Marine Oils as Biodiesel

Abstract

Biodiesel has become a promising replacement to petroleum‐derived diesel recently as it is derived from renewable resources and waste biomass. Diversion of high value oil seed plants for biodiesel production has raised concerns about use of cultivated land and food supply. This article has summarized the availability and use of marine (fish and seal) waste as a feedstock, suitability of marine oil, required marine oils pretreatment and transesterification approach for biodiesel production. It has also summarized characteristics, challenges and future prospects of marine oil derived biodiesel. Fisheries and seal industries face lot of unique challenges in handling and disposal of waste generated from mortalities and processing. However, valorization of waste generated from these industries and production of marine oil and biodiesel can enhance their value chain and economic viability while addressing environmental issues of waste management. The main challenges for marine oil derived biodiesel are in terms of seasonality and availability variation, remote locations, handling, pretreatment and storage of raw material and storage of biodiesel.