Page 142 - Advances in Eco-Fuels for a Sustainable Environment

Prospective ecofuel feedstocks for sustainable production 113

There are many challenges in the future that need to be overcome in order to make
biofuels sustainable fuels. Some of these include the availability of feedstock, the cost
of production, varying fatty acid profiles of different feedstocks, and storage. New
technologies need to be introduced to overcome these hiccups in the path of ecofuel
production from feedstocks.
Biodiesel production from second-generation feedstocks such as WCO, animal
fats, etc., must be given more priority because these feedstocks are less costly than
virgin vegetable oil. Sophisticated equipment for processing needs to be developed,
along with new technologies for sustainable conversion of these feedstocks. Marine
feedstocks such as algae can be a cheaper feedstock if advances in economical cul-
turing and harvesting technologies would be explored more. Fish processing waste
can also be an economical feedstock because a tremendous amount of fish waste is
generated across the globe. These fish processing wastes also contain significant
amounts of lipid content, which can be exploited for biodiesel production. Hence,
much work has to be carried out and possible feedstocks from marine sources need
to be explored. Moreover, much more research is required on improving the storage
stability of ecofuels. Currently, synthetic antioxidants are being used to improve the
storage stability and the literature indicates that these antioxidants can improve the
storage stability at a maximum of up to 1 year, depending on the feedstocks. Thus
new alternative processing methods need to be developed to overcome this barrier.
These hurdles need to be overcome quickly because the demand for renewable sources
of energy such as ecofuel is increasing but the replacement won’t be easy if the sus-
tainable production of ecofuels cannot be achieved.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Central Food Technological Research Institute (CSIR-CFTRI),
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), and Department of Biotechnology
(DBT, Govt. of India, New Delhi) for support.

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