9. Solar Assisted Biodiesel Production

Due to the scarcity of fossil energy sources and high combustion generated pollution, new alternative greener energy sources became the necessity of the time. Biodiesel is a potential alternative for depleting energy sources since it is produced mainly from vegetable oils and animal fats, which are a renewable resource and are biodegradable and non-toxic. The production process of biodiesel involves heating and mixing triglyceride with methanol (or ethanol) in the presence of various catalysts. Currently, biodiesel is produced via transesterification reactions catalyzed by chemical catalysts, which produces higher fatty acid alkyl esters in shorter reaction time. The amount of electricity required for heating and mixing in this process need to be replaced with renewable resources. An effective means for minimizing the amount of power required to drive chemical reactions to completion is proposed through the use of various solar systems. In this study, CSP is used to incorporate solar energy for biodiesel production. Experiments are conducted with various solar techniques and with different process parameters to propose the optimized solution. Through the utilization of solar energy, the generation of carbon dioxide waste during biodiesel production has been eliminated. Biodiesel produced is comparable to the petro-diesel in properties and production process economical.