TITLE:
Developmental Trends of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems at TMU Laboratories
AUTHORS:
Barat Ghobadian
KEYWORDS:
Biomass; Bioenergy; Biofuels; Biodiesel; Feedstocks
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems,
Vol.2 No.2,
June
18,
2012
ABSTRACT: This paper describes a brief review of biodiesel R & D developmental trends at Tarbiat Modares University (TMU) bio- energy research laboratories (lab.), Tehran, Iran. The developmental trends at includes potential and feasibility study, cultivation of a sample bioenrgy farm, technology innovation and its scale up (patents) for fuel processing, and finally the fuel application in diesel engines. A national investigation was carried out to find out the possible potential of sustainable feedstock for biodiesel production. The results showed that easily available biodiesel feedstock is waste cooking oil with a maximum potential of 750 mil.lit and an approximately 350 mil.lit. of collectable waste cooking oil. A castor oil plant farm was cultivated to harvest castor plant seeds, extract its oil, produce biodiesel fuel and use it in diesel engines. This led to a series of patent and consequently technology innovation from 7 lit. lab. scale to semi-continuous, semi-industrial scale of 2 ton capacity.