Nowadays, when fossil fuel recourses are decreasing rapidly, biodiesel fuels are
becoming more and more interesting. Being environmentally beneficial,
biodegradable, non-toxic and with low pollution emission makes biodiesel interesting
for consumption. Various methods have been reported for biodiesel production such
as microemulsification, pyrolysis and transesterification. Main problems of this
traditional approach in biodiesel production are long residence time, high operation
costs and energy consumption and low efficiency. To overcome these issues new
technologies for process intensification are being developed. Main features of these
processes are enhanced reaction rate, reduced molar ratio of alcohol to oil, and low
energy input realized by intensification of mass and heat transfer.
Microreactor technology is finding increasing application in many fields, from the
chemical industry and biotechnology to the pharmaceutical industry and medicine
High volume/surface ratio, short diffusion distance, fast and efficient heat dissipation
and mass transfer are just some of microreactors advantages. Up to now these
characteristics have been successfully used in organic synthesis where in
comparison to traditional reactor systems, higher conversions and productivities
have been achieved. Researchers believe that implementation of this technology
into biodiesel production could be a next big breakthrough not only in process
intensification but also in process economics. In this paper, application and
possibilities of microreactor technology in biodiesel production have been discussed