Nanocatalysts for biodiesel production

Biofuels are a class of clean fuels and promising for energy demand. Biodiesel is relatively costly, which limits the commercialization of the product. The waste edible oil and animal fats are raw materials for biodiesel production. This paper focuses on the catalytic production of biofuels and reviews the application of different catalysts to produce biodiesel from waste oils by using esterification and transesterification reactions. The reaction in the presence of nanocatalysts is carried out under mild operating conditions. Nowadays, magnetic nanocatalysts are preferred to bulk catalysts due to the absence of mass transfer resistance and fast deactivation as well as high recovery rate during the separation. Functionalized magnetic nanocatalysts are more attractive for biodiesel production. Further studies should do to develop highly active and selective nanocatalysts for industrial scale.