Transesterification of Waste Cooking Oil Through Microwave Technology: Recent Advances and Challenges

Undeniably higher feedstock costs are hindering the commercialization of biodiesel production. Amidst the mentioned problem, there is a current exploration of alternatives like waste cooking oil (WCO). WCO holds the promise of substantially reducing production costs by 60–90%, attributed to its cost-effectiveness compared to vegetable cooking oils and energy crops. Microwave-assisted transesterification of WCO is a time-efficient process that yields high quality and quantity of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) with a lower molar ratio of methanol to oil. Besides the growing interest in using microwaves for WCO transesterification, a comprehensive review of the technology for analysing factors affecting biodiesel production, and the challenges and limitations for process scale-up and commercialization is essential which is currently limited. The chapter illustrates the significance of microwave heating of WCO for biodiesel production. Further, the influence of parameters on the quality and quantity of biodiesel has also been discussed. The process energy requirement in comparison with the conventional method has been analysed. Challenges and limitations associated with technology commercialization have been annotated. Overall, this chapter enables the researchers to understand the technology-driven biodiesel production through microwave irradiation of WCO and identify the potential loopholes to make the process sustainable.