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Volume II: Bioenergy and Biochar: Repurposing Waste to Sustainable Energy and Materials

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Published Papers

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "D1: Advanced Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 November 2021) | Viewed by 5956

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vasiliki Skoulou

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Guest Editor

School of Engineering, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
Interests: biomass waste/other waste characterisation, pre-treatments and alternative ways of exploitation; thermochemical treatments (carbonization-torrefaction-pyrolysis-gasification-combustion) of food-woody biomass waste, fossil fuels and other waste for waste to energy (WtE), bioenergy-biofuels, biochar production; bioenergy/solid-gaseous biofuels systems design/repurposing of existing technologies to adapt new types of waste to fuels/feedstock; advanced cycles and alternative processes for biomass, fossil fuels and waste exploitation for biofuels-bioenergy-biochars under the circular economy scenario; combined renewable energy sources (RES) energy production systems, emphasized in lignocellulosic biomass/other waste sources for net zero carbon centralised and decentralized solutions; 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation feedstock for biofuels production; biorefineries/waste-refineries and integration of thermochemical and biochemical processing routes of biomass/waste; artificial intelligence (AI)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Dimitrios Kalderis

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Guest Editor

Department of Electronic Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Chania, 73100 Crete, Greece
Interests: biochar; hydrochar; carbon-based nanocomposite materials; hydrothermal carbonization; biomass utilization for the production of added-value materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are glad to share the great success of our Special Issue “Bioenergy and Biochar: Repurposing Waste to Sustainable Energy and Materials” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies/special_issues/Bioenergy_Biochar).

We now continue to launch the second volume of this Special Issue “Bioenergy and Biochar: Repurposing Waste to Sustainable Energy and Materials”.

All types of biomass and their waste comprised one of the pillars of the pre-industrial, pre-fossil fuel, agriculture-based economies of the past. Traditional practices of biomass waste management were applied, but not necessarily in a sophisticated and efficient way, and ranged from agricultural activities to food production, animal feed, and natural fiber separation as well as the processing of forest-wood. The modern bioeconomic sector, though, includes new circular economy energy and materials streams of added value products, such as gaseous, liquid, and solid biofuels; bioenergy generation routes; and biochar production; along with all the previously mentioned traditional bioeconomy -derived products.

The aim of this Special Issue is to include the latest bioenergy and biochar advancements and their incorporation to a bioeconomy in transition. This Special Issue focuses on the nature, properties, upgrading, and bioenergy generation processes of all types of biomass waste and production; and the characterization and application of biochars originating from biomass waste. Submitted manuscript may investigate either bioenergy issues or biochar, or both.

Overviews of international ongoing and collaborative results of laboratory- and field-scale research projects, technology transfer, and policy development in the field are also welcome. A transdisciplinary approach in order to examine, explore, and critically engage with issues, advancements, and barriers to attempted advancements are also encouraged.

Dr. Vasiliki Skoulou
Dr. Dimitrios Kalderis
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

biochar
hydrochar
combustion
pyrolysis
gasification
activated carbons
biomass waste
agricultural residues
circular bioeconomy
carbon sequestration
bio-refinery

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 2507 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards Engineered Hydrochars: Application of Artificial Neural Networks in the Hydrothermal Carbonization of Sewage Sludge

by Theodoros N. Kapetanakis, Ioannis O. Vardiambasis, Christos D. Nikolopoulos, Antonios I. Konstantaras, Trinh Kieu Trang, Duy Anh Khuong, Toshiki Tsubota, Ramazan Keyikoglu, Alireza Khataee and Dimitrios Kalderis

Energies 2021, 14(11), 3000; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14113000 - 21 May 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2079

Abstract

Sewage sludge hydrochars (SSHs), which are produced by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), offer a high calorific value to be applied as a biofuel. However, HTC is a complex processand the properties of the resulting product depend heavily on the process conditions and feedstock composition. In this work, we have applied artificial neural networks (ANNs) to contribute to the production of tailored SSHs for a specific application and with optimum properties. We collected data from the published literature covering the years 2014–2021, which was then fed into different ANN models where the input data (HTC temperature, process time, and the elemental content of hydrochars) were used to predict output parameters (higher heating value, (HHV) and solid yield (%)). The proposed ANN models were successful in accurately predicting both HHV and contents of C and H. While the model NN₁ (based on C, H, O content) exhibited HHV predicting performance with R² = 0.974, another model, NN₂, was also able to predict HHV with R² = 0.936 using only C and H as input. Moreover, the inverse model of NN₃ (based on H, O content, and HHV) could predict C content with an R² of 0.939. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volume II: Bioenergy and Biochar: Repurposing Waste to Sustainable Energy and Materials)

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13 pages, 3165 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Studying the Complexity of Biomass Derived Biofuels

by Yun Xu and Wolfgang Schrader

Energies 2021, 14(8), 2032; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082032 - 07 Apr 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1443

Abstract

Biofuel produced from biomass pyrolysis is a good example of a highly complex mixture. Detailed understanding of its composition is a prerequisite for optimizing transformation processes and further upgrading conditions. The major challenge in understanding the composition of biofuel derived from biomass is the wide range of compounds with high diversity in polarity and abundance that can be present. In this work, a comprehensive analysis using mass spectrometry is reported. Different operation conditions are studied by utilizing multiple ionization methods (positive mode atmospheric pressure photo ionization (APPI), atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) and negative mode ESI) and applying different resolving power set-ups (120 k, 240 k, 480 k and 960 k) and scan techniques (full scan and spectral stitching method) to study the complexity of a pyrolysis biofuel. Using a mass resolution of 960 k and the spectral stitching scan technique gives a total of 21,703 assigned compositions for one ionization technique alone. The number of total compositions is significantly expanded by the combination of different ionization methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volume II: Bioenergy and Biochar: Repurposing Waste to Sustainable Energy and Materials)

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Review

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12 pages, 2461 KiB

Open AccessReview

Physicochemical Properties of Torrefied and Pyrolyzed Food Waste Biochars as Fuel: A Pilot-Scale Study

by Kwang-Ho Ahn, Dong-Chul Shin, Jinhong Jung, Yoonah Jeong, Ye-Eun Lee and I-Tae Kim

Energies 2022, 15(1), 333; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15010333 - 04 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1435

Abstract

Food waste is an important constituent of municipal solid waste, and research has been conducted to develop various methods for treating food waste and recycling it (e.g., fuel, landfilling, composting, conversion into animal feed, drying, and carbonization). Among these, the drying and carbonization techniques can change food waste into fuel; however, they need more energy than fermentation and anaerobic digestion procedures. In this study, we investigated the physicochemical properties of food waste biochar produced under torrefaction (270 °C) and pyrolysis (450 °C) conditions to establish its applicability as fuel by comparing temperatures, residence times, and conditions before and after demineralization. The higher heating value increased after the demineralization process under both temperature conditions (270 °C and 450 °C), and the chlorine level was lower at 270 °C temperature demineralization than at 450 °C. During the demineralization process, Na and K were better removed than Ca and Mg. Additionally, Cr, Hg, Cd, and Pb levels were lower than those according to the European Union and Korean domestic bio-SRF recovered fuel criteria, confirming the applicability of biochar as fuel. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Volume II: Bioenergy and Biochar: Repurposing Waste to Sustainable Energy and Materials)

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