and 36.17% respectively; while in the second design, oil, methanol, cold and hot energy were decreased by 9%, 60.57% 19.62% and 36.58% respectively