Raw materials to produce low-cost biodiesel

In temperate areas, annual oilseeds such as soybean, canola and sunflower have been largely used as biodiesel feedstocks, while palm oil trees have been used as feedstock in the tropics. However, the use of non-edible, low-input, low-cost and sustainable vegetable feedstocks compatible with good quality biodiesel (to achieve both customer and vehicles manufacture trust) should be the scientific community target. According to the previous requirements, the following section presents the most suitable vegetable raw materials for biodiesel production. The selection has been prepared considering low input and most promising crops according to their fuel properties (Dorado, 2008). Oleaginous crops to produce biodiesel, such as Bahapilu, castor, cotton seed, cuphea, Jatropha curcas, karanja seed, linseed, mahua, nagchampa, neem, rubber seed, tonka bean; low-cost edible oils, such as cardoon, Ethiopian mustard, Gold-of-pleasure, tigernut; and potential oil-bearing crops and trees such as allanblackia, bitter almond, chaulmoogra, papaya, sal, tung and ucuuba have already been revised by the authors and an extensive revision can be found in a previous work (Dorado, 2008).