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3 Biotech (2018) 8:245
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-018-1264-5
REVIEW ARTICLE
Recent development on sustainable biodiesel production using
sewage sludge
Neha Srivastava
1
· Manish Srivastava
2
· Vijai Kumar Gupta
3
· Ambepu Manikanta
1
· Kajal Mishra
4
· Shipra Singh
1,5
·
Sangram Singh
6
· P. W. Ramteke
7
· P. K. Mishra
1
Received: 8 February 2018 / Accepted: 25 April 2018 / Published online: 8 May 2018
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
Biodiesel as a renewable energy is an important alternative to biofuels in current scenario to explore green energy sources.
It is well known that the major cost involved in biodiesel production technology is dependent upon the used feedstock. This
review presents an overview of biodiesel production using municipal sewage sludge as a cost-effective substrate. Munici-
pal sewage sludge which possesses high lipid content with zero cost availability can meet the characteristics of a potential
feedstock to produce biodiesel. Different types of substrates based processes to produce biodiesel have been also explored
in brief. In addition, limitations of the existing process technology for biodiesel production with sustainable solutions have
been also discussed.
Keywords Biodiesel · Biofuels · Sewage sludge · Transestrification · Pyrolysis
Introduction
Increasing concern with environmental pollution due to the
combustion of conventional fossil fuels is receiving huge
attention towards the development of sustainable alternative
energy sources. Additionally, fossil fuels are non-renewa-
ble source of energy, but a potential source of pollutants
that causes global warming and change in the climate pat-
tern. Alternative renewable energy options can be helpful
in overcoming the limitation of fossil fuels, specifically for
the transportation sector. Transportation sector covers ~ 30%
total world’s demand among all industrial sector based on
fossil energy consumption (Atabani et al. 2011, 2012).
Based on the report of United Nation Inter-governmental
Panel on climate change, 23% energy related to green house
gas is emitted by the transportation sector and about 45%
of it is due to the passenger vehicles (International Council
on Clean Transportation, ICCT 2011). Further, demand of
fuel has increased from 85 million barrels of liquid fuel per
day in 2006 and is likely to further increase up to 107 mil-
lion barrels of liquid fuel per day in 2030 (Revellame et al.
2010). Moreover, oil is known as one of the biggest sources
of energy on the earth, but its share is expected to decline
from 35% in 2007 to 30% in 2035 (US Energy Information
Administration 2010; Atabani et al. 2012). Based on the
report of International Energy Agency (IEA) (2007), there
* Neha Srivastava
sri.neha10may@gmail.com
* P. K. Mishra
pkmishra.che@itbhu.ac.in
1
Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology,
Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi 221005, India
2
Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi,
Delhi 110007, India
3
Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, ERA Chair
of Green Chemistry, School of Sciences, Tallinn University
of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia
4
School of Chemical Technology, G.G.S.I.P.U,
New Delhi 110078, India
5
School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi 110067, India
6
Department of Biochemistry, Dr. R.M.L. Awadh University,
Faizabad 224001, India
7
Department of Biological Sciences, Sam Higginbottom
University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences,
Formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Allahabad,
Uttar Pradesh 221007, India
@Phil_Robichaud
@deepthiw
@JoseServera