Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems, 2012, 2, 11-18 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jsbs.2012.22002 Published Online June 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jsbs) Developmental Trends of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems at TMU Laboratories Barat Ghobadian Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Tehran, Iran Email: ghobadib@modares.ac.ir Received April 1, 2012; revised May 4, 2012; accepted May 16, 2012 ABSTRACT This paper describes a brief review of biodiesel R & D developmental trends at Tarbiat Modares University (TMU) bio- energy research laboratories (lab.), Tehran, Iran. The developmental trends at includes potential and feasibility study, cultivation of a sample bioenrgy farm, technology innovation and its scale up (patents) for fuel processing, and finally the fuel application in diesel engines. A national investigation was carried out to find out the possible potential of sus- tainable feedstock for biodiesel production. The results showed that easily available biodiesel feedstock is waste cook- ing oil with a maximum potential of 750 mil.lit and an approximately 350 mil.lit. of collectable waste cooking oil. A castor oil plant farm was cultivated to harvest castor plant seeds, extract its oil, produce biodiesel fuel and use it in die- sel engines. This led to a series of patent and consequently technology innovation from 7 lit. lab. scale to semi-con- tinuous, semi-industrial scale of 2 ton capacity. Keywords: Biomass; Bioenergy; Biofuels; Biodiesel; Feedstocks 1. Introduction The R & D activities on biodiesel in Iran in general, and at TMU in particular, is considered to be at its infantry stage compared to similar research works carried out throughout the world. Perhaps the first step taken to- wards the R & D at TMU on biofuels was the result of an investigation presented at a national conference and pub- lished in its proceedings at Tehran, Iran [1]. Later on, a biofuel strategic plan was devised at Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), for bioenergy and biofuel R & D sus- tainable system development. One of the objectives in this strategic plan was to establish the laboratories and train the human resources in the form of M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. Consequently, biofuel laboratories were estab- lished followed by the development of a biomass and bioenergy strategic plan. These laboratories are today well known as TMU research and development bioenegy laboratories at Tarbiat Modres University, the college of agriculture campus [2]. The biodiesel R & D activity was part of the biomass and bioenergy R & D strategic plan. In this case, a number of research works were carried out [3-15] or going on [16-21] in the form of feasibility studies, M.Sc. dissertations and Ph.D. thesis. The results and the findings of the R & D on various topics have been either presented in conferences [22-66] and/or pub- lished in journals [67-82]. The biodiesel R & D activities also resulted in a few number of research patents [83-96]. Finally, the results are being published in the form of a book on biodiesel production and application technology [97]. A close scrutiny of the topics investigated reveals that the subject-vise R & D activities can be classified as:  Feasibility study of sustainable feedstock,  Technology innovation,  Biodiesel fuel production, and finally  Fuel application analysis. 2. The Feasibility Study of Sustainable Feedstock Various studies and investigations have revealed that about 70 to 75 percent of the biodiesel fuel cost goes for the feedstock. The feedstock for biodiesel production dif- fers from place to place and from country to country. In Iran, above 90 percent of the edible oil is imported. Moreover the cultivation of inedible plants has not been practiced so far. Therefore, a feasibility study was or- ganized to find out the possible potential feedstock throughout the country [3]. The findings indicated that approximately 750 million liters(m.lit.) of biodiesel could be produced from waste vegetable cooking oils. This quantity is not fully collectable. The collectable quantity is about 50 percent (350 million liters). The investigation suggested the potential oil plants suggested of Castor oil plant, Jatropha, Oil palm, Microalgae, and apeseed for future cultivation as energy farms (Figure 1). r Copyright © 2012 SciRes. JSBS