Like ester type biodiesel fuel, green diesel is a next generation transportation fuel emerging due to the
need for a renewable replacement of internal combustion engine fuel, which is also fully compatible with
existing automotive powertrain systems. Besides other limitations, the main obstacle for wider application
of such renewable fuels is their relatively high production cost, depending mainly on the raw material
cost and the application of more efficient processing technology. Green diesel and ester type biodiesel
can be produced from waste vegetable oil by catalytic hydrogenation, homogeneous alkali catalysed
transesterification and supercritical non-catalytic transesterification. Techno-economic analysis and
the sensitivity analysis reveal that economics of these production technologies strongly depend on the
process unit capacity and the cost of feedstock. Green diesel production by catalytic hydroprocessing
located in a petroleum refinery appears to be the most cost effective option for unit capacity close to
and above 200,000 tonnes/year. Conventional ester biodiesel process and non-catalytic ester biodiesel
process under supercritical conditions are less profitable at specified capacity. Unit capacities of the
investigated processes which are below 100,000 tonnes/year are likely to result in negative net present
values after 10 years of project lifetime.