Biodiesel production from fish oil: a review

Abstract

Recently, it was clear the impact of fossil fuel depletion on the field of energy, which meets industrial and human demands, as well as issues associated with environmental pollution resulting from burning fossil fuels, which necessitated the search for raw materials for the manufacture of alternative fuels. On the other hand, the fish market produces a lot of fish waste, which when dumped into the environment worsens the condition of the ecosystem. In these circumstances, and contrary to what happens with crops, food production is not adversely impacted by the extraction of fish oil from its byproducts. Treating these wastes to create ecologically and economically acceptable biodiesel as a replacement for conventional fuels is one possible answer to these issues. When the oil has been extracted, it is cleaned and filtered, and by adding a catalyst, the transesterification process turns the oil into biodiesel. This study is expected to summarize fish oil extraction techniques and inspire fresh approaches to extracting fish oil for biodiesel production. In addition, our research takes a cursory look at biodiesel manufacturing processes, with a special emphasis on transesterification.

Keywords:

• Biodiesel
• by-products
• fish oil
• enzymatic
• supercritical fluid
• transesterification

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Technology–Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq for the support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.