Production of Biodiesel from Castor Oil: A Review

Carlos S. Osorio-González, Natali Gómez-Falcon, Fabiola Sandoval-Salas, Rahul Saini, Satinder K. Brar and Antonio Avalos Ramírez
Additional contact information
Carlos S. Osorio-González: Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, North York, TO M3J 1P3, Canada
Natali Gómez-Falcon: Department of Biotechnology, Scientific Research Center of Yucatan, Mérida 97205, Mexico
Fabiola Sandoval-Salas: Subdirection of Research and Postgraduate Studies, Tecnológico Nacional de México/ITS Perote, Perote 91270, Mexico
Rahul Saini: Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, North York, TO M3J 1P3, Canada
Satinder K. Brar: Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, North York, TO M3J 1P3, Canada
Antonio Avalos Ramírez: Centre national en électrochimie et en technologies environnementales, Shawinigan, QC G9N 6V8, Canada

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 10, 1-22

Abstract: An attractive alternative to the use of fossil fuels is biodiesel, which can be obtained from a variety of feedstock through different transesterification systems such as ultrasound, microwave, biological, chemical, among others. The efficient and cost-effective biodiesel production depends on several parameters such as free fatty acid content in the feedstock, transesterification reaction efficiency, alcohol:oil ratio, catalysts type, and several parameters during the production process. However, biodiesel production from vegetable oils is under development, causing the final price of biodiesel to be higher than diesel derived from petroleum. An alternative to decrease the production costs will be the use of economical feedstocks and simple production processes. Castor oil is an excellent raw material in terms of price and quality, but especially this non-edible vegetable oil does not have any issues or compromise food security. Recently, the use of castor oil has attracted attention for producing and optimizing biodiesel production, due to high content of ricinoleic fatty acid and the possibility to esterify with only methanol, which assures low production costs. Additionally, biodiesel from castor oil has different advantages over conventional diesel. Some of them are biodegradable, non-toxic, renewable, they can be used alone, low greenhouse gas emission, among others. This review discusses and analyzes different transesterification processes, technologies, as well as different technical aspects during biodiesel production using castor oil as a feedstock.

Keywords: biodiesel; castor oil; transesterification; purification; R. communis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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