Sustainable Biodiesel Production From Waste Cooking Oils For Energetically Independent Small Communities: An Overview

International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-024-05779-2
REVIEW
Sustainable biodiesel production from waste cooking oils

for energetically independent small communities: an overview
C. G. Lopresto1
Received: 29 January 2024 / Revised: 10 May 2024 / Accepted: 28 May 2024

© The Author(s) 2024
Abstract
Introducing synthetic fuels and biofuels like biodiesel can be pivotal in transitioning to a decarbonised energy system. Bio-
diesel offers a versatile solution with various production technologies, each with advantages and disadvantages, depending
on several factors, including the specific application of biodiesel. In a smart grid, an advanced electrical grid that leverages
digital technology to detect and respond to local changes in usage, a small community could harness biodiesel for energy
storage and supply. By implementing a renewable energy storage system in the form of biodiesel from waste oils, individu-
als can contribute to developing innovative solutions for the combined and distributed production of electricity and heat,
primarily from renewable sources. The aim is to make the production-demand distribution networks within a hybrid system
smart and in line with the concept of nanogrid. This localised grid can operate independently or in conjunction with the
traditional power grid and can integrate generation systems from fossil and renewable sources, micro-cogeneration, and
accumulation. The possibility of exploiting biodiesel in a nanogrid as an eco-sustainable source for energy storage opens up
the possibility of building small-scale plants. For example, converting 3682 L/year of waste oils from a university campus
dining facilities to 3712 L/year of biodiesel allows replacing 19% of the fossil diesel consumed by the university fleet, with
a payback period of 16 months, lower capital and operational costs, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions of 9.37 tonnes
CO2-eq/yr. Therefore, biodiesel becomes a sustainable energy source for energy communities, underscoring the innovative
potential of this approach.
Keywords Biofuels · Energy supply · Nanogrid · Smart communities · Sustainability · Waste
Introduction Since the Industrial Revolution, the use of fossil fuels has
caused the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmos-
With the rapid advancements of the past centuries, global phere to rise from 280 to 390 ppm, primarily due to the
energy needs have skyrocketed. This demand continues to combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas (OEHHA 2023).
grow yearly, but the overreliance on oil and its excessive The European Union (EU) Directive 2009/28/EC, drawn
consumption (105 times faster than its formation in nature up in 2009, issued the so-called “Climate-Energy Package
(Netravali and Chabba 2003)) has led to increased prices in 20 20 20” to combat climate change and increase energy effi-
the global market. The urgency to overcome dependence on ciency through the 2020 targets to reduce GHG emissions by
fossil fuels is further underscored by their significant con- 20%, increase energy savings to 20% and increase the share
tribution to the current environmental crises, particularly of energy produced from renewable sources in each Member
the alarming increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. State compared to the total energy consumption of the EU.
Finding clean and renewable energy sources thus
becomes one of the most significant challenges for man,
Editorial responsibility: S. Mirkia. with repercussions in the medium to long term for economic
development, global stability, prosperity, and the quality of
* C. G. Lopresto
[email protected]; [email protected] human life. So far, several more or less successful options
have been studied and implemented, such as the use of solar
1
Department of Computer Science, Modeling, Electronics energy (both thermal and photovoltaic), hydroelectric,
and Systems Engineering (DIMES), University of Calabria, geothermal, wind, and biofuels, whose production could
87036 Rende, Calabria, Italy
Vol.:(0123456789)
offer new opportunities for income diversification, promote

employment in rural areas, develop a complete long-term
replacement of fossil fuels and reduce GHG emissions.
Biofuels are different forms of fuel, whether in gas or
liquid forms, obtained from biomass such as food crops,
crop residues, forest residues, animal wastes, and landfills
(Khan et al. 2021). Biofuels are renewable for less than one
year for those based on crops, crop residues, and animal
wastes, or about 35 years for those based on forest residues,
compared to the hundreds of millions of years for fossil
fuels. Among them, the most promising are bioethanol and
biodiesel. Alcohols have higher octane numbers, enduring a
higher compression ratio before the engine starts knocking,
and higher oxygen content, making combustion cleaner and
Fig. 1 Use of conventional fossil fuels and biofuels in the European
more efficient than gasoline. Moreover, their single boiling Union (billion litres), according to forecasts in the report “EU agri-
point makes them suitable for a spark-ignition engine, pure cultural outlook 2021–2031” by the EU Commission (European
or blended with gasoline and preferably with reduced water Commission 2021)
content (Awad et al. 2017a, 2017b, 2018a; Abdalla et al.
2019). Biodiesel is a valid alternative to fossil diesel as one
of the most promising renewable energy sources in liquid 2.6 billion litres consumed in 2019) and the use of rapeseed
form available on the market. As ethanol, methanol, butanol oil as a raw material (39% of the total in 2018, decreased
Dimethyl Ether (DME), Ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), and from 72% in 2008) (Mordor Intelligence 2024).
Methyl tertbutyl ether (MTBE), biodiesel is an oxygenated In Italy, 31% of the annual energy consumption, equal
fuel (Awad et al. 2018b), consisting of a mixture of energy- to 35 Million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe), is attribut-
rich hydrocarbon compounds chemically similar to the die- able to transport. Of this percentage, fossil fuels represent
sel fraction refined from crude oil, derived almost entirely more than 90%, although this share decreased by 26% from
from animal or vegetable oils (Perona 2017). It is renewable, 2005 to 2021. In the same period, on the other hand, the
biodegradable, safe, clean-burning, and efficient, with excel- use of biodiesel and organic petrol increased by 701%, from
lent performance for transport, machinery, and electricity 177 to 1145 kilo tonne equivalent of petroleum (ktep), and
production in vehicles and heating systems, where it can today, more than 1.7 million tonnes of biofuels are con-
be used immediately, pure or blended at any level with pet- sumed in Italy over 12 months. Biodiesel (91%) makes up
rodiesel. Therefore, on the one hand, it does not inject new the majority, with more than 1,500,000 tons, followed by
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (thus not altering the biomethane with 7%, bio-ETBE, and ethanol with marginal
natural carbon cycle); on the other hand, it does not require contributions. Looking at the type of biofuels allowed for
new technologies and new engines but only minor modifica- consumption, 86% is part of the so-called double counting,
tions, therefore promoting its use and economic sustainabil- that is, produced from waste or residues, non-food cellulosic
ity. These factors have made biodiesel use more adaptable materials, and lignocellulosic materials that, therefore, may
and attractive to the current energy scenario, which ensures account for a double energy contribution. However, of this
energy security, environmental sustainability, and rural percentage, only 38.7% can be defined as “advanced”, which
development by shifting power from petro-based conven- is not in competition with the agricultural sector and food
tional refineries to agro-industry (Hassan and Kalam 2013). (Verme et al. 2022).
The EU Commission, in the report “EU Agricultural The scenario in Italy has excellent potential for develop-
Outlook 2021–2031” (European Commission 2021), pre- ment and dissemination, as well as the observation of the
dicts that in 2031, the consumption of the two fossil fuels, trend of biofuel consumption in other countries of the Union.
gasoline and diesel, will be down by 32% compared to 2022, Although Italian values are generally lower than Germany
bringing it to 139 billion litres (diesel) and 62 billion litres and France above all, Italy is the first EU market for dou-
(gasoline), as shown in Fig. 1 from the report. ble counting fuels with about 950 ktep or 22% of the Euro-
It is estimated that biodiesel will have a peak of consump- pean total (in absolute values), and the first EU market for
tion in 2023 to 18.9 billion litres and then decline by 24% “advanced” fuels with a share of 33% for more than 400 ktep
to 14.3 billion litres in 2031. Another study estimated that (Fig. 2) (Bureau Veritas 2023).
biodiesel production in Europe would reach 16 billion litres Looking at the individual raw materials in the field of bio-
in 2023 and 18.7 billion litres by 2028, with the market pri- diesel, it is expected that the demand for palm oil will record
marily dominated by Germany (3 billion litres produced and the most significant decline because this type of oil will most
622 622
2020 2021
478
346
110 99 96
73 77 78
47 48 57 69 64 60
36 43 34 39 41 36
26
19
Italy Spain Netherlands Bulgaria Austria United France Germany Czech Argentina Denmark Other
Kingdom Republic countries
Fig. 2 Sustainable biofuels released for consumption in 2020 and 2021 (ktons) by country of production (dal Verme et al. 2022)
likely have greater difficulty in obtaining the necessary certi- macrogrid, microgrid, and nanogrid. This paper is focused
fications of environmental sustainability. On the other hand, on nanogrids.
the consumption of rapeseed oil will remain broadly stable Extensive prior work has investigated the integration of
in 2021–2031, with a share of about 50% of the total, while distributed energy resources and renewable energy resources
the use of sunflower and soybean oils will increase. The into a smart grid from different perspectives (Sioshansi
production of advanced biodiesel from waste oils and fats 2012; Zhong and Hornik 2013; Moreno-Munoz 2015;
should also increase, thanks to double counting in mixing Rehmani et al. 2016; Ahmad et al. 2017). For instance, Yu
obligations with traditional diesel. et al. discussed the communication systems for grid integra-
In the last decades, thousands of publications have ana- tion (Yu et al. 2011). Farhangi outlined a road map for inte-
lysed the production of biodiesel, starting from raw materi- gration (Farhangi 2014). Chen et al. discussed the critical
als to the characteristics of the final product, passing through technologies for integrating multiple types of RERs (Chen
the different types of reaction that lead to its formation with et al. 2016). Adefarati and Bansal considered the integration
various catalysts (more or less commercially usable) and all of renewable distributed generators into a smart grid (Ade-
possible plant and process configurations. farati and Bansal 2016). Rehmani et al. provided an up-to-
Nevertheless, this paper is an overview of biodiesel pro- date overview of the communication aspects of integrating
duction aimed at making it an integrative energy source RERs into the smart grid (Rehmani et al. 2018).
with low renewable and economically advantageous poten- However, to the author’s knowledge, no other comprehen-
tial. There is a transformation of the existing conventional sive overview has been published about integrating biodiesel
methods of producing electricity by fossil fuel-based gen- into a nano-sized grid. This overview covers all aspects of
eration units and a global desire to rely more on renewable biodiesel properties, production processes, and integra-
energy resources (RERs). Due to their intermittent avail- tion with other renewable resources to obtain an efficient
ability and geographically distributed nature, RERs need nanogrid managed by small communities, with the main
to be integrated into an intelligent electricity grid, the so- objectives of exploiting local resources and making commu-
called smart grid. Specifically, the development of innova- nities energetically independent. By collecting and recycling
tive value-added technologies, solutions, and systems for the waste cooking oil appropriately, people help reduce the envi-
combined and distributed production of electricity and heat, ronmental impact of the food industry, promote a circular
mainly from renewable sources, aims at the development of economy, conserve natural resources, and create a more sus-
distributed storage systems of different technologies, even in tainable future. This is desirable and applicable anywhere in
hybrid configurations, for the efficient and integrated man- the world, both in industrialised areas and under-developed
agement of energy carriers within the smart grid. Depending regions, in the scale of a city, a neighbourhood, or a single
on the size and components of the network, we talk about restaurant.
This paper is not a systematic review of the relative lit- decades with the production of thousands of patents and
erature but rather an overview of the main aspects to be con- scientific publications.
sidered in producing biodiesel and integrating it with other The topical theme has catalysed attention even during the
renewable energy sources into a nano-sized smart grid. The first two decades of the present century. The EU Directive
literature survey was performed using keyword searches on 2003/30/EC defined biodiesel as a “methyl ester produced
Google Scholar and Scopus. The keywords included “bio- from vegetable or animal oil, of diesel quality, to be used
diesel production”, “biodiesel properties”, “biodiesel envi- as a biofuel”. According to the American Society for Test-
ronmental impact”, “biodiesel small plants”, “small commu- ing and Materials (ASTM) standard, the term “biodiesel”
nities”, “smart grid”, “biodiesel nanogrid”, and “distributed refers to an apolar mixture of alkyl esters (usually Fatty
energy resources”. Articles were selected after reading the Acid Methyl Esters, FAME) with long chains of fatty acids
titles and abstracts. After carefully reading the research obtained from biological sources such as vegetable oils and
background and objectives, we selected 128 articles, which animal fats by transesterification of triglycerides with an
have been read thoroughly to extract useful information and alcohol (usually methanol) and a catalyst (Vasudevan and
conduct a comprehensive overview. We covered more recent Briggs 2008; Singh et al. 2020).
literature (91 papers in the last decade, from 2013 to 2024) From an engineering point of view, biodiesel has better
but also relevant less recent literature about general findings engine lubrication than diesel, significantly reducing main-
cited in recent papers (37 from the previous years, from 1999 tenance costs and extending its life. The careful choice of
to 2012). This overview is organised into two main Sections. oil (fatty acid composition), alcohol, and process technol-
Sect. "Biodiesel: general aspects" provides an overview of ogy allows the production quality of biodiesel to improve
biodiesel as a renewable energy source, while Sect. "Bio- engineering and environmental performance significantly.
diesel for small communities" presents the perspective of However, the most significant barrier to the commercialisa-
integrating biodiesel in a smart grid. Finally, the conclusive tion of biodiesel is the higher cost compared to fossil die-
part outlines future research directions. sel, mainly because almost all the sources used for the pro-
duction of biodiesel come from edible oils of high quality,
which contribute 95% to the production of biodiesel globally
Biodiesel: general aspects (Mathew et al. 2021). The use of non-edible oils is also not
without problems; in fact, most of these oils contain a high
What is biodiesel? amount of free fatty acids, and this could increase the lev-
els of complexity of production processes by requiring, for
The intuition to use vegetable oil as an alternative fuel to example, alternate different approaches or adding additional
that of fossil origin dates back to the late nineteenth cen- steps, which increase the cost of production and reduce the
tury thanks to the ingenious Franco–German chemist and yield below standards. On the other hand, animal fats con-
engineer Rudolf Diesel (1858–1913), who first used pea- tain more saturated fatty acids and usually exist in solid form
nut oil during the 1900 Paris World Exhibition to power a at room temperature, which can cause problems in the pro-
powertrain he invented and built a few years earlier. During duction process. Despite this, Italy is the EU country with
a speech in 1912, he said: «[…] The use of vegetable oils the largest share of consumption of biofuels produced with
for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils animal fat, almost 400 thousand tons of oil equivalent, corre-
may become in the course of time as important as petroleum sponding to 50% of total EU consumption. The consumption
and the coal tar products of the present times» (Agarwal and of animal fat for biofuel has increased by 40 times from 2006
Das 2001). These words were revolutionary at a time when to 2021; it is expected to grow because it is very convenient
energy for all the industrial societies was still supplied by from the perspective of aviation decarbonisation but should
coal. Research on vegetable oils to be used as fuels intensi- be limited, according to the recommendations of a new study
fied in periods of energy need such as World War I and II commissioned by the association Transport & Environment
and the crisis of the seventies of the twentieth century. In for fear that high demand has already triggered fraud and
fact, despite being a good fuel with a calorific value of about creates an opportunity for new violations in the future. As a
90% of that of diesel, vegetable oil did not provide satisfac- result, cheaper raw materials, such as waste oils (Zhang et al.
tory performance due to its low volatility and high viscos- 2003) have a high potential to produce low-cost biodiesel,
ity and led, following combustion, the formation of carbon which is competitive with diesel from a price point of view.
deposits on the injection system resulting in deterioration of
the piston seals. It is, therefore, worked to lower the viscos- Different biodiesel generations
ity of oils/fats of vegetable or animal origin to make them
directly suitable as fuels in diesel engines through appropri- Based on its origin, biodiesel can be classified into four gen-
ate conversions, the subject of extensive research in recent erations (Bashir et al. 2022).
First-generation biodiesel is produced from edible vegeta- with food and arable lands, proliferates with photosynthe-
ble oils as raw materials. The cultivation of plants to produce sis, could reach high lipid content and reduces GHG and
fuels requires large areas. The race to acquire land for energy carbon emissions. Nevertheless, despite the vast literature
crops has affected vast regions of Latin America, Africa, of the last two decades, there are still many challenges
China, India, and Southeast Asia in the last ten years. If to overcome, such as high production costs, low lipid
Europe wants to replace only 5% of fossil fuels with first- productivity, as well as difficult large-scale cultivation,
generation biofuels, it should allocate 20% of the arable harvesting and extraction (Neeti et al. 2023; Gaurav et al.
land to energy crops. A scenario that pushes to resort to 2024). Waste oils and fats may also be considered among
extra-EU productions. All at the expense of spontaneous third-generation biodiesel sources. A particular interest is
vegetation and forests or replacing traditional crops for food addressed to the so-called Waste Cooking Oils (WCO) or
production. Although the use of palm oil for food purposes Used Frying Oils (UFO), all those oils and fats of vegeta-
is declining in favour of other oils, the European Commis- ble or animal origin residues after food cooking processes
sion has planned to abandon the use of palm oil for bio- in food industries, restaurants, fast food, or domestic users.
diesel production by 2030, as the use of biodiesel derived Their use, in fact, not only does not compete with the food
from palm oil has a climate impact three times worse than industry and does not involve high costs of raw materials,
that of fossil diesel, primarily due to indirect emissions gen- but, at the same time, makes possible the reduction of
erated by deforestation in the countries of origin (mainly liquid waste and solves the problem of its disposal. Fried
Indonesia and Malaysia) (https://www.rinnovabili.it/mobil oil is one of the planet’s most dangerous pollution sources
ita/olio-di-palma-ue-biodiesel). The same applies to other (Kulkarni and Dalai 2006). Unfortunately, there are still
oils derived from dedicated crops: either the current produc- many people who, especially at home, improperly dispose
tion is diverted from food to energy, or new crops must be of the oil used without thinking enough about how the
implemented with consequent deforestation. The competi- easy superficiality of this gesture causes harm to the seas
tion of first-generation biofuels with food crops immedi- today, which is in constant danger of an ecosystem with
ately appeared as the element that put the whole agricul- precarious balances.
tural system in crisis and affected food security. Therefore, A viable alternative is the use of microalgae. Replacing
first-generation biodiesel presents big ethical problems, all transport fuel consumed in the USA would require 0.53
both the inevitable food vs. fuel competition and the high billion m3 of biodiesel annually at the current consumption
environmental impact given by deforestation and increas- rate. Satisfying half of the current demand for transport fuels
ing demands for water and fertilisers. Consequently, using in the USA with biodiesel would require areas for cultivat-
such oils can only make sense as a source of triglycerides ing oilseed plantations with unsustainable extensions, up
to optimise processes at the laboratory level, but barring to more than times the territory of the USA (Chisti 2007).
the way to a subsequent implementation on an industrial/ Microalgae would appear to be the only renewable source
commercial scale. of biodiesel capable of meeting global demand for fuels and
Due to the criticalities posed by first-generation bio- completely replacing petro-diesel without competing with
diesel, the research focused on second-generation biofuels the production of food, forage, and other agricultural crop
from inedible raw materials. Their use does not compete products because they cannot be used as a direct source of
with the food sector, may result from the land of low agro- food for man and can grow in salt water and in areas that
forestry interest, is subject to desertification, and does not are not fertile and inefficient for agriculture. There have
involve high production costs. However, these raw materials been thousands of publications over the last decade. How-
have low oil yields and are not easily accessible as they are ever, there is still a long way to go before the economic
highly localised globally and require additional methanol feasibility of processes using microalgae and their effective
to obtain acceptable biodiesel yields. Some classifications commercialisation.
include second-generation biodiesel derived from vegetable Finally, fourth-generation biodiesel is obtained by con-
oils and waste fats (Ramos et al. 2019). In this case, anything verting solar energy, a source of high energy content that
of animal or vegetable origin not intended for human con- is available, inexhaustible, and economical. Artificial and
sumption is considered second-generation. If, on the other direct solar photosynthesis are the leading technologies that
hand, the soil necessary for the cultivation of plants—even allow photosynthetic water to split through solar energy.
if not edible—and their restricted location in some regions This conversion can occur thanks to the action of microor-
of the planet are taken into account, then it becomes more ganisms, possibly engineered from the metabolic point of
appropriate to consider waste oils in the third generation view, with photovoltaic systems or inorganic catalysts. These
category, as has been done in this research work. are promising technologies, but they are still at a technologi-
Third-generation biodiesel is conventionally obtained cally embryonic stage and require a high initial investment
from microalgae, a promising source that does not compete (Singh et al. 2020).
Applications of biodiesel A comparison of fossil biodiesel and diesel (Table 3)

shows that the main advantages of biodiesel are biodegrada-
Biodiesel finds its main applications as a fuel for heating bility, non-flammability, low toxicity, renewability, increased
systems and, above all, as a fuel for transport. Using bio- combustion efficiency, increased cetane number, higher flash
diesel for heating and producing thermal energy for indus- point temperature, making it safer to use and store, the pos-
trial use presents no particular technical problems. In gen- sibility of being mixed with diesel in any proportion and
eral, it is sufficient to modify the boiler pulverising augers the excellent lubricating properties. However, biodiesel has
and increase the pressure at the delivery pump (1–1.5 atm) disadvantages compared to diesel, such as lower calorific
for pure biodiesel to be used. Very often, especially in value, higher pour and cloud point, higher viscosity, lower
multi-stage boilers, it is necessary to significantly reduce oxidation stability, corrosion to copper and brass, the ability
the amount of combustion air-fed due to the high oxygen to degrade plastic and natural rubber, and excessive engine
content of the biofuel. wear (Ramos et al. 2019). Biodiesel has a point of cloudiness
Regarding the use of biodiesel as a transport fuel, the at a higher temperature than diesel, so biodiesel at low tem-
need to ensure maximum compatibility with current engines peratures tends to form waxes, which are harmful to pumps
has led to the marketing of biodiesel mixed with diesel up and pipes. Research is focused on overcoming these prob-
to 30% (BD30) and pure biodiesel (BD100) (Vasudevan and lems by changing the type of raw materials, using additives,
Briggs 2008). and changing the engine.
Other applications of biodiesel, but in much smaller vol-
umes than that of fuel, include use as heating oil, for energy Environmental impact of biodiesel
generation, as a lubricant, as a plasticiser, as a high-boiling
adsorbent to reduce industrial gaseous emissions, as a sol- Biodiesel differs substantially from diesel in pollutant emis-
vent (Knothe and Razon 2017) and even more recently as sions from the exhaust pipe and contributes significantly to
a phase change material (PCM) in the area of refrigeration reducing GHG and global climate effects (Singh et al. 2020).
thanks to medium/low temperatures at which phase change The amount of carbon dioxide emitted is similar between
occurs (De Paola and Lopresto 2021). biodiesel and fossil diesel. However, the substantial differ-
ence between the two cases is given by the different origin
of the pollutant: in the case of biodiesel, the carbon diox-
Properties of biodiesel as a biofuel ide released corresponds in large part to that absorbed by
the crop necessary for the production of the oil during its
Biodiesel is a transparent liquid, generally amber-coloured, growth, while in the case of fossil diesel, it is the one stored
composed of a mixture of alkyl esters of fatty acids, broadly in oil deposits over geological eras. It is, therefore, clear
similar to the diesel obtained from the fractional distillation that while the crops destined for the production of biodiesel
of crude oil. The quality of biodiesel can be influenced by ensure a clear reduction of emissions in a short time, for
many factors affecting its physical and chemical properties. diesel, this is not true because of such long reabsorption
These properties must be within the range of values and times (millennia), which makes it a full-fledged source of
verified by methods established by standardisation bodies, carbon dioxide.
such as the European Committee of Standardization (ISO) Combustion of biodiesel, both pure and blended with die-
and the ASTM, as summarised in Table 1. In Europe, the sel, leads to lower carbon monoxide, particulates, hydro-
requirements for the recognition of biodiesel were collected carbons, and sulfur compounds and zero emissions of aro-
and defined in EN 14214, approved by the European Com- matic compounds and sulfur oxides. Carbon monoxide in
mittee for Standardisation on 14 February 2003. the exhaust gases indicates poor combustion, as it occurs
From a chemical point of view, oils from different sources in the case of a defect in the air or insufficient mixing. The
have different acidic compositions in terms of length and greater quantity of oxygen present in fuels of plant origin
degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids present (Table 2). than those of fossil origin, about 10% against 2%, contrib-
Since the starting oil comprises triglycerides formed by utes to significantly improving the quality of combustion,
different fatty acids, the mixture of esters produced will also leading to a reduction in carbon monoxide emissions ranging
have various mechanical and physical characteristics (Ramos from 15% for biodiesel to 20% (BD20) up to 40% in the case
et al. 2019). of pure biodiesel (BD100). Unburned hydrocarbons, in addi-
Generally, cetane number, combustion heat, melting tion to representing a loss of calorific value, are hazardous
point, and viscosity increase as chain length and unsatu- substances for human health, being in some cases also car-
ration increase. Consequently, it is reasonable to consider cinogenic, especially in the case of aromatic hydrocarbons.
enriching biodiesel with fatty acid esters that have properties Using biodiesel leads to a reduction in unburned hydrocar-
that improve the biofuel. bon emissions of about 15–20% for BD100. Moreover, since
Table 1 Specifications of biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters) used as automotive fuel in diesel engines according to ASTM D6751 and EN 14214
(Ramos et al. 2019)
Property Limit ASTM D6751 Test method Limit EN 14214 Test method
Ester content (% m/m) – – 96.5 EN 14103

Density at 15 °C (kg/m3) 880 D1298 860–900 EN ISO 3675/12185
Viscosity at 40 °C (mm2/s) 1.9–6.0 D445 3.5–5.0 EN ISO 3104
Cetane number > 47 D613 > 51 EN ISO 5165
Iodine number (g I 2/100 g) – – < 120 EN 14111/16300
Acid value (mg KOH/g) < 0.50 D664 < 0.50 EN 14104
Pour point (°C) Da − 15 a − 16 D97 – –
Flashpoint (°C) > 130 D93 > 101 EN ISO 2719/3679
Cloud point (°C) Da − 3 a − 12 D2500 – –
Cold filter plugging point (°C) <5 D6371 – –
Copper strip corrosion (3 h at 50 °C) n. 3 D130 Classe 1 EN ISO 2160
Carbon residue (% m/m) < 0.05 D4530 < 0.3 EN ISO 10370
Methanol content (% m/m) < 0.20 EN 14110 < 0.20 EN 14110
Water content (mg/kg) < 500 D2709 < 500 EN ISO 12937
Sulfur content (mg/kg) < 15 D5453 < 10 EN ISO 20846/20884
Sulfated ash (% m/m) < 0.02 D6584 < 0.02 EN ISO 3987
Phosphorus content (mg/kg) < 10 D4951 <4 EN 14107/16294
Free glycerol content (% m/m) < 0.02 D6584 < 0.02 EN 14105/14106
Total glycerol content (% m/m) < 0.24 D6548 < 0.25 EN 14105
Monoglyceride content (% m/m) < 0.40 D6584 < 0.70 EN 14105
Diglyceride content (% m/m) – – < 0.20 EN 14105
Triglyceride content (% m/m) – – < 0.20 EN 14105
Distillation temperature, 90% recovered (°C) < 360 D1160 – –
Oxidation stability at 110 °C (h) >3 EN 15751 >8 EN 14112/15751
Linolenic acid methyl ester (% m/m) – – < 12 EN14103
Polyunsaturated methyl esters
≥ 4 double bonds (% m/m) – – <1 EN 15779
Alkaline metals Na+ K (mg/kg) <5 EN 14538 <5 EN 14108/14109/14538
Alkaline earth metals C a+ Mg (mg/kg) <5 EN 14538 <5 EN 14538
Total contamination (mg/kg) – – < 24 EN 14538
Table 2 Acid composition of certain vegetable oils (Pinto et al. 2005)

Source of vegetable oils Palmitic 16:0 Stearic 18:0 Palmitoleic Oleic 18:1 Linoleic 18:2 Ricinic Other acids
16:1 12-OH-oleic
Coconut 5.0 3.0 – 6.0 – – 65.0

Olive 14.6 – – 75.4 – 10.0 –
Groundnut 8.5 6.0 – 51.6 26.0 – –
Cotton 28.6 0.9 0.1 13.0 57.2 – 0.2
Corn 6.0 2.0 – 44.0 48.0 – –
Soybean 11.0 2.0 – 20.0 64.0 – 3.0
Hazelnut 4.9 2.6 0.2 81.4 10.5 – 0.3
Poppy seed 12.6 4.0 0.1 22.3 60.2 – 0.8
Rapeseed 3.5 0.9 0.1 54.1 22.3 – 9.1
Safflower seed 7.3 1.9 0.1 13.5 77.0 – 0.2
Sunflower seed 6.4 2.9 0.1 17.7 72.8 – 0.1
Castor – 3.0 3.0 3.0 1.2 89.5 0.3
Table 3 Comparison of the Property Biodiesel (B100) Diesel

main properties of biodiesel and
fossil diesel (Ruhul et al. 2015) ASTM D6751 EN 14214 ASTM D975 EN 590
3
Density at 15 °C (kg/m ) 800–900 860–900 850 835
Viscosity at 40 °C (mm2/s) 1.9–6.0 3.5–5 1.3–4.1 3.5
Cetane number 48–65 Min. 51 40–55 53
Flashpoint (°C) 100–170 Min. 120 60–80 Min. 55
Cloud point (°C) − 3 to 12 – − 15 to 5 −5
Pour point (°C) − 15 to 16 – − 35 to − 15 –
Cold flow plugging point (°C) Max. 5 – – –
Sulfur (ppm) Max. 0.05 Max 0.001 500 Max 10 (mg k g−1)
Carbon (% w/w) 77 – 87 –
Hydrogen (% w/w) 13 – 12 –
Oxygen (% w/w) 11 – 0 0
Distillation range (°C) 315–350 – 180–340 –
the percentage of aromatic hydrocarbons is almost nil, the and, being unstable, tend to form a series of secondary oxi-
danger of the emission is relatively low. Since it does not dation products. In addition, double bonds can also be sub-
contain sulfur, biodiesel does not have sulfur dioxide in ject to polymerisation reactions, resulting in the formation
its flue gases. Nitrogen oxides are dangerous air pollutants of high molecular weight products and increased viscosity.
because, in addition to their irritating effect on humans, they In addition to oxidation caused by exposure to air, biodiesel
contribute to the so-called “photochemical smog” in case of is also potentially subject to hydrolytic degradation due to
strong solar radiation (volatile organic compounds, VOCs, the presence of water. To determine the oxidative stability
react with nitrogen oxides NOx in the presence of sunlight of biodiesel, a Rancimat apparatus is used, in which an air
and OH radicals, forming photo-oxidants), and the formation flow is passed at a constant speed through a sample collected
of acid rain in the presence of moisture. This type of pol- inside a sealed and heated container at a high temperature
lutant is the primary environmental disadvantage due to the (110 °C). The flue gases are collected in a second container
use of biodiesel because, due to the more significant amount filled with distilled water, where an electrode continuously
of oxygen present, there is an increase in their emission of measures conductivity. When the sample dissociates, a
about 13%. However, NOx reductions ranging from 4 to 26% rapid increase in conductivity can be observed, and the time
compared to diesel were also observed in some works (Pinto required to reach this point is defined as the induction period
et al. 2005). (IP) (Focke et al. 2016). Samples of biodiesel produced from
The danger of particulate matter, a cause of respiratory different oils were stored at room temperature in a transpar-
diseases and potentially carcinogenic, is strongly linked ent glass container and a non-transparent glass container.
to the average size of the particles that compose it and to Samples were taken at regular intervals for 30 months, and
the substances adsorbed on their surface. Fine particulates, a decrease in iodine number and an increase in acidity, per-
which are particularly dangerous because they are easily oxide number, viscosity, and impurity values were observed.
inhalable, form in quantities of less than 20–60% in the case The differences between the two containers were not appre-
of biodiesel-fuelled engines and are also less carcinogenic ciable during the first 12 months but became significant after
due to the lower presence of aromatic hydrocarbons. that period (Bouaid et al. 2007).
Storage of biodiesel Production of biodiesel
Biodiesel is much safer to store and handle than diesel. It Vegetable oils, when used directly in diesel engines, pro-
has, in fact, a higher flash point, fixed by the EN14214 stand- duce severe damage in the long term, such as dirty injec-
ard at the minimum value of 120 °C, which is higher than tors, carbon deposits, and gelling of lubricating oils. These
the diesel flash point (72 °C). Moreover, the biodegradability consequences are attributable to high viscosity (10–20
is 95% for biodiesel and 40% for diesel. However, double times compared to diesel), low volatility, and highly reac-
bonds in many fatty acid chains increase the possibility of tive unsaturated hydrocarbons. In particular, high viscosity
auto-oxidation, resulting in a high tendency for biodiesel is a factor that significantly affects performance because
to oxidise and be chemically unstable. For example, allyl the first combustion stage in the diesel engine is the pro-
hydroperoxides are produced by the oxidation of biodiesel cess of atomising the fuel. To overcome these problems
and make vegetable oils fuel suitable for diesel engines, oil as Phase Change Material (PCM) (De Paola and Lopresto
could be diluted, micro-emulsified or chemically converted 2021).
by many technologies from more traditional pyrolysis and Due to the reversibility of the reaction, it is preferred to
transesterification (Demirbas 2009; Leung et al. 2010) to push the balance towards the products by operating in a net
less conventional methods such as reactive distillation excess of alcohol or by separating glycerin while it forms
and the use of supercritical conditions, microwaves, ultra- (De Paola et al. 2009; Calabrò et al. 2010). In addition, for
sound, membrane, plasma, etc. (Stoytcheva and Montero the reaction to occur within a reasonable time and with
2011; Babadi et al. 2022). The advantages and disadvan- acceptable yields in terms of esters and glycerol, it needs
tages of some of these technologies are summarised in a catalyst. The most widespread process currently involves
Table 4. using an alkaline catalyst. However, in certain circum-
The transesterification or alcoholysis reaction of oils is stances, it is preferred to work with acid catalysts; enzymatic
the most widely used for biodiesel production and involves production and heterogeneous catalysis are also becoming
the conversion of one ester into another by reaction with an increasingly attractive.
alcohol. This reaction reduces the viscosity compared to the The alkaline catalyst production process involves using
starting oil since the linear esters remain by removing the alkaline hydroxides, which include sodium and potassium
glycerol from the product mixture, which has lower viscosi- hydroxides, due to their high availability and cost-effective-
ties than the triglycerides. This improves the atomisation of ness. The rate of base-catalysed reaction is about 4000 times
the fuel and, consequently, its combustion characteristics. higher than that of acid catalysis, with the same amount of
Going into detail, the overall transesterification reaction catalyst used, which is why it is used more for industrial
can be represented with a scheme of series–parallel revers- applications. The molar oil/alcohol ratio can vary from 1:1
ible reactions. Specifically, triglycerides are converted into to 1:6, while the temperature range includes values between
diglycerides by releasing alkyl ester chains; diglycerides 25 and 120 °C. This type of catalysis is more efficient and
are converted into monoglycerides and further alkyl esters; less corrosive than acid. Still, at the same time, it has techno-
finally, the glycerol molecule and the last ester chain are logical limits related to the “sensitivity” of the process to the
liberated from monoglycerides (Kulkarni and Dalai 2006; purity of the reagents and the presence of water in the start-
Demirbas 2009). In the overall reaction, three moles of ing oil. In fact, in the presence of water, a part of the reagent
methanol react with a mole of triglyceride, producing one (in particular, the free fatty acids, FFA) can be consumed for
mole of glycerol and three moles of methyl ester, without obtaining soaps instead of the desired products, thus lead-
considering the intermediate stages with the formation of ing to the formation of an emulsion that downstream of the
diglycerides or monoglycerides (Gumba et al. 2016; Orege process makes the recovery and purification of the target
et al. 2022), as described in Fig. 3. In addition, the contri- compound more difficult and costly (Shimada et al. 2002;
bution of inverse reactions is disregarded, considering their Marchetti et al. 2007)In addition, water, either from oils or
velocities to be zero (Stoytcheva and Montero 2011; Issari- fats or formed during the saponification reaction, delays the
yakul and Dalai 2012). transesterification reaction through the triglyceride hydrol-
Generally, short-chain alcohols such as methanol and eth- ysis reaction to produce diglycerides and FFA. Therefore,
anol are used, forming methyl and ethyl esters, respectively. using an alkaline catalyst requires the oil to be anhydrous
Methanol is usually used in industrial processes thanks to and contain no more than 0.5% by weight of FFA.
its low cost and chemical-physical characteristics. This is Transesterification supported by acid catalysis mainly
so much so that the technical legislation and current legisla- involves sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, and organic sulfonic
tion indicate biodiesel as a mixture of methyl esters of fatty acids. Due to the low reaction rate and the high alcohol/oil
acids (FAME, Fatty Acid Methyl Esters). However, ethanol molar ratio required of 30:1, acid-catalysed esterification
experimentation continues to attract much interest for its has not gained the same attention as the alkaline process.
potential renewable origin within totally green processes. Specifically, the acid-catalysed reaction requires a time and
The other product of the reaction is glycerin or glycerol. a higher reaction temperature (55–80 °C) than the base-cat-
This polar compound is separated from the biodiesel-rich alyzed reaction. However, it is much more effective when the
phase of the reaction mixture to have a viscosity of the order amount of free fatty acids in the oil exceeds 1%. Acid cata-
of magnitude of diesel. After separation, the raw glycerol lysts do not give rise to the unwanted saponification reaction
contains unreacted methanol, so purified glycerin needs to in the presence of FFA and water in the starting oil. There-
be obtained post-treatment for different industrial applica- fore, it is advisable to use acid catalysis with oils containing
tions. Glycerol is a valuable by-product used in the organic a high FFA content, possibly at a preliminary stage of the
chemical, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries and as a reaction. Studies carried out on an economic analysis have
food additive (identified by the abbreviation E422). Glycerol shown that acid catalysis, being a single step, is cheaper
has important new applications in emerging sectors, such than the alkaline process, which requires a further step to
Table 4 Advantages and disadvantages of biodiesel production technologies (Singh et al. 2020; Bashir et al. 2022; Babadi et al. 2022)
Production method Advantages Disadvantages Refs
Pyrolysis Easy process High installation cost (Maher and Bressler 2007)
Low emissions High carbon residue
Lower purity
High temperature clinker demand
Catalytic distillation Easy product separation Solvent use (Zhang et al. 2014; Gaurav et al. 2016; Albuquer-
Reaction rate dependent on catalyst recovery que et al. 2021)
Reactive distillation Possibility to process raw materials with high High-energy consuming (He 2006; Kiss et al. 2008; Pradana et al. 2017)
content of free fatty acids Conversion influenced by the catalyst efficiency
Simple process
Less methanol demand
Simple product separation
Transesterification Biodiesel properties comparable with those of Required high purity of feedstocks (Patil and Deng 2009; Habibullah et al. 2014)
fossil diesel Pre-heating process
Easy scale-up for industrial scale Post-reaction product separation
No catalyst reusability in homogeous reaction
Microwave-assisted transesterification High reaction rates Process conversion strongly influenced by (Azcan and Yilmaz 2013; Wahidin et al. 2014;
Reduced processing time catalyst activity Choedkiatsakul et al. 2015; Tangy et al. 2017;
Low heat losses Difficult scale-up on a commercial scale. Not- Nomanbhay and Ong 2017; Rocha et al. 2019)
Better energy efficiency controlled heating
High yield
Higher purity of biodiesel
Simple product separation
Ultrasound-assisted transesterification High reaction rates and yields Increased demand for catalyst (Takase et al. 2014; Pukale et al. 2015; Gupta
Reduced energy consumption, catalyst quantity, Soap formation et al. 2015; Malani et al. 2019a, b)
production cost, separation time, reaction High cost
temperature, and alcohol/oil ratio Difficult scale-up
Plasma-assisted transesterification Very low reaction times Difficult control of the reaction mechanism (Istadi et al. 2014, 2020; Wu et al. 2020; Pur-
No catalyst dependency Limited product selectivity wanto et al. 2020; Oliveira Palm et al. 2022)
Energy saving High cost
Eco-friendly
No soap and by-product formation
Electrolysis-assisted transesterification Low temperature Sensitivity at high pH (Guan and Kusakabe 2009; Fereidooni and
Low energy consumption Need to monitor the conductivity of the electro- Mehrpooya 2017; Fereidooni et al. 2018; Helmi
Short reaction time lyte constantly et al. 2021)
Less wastewater production
The presence of water increases the yield
No problem in the presence of FFA and water
Low cost
Table 4 (continued)
Production method Advantages Disadvantages Refs
Magnetic-assisted transesterification Not limited by the disadvantages of filtration Agglomeration of acidic magnetic catalysts (Gardy et al. 2018; Quah et al. 2019; Badoei-
Less pressure drop Preliminary coating of organic catalysts dalfard et al. 2019; Ali et al. 2020)
Greater contact efficiency between catalyst and
feedstock
Higher transmission efficiency of fluid
Efficient separation
Membrane-assisted transesterification Simultaneous reaction catalysing and separation High capital cost of membrane fabrication (Abdurakhman et al. 2018; Shuit and Tan 2019;
in real-time Limited lifetime Ikeda et al. 2021, 2022)
Low-cost modified heterogenous acid-catalytic Low permeability at low temperatures
transesterification Complex modelling and prediction
Reusability
Eco-friendly
Improved production rate and conversion
Selectivity towards the feedstock
Supercritical fluid transesterification High reaction rate High energy demand (Andreo-Martínez et al. 2018; da COSTA et al.
High conversion efficiency High cost 2019; Aghilinategh et al. 2019)
No catalyst High temperatures (250–400 °C)

No problem with FFA and water High pressure (40 MPa)
No pre-treatment required Difficult scale-up on an industrial scale
Ionic liquids transesterification High chemical and thermal stability High synthesis costs (Zhang et al. 2009; Ghiaci et al. 2011; Guo et al.
High catalytic activity Inconvenient separation 2011)
Low or negligible vapour pressure and flam- Limitations in large-scale applications
mability Moisture-sensitivity
Eco-friendly recyclable green solvents High viscosity
Wide range of applications Non-biodegradability
Liquids at room temperature
Deep eutectic solvent transesterification Easy preparation Formation of a complicated liquid–liquid (Huang et al. 2013; Gardy et al. 2018; Quah et al.
High purity interface 2019; Badoei-dalfard et al. 2019; Ali et al.
Low cost Uncertain stability under prolonged use 2020)
No reactivity with water Lack of information on the whole life-cycle
Non-toxicity assessment
Biodegradability
in energy savings. Given these significant advantages,

enzymes suffer from a greater loss of activity over time
and a generally higher cost. In general, it is necessary
that the chosen lipase leads to high yields in esters, has
relatively low costs, and can be easily reused after each
reaction cycle. Scientific research efforts shall focus on
identifying lipases that can be reused for a more extended
period and on operational conditions that facilitate reuse
(Lopresto et al. 2019). Genetic engineering also investi-
gates the possibility of producing lipases from recombi-
nant microorganisms, promising reduced lipase costs.
Although conventional alkaline homogeneous transes-
terification quickly leads to high triglyceride conversions,
energy demand is high, and product purification and cata-
lyst recovery processes are complex. Such critical issues can
be overcome with heterogeneous catalysis, which avoids
the formation of soaps during the reaction and makes the
catalyst easily recoverable, but with lower yields at higher
times, higher temperatures, low scalability, and high total
costs (Stoytcheva and Montero 2011). For this reason,
research is very active in finding heterogeneous catalysts
Fig. 3 Overall transesterification and series–parallel glyceride con- that guarantee adequate performance, including immobi-
version reactions (Nieves-Soto et al. 2012) lised enzymes, zeolites, clay, ion exchange resins, oxides,
calcium carbonate, etc. (Pinto et al. 2005). Zeolitic alkaline
catalysts Li/Nay, with various Li2CO3 and Nay compositions,
convert free fatty acids into alkyl esters, thus avoiding the have been used to catalyse the production of biodiesel from
saponification reaction. In a study on acid-catalytic transes- castor oil and ethanol, with the advantages of having selec-
terification of soybean oil, the yield in esters increased as the tive catalysts for both reagents and products by varying the
molar methanol/oil ratio and the catalyst amount increased size of the pores and of making both the esterification and
(Canakci and Van Gerpen 1999). In addition, water in the transesterification reaction co-occur within the microporous
oily phase inhibits the transesterification reaction, so it is and crystalline structure (Li et al. 2019). Also, heteropo-
necessary to operate with high molar methanol/oil ratios to lyacids (HPA)—hydrogen and oxygen compounds, adding
complete the reaction. Among the negative aspects, the cor- molybdenum, vanadium, tungsten, arsenic, phosphorus, or
rosion of equipment, valves, and pipes in contact with the silica—are very interesting. Thanks to their oxidising power,
reaction mixture is added, resulting in a request for more acidity, and thermal stability, HPA are “green” and versatile
constructive measures. catalysts for various situations, and they are classified as
Enzymes are biological catalysts in the form of glob- Keggin or Well-Dawson HPA. The difference consists in
ular proteins that drive the chemical reactions in living the availability of surface area, which can be improved by
organisms’ cells. The enzyme used for the production immobilising a support material (e.g., carbon, silica, resins,
of biodiesel by transesterification is lipase (triacylglyc- zeolites, and metal oxides). Such support increases the cata-
erol ester hydrolase EC 3.1.1.3) (Marchetti et al. 2007; lyst’s surface, reduces solubility and leaching (leaching) in
Lopresto et al. 2015), which catalyses the breakdown reaction, and improves thermal stability. HPA catalysts of
of triglycerides, releasing free fatty acids, diacylglyc- the Keggin type have also been used in the transesterification
erols, monoacylglycerols, and glycerol. Like any other process, resulting in an effective catalyst active in the pres-
catalyst, the enzyme does not influence the free energy ence of FFA and tolerant to water, achieving a conversion of
of the reaction, thus leaving the thermodynamic equilib- over 90% (Morin et al. 2007; Da Silva et al. 2017). However,
rium unchanged, nor is it consumed during the process. this requires a reaction time of many hours. Finally, another
Unlike typical synthetic catalysts, however, the complex category that deserves attention is industrial waste, such as
structure of enzymes results in high selectivity. Moreover, marble dust from the same processing waste, blast furnace
thanks to their biological origin, enzymes are active under slag, limestone sludge, rocky debris, etc. Such waste has a
very mild temperatures (30–40 °C) and pH conditions but high content of MgO and calcium-based components, such
require adequate plant design so that the high cost of the as CaO and C aCO3, and can be used in biodiesel production
enzyme does not negate the economic advantage resulting (Orege et al. 2022).
Biodiesel for small communities power flows designed for large centralised power plants
with concentrate generation and no consumer participation
Biodiesel in Distributed Energy Resources (Orecchini and Santiangeli 2011). Instead, a smart grid has
two possible flows: two-way energy flows and two-way
Distributed Energy Resources (DER) are small-scale information flows. In the first case, energy can be gen-
plants that produce energy near users, such as homes or erated by power generators and delivered to the custom-
workplaces, presenting themselves as a valid, optimisable ers or generated by the customers and injected back into
alternative to the classic electricity networks. Thanks to the power grid. Instead, in the second case, utilities have
their small size, with power ranging from a few kW to access to real-time information, and customers control
some MW, such networks have lower costs and can have dynamic energy flows to meet their electricity demands
higher electricity transmission rates along their lines. The (Rehmani et al. 2018). Depending on the size and compo-
distributed generation allows the penetration and distribu- nents of the network, we talk about macrogrid, microgrid,
tion of closed energy cycles based on renewable sources and nanogrid. This paper is focused on nanogrids. Usually,
with zero waste formation and no environmental impact a nanogrid for domestic use is a smaller microgrid under
(Orecchini and Santiangeli 2011). The combination with direct current (DC) with a power of less than 5 kW, which
green power makes the DER an eco-sustainable alterna- allows to connect more energy generation plants such as
tive, using wind, geothermal, biomass, hydroelectric, or photovoltaic systems, micro-CHP (Cogeneration Heat and
photovoltaic energy. The energy outputs of these networks Power) powered by Stirling or natural gas microturbines,
vary from 3 kW to 50 MW and are to be considered in fuel cells, etc. (Fig. 4).
parallel with the electricity utility or autonomous units. The basic structure of a nanogrid consists of the
Usually, they function as backup generators or for on-site following:
energy production. Sometimes, they are also present in
cogeneration processes and have energy storage units. • A local renewable energy plant, such as solar or wind
Among the various innovative technologies of the DER energy, or non-renewable, such as diesel generators;
are microturbines that produce up to 500 kW of power, • Local loads, household appliances, and items in a dwell-
fuel cells that exploit electrochemical processes, photo- ing that require power to operate;
voltaic systems, wind systems, and hybrid systems (Cap- • An accumulation system, the presence of which is con-
ehart 2016). The DER’s continuous evolution has influ- sidered optional but, generically, is an integral part of the
enced various world countries differently depending on nanogrid since it provides more excellent stability;
their technological development. The first result was to • A controller that verifies the behaviour of the nanogrid
have smaller and more easily manageable energy produc- according to the specified objective; the selection of the
tion centres, both logistically and technologically, instead operating mode of each converter (a device that inter-
of larger energy plants. The division into small produc- faces the energy production sources, storage systems, and
tion plants has also made it possible to have more stor- loads to the standard direct current DC or alternate cur-
age systems in such small DER, both to provide energy rent AC bus of the nanogrid), allows the coordination of
to consumers in the vicinity of such plants and to exploit the different systems optimising the production, storage,
the accumulated energy as an energy backup (Bistline and and consumption of electricity;
Blanford 2021; Huynh et al. 2022). • A gateway, which is a bidirectional connection that
allows the transmission of measurement data and infor-
mation with other nanogrids, microgrids, or the national
Smart grid, nanogrid, and energy communities network.
An essential and emerging way of energy management is A key feature of nanogrids is their ability to be intercon-
the smart grid, a novel electric grid merging information nected, operating, and communicating within the microgrid
and communication technologies and control systems with and connected to the macrogrid. Nanogrids have allowed
the power grid. This system includes electrical-digital con- people and entire communities who did not have the
nections and allows you to connect possible users belong- opportunity to use electricity to take advantage of the lat-
ing to the network, trying to meet the energy demand of est mobile phone technology without switching from fixed
the network itself, to power generation plants (Hossain telephony. Using innovative devices such as nanogrids that
et al. 2016). A smart grid must have at least one power combine local generation sources, loads, and energy stor-
input and output, while the electricity storage may or may age systems (ESS) represents the link between energy effi-
not be present. Conventional grids have unidirectional ciency and the development of the renewable energy com-
munity (REC). The interface with the network features a
Fig. 4 General scheme of a nanogrid (ComESto 2021)
DC/AC converter called Power Electrical Interface (PEI), except for conversion losses, when biodiesel powers the
a two-way power converter that regulates the power flows internal combustion engine and produces electricity fed
between the nanogrid and the network. It can absorb or into the grid for the community’s consumption phase and
deliver power when the nanogrid is connected. In addition, network services to meet internal and external demand. Usu-
the PEI allows the nanogrid to operate as a single system, ally, wind and solar energies are primary renewable sources,
providing auxiliary services to the network when required. while the biodiesel generator works as secondary sources in
The nanogrid makes the interconnection between different case of bad weather conditions and consequent power failure
renewable sources easier, and the ESS has a central role (Martin and Chebak 2016).
because it compensates for load variations and can absorb Maleki et al. modelled a hybrid energy system consisting
or release energy, allowing the control of the power required of photovoltaic panels, a battery storage system and a die-
to increase self-consumption or services (Nordman 2010; sel generator as a backup power source. They used various
Menniti et al. 2020). biodiesel fuels to generate electricity for a typical Iranian
village household. Specifically, they produced biodiesel
Biodiesel as energy storage and energy supply by transesterifying oil from indigenous Norouzak (Salvia
leriifolia) seeds. Ultrasound-assisted alkaline transesterifica-
Biodiesel can be considered a non-conventional energy stor- tion was performed at 45 °C, with a methanol-to-oil ratio of
age system and an energy supply for a renewable energy 6:1 and 1% potassium hydroxide as a catalyst. The results
community. Biodiesel production can be powered by solar indicated that the biodiesel produced in the hybrid energy
energy obtained through photovoltaic panels, and the biofuel system satisfies the electrical needs of a rural house (Maleki
produced can be stored to be helpful when solar panels do et al. 2016).
not make the required energy. Therefore, biodiesel becomes Mehrppoya et al. proposed an integrated cogeneration
an energy storage system used in an internal combustion process to produce biodiesel and power in an Organic Rank-
engine in cogeneration and integrated with the nanogrid ine Cycle using solar collectors to supply the required pro-
(Fig. 5). cess power. They comprehensively analysed the solar sys-
Transesterification involves energy consumption that tem, the biodiesel production by alkaline transesterification
can be provided when there is a surplus of production from and their integration in a cogeneration plant for power and
renewable sources. The accumulated energy is returned, heat generation. Specifically, methanol, sodium hydroxide
Fig. 5 Biodiesel as energy stor-

age and energy supply for the
combined production of thermal
and electrical energy (Falbo
et al. 2022)
and pre-heated oil are pumped into the transesterification about 53 m2 each, as well as common areas, you have an
reactor, where 95% of the oil is assumed to be converted average monthly energy consumption of 7300 kWh and opt-
to biodiesel and glycerol. The product stream is introduced ing for a smart grid, with a specific rate, through an electric
to the methanol distillation column: pure methanol is recy- generator connected to the “grid” you can compensate for
cled to the transesterification reactor, and the bottom stream the costs due to the hours when the peak of energy required
is pressurised, cooled and entered into a washing column. is at most. This generator uses a blend of 10% biodiesel
Then, biodiesel is separated from glycerol, methanol, and 90% vegetable oils, satisfying the demand, producing
sodium hydroxide, and water. Ultimately, separate glycerol additional biodiesel, and allowing users of the smart grid
and biodiesel streams are further purified. An Organic Rank- to have lower consumption costs for energy. In addition, the
ine Cycle generates power by converting liquid Re-113 to generator contributes to the reduction of power outages and
hot vapour and successive expansion in a turbine. Finally, blackouts, allowing awareness of the environmental impact
parabolic trough solar collectors supply the required thermal of energy consumption, reduction of GHG emissions (even
energy for biodiesel production and the Organic Rankine more clearly if cogeneration plants are used), and the adver-
Cycle (Mehrpooya et al. 2020). tising of such benefits to other persons who could form a
Algieri et al. analysed the integration of biodiesel, solar, possible new energy community (Guerhardt et al. 2020).
and wind energy to produce combined heat and power for
small-scale residential applications. An Organic Rankine Small‑scale plants for biodiesel production
Cycle fuelled by biodiesel and an auxiliary backup boiler from waste cooking oils
produce thermal energy. In the Organic Rankine Cycle sys-
tem, the working fluid (toluene) is pressurised by a pump, The possibility of exploiting biodiesel in a smart grid as an
preheated and vaporised by an evaporator, expanded in a tur- eco-sustainable source for energy storage and its subsequent
bine until the condensation pressure, and finally condensed. use in nanogrids opens up the possibility of building small-
Biodiesel feeds a boiler, producing thermal energy for the scale plants. Waste Cooking Oils (WCOs) from the daily fry-
Organic Rankine Cycle system through a thermal oil circuit. ing and cooking of food in domestic kitchens or the catering
At the same time, a wind turbine and a photovoltaic unit sector are economical and sustainable raw materials since
operate in parallel to produce electricity to be exchanged waste that would otherwise be destined for complex disposal
with the grid. Such an integrated system overcomes the could be valorised to produce energy. Small-scale plants
intermittent nature of wind and solar renewable sources have many social, economic, and environmental advantages.
(Algieri et al. 2020b). They also contribute to making renewable energy and rural
An important example of local self-production and bio- development. Small-scale plants are mainly intended for
diesel consumption in an energy community is in a con- small communities, whether individual families or groups
dominium in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil, of families, whether they are businesses, villages, or catering
consisting of 23 floors, with four apartments per floor of and food distribution activities (De Paola et al. 2021). Small
communities can use local resources and independently national or international conflicts and political instability
manage the biodiesel production process to exploit waste make the supply of fossil energy resources difficult. One of
and become as independent as possible and self-sufficient the cases studied is related to the long civil war in Yemen,
in energy. which began in 2015 and led to a severe humanitarian crisis
Equipment for small-scale biodiesel production is avail- and the total lack of diesel in many large cities, resulting
able in many sizes, with varying accessories and differ- in interruptions of all activities and utilities. In small and
ent qualities of construction materials. Some systems are medium-scale plants, producing 600 and 2000 L per day of
labour-intensive, while others are highly automated, adding biodiesel from waste oils, respectively, was technically and
to the total cost. Oliveira et al. designed and constructed economically feasible. However, profit margins are lower
a mobile biodiesel production unit (100 L/h) destined for on a smaller scale. In a medium-scale plant (2000 L/day),
small-scale oil producers and equipped with some systems 100 L of WCO should be transferred to a 150 L tank at each
for the extraction and purification of vegetable oils from iteration, where a 9 kW heater should heat the oil to 70 °C;
seeds; various storage tanks for the reagents, products and sodium methoxide should be prepared by dissolving NaOH
washing water; one 18 kW power generator fuelled with in methanol in a 20 L tank and, then, poured into the oil
biodiesel; two 180-L reactors for the transesterification; two tank under stirring for about 5 min. The reaction mixture
settler containers for the product separation; an evaporation should be filtered and stored in a 3000 L tank. After glycerol
column for the unreacted alcohol removal; a heat exchanger separation, biodiesel should be washed with high-pressure
operating in counter-current mode; a water washing column purified water and heated to evaporate residual water. In a
and an evaporation column under vacuum pump for the final smaller-scale plant (500–600 L/day), oil should react in a 15
biodiesel purification (Oliveira et al. 2010). For example, L tank with methoxide, previously prepared into a 5 L con-
the possibility of building a small plant in rural and under- tainer, and the biodiesel produced should be filtered, stored
developed areas has been studied for the village Mango’o in in a 1000 L tank and washed in a 200 L washing tank. Many
Cameroon, where biodiesel could be produced from palm processes can be done manually, and the labour employment
oil, available in large quantities, to meet the energy needs rate is higher but with reduced capital costs. After a techno-
of the local population, reduce dependence on fossil fuels economic analysis, the small-scale process is feasible, only
and prevent further depletion and depopulation. This plant lowering the purchase price of waste oils to 0.07 US$/litre
consists of a batch reactor producing 180 L of biodiesel per or increasing the selling price of biodiesel to 0.7 US$/litre
batch for a maximum of four batches daily, reaching 150,000 (Al-attab et al. 2017).
L of biodiesel produced locally yearly. Preliminarily, oil is The production of biodiesel for small communities from
de-acidified by acid-catalysed esterification. Then, the pre- waste oils generated in campus dining facilities has gained
treated oil is transesterified with sodium methoxide at 55 °C a particular interest in literature. Waste oils from the dining
for 1 h. Finally, biodiesel is separated from glycerine by facilities on Auburn’s main campus were processed in a 208
sedimentation, washed with water and dried by atmosphere L batch plant with methanol and NaOH at 57 °C. After oil
exposure for 12 h. However, the integration of biofuel tech- was collected in 114-L drums and settled in proper contain-
nologies in rural areas should be studied further to deter- ers for about two weeks to remove water and particulates,
mine the correlation between sustainability and scale of it was transesterified, dry washed with AMBERLITE™
production and estimate their potential (Sarantopoulos et al. BD10 and stored for future use (Mullenix 2011). Differ-
2009). A similar small-scale plant (10 L/h) was investigated ent research works also investigated biodiesel from frying
in Morocco to transesterify local WCO at a relatively high oil from campus dining halls at the University of Cincin-
acidity content with methanol (molar ratio 6:1) and 1.2 wt% nati. Agnew et al. investigated the production of 54–64 L/
KOH at 65 °C (Ouanji et al. 2017). Similarly, the possibility week of biodiesel via alkaline transesterification at 60 °C
of building a small plant can be a trump card in decentralised in a 250-L reactor with NaOH and methanol-to-oil ratio of
areas, as in the island of Crete, where the production of 10 5:1, successive separation from glycerol by settling, repeated
thousand tonnes of biodiesel per year from local biomass washing with 1:1 water in two 114-L tanks to remove the
was feasible and economically competitive (Skarlis et al. catalyst, unreacted methanol and residual glycerol, and fil-
2012). Small plants become a promising strategy even where tration into clean, dry containers (Agnew et al. 2009). Tu
the disposal of waste oils is not regulated at the government et al. assessed the technical, economic and environmental
level, as is the case with the tourist island of Langkawi in aspects of converting 3682 L/year of WCO from the Univer-
Malaysia. A technical feasibility study has shown that in that sity of Cincinnati campus dining facilities to 3712 L/year of
region, it is possible to convert about 78.5% of the waste oils biodiesel. The process involves the following phases: pre-
from the catering sector, otherwise destined for improper heating oil in the main 189-L batch reaction tank, mixing
disposal with severe environmental damage, into biodiesel NaOH (3.5 g/L) and methanol (alcohol-to-oil molar ratio
(Kumaran et al. 2011). Another delicate situation is when of 6:1) in the mixing tank, adding the methoxide into the
reactor, keeping the reaction going for 2.5 h, recovering the relatively low consumption of biogasoline, about 30 ktep/y
unreacted methanol by distillation, separating biodiesel and (Bastioli et al. 2023).
glycerol by 24-h decantation and water washing of biodiesel. Several scientific communities have widely studied bio-
The biodiesel produced can potentially replace the 19% of diesel production in recent decades, and several industrial
the diesel consumed by the university fleet, with a payback realities are operating in this field. However, efforts are still
period of 16 months, lower capital and operational costs for being made to make biodiesel economically competitive
on-site WCO conversion, and reduced GHG emissions of with fossil diesel. Homogeneous alkaline transesterifica-
9.37 tonnes CO2-eq/yr (Tu et al. 2015). tion of waste cooking oils seems the most feasible path for
An important step is the definition of the logistics in the biodiesel production, whose profitability is very sensitive
collection of waste oils, which requires interaction with indi- to the price of the feedstock. Scientific evidence shows that
vidual subjects in the units belonging to the smart grid so the reaction aspect has been quite studied and optimised for
that the oils are taken and supplied to the plants that will biodiesel production, so little can be done to improve this
transform them before analysis and pretreatment, in bioprocess stage. However, the transition from the currently
diesel applicable to the nanogrid as energy supply. Aware- used homogeneous catalysis at the industrial level to het-
ness of biodiesel as a fuel is crucial and must rely on its erogeneous catalysis would lead to easier recovery and pos-
biodegradability, low environmental impact, and increased sible reuse of the catalyst, which is why this aspect deserves
safety for human health. proper attention as a future development. Nevertheless, cur-
rently, the heterogeneous process is infeasible, and the oil
price should be reduced by 27.5% to gain profit (Al-Sakkari
et al. 2020). In addition, a further challenge to overcome is
Conclusion and future trends the development of more efficient pre-treatments and post-
treatments to lower the cost of biodiesel production further
The introduction of alternative fuels is dictated by a strictly and make it even more competitive with fossil diesel from
energetic aspect of the depletion of fossil resources and other an economic point of view. The main problem to consider
non-negligible geographical, social, and political factors. For is the processing cost of raw material, including production,
example, in the case of the Mediterranean basin, there is a transport, storage and pre-treatments. Indeed, the quality of
significant imbalance in the allocation of natural resources oils affects the quality of biodiesel, the post-treatments and
on the three sides—northern, southern, and eastern—but the total cost of the process. Proper WCO collection, aimed
this situation can be extended to the global level, with conse- at improving the quality of the stored oil, is a first attempt
quent energy dependence between different countries. In this to reduce the problem. In addition, suitable storage systems
context, domestic production of biofuels could help certain must be identified for waste oils as raw materials and bio-
countries to increase the security of their energy systems by diesel as a final product to avoid the deterioration of their
exploiting locally available resources, potentially reducing properties as much as possible. Finally, the enhancement of
the impact of energy price volatility linked to international glycerol, which has an entirely different market than bio-
geopolitical instabilities and combining sustainability with diesel and would be produced in large quantities together
the principles of security and equity. The introduction of with esters in the trans-esterification reaction, requires ade-
biofuels could have a positive effect on the circular econ- quate attention in the future.
omy. For example, from a socio-economic point of view, Despite this, the innovative element addressed in this arti-
it could stimulate growth and employment, particularly in cle is the context in which biodiesel production fits. Bio-
rural, decentralised, or developing areas. As a renewable diesel production can be aimed at developing distributed
energy source, biodiesel offers a promising solution to cli- storage systems of different technologies, even in hybrid
mate change and the environmental impact of fossil fuels. Its configurations, for the efficient and integrated management
potential to significantly reduce GHG emissions addresses of energy carriers within a smart grid. Indeed, a sustain-
the current crisis and instils hope for a greener, more sus- able future requires energy source diversification, without
tainable future. In Mediterranean Europe, France has the the predominance of one source over the others but with
highest level of consumption of biodiesel and biogasoline, at a proper energy integration based on locally available
a constant level of about 2500 ktep/y for biodiesel and with resources and needs. The trinomial production-demand-
a growing trend for biogasoline, from 430 ktep/y in 2015 to distribution networks used within a hybrid system, according
about 650 ktep/y in 2019. Spain almost doubled its biodiesel to the concept of nanogrid, can be optimised and made smart
consumption in the same period, reaching just under 1400 by creating an interface to integrate generation systems
ktep/y in 2019, while it reduced its biogasoline consump- from renewable sources, micro-cogeneration, storage, and
tion to 130 ktoe/y in 2019. Italy has a reasonably constant generation from fossil sources. This is possible by making
consumption of biodiesel (about 1100–1200 ktep/y) and a production operations continuous and automated, from the
storage of reagent oil to the storage of the biodiesel product. CUP H56C18000150005), and by the Next Generation EU—Italian
In this way, biodiesel can be placed in the context of smart NRRP, Mission 4, Component 2, Investment 1.5, call for the crea-
tion and strengthening of 'Innovation Ecosystems', building 'Territo-
grids as a sustainable energy source for energy communi- rial R&D Leaders' (Directorial Decree n. 2021/3277) by the research
ties, serving as an eco-sustainable source for energy stor- project Tech4You (Technologies for climate change adaptation and
age. A multi-objective optimisation of a renewable multi- quality of life improvement, project code ECS 00000009, CUP
source integrated energy system for combined heat and H23C22000370006).
power applications suggested the integration of a 12.6 k Wel Author’s contribution CGL: conceptualization, data curation, formal
biodiesel-fuelled Organic Rankine Cycle with a 10 k Wel analysis, methodology, validation, visualization, writing—original
wind turbine and a 6.3 kWel photovoltaic unit. It signifi- draft, writing – review & editing.
cantly improves the global system efficiency (+ 7.5%), self-
Funding Open access funding provided by Università della Calabria
consumption (+ 15.0%), and electricity surplus injected into within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. Ministero dell’Università e della
the grid (from 8.8 to 30.8% of the yearly electric demand) Ricerca, ARS01_01259, ECS 00000009
compared to the sole Organic Rankine Cycle apparatus for a
residential smart electric grid (Algieri et al. 2020a). Declarations
The following challenges to face are the development of
Conflict of interest The authors have no relevant financial or non-fi-
technological solutions and the optimisation of methodolo- nancial interests to disclose.
gies, algorithms, and conversion processes to implement a
renewable community that reaches energy self-sustainabil- Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-
ity by exploiting waste products of the community itself, bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta-
tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
encouraging innovative waste recycling processes, and as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
promoting the integration of networks. The research fore- provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
sees future development of the design, implementation, were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
and management of a real community whose citizens are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
directly involved and act as protagonists at all stages. This the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
can be done practically by building a truly operational small- permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
scale waste oil biodiesel plant connected to a nanogrid and need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
manageable by the small community it is destined for. All copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
this would create a localised industrial network integrated
with the national and international ones and create new local
production chains. Long time and coordination difficulties
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Sustainable Biodiesel Production From Waste Cooking Oils For Energetically Independent Small Communities: An Overview

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International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology

Sustainable biodiesel production from waste cooking oils

Received: 29 January 2024 / Revised: 10 May 2024 / Accepted: 28 May 2024

Keywords Biofuels · Energy supply · Nanogrid · Smart communities · Sustainability · Waste

offer new opportunities for income diversification, promote

Applications of biodiesel A comparison of fossil biodiesel and diesel (Table 3)

Ester content (% m/m) – – 96.5 EN 14103

Table 2 Acid composition of certain vegetable oils (Pinto et al. 2005)

Coconut 5.0 3.0 – 6.0 – – 65.0

Table 3 Comparison of the Property Biodiesel (B100) Diesel

Storage of biodiesel Production of biodiesel

No catalyst High temperatures (250–400 °C)

in energy savings. Given these significant advantages,

Fig. 4 General scheme of a nanogrid (ComESto 2021)

Fig. 5 Biodiesel as energy stor-

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