A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF LOW-COST BIODIESEL PRODUCTION FROM WASTE BEEF TALLOW

Biodiesel as a renewable and biodegradable fuel has great potential to mitigate the problem of soaring fuel price demand. Biodiesel has excellent properties comparable to diesel hence can substitute diesel in compression ignition engines without any modification of engine geometry. Edible vegetable oil when used as feedstock increases retail price of biodiesel. Waste animal fats (WAFs)have gained popularity recently as cost effective feedstock for biodiesel production. This paper discusses the merits of WAFs as a diesel fuel substitute particularly from waste beef tallow. This article is a detailed review of the various production methods with emphasis on transesterification processes. The factors that affect transesterification such as temperature, time and molar ratio have been included. The study reveals that waste beef fat would be a suitable replacement of vegetable oils due to low cost, its role in protecting the environment, and beef tallow esters are close to ASTM D 6751 biodiesel standards. Research work needs to be carried out on heterogeneous catalysts and low-cost lipase catalysts to improve productivity.