Biodiesel Sustainability: Challenges and Perspectives

Abstract

The worldwide depletion of high‐quality oil reserves and the immense stringent environmental regulations force decision makers towards alternative biofuels. However, that comes in parallel with the worldwide water scarcity and food versus fuel problems. So for achieving secured economy, sustainable clean energy, overcoming the problem of climate change, ensuring safe lands for food, and preserving oil crops for humans, it is important to produce such biofuels using non‐edible feedstock. This chapter discusses in brief the history of biodiesel development as an example of ecofriendly, biodegradable, non‐toxic and sustainable biofuels. It emphasizes the production of biodiesel from waste oils and fats using sustainable heterogeneous catalysts. It ends with the challenges and opportunities for reaching a feasible transesterification process producing high yield of qualified biodiesel suitable to be used as alternative and/or complementary to the conventional petro‐diesel without affecting engine performance.