Page 116 - Advances in Eco-Fuels for a Sustainable Environment

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Prospective ecofuel feedstocks 4

for sustainable production

K. Sandesh Suresh, P.V. Suresh, Tanaji G. Kudre
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Meat and Marine Sciences Department,
CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru, India

4.1 Introduction

In the 21st century, global warming has turned out to be a severe issue. The reflection
of global warming can be seen with the change in the climatic conditions. Greenhouse
gases pose a treat. The most significant source of greenhouse gases comes from traffic,
that is, vehicles that mainly run on fossil fuels. These fossil fuels are nonrenewable
and are being depleted due to extensive use and massive demand in transportation
as well as some industries. Once they are exhausted, and if there is no proper and eco-
nomical substitute for fossil fuels, then the future would be a catastrophe. The popu-
lation of the world may increase to 10 billion by 2050 with significant economic
growth and increasing energy demand due to that growth in emerging economies
[1]. Thus, to meet the energy demand, there is a need for the efficient utilization of
the available renewable natural resources. As a matter of fact, there is a need for
the replacement of the nonrenewable fossil fuels with renewable ecofuels.
The replacement of currently being used fossil fuels with ecofuels has not been
easy, even though the ecofuels are environment friendly and renewable because the
sustainable production of ecofuels has not been achieved yet. If the feedstock is expen-
sive, it is going to affect the cost of production, thus making the ecofuel costly, which
is currently one of the leading hurdles in the production of ecofuels. Therefore for sus-
tainable conversion of ecofuels, frugal feedstocks are a prerequisite. There are many
feedstocks available for the production of ecofuels, some of which are from plant ori-
gin (vegetable oils such as peanut oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, etc.), some from ani-
mal origin (animal fats), and other feedstocks that include lignocellulosics, waste
cooking oil (WCO), microalgae, soapstock, grease, etc.
Biofuels have been mainly classified as first-generation biofuels, second-generation
biofuels, and third-generation biofuels; all these generations use different feedstocks
[2]. The main feedstocks used in first-generation biofuel include sugarcane, sugar beet,
sweet sorghum, wheat, corn, and cassava for the production of bioethanol as well as
edible vegetable oils such as peanut oil, soybean oil, palm oil, etc., for the production
of biodiesel [3]. The second-generation feedstocks include lignocellulosics for bio-
ethanol and nonedible oils such as Jatropha oil, Pongamia oil, Mahua oil, Moringa
oil, etc., as well as some potential edible oils such as rice bran oil, sesame oil, coconut
oil, cornoiland WCO andanimal fatsforbiodieselproduction[4].The third-generation

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