The effects of water on biodiesel production and refining technologies: A review

Presence of water during biodiesel production and purification processes, storage and use in compression ignition (diesel) engines causes problems that cannot be ignored. These problems include: difficulties in biodiesel processing especially during alkali-catalyzed transesterification process, deterioration of biodiesel quality, decrease in heat of combustion, corrosion of fuel system components, and acceleration of hydrolytic reaction. Beside use of water during biodiesel purification results in wastewater discharges which causes environmental effects, due to high contents of chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, and higher pH values. Thus, this study critically analyzed and examined the effects of water on biodiesel production and the refining of crude biodiesel. Furthermore the effects of water on the quality of biodiesel were also examined.