Biodiesel Production (Methyl Ester) from Castor Oil and Effect of Main Parameters on its Production

Nowadays, due to increasing global population, increasing environmental pollution, rising oil prices and declining reserves, many studies have been conducted to find suitable and biocompatible fuel sources. Biodiesel is one of the best fuel sources that can be used instead of fossil fuels such as oil, diesel and coal. Fossil fuels resources are limited and causing environmental pollution while biodiesel is produced from renewable and biocompatible sources and the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from biodiesel is negligible compared to fossil fuels. Different sources can be used to produce the biodiesel. Today, to produce the biodiesel, often, the process of esterification is used in the presence of various alkaline, acidic and enzymatic catalysts and an alcohol (ethanol, methanol, propanol and butanol). In this review study, main parameters on biodiesel production such as temperature, time, ratio of alcohol to oil, catalyst percent in the presence of alkaline catalysts using castor oil are investigated.