Depletion of oil reserves, increasing prices of petroleum products, and environmental concerns related to air pollution are the main driving forces for utilizing renewable energy resources to replace fossil fuels. Vegetable oils can be used to produce biodiesel. Biodiesel is obtained by transesterification of vegetable oil with alcohol using homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts. In the industry, biodiesel is produced by heterogeneous catalysts due to high activity and selectivity, better reusability, reduction in processing steps, and wastes. The catalytic activity of catalysts depends on the strength and type of intrinsic basic or/and acid properties. Biodiesel production using heterogenous catalysts depends on the various reaction parameters such as reaction time, temperature, molar ratio of alcohol to oil, catalyst amount, and stirring speed. In this paper, the catalytic transesterification of various feedstocks such as edible oil, non‐edible oil, and waste using heterogeneous catalysts has been reviewed and optimization parameters for maximum biodiesel production have been summarized.

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Biodiesel, fatty acid methyl ester produced by the transesterification of vegetable oil with methanol, is a promising alternative to petroleum-based diesel fuel. In the present study, the methanolysis of high free fatty acid (FFA) Jatropha curcas oil in a transesterification reaction using K 2 CO 3 /CaO solid base catalyst was studied. The various reaction parameters in the transesterification reaction were also discussed. The catalyst was characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed desorption of CO 2 , scanning electron microscopy, particle size analyzer, true density, and surface area analyzer. The optimum conversion of jatropha oil was 92% when the transesterification reaction was carried out at 70• C with 10:1 molar ratio of methanol to oil at reaction time of 3 h and catalyst amount of 6 wt%. The efficiency of catalysts in the methanolysis of jatropha oil was also investigated.

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