scholarly journals Renewable Biomass Utilization: A Way Forward to Establish Sustainable Chemical and Processing Industries

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-259
Author(s):  
Yadhu N. Guragain ◽  
Praveen V. Vadlani
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Process Intensification ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Biomass Composition ◽  
Biomass Feedstocks ◽  
Renewable Biomass ◽  
Sustainability Criteria ◽  
Biomass Component ◽  
Biomass Resources ◽  
Multiple Challenges

Lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks are promising alternatives to fossil fuels for meeting raw material needs of processing industries and helping transit from a linear to a circular economy and thereby meet the global sustainability criteria. The sugar platform route in the biochemical conversion process is one of the promising and extensively studied methods, which consists of four major conversion steps: pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, and product purification. Each of these conversion steps has multiple challenges. Among them, the challenges associated with the pretreatment are the most significant for the overall process because this is the most expensive step in the sugar platform route and it significantly affects the efficiency of all subsequent steps on the sustainable valorization of each biomass component. However, the development of a universal pretreatment method to cater to all types of feedstock is nearly impossible due to the substantial variations in compositions and structures of biopolymers among these feedstocks. In this review, we have discussed some promising pretreatment methods, their processing and chemicals requirements, and the effect of biomass composition on deconstruction efficiencies. In addition, the global biomass resources availability and process intensification ideas for the lignocellulosic-based chemical industry have been discussed from a circularity and sustainability standpoint.

scholarly journals Hydrogen Production Technologies: Current State and Future Developments

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christos M. Kalamaras ◽  
Angelos M. Efstathiou
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Pure Hydrogen ◽  
Renewable Biomass ◽  
Current State ◽  
Biomass Resources ◽  
Production Technologies ◽  
Purification Methods ◽  
Water Gas ◽  
Near Future

Hydrogen (H2) is currently used mainly in the chemical industry for the production of ammonia and methanol. Nevertheless, in the near future, hydrogen is expected to become a significant fuel that will largely contribute to the quality of atmospheric air. Hydrogen as a chemical element (H) is the most widespread one on the earth and as molecular dihydrogen (H2) can be obtained from a number of sources both renewable and nonrenewable by various processes. Hydrogen global production has so far been dominated by fossil fuels, with the most significant contemporary technologies being the steam reforming of hydrocarbons (e.g., natural gas). Pure hydrogen is also produced by electrolysis of water, an energy demanding process. This work reviews the current technologies used for hydrogen (H2) production from both fossil and renewable biomass resources, including reforming (steam, partial oxidation, autothermal, plasma, and aqueous phase) and pyrolysis. In addition, other methods for generating hydrogen (e.g., electrolysis of water) and purification methods, such as desulfurization and water-gas shift reactions are discussed.

scholarly journals Synthesis of 2, 5 Dimethyl Furan from Renewable Lignocellulosic Biomass

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-102
Author(s):  
Neha Sharma ◽  
Lekha Charan Meher ◽  
Krishna Chandra ◽  
Mitesh Mittal ◽  
Sanjai Kumar Dwivedi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lignocellulosic Biomass ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Biomass Conversion ◽  
Catalytic Method ◽  
Renewable Biomass ◽  
Hydroxymethyl Furfural ◽  
Hydrolysis Of Cellulose ◽  
Biomass Resources ◽  
Lignocellulosic Biomass Conversion ◽  
Lignocellulose Hydrolysis

Renewable biomass resources could reduce the dependency on the fossil fuels by conversion of its lignocellulose into bio-fuels and other valuable chemicals. Depolymerisation of lignocellulose, hydrolysis of cellulose to monomer glucose and its subsequent dehydration results 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF). HMF is an important platform chemical for fuels and various other applications. The hydrogenation of HMF results 2, 5-dimethylfuran (DMF), which may be a biofuel with 40 per cent greater energy density than that of ethanol. The homogeneous catalytic method is preferred for lignocellulosic biomass conversion to cellulose, its hydrolysis and further dehydration to HMF. The Cu-Ru/C and related catalysts are preferred for hydrogenation of HMD to 2, 5-dimethylfuran. This review is an attempt to summarise the current research and developments in the field of lignocellulose derived HMF and further conversion to DMF as a potential biofuel.

scholarly journals Biomass in a petrochemical world

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 20120038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dermot J. Roddy
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Chemical Conversion ◽  
Thermochemical Conversion ◽  
Biomass Component ◽  
Biomass Resources ◽  
Petrochemicals Industry ◽  
Developed World ◽  
Oil Gas

The world's increasingly voracious appetite for fossil fuels is driven by fast-growing populations and ever-rising aspirations for the lifestyles and standard of living exemplified in the developed world. Forecasts for higher electricity consumption, more comfortable living environments (via heating or cooling) and greater demand for transport fuels are well known. Similar growth in demand is projected for petrochemical-based products in the form of man-made fibres for clothing, ubiquitous plastic artefacts, cosmetics, etc. All drawing upon the same finite oil, gas and coal feedstocks. Biomass can, in principle, substitute for all of these feedstocks. Although ultimately finite, biomass resources can be expanded and renewed if this is a societal priority. This paper examines the projected growth of an energy-intensive international petrochemicals industry, considers its demand for both utilities and feedstocks, and considers the extent to which biomass can substitute for fossil fuels. The scope of this study includes biomass component extraction, direct chemical conversion, thermochemical conversion and biochemical conversion. Noting that the petrochemicals industry consumes around 10 per cent of the world's fossil fuels as feedstocks and almost as much again in utilities, various strategies for addressing future demand are considered. The need for long-term infrastructure and logistics planning is highlighted.

scholarly journals Clinoptilolite as a natural, active zeolite catalyst for the chemical transformations of geraniol

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Fajdek-Bieda ◽  
Agnieszka Wróblewska ◽  
Piotr Miądlicki ◽  
Jadwiga Tołpa ◽  
Beata Michalkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Nitrogen Adsorption ◽  
Carbon Chain ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Chemical Transformations ◽  
Renewable Biomass ◽  
Ft Ir ◽  
Catalyst Content ◽  
Favorable Conditions ◽  
Instrumental Methods

AbstractThis work presented the studies with the natural zeolite—clinoptilolite as the catalyst for the isomerization of geraniol. During the research, it turned out that the studied process is much more complicated, and not only isomerization takes place in it, but also dehydration, oxidation, dimerization, cyclization and fragmentation of the carbon chain. Geraniol is an organic raw material which can be obtained not only by a chemical synthesis but also from plants (renewable biomass) by distillation or extraction method, for example a source of geraniol can be a plant—geranium. Before catalytic tests clinoptilolite was characterized by the instrumental methods, such as: XRD, porosity studies—nitrogen adsorption at 77 K, SEM, EDXRF, and FT-IR. Gas chromatography analyses showed that the main products of geraniol isomerization process were 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol. The selectivity of 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol depended on the temperature, catalyst content and reaction time. These parameters were changed in the following ranges: 80–150 °C (temperature), 5–15 wt% (catalyst content) and 15–1440 min. (reaction time). The most favorable conditions for 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol obtaining were: temperature 140 ºC, catalyst content 12.5 wt% and reaction time 180 min. At these conditions, the conversion of geraniol amounted to 98 mol%, and the selectivities of 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol amounted to 14 and 47 mol%, respectively.

Nb2C MXene assisted CoNi bimetallic catalysts for hydrogenolysis of aromatic ethers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sen-Wang Wang ◽  
Zhen-Hong He ◽  
Jian-Gang Chen ◽  
Kuan Wang ◽  
Zhong-Yu Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bimetallic Catalysts ◽  
Precious Metal ◽  
Renewable Biomass ◽  
Biomass Resources

Hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived lignin sources is highly important for the conversion of renewable biomass resources to biofuels. However, lots of developed catalysts suffer from the drawbacks of expensive precious metal...

Biocatalysis and biomass conversion: enabling a circular economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 378 (2176) ◽  
pp. 20190274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger A. Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Biomass Conversion ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Liquid Fuels ◽  
Waste Biomass ◽  
Renewable Biomass ◽  
Precious Metal Catalysts ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Forestry Residues ◽  
The Right

This paper is based on a lecture presented to the Royal Society in London on 24 June 2019. Two of the grand societal and technological challenges of the twenty-first century are the ‘greening' of chemicals manufacture and the ongoing transition to a sustainable, carbon neutral economy based on renewable biomass as the raw material, a so-called bio-based economy. These challenges are motivated by the need to eliminate environmental degradation and mitigate climate change. In a bio-based economy, ideally waste biomass, particularly agricultural and forestry residues and food supply chain waste, are converted to liquid fuels, commodity chemicals and biopolymers using clean, catalytic processes. Biocatalysis has the right credentials to achieve this goal. Enzymes are biocompatible, biodegradable and essentially non-hazardous. Additionally, they are derived from inexpensive renewable resources which are readily available and not subject to the large price fluctuations which undermine the long-term commercial viability of scarce precious metal catalysts. Thanks to spectacular advances in molecular biology the landscape of biocatalysis has dramatically changed in the last two decades. Developments in (meta)genomics in combination with ‘big data’ analysis have revolutionized new enzyme discovery and developments in protein engineering by directed evolution have enabled dramatic improvements in their performance. These developments have their confluence in the bio-based circular economy. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Science to enable the circular economy'.

scholarly journals RAPE SEED OIL TETRAHYDROFURFURYLESTERS

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
K. Malins ◽  
V. Kampars ◽  
R. Kampare ◽  
T. Rusakova
Keyword(s):  
Rapeseed Oil ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Methyl Esters ◽  
Cetane Number ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Biodiesel Production ◽  
Cold Filter Plugging Point ◽  
Mineral Oils

The transesterification of vegetable oil using various kinds of alcohols is a simple and efficient renewable fuel synthesis technique. Products obtained by modifying natural triglycerides in transesterification reaction substitute fossil fuels and mineral oils. Currently the most significant is the biodiesel, a mixture of fatty acid methyl esters, which is obtained in a reaction with methanol, which in turn is obtained from fossil raw materials. In biodiesel production it would be more appropriate to use alcohols which can be obtained from renewable local raw materials. Ethanol rouses interest as a possible reagent, however, its production locally is based on the use of grain and therefore competes with food production so it would implicitly cause increase in food prices. Another raw material option is alcohols that can be obtained from furfurole. Furfurole is obtained in dehydration process from pentose sugars which can be extracted from crop straw, husk and other residues of agricultural production. From furfurole the tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (THFA), a raw material for biodiesel, can be produced. By transesterifying rapeseed oil with THFA it would be possible to obtain completely renewable biodiesel with properties very close to diesel [2-4]. With the purpose of developing the synthesis of such fuel, in this work a three-stage synthesis of rapeseed oil tetrahydrofurfurylesters (ROTHFE) in sulphuric acid presence has been performed, achieving product with purity over 98%. The most important qualitative factors of ROTHFE have been determined - cold filter plugging point, cetane number, water content, Iodine value, phosphorus content, density, viscosity and oxidative stability.

scholarly journals Ethanol-Based Biodiesel from Waste Vegetable Oil

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1 & 2) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Mary Grace M. Oliveros ◽  
Amiliza B. Baiting ◽  
Menchie G. Lumain ◽  
Maria Theresa I. Cabaraban
Keyword(s):  
Vegetable Oil ◽  
Fast Food ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Material Balance ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Biodiesel Production ◽  
Exhaust Emission ◽  
Waste Vegetable Oil ◽  
Power Testing ◽  
Technological Analysis

Waste vegetable oil, mainly coming from frying residues, can be used as raw material to obtain a diesel fuel (biodiesel). Biodiesel, a nontoxic, biodegradable, diesel-like fuel, is an important energy alternative capable of decreasing environmental problems caused by the consumption of fossil fuels. The utilization of waste vegetable oils as raw material in biodiesel production was studied. Research was undertaken to establish the availability of used vegetable oil to supply a biodiesel process. It is intended that this work forms an academic study combined with an environmental and technological analysis of the merits of biodiesel as a sustainable fuel. Laboratory experimentation investigated the possibility of using waste vegetable oil from the local fast food chains, and potassium hydroxide as catalyst for the transesterification process. The cleaned waste vegetable oil undergoes transesterification for 4 hours, after which, the biodiesel is separated from the glycerin by gravity. Washing is necessary to remove residual catalyst or soap. Overall material balance for the process gives: 1 kg Waste Vegetable oil + 0.18 kg EtOH + 0.01 kg KOH → 0.74 kg Biodiesel + 0.44 kg Glycerin The biodiesel, in pure form (B100) and in 50% proportion (B50) with petroleum diesel, was run in an essentially unmodified Toyota 2C diesel engine. Smoke density (opacity) and CO exhaust emission both decreased with B50. However, Nox increased with B50. Fuel consumption during engine power testing is significantly greater using the biodiesel, but is also significantly reduced with B50.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Environmental Performance of Solar Energy Systems Through a Combined Life Cycle Assessment and Cost Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Milousi ◽  
Manolis Souliotis ◽  
George Arampatzis ◽  
Spiros Papaefthimiou
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Solar Thermal ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Environmental Implications

The paper presents a holistic evaluation of the energy and environmental profile of two renewable energy technologies: Photovoltaics (thin-film and crystalline) and solar thermal collectors (flat plate and vacuum tube). The selected renewable systems exhibit size scalability (i.e., photovoltaics can vary from small to large scale applications) and can easily fit to residential applications (i.e., solar thermal systems). Various technical variations were considered for each of the studied technologies. The environmental implications were assessed through detailed life cycle assessment (LCA), implemented from raw material extraction through manufacture, use, and end of life of the selected energy systems. The methodological order followed comprises two steps: i. LCA and uncertainty analysis (conducted via SimaPro), and ii. techno-economic assessment (conducted via RETScreen). All studied technologies exhibit environmental impacts during their production phase and through their operation they manage to mitigate significant amounts of emitted greenhouse gases due to the avoided use of fossil fuels. The life cycle carbon footprint was calculated for the studied solar systems and was compared to other energy production technologies (either renewables or fossil-fuel based) and the results fall within the range defined by the global literature. The study showed that the implementation of photovoltaics and solar thermal projects in areas with high average insolation (i.e., Crete, Southern Greece) can be financially viable even in the case of low feed-in-tariffs. The results of the combined evaluation provide insight on choosing the most appropriate technologies from multiple perspectives, including financial and environmental.

Nitrogen-Bearing Emissions From Burning Corn Straw in a Fixed-Bed Reactor: Effects of Fuel Moisture, Torrefaction, and Air Flowrate

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emad Rokni ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Xiaohan Ren ◽  
Yiannis A. Levendis
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Content ◽  
Hydrogen Cyanide ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Fixed Bed ◽  
Fixed Bed Reactor ◽  
Fuel Moisture ◽  
Corn Straw ◽  
Renewable Biomass ◽  
Torrefied Biomass

Combustion-generated emissions of acid gases, such as nitrogen-bearing species, constitute environmental pollutants and some are subjected to environmental regulations. Assessment of such emissions is important to decide what systems need to be put in place for their control. This applies to both conventional fossil fuels and for alternative environmentally friendlier fuels, such as renewable biomass. This research investigated the emissions of nitrogen-bearing gases, which evolve from combustion of biomass (corn straw) in a fixed bed furnace, as a function of specific air flowrate (m˙air) through the bed and of moisture content of the fuel. The effect of torrefaction of corn straw on the combustion-generated nitrogen bearing emissions was also examined. The predominant nitrogen-bearing species in the combustion effluents were hydrogen cyanide (HCN), nitrogen oxide (NO), and ammonia (NH3). Increasing m˙air through the bed, to enhance the combustion rate, increased the emissions of HCN, NO, and NH3. As the m˙air through the bed increased by a factor of 5, the amounts of HCN, NO, and NH3 gases increased by factors of 3–4. As the moisture content of the biomass was reduced by drying, the combustion-generated emissions of NO increased mildly, whereas those of both NH3 and HCN decreased. Furthermore, the combustion-generated emissions of NO and NH3 from torrefied biomass were found to be higher than those from raw biomass. In contrast, the combustion-generated emissions of HCN from torrefied biomass were found to be lower than those generated from raw biomass.

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