Title : Nanocatalysis In Biofuels- An Overview
Abstract:
The concept of biofuel was introduced in 1885 when Dr. Rudolf Diesel built the first diesel engine with the intention of running it on vegetative origin. He displayed his engine for the first time at the Paris show of 1900 and astounded everyone when he ran the patented engine on any hydrocarbon fuel available, which included gasoline and peanut oil. In 1912 he stated, "The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. With increasing demand of petroleum products throughout the world and its depleting resources has now encouraged the scientists and research workers to find the alternative to diesel particularly for transportation sector. Biodiesel can be extracted from vegetable oil and one such renewable alternative is Jatropha Curcas. Catalysis plays an important role in transesterification of vegetable oils. Nano particles are being used in biological catalysis augmenting the process of transesterification. Many aspects production base oil resources, their physical properties, transesterification and effects of catalysts on the process, stability and Iodine value of the various oils, advantages of biodiesel vis-à-vis diesel and future prospects of the system have been discussed in this paper.
The paper gives an insight to the researchers in the field of biofuels to carry forward their research.
