The need for alternatives to cover energy supplies at current levels

One of modern society’s greatest challenges is to develop replacements for fossil fuels for the transport sector. This is a result of the fact that while oil production is predicted to peak within the new few years, demand will continue to increase. 

At current levels of energy demand and with falling oil production, there will be a deficit of the energy needed to run a technology-based society. At the same time, at global level, it is generally accepted that consumption of oil and other fossil fuels affects the earth's climate, increasing quantities of CO2 in the atmosphere, which in turn causes global increases in temperatures.

From the socio-economic and environmental perspectives, there is a very large and acute need to develop renewable and sustainable sources of energy to replace fossil fuels. This applies not least in the transport sector, where petrochemical diesel and petrol account for more than 95 % of fuel consumption. This is why intensive research is underway to develop alternative sources of energy, for example, hydrogen, bioethanol and biogas.

Until now, biodiesel has been under-represented in Danish research and development into liquid fuels. There is therefore a great need to develop and produce documentation for the value of second generation biodiesel produced from residue/waste products as alternative sources of energy, primarily to the transport sector. This is exactly what the partners in the Waste-2-Value consortium are working to achieve.

Animal biodiesel – a reality
Using relatively simple, well-known chemical processes, waste oil and animal fat can be converted into fatty acid methyl esters that constitute a biodiesel product. However, there are a number of challenges in connection with producing sufficient purity and quality in the finished product via an efficient process that does not also produce problematic by-products. At Daka in Løsning, near Horsens in Denmark, a plant has been built that is now in full swing, converting slaughterhouse by-products (specially fat) into biodiesel.

Read more about the process from animal to diesel here

The Daka Biodiesel plant in Løsning, Denmark