Biodiesel—Basic Characteristics, Technology and Perspectives

ABSTRACT

The author provides a thorough image of different aspects of biodiesel, including history, economical and political issues, technological and production retrospectives and future trends in this industrial sector. Tough the history of biodiesel looks short and well-known there are certain facts that show that it is a much older phenomenon in the history of technology which so far is not entire biotechnological but has the potential of including biotechnological steps in the technological scheme of production. Modern day ecological engineering is only a responsible successor of certain laws of production, usage and answering to the needs of a world which is fuel dependant and hungry at a time.

The article comments the common process of production of biodiesel based on cultures like corn, rapeseed and sunflower, and makes a wide cut into alternative donors of raw materials such as biomass—algae, fungi, bacteria, which appear to be a resource of much higher yields. The methods mentioned in the article are in accordance with recommendations for biosafety and sustainable development. The article focuses on problems of future perspectives with the generated waste products connected with their biodegradation and biotransformation.

The theoretical survey gives a basis for successful integration of the forth biotechnological brands—industrial, plant, environmental and biotechnological energetics.

Keywords:

• biodiesel
• expeller
• glycerol
• single cell oil