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Recent Advances in 4E (Energy, Exergy, Economic, and Environmental) Analysis of Chemical Processes for the Biofuels and Bioenergy Production

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "I1: Fuel".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 4771

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Po-Chih Kuo

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Guest Editor

Iron Making Process Development Section, Iron and Steel Research Development Department, CSC, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Interests: renewable energy; bioenergy; biorefinery; biofuels
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Muhammad Aziz

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Guest Editor

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Interests: energy systems; process design; power generation; carbon capture and storage; hydrogen production; renewable energy; energy conservation; energy and exergy analysis; exergy recovery; electric vehicle; batteries; smart grid
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Zhi-Yan (Rock) Du

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Guest Editor

Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Interests: lipid metabolism in photosynthetic organisms including plants microalgae and cyanobacteria; symbiosis among plants/microalgae bacteria and fungi; biofuel and bio-products
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rising concerns about climate change have brought many countries under increasing pressure to minimize net CO2 emissions. To achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, biomass energy has been considered as one of the most promising types of clean energy to be utilized. In addition, the demand for various biofuels for numerous applications (transport, aviation, maritime, power and heating, biopolymer, etc.) in the circular economy has been growing rapidly. Typically, the chemical process of biofuels production can be simply classified as thermochemical and biological routes. Many biofuels are already used in various aspects of our daily lives. However, there is still lots of room for growth and, therefore, a continuous effort is necessary to develop new technologies for achieving good quality, environmentally friendly, and cost-competitive biofuels and bioenergy. In this regard, it is essential to explore the thermodynamic efficiency (energy and exergy), economic viability, and environmental impact of the latest advanced biofuels production and biomass energy conversion processes.

This Special Issue on “Recent Advances in 4E (energy, exergy, economic, and environmental) Analysis of Chemical Processes for the Biofuels and Bioenergy Production” intends to invite the latest research that addresses the thermodynamic, techno-economic, and environmental analysis of various biofuels production processes and energy conversion systems. Topics include, but are not limited to:

Process system engineering;
Biofuels production;
Waste-to-energy process;
Biorefinery process;
Bioproducts production combined heat and power plant;
Bioreactor design, engineering, and control;
Biomass energy with CO2 capture for negative emissions;
Circular economy.

Dr. Po-Chih Kuo
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Aziz
Dr. Zhi-Yan (Rock) Du
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

thermodynamic analysis
techno-economic analysis
life cycle analysis
exergoeconomic analysis
exergoenvironmental analysis
process design and integration
thermochemical conversion
biological conversion
biorefinery
biofuels
waste-to-energy process
combined heat and power system
biomass energy with CO₂ capture
CO₂ utilization

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 4581 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Process Modeling and Exergy Analysis for a Typical VOC Thermal Conversion Plant

by Wencai Zhuo, Bin Zhou, Zhicheng Zhang, Hailiang Zhou and Baiqian Dai

Energies 2022, 15(10), 3522; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15103522 - 11 May 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1518

Abstract

The emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) represents a major source of air pollution and presents a major risk to both the surrounding environment and local health. An efficient and clean VOCs conversion process is an important approach for energy conservation and emission reduction. In this work, process simulation is conducted using Aspen Plus according to a VOC thermal oxidizing plant for an industrial-scale aluminum spraying production process. Experimental measurements are used for model validation and the pollutant emissions are consistent with the actual plant operating parameters, where the concentration of sulfur oxides is 32 mg/m³, and that of nitrogen oxides is ~34 mg/m³, both of which are below the requirements specified by the national environment regulations in China. Energy and exergy analyses have been conducted from the perspective of the second law of thermodynamics. It is found that 68.8% of the output energy in the system considered here enters the subsequent oven production line, which will be reused for drying the aluminum plates, and the rest of the energy will contribute to the water heat exchanger; however, the furnace features the largest exergy loss of 34%, and this is due to the high-temperature heat loss. The water heat exchanger features 11.5% exergy loss, which is the largest for the series of heat exchangers, and this loss is due to the large temperature difference between the hot and cold streams in the water heat exchanger. These findings are expected to provide practical approaches to energy conservation from the perspective of energy management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in 4E (Energy, Exergy, Economic, and Environmental) Analysis of Chemical Processes for the Biofuels and Bioenergy Production)

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Review

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23 pages, 1934 KiB

Open AccessReview

Microalgal Consortia for Waste Treatment and Valuable Bioproducts

by Shousong Zhu, Lauren Higa, Antonia Barela, Caitlyn Lee, Yinhua Chen and Zhi-Yan Du

Energies 2023, 16(2), 884; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16020884 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2167

Abstract

Microalgae have been considered a promising and sustainable candidate for wastewater treatment and valuable bioproducts, such as feedstocks for food, nutrients, and energy. However, many challenging bottlenecks, such as low biomass productivity, expensive biomass harvesting techniques, and inefficient extraction of biofuels restrict its large-scale commercial production. Symbiotic relationships between microalgae and bacteria, also known as microalgal consortia, have proven to be effective solutions for mitigating technical and economic limitations. The natural and artificial symbiotic microalgal consortia combine microorganisms with various metabolic activities, which leads to valuable biomass production and the removal of nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products (PPCP) from wastewater. Many microalgal consortia have been applied for various wastewater treatments with reduced energy costs and higher efficiency in recovering valuable resources. In this study we review the present research status and prospects of microalgal consortia, emphasizing the associated mechanism of microalgae consortia cooperative symbiosis and its studies on diverse environmental and biotechnological applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in 4E (Energy, Exergy, Economic, and Environmental) Analysis of Chemical Processes for the Biofuels and Bioenergy Production)

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