Biofuel produced from no-to low cost feedstock for sustainability — A review

The energy demand has increased tremendously due to world population growth and increase in industrial development activity. To meet energy demand, petroleum fuel has been serving the world. The excess use of petroleum sourced fuels would lead to unsustainable situation because of depleting supplies and all the environmental issues which would be responsible for a major deficit in the future. Critical need for looking into new alternative renewable energy resources have resulted in increased interest in the study of alternative fuels such as biodiesel. Consequently, biodiesel is a very promising alternative to petroleum diesel oil and renewable which has the similar properties petroleum diesel. Biodiesel actually is a transesterified fuel which is produced from vegetable oils and animal lipids which has properties similar or better than diesel fuel. Based on various research and demonstration projects it has proven that biodiesel can be used as pure or in blends with conventional diesel fuel in diesel engines without any modifications. The aim of this paper is to review the studies done earlier and to observe the production and fuel characteristics of biodiesel produced from various feed stocks like vegetable oils and waste oils and their effect on CI engine from the viewpoint of performance, combustion and emissions and its sustainability.