The sustainability of the biodiesel production process is a controversial issue in terms of the production cost and promotion of a clean and safe energy process without adverse effects on the environment. Hence, the need to achieve energy sustainability is paramount due to the environmental benefits of biodiesel. In this study, a new approach was reported for biodiesel production from a cheap and readily available waste feedstock, palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD). An environmentally friendly green solvent, dimethyl carbonate (DMC), was utilised in the esterification of free fatty acids present in PFAD. The major influencing reaction parameters were optimised using the Taguchi (L₉) orthogonal design, and statistical analysis was employed to determine the percentage contribution of the individual parameter on biodiesel yields. The maximum biodiesel yield of 89.50% was obtained at optimised reaction conditions, using the reaction time of 3.5 h, reaction temperature of 90 °C, DMC to PFAD molar ratio of 10:1 and catalyst concentration of 12 wt%. The percentage contribution of each of the individual parameters on the biodiesel yield was determined as follows: catalyst concentration (51.72%), reaction temperature (30.14%), DMC to PFAD molar ratio (16.94%), and reaction time (1.21%). The mechanism of esterification reaction between PFAD and DMC has also been proposed. This study illustrates that DMC can be successfully employed as an excellent methylating agent for the esterification of PFAD waste feedstock. The validation study also revealed a good agreement between the predicted and experimental values.

生物柴油生产过程的可持续性在生产成本和促进清洁安全的能源过程方面是一个有争议的问题，对环境没有不利影响。因此，由于生物柴油的环境效益，实现能源可持续性的需求至关重要。在这项研究中，报告了一种从廉价且容易获得的废物原料棕榈脂肪酸馏出物 (PFAD) 生产生物柴油的新方法。一种环保的绿色溶剂碳酸二甲酯 (DMC) 用于酯化 PFAD 中存在的游离脂肪酸。使用田口（L ₉) 正交设计，并采用统计分析来确定单个参数对生物柴油产量的贡献百分比。在优化的反应条件下，反应时间为 3.5 小时，反应温度为 90 °C，DMC 与 PFAD 的摩尔比为 10:1，催化剂浓度为 12 wt%，生物柴油的最大产率为 89.50%。每个单独参数对生物柴油产量的百分比贡献确定如下：催化剂浓度 (51.72%)、反应温度 (30.14%)、DMC 与 PFAD 摩尔比 (16.94%) 和反应时间 (1.21%)。PFAD与DMC的酯化反应机理也已被提出。该研究表明，DMC 可以成功地用作一种优异的甲基化剂，用于 PFAD 废物原料的酯化。