ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the important steps involved in biofuel production and the role of microwaves in the chemical reactions. Microwaves can be considered as mediators for green chemistry. In general, microwave radiation is the term associated with any electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range of 300 MHz-300 GHz. The chapter presents brief history of microwave technology development from the chemistry point of view. Microwave mediated organic synthesis is the most applied research area both in academia and industry. The rate enhancement for comparable microwave and conventionally heated reactions were calculated by using identical concentrations of reactants. Microwave field was applied in inorganic chemical reactions since 1970s. Microwaves have been successfully applied to biomass pretreatment, lipid extraction and transesterification reactions both in batch and continuous set-ups. The most common and simple reactions leading to biodiesel production are esterification and transesterification reactions.
