Abstract
High crude oil prices, concern over depletion of world reserves, and growing apprehension about the environment, encouraged the search for alternative energy sources that use renewable natural resources to reduce or replace traditional fossil fuels such as diesel and gasoline (Hill et al., 2006). Among renewable fuels, biodiesel has been attracting great interest, especially in Europe and the United States. Biodiesel is defined by the World Customs Organization (WCO) as ‘a mixture of mono-alkyl esters of long-chain [C16-C18] fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats, which is a domestic renewable fuel for diesel engines and which meets the US specifications of ASTM D 6751’. Biodiesel is biodegradable and non toxic, produces 93% more energy than the fossil energy required for its production, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 40% compared to fossil diesel (Peterson and Hustrulid, 1998; Hill et al., 2006) and stimulates agriculture.
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We thank Petrobras for funding this work.
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Lutterbach, M.T., Galvão, M.M. (2010). Fuel for the Future: Biodiesel – A Case study. In: Whitby, C., Skovhus, T. (eds) Applied Microbiology and Molecular Biology in Oilfield Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9252-6_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9252-6_27
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