In a recent review paper published through international cooperation between Chengdu University, Cairo University, Jiangsu University, Tanta University, and Hamburg University, the potential of fat, oil and grease (FOG) for biodiesel production was discussed. The paper was published in the prestigious energy journal "Progress in Energy and Combustion Science"
Abstract: Wastewater discharges from restaurants, kitchens, food processing plants and slaughterhouses contain high proportion of fat, oil, and grease (FOG). Critical overview on the attractive features, current state, and needed advancements are timely essential for FOG-derived biodiesel production. Although FOG conversion into biodiesel does not compete with human food, the high contents of moisture and free fatty acids (FFAs) are the main challenges for FOG efficient utilization. The present review discussed the various methods of high FFAs-lipidic feedstocks pretreatment including acid esterification, steam stripping, nanocatalytic technology, biological conversion, glycerolysis, supercritical esterification, and simultaneous in situ conversion. Comparing to other feedstocks, FOG-derived biodiesel showed better characteristics concerning oxidative stability, flash point, cetane number, and total emissions. In addition, most of the FOG-derived biodiesel fuel met the recommendations of the international standards as well as conventional diesel. Due to its lower price, the economic analysis showed that FOG is a strong competitor to other biodiesel feedstocks. The decrease in feedstocks availability, continuous rise in the crude oil prices, life threatening environmental deterioration, and food-versus-fuel debate support FOG to be a potential biodiesel feedstock in the near future. However, the cost of FOG-biodiesel production is still far away from the acceptable ranges to compete fossil diesel. Lastly, this paper suggested a number of future perspectives in order to enhance the economy and feasibility of FOG-derived biodiesel including developing new methods for efficient conversion of brown grease, integrated approaches for sequential production of biofuels from FOG, and co-esterification of FOG with other lipidic feedstocks.
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