Biofuels in Perspective

9
Production of Biodiesel from
Waste Lipids
9.1 Introduction
Roland Verhé and Christian V. Stevens
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Department of Organic Chemistry,
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
The need for new energy resources is increasing continuously, not only because of the
growing industrialization and population, but also due to the high mineral oil price, the
shrinking fossil resources and the rather unstable political situation of the petroleum and
natural gas producing regions in the world. Moreover, in some areas the nuclear energy
supply is under quite severe political pressure. In addition the use of petroleum, coal and gas
causes environmental concern due to the increasing emission of CO2 and the greenhouse
gas effects. Fuels from petroleum are major sources of air contaminants such as SO2,
CO and NOx, particular matter, fine dust and volatile organic components. Apart from
these observations the economical policy for agricultural production (e.g. CAP: Common
Agricultural Policy in the EU) is leading to new innovations for the sustainability of the
agro-industry.
All the factors mentioned above show the necessity for the use of alternative resources
for energy. Biomass is certainly one of the sources of energy supply next to wind, solar
and hydro-energy. The main advantage of the transformation of biomass into energy is
the potential to reduce the CO2 emission as the carbon source in biomass-derived energy
is biogenic and renewable. In this way a nearly neutral CO2-balance is obtained and not
leading to additional greenhouse gases and global warming.
Biofuels. Edited by Wim Soetaert, Erick J. Vandamme.
© 2009 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. ISBN: 978-0-470-02674-8