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Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2020) | Viewed by 30818

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Brajendra K. Sharma

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Guest Editor
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), Prairie Research Institute, One Hazelwood Drive, MC-676, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
Interests: thermochemical conversion of nonfood, non-usable oleochemical feedstocks biofuels’ byproducts, waste biomass, and waste products (plastics, tires, MSW, etc.) to form green diesel and bio crude oils: Bio crude oil characterization; upgradation of bio-oils and biochar through catalytic process, extraction, and other processes: Biobased lubricant and additives development for industrial applications
Dr. Kirtika Kohli

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), Prairie Research Institute, One Hazelwood Drive, MC-676, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
Interests: heterogenous catalysis; catalytic biomass conversion; hydrorefinning of bio-oils; heavy oils/residues hydroprocessing; catalyst deactivation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite the submission of original research or review articles to a Special Issue of the journal Energies in the topics of byproducts, waste biomass, and products to form green diesel and bio crude oils. Renewable diesel and bio crude oils are environmentally benign and highly promising as an alternative to fossil oils. These products will have a significant share in future global energy portfolios and in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The conversion technologies, system integration approaches, and life cycle impacts of bio-derived fuels can vary widely because of the large diversity of biomass feedstocks. However, the main challenges associated with biomass conversion processes are feedstock variability, the pre-treatment processes involved, land use concerns, and high production costs, which hinder their broad-scale market acceptance. Thus, new conversion technologies are expected to increase the production potential by allowing for the use of an array of waste biomass feeds (agricultural residues, forest residues, and industrial residues) and byproducts produced from current biomass conversion processes.

This Special Issue aims to encourage researchers to address recent progress in the biorefinery and biotransformation technologies for waste biomass conversion processes. Studies of advanced techniques and methods for green diesel and bio crude oil productions are highly encouraged.

Dr. Brajendra K. Sharma
Dr. Kirtika Kohli
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

  • non-edible oils (jatropha and algae oils)
  • plant-derived oils (soybean, palm, and rapeseed)
  • waste biomass (agricultural, forest, and industrial residues)
  • lignin conversion process
  • algae energy
  • algae cultivation
  • drop-in biofuels
  • chemical conversion
  • thermochemical conversion
  • biochemical conversion
  • hydrorefining
  • bio-oil upgrading

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 1820 KiB  
Article
Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Rice Straw Using Methanol as Co-Solvent
by Attada Yerrayya, A. K. Shree Vishnu, S. Shreyas, S. R. Chakravarthy and Ravikrishnan Vinu
Energies 2020, 13(10), 2618; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13102618 - 21 May 2020
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 3380
Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising thermochemical process to treat wet feedstocks and convert them to chemicals and fuels. In this study, the effects of final temperature (300, 325, and 350 °C), reaction time (30 and 60 min), rice-straw-to-water ratio (1:1, 1:5, 1:10, [...] Read more.
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising thermochemical process to treat wet feedstocks and convert them to chemicals and fuels. In this study, the effects of final temperature (300, 325, and 350 °C), reaction time (30 and 60 min), rice-straw-to-water ratio (1:1, 1:5, 1:10, and 1:15 (wt./wt.)), methanol-to-water ratio (0:100, 25:75, 50:50, and 75:25 (vol.%/vol.%)), and alkali catalysts (KOH, NaOH, and K2CO3) on product yields, composition of bio-crude, higher heating value (HHV) of bio-crude and bio-char, and energy recovery on HTL of rice straw are investigated. At the optimal processing condition corresponding to the final temperature of 300 °C, 60 min reaction time, and rice-straw-to-water ratio of 1:10 at a final pressure of 18 MPa, the bio-crude yield was 12.3 wt.% with low oxygen content (14.2 wt.%), high HHV (35.3 MJ/kg), and good energy recovery (36%). The addition of methanol as co-solvent to water at 50:50 vol.%/vol.% improved the yield of bio-crude up to 36.8 wt.%. The selectivity to phenolic compounds was high (49%–58%) when only water was used as the solvent, while the addition of methanol reduced the selectivity to phenolics (13%–22%), and improved the selectivity to methyl esters (51%–73%), possibly due to esterification reactions. The addition of KOH further improved the yield of bio-crude to 40 wt.% in an equal composition of methanol:water at the optimal condition. The energy-consumption ratio was less than unity for the methanol and catalyst system, suggesting that the process is energetically feasible in the presence of a co-solvent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils)
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25 pages, 2414 KiB  
Article
Decision-Making Process in the Circular Economy: A Case Study on University Food Waste-to-Energy Actions in Latin America
by Laura Brenes-Peralta, María F. Jiménez-Morales, Rooel Campos-Rodríguez, Fabio De Menna and Matteo Vittuari
Energies 2020, 13(9), 2291; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13092291 - 6 May 2020
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5982
Abstract
Economies have begun to shift from linear to circular, adopting, among others, waste-to-energy approaches. Waste management is known to be a paramount challenge, and food waste (FW) in particular, has gained the interest of several actors due to its potential impacts and energy [...] Read more.
Economies have begun to shift from linear to circular, adopting, among others, waste-to-energy approaches. Waste management is known to be a paramount challenge, and food waste (FW) in particular, has gained the interest of several actors due to its potential impacts and energy recovery opportunities. However, the selection of alternative valorization scenarios can pose several queries in certain contexts. This paper evaluates four FW valorization scenarios based on anaerobic digestion and composting, in comparison to landfilling, by applying a consistent decision-making framework through a combination of linear programming, Life Cycle Thinking (LCT), and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The evaluation was built upon a case study of five universities in Costa Rica and portrayed the trade-offs between environmental impacts and cost categories from the scenarios and their side flows. Results indicate that the landfill scenario entails higher Global Warming Potential and Fresh Water Eutrophication impacts than the valorization scenarios; however, other impact categories and costs are affected. Centralized recovery facilities can increase the Global Warming Potential and the Land Use compared to semi-centralized ones. Experts provided insights, regarding the ease of adoption of composting, in contrast to the potential of energy sources substitution and economic savings from anaerobic digestion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils)
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30 pages, 13845 KiB  
Article
Torrefaction of Straw from Oats and Maize for Use as a Fuel and Additive to Organic Fertilizers—TGA Analysis, Kinetics as Products for Agricultural Purposes
by Szymon Szufa, Grzegorz Wielgosiński, Piotr Piersa, Justyna Czerwińska, Maria Dzikuć, Łukasz Adrian, Wiktoria Lewandowska and Marta Marczak
Energies 2020, 13(8), 2064; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13082064 - 21 Apr 2020
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 4609
Abstract
This publication presents research work which contains the optimum parameters of the agri-biomass: maize and oat straws torrefaction process. Parameters which are the most important for the torrefaction process and its products are temperature and residence time. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed as well [...] Read more.
This publication presents research work which contains the optimum parameters of the agri-biomass: maize and oat straws torrefaction process. Parameters which are the most important for the torrefaction process and its products are temperature and residence time. Thermogravimetric analysis was performed as well as the torrefaction process using an electrical furnace on a laboratory scale at a temperature between 250–525 °C. These biomass torrefaction process parameters—residence time and temperature—were necessary to perform the design and construction of semi-pilot scale biomass torrefaction installations with a regimental dryer and a woody and agri-biomass regimental torrefaction reactor to perform a continuous torrefaction process using superheated steam. In the design installation the authors also focused on biochar, a bi-product of biofuel which will be used as an additive for natural bio-fertilizers. Kinetic analysis of torrefaction process using maize and oat straws was performed using NETZSCH Neo Kinetics software. It was found that kinetic analysis methods conducted with multiple heating rate experiments were much more efficient than the use of a single heating rate. The best representations of the experimental data for the straw from maize straw were found for the n-order reaction model. A thermogravimetric analysis, TG-MS analysis and VOC analysis combined with electrical furnace installation were performed on the maize and oat straw torrefaction process. The new approach in the work presented is different from that of current scientific achievements due to the fact that until now researchers have worked on performing processes on oat and maize straws by means of the torrefaction process for the production of a biochar as an additive for natural bio-fertilizers. None of them looked for economically reasonable mass loss ratios. In this work the authors made the assumption that a mass loss in the area of 45–50% is the most reasonable loss for the two mentioned agri-biomass processes. On this basis, a semi-pilot installation could be produced in a further BIOCARBON project step. The kinetic parameters which were calculated will be used to estimate the size of the apparatuses, the biomass dryer, and biomass torrefaction reactor. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils)
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16 pages, 898 KiB  
Article
Isolation and Characterization of Two Microalgal Isolates from Vietnam with Potential for Food, Feed, and Biodiesel Production
by Thao Nguyen Luu, Zouheir Alsafra, Amélie Corato, Daniele Corsaro, Hung Anh Le, Gauthier Eppe and Claire Remacle
Energies 2020, 13(4), 898; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13040898 - 18 Feb 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3526
Abstract
Microalgae are promising feedstock for the production of biodiesel and diverse medium- and high-value products such as pigments and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The importance of strain selection adapted to specific environments is important for economical purposes. We characterize here two microalgal strains, isolated [...] Read more.
Microalgae are promising feedstock for the production of biodiesel and diverse medium- and high-value products such as pigments and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The importance of strain selection adapted to specific environments is important for economical purposes. We characterize here two microalgal strains, isolated from wastewater of shrimp cultivation ponds in Vietnam. Based on the 18S rDNA-ITS region, one strain belongs to the Eustigmatophyceae class and is identical to the Nannochloropsis salina isolate D12 (JX185299.1), while the other is a Chlorophyceae belonging to the Desmodesmus genus, which possesses a S516 group I intron in its 18S rDNA gene. The N. salina strain is a marine and oleaginous microalga (40% of dry weight (DW) at stationary phase) whole oil is rich in saturated fatty acids (around 45% of C16:0) suitable for biodiesel and contains a few percent of eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5). The Desmodesmus isolate can assimilate acetate and ammonium and is rich in lutein. Its oil contains around 40%–50% α-linolenic acid (C18:3), an essential fatty acid. Since they tolerate various salinities (10% to 35‰), both strains are thus interesting for biodiesel or aquaculture valorization in coastal and tropical climate where water, nutrient, and salinity availability vary greatly depending on the season. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils)
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12 pages, 7279 KiB  
Article
Selective Hydrogenation of Phenol to Cyclohexanol over Ni/CNT in the Absence of External Hydrogen
by Changzhou Chen, Peng Liu, Minghao Zhou, Brajendra K. Sharma and Jianchun Jiang
Energies 2020, 13(4), 846; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13040846 - 14 Feb 2020
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4504
Abstract
Transfer hydrogenation is a novel and efficient method to realize the hydrogenation in different chemical reactions and exploring a simple heterogeneous catalyst with high activity is crucial. Ni/CNT was synthesized through a traditional impregnation method, and the detailed physicochemical properties were performed by [...] Read more.
Transfer hydrogenation is a novel and efficient method to realize the hydrogenation in different chemical reactions and exploring a simple heterogeneous catalyst with high activity is crucial. Ni/CNT was synthesized through a traditional impregnation method, and the detailed physicochemical properties were performed by means of XRD, TEM, XPS, BET, and ICP analysis. Through the screening of loading amounts, solvents, reaction temperature, and reaction time, 20% Ni/CNT achieves an almost complete conversion of phenol after 60 min at 220 °C in the absence of external hydrogen. Furthermore, the catalytic system is carried out on a variety of phenol derivatives for the generation of corresponding cyclohexanols with good to excellent results. The mechanism suggests that the hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanone is the first step, while the hydrogenation of cyclohexanone for the generation of cyclohexanol takes place in a successive step. Moreover, Ni/CNT catalyst can be magnetically recovered and reused in the next test for succeeding four times. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils)
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15 pages, 2721 KiB  
Article
Production and Characterization of Biodiesel Derived from a Novel Source Koelreuteria paniculata Seed Oil
by Inam Ullah Khan, Zhenhua Yan and Jun Chen
Energies 2020, 13(4), 791; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13040791 - 11 Feb 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3448
Abstract
Biodiesel is a clean and renewable fuel, which is considered as the best alternative to diesel fuel, but the feedstock contributes more than 70% of the cost. The most important constituent essential for biodiesel development is to explore cheap feedstock with high oil [...] Read more.
Biodiesel is a clean and renewable fuel, which is considered as the best alternative to diesel fuel, but the feedstock contributes more than 70% of the cost. The most important constituent essential for biodiesel development is to explore cheap feedstock with high oil content. In this work, we found novel non-edible plant seeds of Koelreuteria paniculata (KP) with high oil contents of 28–30 wt.% and low free fatty acid contents (0.91%), which can serve as a promising feedstock for biodiesel production. KP seed oil can convert into biodiesel/fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) by base-catalyzed transesterification with the highest biodiesel production of 95.2% after an optimization process. We obtained the optimal transesterification conditions, i.e., oil/methanol ratio (6:1), catalyst concentration (0.32), reaction temperature (65 °C), stirring rate (700 rpm), and reaction time (80 min). The physico-chemical properties and composition of the FAME were investigated and compared with mineral diesel. The synthesized esters were confirmed and characterized by the application of NMR (1H and 13C), FTIR, and GC-MS. The biofuel produced from KP seed oil satisfies the conditions verbalized by ASTM D6751 and EN14214 standards. Accordingly, KP source oil can be presented as a novel raw material for biofuel fabrication. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils)
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Review

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35 pages, 4337 KiB  
Review
Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction of Lignocellulosic Bio-Oils: The Potential of Fuel Upgrading and Chemical Recovery
by Nikolaos Montesantos and Marco Maschietti
Energies 2020, 13(7), 1600; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13071600 - 1 Apr 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4449
Abstract
Bio-oils derived from the thermochemical processing of lignocellulosic biomass are recognized as a promising platform for sustainable biofuels and chemicals. While significant advances have been achieved with regard to the production of bio-oils by hydrothermal liquefaction and pyrolysis, the need for improving their [...] Read more.
Bio-oils derived from the thermochemical processing of lignocellulosic biomass are recognized as a promising platform for sustainable biofuels and chemicals. While significant advances have been achieved with regard to the production of bio-oils by hydrothermal liquefaction and pyrolysis, the need for improving their physicochemical properties (fuel upgrading) or for recovering valuable chemicals is currently shifting the research focus towards downstream separation and chemical upgrading. The separation of lignocellulosic bio-oils using supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as a solvent is a promising environmentally benign process that can play a key role in the design of innovative processes for their valorization. In the last decade, fundamental research has provided knowledge on supercritical extraction of bio-oils. This review provides an update on the progress of the research in sCO2 separation of lignocellulosic bio-oils, together with a critical interpretation of the observed effects of the extraction conditions on the process yields and the quality of the obtained products. The review also covers high-pressure phase equilibria data reported in the literature for systems comprising sCO2 and key bio-oil components, which are fundamental for process design. The perspective of the supercritical process for the fractionation of lignocellulosic bio-oils is discussed and the knowledge gaps for future research are highlighted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Byproducts, Waste Biomass and Products to form Green Diesel and Biocrude Oils)
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