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Energies
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The Role of Thermochemical Treatments in Biorefinery
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The Role of Thermochemical Treatments in Biorefinery

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2023) | Viewed by 2415

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Andrea Di Carlo

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Guest Editor
Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, University of L’Aquila, Piazzale Ernesto Pontieri, Monteluco di Roio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Interests: biomass gasification; hydrogen energy; chemical engineering; thermochemical processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alessandro Antonio Papa

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Guest Editor
Industrial Engineering Department, University of L’Aquila, Piazzale E. Pontieri 1, Monteluco di Roio, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Interests: biomass conversion; gasification; hydrothermal carbonization; biorefinery; renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Bartolucci

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
Interests: hybrid renewable energy systems and multi energy systems; hydrogen utilisation and production; biomass sustainable energy conversion; design of efficient and sustainable electric vehicles; clean combustion of gaseous fuels
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This is a call for papers for a Special Issue on “The role of thermochemical treatments in biorefinery”.

One of the main challenges in recent decades has been the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels to mitigate climate change and achieve sustainability. The solution to the problem is not unique, but it requires the adoption of reduced consumption, the use of renewable resources, the re-use of by-product and waste, and increased production efficiency.

Waste, residual biomass, and non-food organic materials represent a sustainable alternative to fossil-based feedstock to produce energy, fuels, and chemicals. In particular, an advanced biorefinery, following the principles of circular economy, could minimize resource use, waste, and environmental impacts by producing marketable products and energy.

A wide range of conversion technologies is suitable for biomass exploitation (physical, chemical, biochemical, thermochemical, and electrochemical). The choice of the most suitable one mainly depends on the characteristics of the raw material. An advanced biorefinery plant should integrate optimal conversion processes to treat and extract value from various bio-based waste.

This Special Issue invites the submission of research articles, communications, and reviews of experimental, computational, and theoretical studies focused on the sustainability of biomass thermochemical exploitation and its integration in the biorefinery plant to produce valuable products.

Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

  • Advanced processes for energetic conversion of biomass;
  • Biorefinery for biofuels and platform chemicals;
  • Biomass pre-treatments such as hydrothermal carbonization or torrefaction;
  • Management of by-product;
  • Techno-economic analysis of integrated biorefineries;
  • Life cycle assessment.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Di Carlo
Dr. Alessandro Antonio Papa
Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Bartolucci
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

  • biomass exploitation
  • biorefinery
  • gasification
  • hydrothermal carbonization
  • pyrolysis
  • liquefaction
  • hydrogen
  • catalyst

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 36052 KiB  
Article
Selective Catalytic Hydrogenation of Vegetable Oils over Copper-Based Catalysts Supported on Amorphous Silica
by Umberto Pasqual Laverdura, Leucio Rossi, Claire Courson, Antonio Zarli and Katia Gallucci
Energies 2023, 16(20), 7201; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16207201 - 23 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 984
Abstract
This work aims to study the selective catalytic hydrogenation of vegetable oils to maximize oleic acid content and expand the range of non-edible uses. Oleic acid (C18:1) is suitable for use as a biodegradable lubricant and is a building block in producing polymers [...] Read more.
This work aims to study the selective catalytic hydrogenation of vegetable oils to maximize oleic acid content and expand the range of non-edible uses. Oleic acid (C18:1) is suitable for use as a biodegradable lubricant and is a building block in producing polymers and plastics from renewable resources. The challenge is the synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts, allowing for a maximum yield of C18:1 and low formation of the corresponding saturated acid (stearic acid). New copper-based catalysts on silica were synthesized via two synthesis methods: hydrolysis precipitation and ammonia-evaporation. Experimental tests were carried out at a lab scale operating in a semi-batch mode. The best conversion reached 90% for C18:3 and 80% for C18:2 HP Cu-silica catalyst results, the best candidate for an industrial case study. Good results were obtained in the selectivities of oleic acid production and cis/trans isomers ratio. The modified return on the investment of the designed hydrogenation plant provides the revenues of the capital costs in less than one year. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Thermochemical Treatments in Biorefinery)
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20 pages, 15927 KiB  
Article
Devolatilization of Polypropylene Particles in Fluidized Bed
by Armando Vitale, Alessandro Antonio Papa, Stefano Iannello, Erwin Ciro, Arda Hatunoglu, Valerio Corradetti, Nicola Rovelli, Pier Ugo Foscolo and Andrea Di Carlo
Energies 2023, 16(17), 6324; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16176324 - 31 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1109
Abstract
Gasification of plastic waste is an emerging technology of particular interest to the scientific world given the production of a hydrogen-rich gas from waste material. Devolatilization is a first step thermochemical decomposition process which is crucial in determining the quality of the gas [...] Read more.
Gasification of plastic waste is an emerging technology of particular interest to the scientific world given the production of a hydrogen-rich gas from waste material. Devolatilization is a first step thermochemical decomposition process which is crucial in determining the quality of the gas in the whole gasification process. The devolatilization of polypropylene (a key compound of plastic waste) has been investigated experimentally in a bench-scale fluidized bed reactor. Experimental tests were carried out by varying two key parameters of the process—the size of the polypropylene spheres (8–12 mm) and temperature (650–850 °C). Temperature shows the highest influence on the process. Greater molecular cracking results were more pronounced at higher temperatures, increasing the production of light hydrocarbons along with the formation of solid carbon residue and tar. The overall syngas output reduced, while the H2 content increased. Furthermore, a pseudo-first-order kinetic model was developed to describe the devolatilization process (Eapp = 11.8 kJ/mol, A1 = 0.55 s−1, ψ = 0.77). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Thermochemical Treatments in Biorefinery)
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