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Biodiesel—Technical Viability for India

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Biorefining of Biomass to Biofuels

Part of the book series: Biofuel and Biorefinery Technologies ((BBT,volume 4))

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Abstract

The aim of the article is to investigate the different technologies for the production of biodiesel, which includes process description, pre-treatment of raw feedstock, esterification/transesterification and product purification/standardization. Further, technology comparison has been carried out for homogeneous acid/alkaline catalysis process, heterogeneous acid/alkaline catalysis process, supercritical methanol process and enzymatic (biochemical) process. In a technology viewpoint, the homogeneous (acid/alkaline) catalyst is mostly used for commercial production of biodiesel from batch and continuous processes. In India, sodium-based catalyst (e.g. NaOH) is preferred for a small-scale commercial production as it is inexpensive and easy to handle in transportation and storage. Presently, Indian commercial producers are using a two-stage homogenous process. The market price of biodiesel is Rs. 55 (±2), excluding tax. This price is a little high in the market due to the cost of feedstocks which makes up to 80–90% of the total production cost, operating cost and the capital cost in the view of business experts. The market price is almost near to the petroleum diesel price (approximately Rs. 60). However, in using biodiesel, there are enormous benefits towards the environment-friendly factors such as fewer emissions of CO, SO2, NO x and less particulate matter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Group, TATA Consulting Engineers Limited, Mumbai, India

    S. Sakthivel

  2. Biochemical and Bioenergy Engineering Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India

    S. Suresh

  3. Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam, India

    N. Selvaraju

Authors
  1. S. Sakthivel
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  2. S. Suresh
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  3. N. Selvaraju
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Suresh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Biochemical Conversion Division, Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Bio-Energy, Kapurthala, Punjab, India

    Sachin Kumar

  2. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA

    Rajesh K. Sani

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Sakthivel, S., Suresh, S., Selvaraju, N. (2018). Biodiesel—Technical Viability for India. In: Kumar, S., Sani, R. (eds) Biorefining of Biomass to Biofuels. Biofuel and Biorefinery Technologies, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67678-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67678-4_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67677-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67678-4

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