Overview of biodiesel wastes utilization for hydrogen production

Abstract

Nowadays, biodiesel costs more than fuels produced from crude oil due to prices of raw materials. The production cost of biodiesel could be reduced if cheaper raw material is used and utilization of the biodiesel by-product is one of the promising options for lowering the production cost. Hydrogen will play an important role in the world's future. Therefore, hydrogen production from renewable sources such as glycerol, is gaining attention. This article reviews on the latest development on hydrogen production from biodiesel waste. Glycerol reforming and biotransformation are two main routes available for converting crude glycerol to hydrogen. In more recent years, there have been extensive studies, and some encouraging results on processes for utilization of crude glycerol for hydrogen production. However, many of the proposed technologies still need further development to make them cost-effective and operationally feasible processes to directly utilize crude glycerol from biodiesel production on a large scale.