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Energies
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Biofuels as Future Energy Resources
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Biofuels as Future Energy Resources

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2023) | Viewed by 3393

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lian See Tan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Interests: waste to energy; wastewater engineering; CO2 capture
Dr. Peck Loo Kiew

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Interests: wastewater treatment, valorisation of wastes/natural resources, bioplastics synthesis
Dr. Jully Tan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway 47500, Malaysia
Interests: life cycle assessment; environmental impacts assessment; process system engineering; engineering education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of clean and renewable fuel alternatives has become one of the strategies for combating climate change. Unlike other renewable energy sources, biomass can produce both chemical commodities and biofuels through a variety of thermochemical (e.g., pyrolysis, incineration, gasification) or biochemical (e.g., fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis) conversion processes. Hence, the future of biofuels is a topic of great interest around the world. To date, four generations of biofuels have been developed, each with the goal of meeting global energy demand while reducing environmental impact. Despite well-established conversion processes and technologies, commercialization of biomass-derived biofuels is hampered by concerns about technical and economic viability, thermodynamic efficiency, and environmental impact. These challenges are associated not only with biofuel production, but also with downstream processing and utilisation as a sustainable energy resource.
This Special Issue welcomes the submission of original research papers, reviews, and short communications that focus on promising and novel research outcomes in the biofuel synthesis, characterization, application, and management. Submissions may cover the following topics including but not limited to:

  • Emerging technologies and potential feedstock for biofuel production;
  • Biofuel characterization and/or utilization;
  • Technical feasibility of biofuel production technology;
  • Safety/risk assessment of biofuel production technology; • Reaction kinetics and/or thermodynamic studies;
  • Policy incentives and public acceptance of bioenergy;
  • Handling, storage, and management of biofuels;
  • Environmental and sustainability assessment of biofuels.

Dr. Lian See Tan
Dr. Peck Loo Kiew
Dr. Jully Tan
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

  • biofuel
  • bioenergy
  • biomass
  • waste to energy
  • life cycle assessment
  • risk assessment
  • sustainable energy
  • energy management
  • sustainability assessment

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 1406 KiB  
Article
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Catalytic Intermediate Pyrolysis of Rapeseed Meal
by Tahereh Soleymani Angili, Katarzyna Grzesik and Wojciech Jerzak
Energies 2023, 16(4), 2004; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16042004 - 17 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1398
Abstract
Biowaste valorization is a means for tackling resource depletion and climate change, which gives rise to environmental benefits and economic growth. One of the most known technological routes to convert biowaste into bioproducts is pyrolysis, which may conduct with and without catalyst application. [...] Read more.
Biowaste valorization is a means for tackling resource depletion and climate change, which gives rise to environmental benefits and economic growth. One of the most known technological routes to convert biowaste into bioproducts is pyrolysis, which may conduct with and without catalyst application. The purpose of this study was to investigate an early-stage life-cycle assessment (LCA) for catalytic intermediate pyrolysis to valorize rapeseed meal, split over the scenarios using ZSM-5 and zeolite Y catalysts. Four selected environmental impact categories were assessed by IMPACT 2002+ methodology. The results revealed that the ZSM-5 catalytic pyrolysis led to bigger environmental impacts than the pyrolysis utilizing zeolite Y in all compared impact categories except global warming. The scenario that involved zeolite Y had around 20% GHG intensity greater than ZSM-5 pyrolysis. The bulk of GHG emissions mostly involved CO2 and methane generated from electricity consumption, which was provided by fossil resources. Applying ZSM-5 in the pyrolysis increased environmental burdens in non-renewable energy, respiratory inorganics, and terrestrial ecotoxicity by 140.88 MJ primary, 8.83 × 10−3 kg PM2.5 eq. and 125.63 kg TEG soil, respectively. The major driving factor of high value in mentioned categories was the manufacturing process of the ZSM-5 catalyst by utilizing natural gas and chemicals, such as phosphorus trichloride, sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. Given that catalysts can play a substantial role in the emissions resulting from bio-based products, hence LCAs of pyrolysis should consider the potential influence of catalysts in the valorization processes. This study can predict environmental hotspots in the early stages of bio-waste valorization and show the potential defects of implanted biorefinery at pilot/industrial scales. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biofuels as Future Energy Resources)
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21 pages, 1040 KiB  
Article
Agricultural and Forestry Biomass for Meeting the Renewable Fuel Standard: Implications for Land Use and GHG Emissions
by Weiwei Wang
Energies 2022, 15(23), 8796; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15238796 - 22 Nov 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1594
Abstract
Agricultural land and forestland are considered as two largest potential biomass sources for meeting the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate for cellulosic biofuels. However, the land use change and greenhouse gas (GHG) savings with both agricultural and forest biomass production are yet to [...] Read more.
Agricultural land and forestland are considered as two largest potential biomass sources for meeting the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate for cellulosic biofuels. However, the land use change and greenhouse gas (GHG) savings with both agricultural and forest biomass production are yet to be examined systematically. This paper examines the effects of implementing a 16-billion gallon (60 billion liters) cellulosic biofuel mandate by 2035 on the mix of agricultural and forest biomass, land use change and GHG emissions by using a dynamic partial equilibrium model of the agricultural, forestry and transportation sectors in the US. Our results show that crop residues play a significant role in supplying cellulosic ethanol before 2030, while energy crops are the major feedstocks used for meeting the RFS cellulosic mandate after 2030. Milling and logging residues are economically viable supplements to agricultural biomass for cellulosic ethanol production, though their role in total biomass is small. Across different scenarios of cellulosic ethanol mandate that can be met with either agricultural biomass only or with both agricultural and forest biomass, we find GHG savings from displacing the gasoline range from 0.61 to 0.82 B MgCO2e over the 2015–2035 period. Induced land use change effects associated with expanded feedstock production are modest between and within the agricultural and forestry sectors. We conclude that a mixed feedstock base maximizes the economic and environmental benefits of cellulosic biofuel production. The mitigation potential of cellulosic biofuels is severalfold larger than natural-based solutions such as grassland restoration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biofuels as Future Energy Resources)
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