Microreactors - Portable Factories for Biodiesel Fuel Production

Nowadays, when fossil fuel recourses are decreasing rapidly, biodiesel fuels are becoming more and more interesting. Being environmentally beneficial, biodegradable, non-toxic and with low pollution emission makes biodiesel interesting for consumption. Various methods have been reported for biodiesel production such as microemulsification, pyrolysis and transesterification. Main problems of this traditional approach in biodiesel production are long residence time, high operation costs and energy consumption and low efficiency. To overcome these issues new technologies for process intensification are being developed. Main features of these processes are enhanced reaction rate, reduced molar ratio of alcohol to oil, and low energy input realized by intensification of mass and heat transfer. Microreactor technology is finding increasing application in many fields, from the chemical industry and biotechnology to the pharmaceutical industry and medicine High volume/surface ratio, short diffusion distance, fast and efficient heat dissipation and mass transfer are just some of microreactors advantages. Up to now these characteristics have been successfully used in organic synthesis where in comparison to traditional reactor systems, higher conversions and productivities have been achieved. Researchers believe that implementation of this technology into biodiesel production could be a next big breakthrough not only in process intensification but also in process economics. In this paper, application and possibilities of microreactor technology in biodiesel production have been discussed.