The benefit of an artificial carbohydrates supply on Earth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Platt ◽  
Florian Dinger
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Market Price ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
External Costs ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Sugar Beets ◽  
Directed Research

<p>Our conventional, biogenic agriculture (CBA) has failed to provide a reliable concept to feed a growing population in a sustainable way. In particular CBA suffers from severe environmental externalities - such as the massive use of land area, water for irrigation, fertiliser, pesticides, herbicides, and fossil fuel.</p> <p>Here we suggest the artificial synthesis of carbohydrates from (atmospheric) carbon dioxide, water, and renewable energy, which would allow not only a highly reliable production without those externalities, but would also open the possibility to increase the agricultural capacity of our planet by several orders of magnitude. Our study shows that saccharose could be produced from CO2, water and electrical energy with an efficiency exceeding 30% equivalent to about 15 kWh per kg of sugar. Factoring in the efficiency of photovoltaic electricity generation we derive a „sun to sugar“ efficinecy exceeding 6%, which is about 10-times the efficiency of CBA sugar beets or sugar cane.</p> <p>All required technology is either commercially available or at least developed on a lab-scale. No directed research has, however, yet been conducted towards an industry-scale carbohydrate synthesis because the CBA carbohydrate production was thought to be economically more competitive. However, considering the environmental and socioeconomic externalities of the conventional sugar production, this economical narrative has to be questioned. We estimate the production costs of artificial sugar at about 1 €/kg. Today’s spot market price for conventional sugar is about 0.3 €/kg, however, we estimate its total costs (including external costs) at >0.9 €/kg in humid regions and >2 €/kg in semi-arid regions. Accordingly, artificial sugar appears already today to be the less expensive way of production. The artificial sugar production allows in principle also for a subsequent synthesis of other carbohydrates such as starch as well as of fats. These synthetic products could be used as a feedstock to microorganisms, fungi, insects, or livestock in order to enhance also the sustainability of the biogenic production of, e.g., proteins.</p>

Towards an artificial carbohydrates supply on Earth

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Dinger ◽  
Ulrich Platt
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Market Price ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
External Costs ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Directed Research ◽  
Global Population

<p>How to feed a growing global population in a secure and sustainable way? The conventional, biogenic agriculture has yet failed to provide a reliable concept which circumvents its severe environmental externalities — such as the massive use of land area, water for irrigation, fertiliser, pesticides, herbicides, and fossil fuel. In contrast, the artificial synthesis of carbohydrates from atmospheric carbon dioxide, water, and renewable energy would allow not only for a highly reliable production without those externalities, but would also allow to increase the agricultural capacities of our planet by several orders of magnitude. All required technology is either commercially available or at least developed on a lab-scale. No directed research has, however, yet been conducted towards an industry-scale carbohydrate synthesis because the biogenic carbohydrate production was economically more competitive. Taking the environmental and socioeconomic externalities of the conventional sugar production into account, this economical narrative has to be questioned. We estimate the production costs of artificial sugar at ~1 €/kg. While the today’s spot market price for conventional sugar is about ~0.3 €/kg, we estimate its total costs (including external costs) at >0.9 €/kg in humid regions and >2 €/kg in semi-arid regions. Accordingly, artificial sugar appears already today to be the less expensive way of production. The artificial sugar production allows in principle also for a subsequent synthesis of other carbohydrates such as starch as well as of fats. These synthetic products could be used as a feedstock to microorganisms, fungi, insects, or livestock in order to enhance also the sustainability of the biogenic production of, e.g., proteins.</p>

scholarly journals Towards an Artificial Carbohydrates Supply on Earth

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Dinger ◽  
Ulrich Platt
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Market Price ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
External Costs ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Directed Research ◽  
Global Population

How to feed a growing global population in a secure and sustainable way? The conventional, biogenic agriculture has yet failed to provide a reliable concept which circumvents its severe environmental externalities—such as the massive use of land area, water for irrigation, fertiliser, pesticides, herbicides, and fossil fuel. In contrast, the artificial synthesis of carbohydrates from atmospheric carbon dioxide, water, and renewable energy would allow not only for a highly reliable production without those 10 externalities, but would also allow to increase the agricultural capacities of our planet by several orders of magnitude. All required technology is either commercially available or at least developed on a lab-scale. No directed research has, however, yet been conducted to wards an industry-scale carbohydrate synthesis because the biogenic carbohydrate production was economically more competitive. Taking the environmental and socioeconomic externalities of the conventional sugar production into account, this economical narrative has to be questioned. We estimate the production costs of artificial sugar at 1 C/kg. While the today’s spot market price for conventional sugar is about 0.3 C/kg, we estimate its total costs (including external costs) at 0.9 C/kg in humid regions and 2 C/kg in semi-arid regions. Accordingly, artificial sugar appears already today to be the less expensive way of production. The artificial sugar production allows in principle also for a subsequent synthesis of other carbohydrates such as starch and cellulose as well as fats. This manuscript aims at rising research interest and at enhancing awareness for a transition to a nonagricultural and more resource conserving way to supply carbohydrates for food.<br>

scholarly journals Towards an Artificial Carbohydrates Supply on Earth

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Dinger ◽  
Ulrich Platt
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Market Price ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
External Costs ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Directed Research ◽  
Global Population

How to feed a growing global population in a secure and sustainable way? The conventional, biogenic agriculture has yet failed to provide a reliable concept which circumvents its severe environmental externalities—such as the massive use of land area, water for irrigation, fertiliser, pesticides, herbicides, and fossil fuel. In contrast, the artificial synthesis of carbohydrates from atmospheric carbon dioxide, water, and renewable energy would allow not only for a highly reliable production without those 10 externalities, but would also allow to increase the agricultural capacities of our planet by several orders of magnitude. All required technology is either commercially available or at least developed on a lab-scale. No directed research has, however, yet been conducted to wards an industry-scale carbohydrate synthesis because the biogenic carbohydrate production was economically more competitive. Taking the environmental and socioeconomic externalities of the conventional sugar production into account, this economical narrative has to be questioned. We estimate the production costs of artificial sugar at 1 C/kg. While the today’s spot market price for conventional sugar is about 0.3 C/kg, we estimate its total costs (including external costs) at 0.9 C/kg in humid regions and 2 C/kg in semi-arid regions. Accordingly, artificial sugar appears already today to be the less expensive way of production. The artificial sugar production allows in principle also for a subsequent synthesis of other carbohydrates such as starch and cellulose as well as fats. This manuscript aims at rising research interest and at enhancing awareness for a transition to a nonagricultural and more resource conserving way to supply carbohydrates for food.<br>

Technical accounting: sugar extraction and losses

2020 ◽  
pp. 712-721
Author(s):  
Jan Maarten de Bruijn de Bruijn
Keyword(s):  
Process Improvement ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Extraction Yield ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Cost Leadership ◽  
Sugar Extraction ◽  
White Sugar

The bought sugar in the processed raw material (either beet or cane) comprises a high financial value and may contribute to somewhere around 50% of the white sugar production costs. It is therefore of the utmost importance to minimize sugar losses along the process and produce as much white sugar as possible from the raw material. This paper explains the principle of technical accounting as tool to control sugar extraction and losses in beet sugar manufacture. The sugar mass balance used to calculate the overall sugar extraction yield, as well as several simple calculations proposed for estimating the different sugar losses (like e.g. extraction (diffusion) losses, infection losses, sugar losses in molasses, etc.) in the subsequent process steps will be explained in detail. Proper technical accounting is considered indispensable for continuous process control and process improvement in pursuit of best-practice operation and cost-leadership.

Automobile based heat energy recovery systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-23
Author(s):  
Om Prakash ◽  
Ishan Kashyap ◽  
Ayush Kumar ◽  
Bharath Bhushan ◽  
Anil Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Heat Energy ◽  
World Energy ◽  
Waste Energy ◽  
Heat Energy Recovery ◽  
Further Development ◽  
State Of Art

In today's world, energy-saving and waste energy recovery are an important aspect, and it is more critical in the automotive sector. This is mainly due to vehicles are running on fossil fuel. This paper presents review on state of art waste energy recovery systems for automobiles. With further development, this system has the potential in deployment in many other industries. This technology can also be used to store electrical energy which will further be helpful in both hybrid and electric vehicles.

scholarly journals Electrical system design of solar powered electrical recreational boat for Indonesian waters

2018 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 04011
Author(s):  
Sunaryo Sunaryo ◽  
Adri Wirawan Ramadhani
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Electrical System ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
The Government ◽  
Solar Powered

Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands and has plenty of beautiful beaches and underwater spots which have great potential for maritime tourism. Tourism was ranked 3rd on Indonesia's foreign income and plays an important role for the country’s ecomony. Despite having potential advantages, the government has not yet maximized its efforts to develop the attractiveness of its maritime tourism. Beside the beautiful spots Indonesia is also blessed with all year long sun shine, which could be tapped as renewable and green energy as substitution to fossil fuel. Refer to these great advantages of natural resources the research was aimed to support the government’s program in developing its maritime tourism and to promote the use of green and renewable energy by designing a solar-powered tourism recreational boat which has 12 meters of length. The paper is focused on the design of solar energy and its electrical system, which includes conversion of solar energy to electrical energy and store it in the battery, the required electrical power is also predicted based on the appliances and equipment installed in the boat, the optimum attachment of solar panels on the boat structure is also calculated. All the methods and information we use are obtained from literature study, discussion with experts, and surveys to Jagur as solar-powered electric boat from Universitas Indonesia.

scholarly journals Improvement of Technological Indicators of Semi-Finished Products of Sugar Production from Bacterially Infected Sugar Beet

2021 ◽  
pp. 458-469
Author(s):  
Lubov Belyaeva ◽  
Michail Pruzhin ◽  
Alla Ostapenko ◽  
Valentina Gurova
Keyword(s):  
Sugar Beet ◽  
Antimicrobial Agent ◽  
Enzyme Preparation ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Sugar Beets ◽  
Effective Removal ◽  
Combined Use ◽  
Depth Study

Introduction. Technological aids play a special role in sugar production technology, but their complex effectiveness requires a comprehensive and in-depth study. The research objective was to establish the patterns of change in the technological indicators of semi-finished products obtained from bacterially infected sugar beets with the combined use of an enzyme preparation, antimicrobial agent, and defoamer. Study objects and methods. The study involved such semi-finished products as juice (diffusion, pre-defecated, first and second saturation) and syrup, the quality of which was determined according to standard methods. The laboratory experiment was carried out on the basis of the second-order D-optimal Box-Behnken plan for three factors at three levels. Results and discussion. The research revealed positive dynamics of the following technological indicators: sucrose content, deposition rate, turbidity, chromaticity, and general purification effect. The sugar beet had the second degree of infection with mucous bacteriosis. Purified juice underwent lime-carbon dioxide purification and thickening under the combination of enzyme preparation Dextrasept 2, antimicrobial agent Betasept, and antifoam agent Voltes FSS 93. The greatest increase in sucrose at the level of 1.1% by DM weight was confirmed by a higher overall effect of purification of diffusion juice (2.2 %). The values of turbidity of the purified juice and syrup were below the threshold values. The low values resulted from the increase in the sedimentation rate of the pre-defective juice and the juice of the first saturation by an average of 4.1 and 3.2 times, respectively, due to the effective removal of high molecular weight compounds. The share of the enzyme preparation was 40–71%, antimicrobial agent – 19–49%, defoamer – 1.6–6.5%. The values of the multicriteria optimization parameter corresponded with technological indicators. The optimal combination (per 1000 tons of beets) included 6–8 kg of Dextrasept 2, 1.5–2.0 kg of Betasept, and 15–20 kg of Voltes FSS 93. As a result, the yield of white sugar increased by 0.25%. Conclusion. The regression dependencies can be recommended for predicting the main technological indicators of semi-finished products. The resulting data makes it possible to determine the effectiveness of the combined use of an enzyme preparation, antimicrobial agent, and defoamer in sugar production. Further research will identify the patterns of multifactorial interaction of these preparations.

External Costs of Fossil Fuel Cycles

1997 ◽  
pp. 121-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Krewitt ◽  
P. Mayerhofer ◽  
R. Friedrich ◽  
A. Trukenmüller ◽  
N. Eyre ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
External Costs ◽  
Fuel Cycles

Complex Energy Systems Exploiting Solar Energy and Natural Gas Vaporization

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Bisio ◽  
Alessandro Bosio ◽  
Marco Cartesegna ◽  
Giuseppe Rubatto
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Thermal Source ◽  
End User ◽  
Gas Source ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Liquid Natural Gas

The fossil fuel reserves are limited. In addition, usable energy supply has a considerable impact on the environment, even if some effects, which are usually alleged, are far from being fully established. Natural gas is often found in remote locations far from developed industrial nations. Where possible, the gas is transported by pipeline to the end user. However, where oceans separate the gas source and the user, or there are other difficulties, the only viable way to transport the gas is to convert it into liquid natural gas (LNG) and to convey it using insulated LNG tankers. This paper outlines the results of an examination of a complex system, employing solar energy, for the production of electrical energy and the vaporization and superheating of LNG. It is to be remarked that, differently from the usual combined systems, both the thermal source and the thermal sink are exergy sources.

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