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Processes
Special Issues
Integrated Process Design and Development of Biorefinery
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Integrated Process Design and Development of Biorefinery

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Biological Processes and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2024 | Viewed by 5315

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Leandro V. A. Gurgel

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Guest Editor
Chemistry Department, Institute of Exact and Biological Sciences, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto 35400-000, MG, Brazil
Interests: biorefinery; bioenergy; pretreatment; bioethanol; enzymatic hydrolysis; bioproducts; water treatment; adsorption
Dr. Oscar Fernando Herrera Adarme

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Guest Editor
School of Agricultural Engineering, University of Campinas, Campinas 13083-875, SP, Brazil
Interests: integrated biorefineries; techno-economic assessment; life cycle assessment; agro-industrial wastes
Dr. Aline Gomes de Oliveira Paranhos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Graduate Program in Environmental Engineering, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto 35400-000, MG, Brazil
Interests: biomass conversion; anaerobic biodegradation; agro-industrial wastes; integrated biorefineries
Prof. Dr. Liliane Catone Soares

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Institute of Exact and Biological Sciences (ICEB), Federal University of Ouro Preto, Campus Universitário Morro do Cruzeiro s/n°, Bauxita, Ouro Preto 35400-000, MG, Brazil
Interests: adsorption; water treatment; lignocellulosic biomass; water pollution; chemical modification; bi-functionalization; heterogeneous catalysis; publishing ethics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The global demand for energy and products is concomitant with population growth and its development and improvement. Nowadays, the world is facing numerous difficulties in guaranteeing sustainable life in society and, therefore, feasible strategies from technical, economic, and environmental points of view are needed to overcome these problems. In this sense, renewable feedstock as biomass combined with optimum conversion pathways and methods can play a fundamental role for circular economy approaches. In fact, two key conversion processes, thermochemical and biological, can be used to produce energy and products from biomass, approaching the biorefinery concept. Thus, the major challenges facing design systems are minimizing energy consumption and potential environmental impacts through life-cycle assessment and process integration/optimization between different conversion platforms.

This Special Issue is focused on methods and applications, combining techno-economic and life-cycle assessments for biorefining processes, which allows the optimum design and management of biorefineries. Furthermore, special attention will be given to multiproduct biorefinery applications, as well as future developments and trends.

Prof. Dr. Leandro V. A. Gurgel
Dr. Oscar Fernando Herrera Adarme
Dr. Aline Gomes de Oliveira Paranhos
Dr. Liliane Catone Soares
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. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2400 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

  • biorefinery
  • circular bioeconomy
  • agro-industrial wastes
  • integrated biorefinery
  • life cycle assessment
  • techno-economic assessment
  • bioenergy
  • value added products

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3912 KiB  
Article
Hydrothermal Carbonization of Residual Biomass from Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Sector
by Carmine De Francesco, Thomas Gasperini, Daniele Duca, Giuseppe Toscano and Alessio Ilari
Processes 2024, 12(8), 1673; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12081673 - 9 Aug 2024
Viewed by 931
Abstract
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a promising method for the conversion of agricultural and agro-industrial residues into valuable products. HTC processes biomass through chemical reactions that produce hydrochar, a carbon-rich solid similar to lignite. Unlike other thermochemical processes, HTC can handle high-moisture biomass without [...] Read more.
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a promising method for the conversion of agricultural and agro-industrial residues into valuable products. HTC processes biomass through chemical reactions that produce hydrochar, a carbon-rich solid similar to lignite. Unlike other thermochemical processes, HTC can handle high-moisture biomass without pre-drying. This article evaluates the efficiency of HTC on wood chips, wheat straw, and grape pomace, examining their chemical and structural characteristics and critical operational parameters such as the temperature, pressure, biomass/water ratio, and reaction time. The obtained results highlight that the two key process parameters are the temperature and the ratio between the solid biomass and liquid phase. Increasing the first parameter increases the energy content by 20% and increases the carbon concentration by up to 50%, while reducing the oxygen content by 30% in the hydrochar. Varying the second parameter leads to the alternating reduction of the ash content but simultaneously reduces the energy content. The reaction time seems to have a limited influence on the quality parameters of the biochar produced. Lastly, HTC appears to successfully enhance the overall quality of widely available agricultural wastes, such as grape pomace. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Process Design and Development of Biorefinery)
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14 pages, 6023 KiB  
Article
Kinetics of Vanillin and Vanillic Acid Production from Pine Kraft Lignin
by Ricardo Javier Dos Santos, María Evangelina Vallejos, María Cristina Area and Fernando Esteban Felissia
Processes 2024, 12(7), 1472; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12071472 - 13 Jul 2024
Viewed by 848
Abstract
Vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) is the main component of natural vanilla and a relevant substance in the flavoring and aromatic industries. This study presents a kinetic model to explain both vanillin and vanillic acid concentrations achieved in the alkaline oxidation of pine kraft lignin. Considering [...] Read more.
Vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde) is the main component of natural vanilla and a relevant substance in the flavoring and aromatic industries. This study presents a kinetic model to explain both vanillin and vanillic acid concentrations achieved in the alkaline oxidation of pine kraft lignin. Considering that they come from the same precursors, this approach allows an understanding of vanillin production with reaction conditions that minimize the vanillic acid pathway directly from the lignin oligomers, thus maximizing vanillin production. This study involves the effects of oxygen partial pressure, temperature, and the presence or absence of a catalyst (CuSO4 and Fe2(SO4)3 mixture) on the vanillin and vanillic acid yields. An adapted reactor (M/K Systems Inc., Williamstown, MA, USA) with a recirculation and spray liquids system was used in the experiments. The experiments were performed using one liter of a solution of NaOH 2 M and 60 g of lignin. During the lignin oxidation reaction, liquid samples were analyzed at different times (from 0 to 200 min). The oxidation products were quantified by liquid chromatography (HPLC). The catalyzed experiments presented higher maximum vanillin yields than the non-catalyzed ones (39.2–39.6% on nitrobenzene oxidation) achieved at 150 °C. A kinetic model is proposed where the kinetic parameters were estimated using Monte Carlo methods, fitting satisfactorily to the experimental results. The statistical analysis of the kinetic parameters showed that all the studied variables significantly affect the vanillin yield. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Process Design and Development of Biorefinery)
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11 pages, 1884 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Production of Clean Fermentable Sugars by Acid Pretreatment and Enzymatic Saccharification of Sugarcane Bagasse
by Mario Alberto Yaverino-Gutierrez, Lucas Ramos, Jesús Jiménez Ascencio and Anuj Kumar Chandel
Processes 2024, 12(5), 978; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12050978 - 10 May 2024
Viewed by 1015
Abstract
Sugarcane bagasse (SCB), an agro-industrial byproduct generated by a sugar mill, holds a substantial carbohydrate content of around 70 wt.%, comprising cellulose and hemicellulose. Saccharification plays a pivotal role in the conversion of SCB into second-generation (2G)-ethanol and valuable compounds, which is significantly [...] Read more.
Sugarcane bagasse (SCB), an agro-industrial byproduct generated by a sugar mill, holds a substantial carbohydrate content of around 70 wt.%, comprising cellulose and hemicellulose. Saccharification plays a pivotal role in the conversion of SCB into second-generation (2G)-ethanol and valuable compounds, which is significantly aided by thermochemical pretreatments. In this study, SCB underwent diluted sulfuric acid pretreatment (2% H2SO4, 80 rpm, 200 °C, 20 min), resulting in the removal of 77.3% of the xylan. The hemicellulosic hydrolysate was analyzed to identify the sugars and degraded products acting as microbial inhibitors. The acid hydrolysate showed a xylose yield of 68.0% (16.4 g/L) and a yield of 3.8 g/L of acetic acid. Afterward, the hemicellulosic hydrolysate was concentrated 2.37 times to obtain a xylose-rich stream (39.87 g/L). The sequential detoxification, employing calcium oxide and activated carbon, removed the inhibitory compounds, including acetic acid, while preserving the xylose at 38.10 g/L. The enzymatic saccharification of cellulignin at 5% and 10% of the total solids (TSs) yielded comparable reducing sugar (RS) yields of 47.3% (15.2 g/L) and 47.4% (30.4 g/L), respectively, after 96 h, employing a 10 FPU/g enzyme loading of Cellic® CTec3 (Novozymes Inc. Parana, Brazil). In summary, these findings outline an integrated green chemistry approach aimed at addressing the key challenges associated with pretreatment, concentration, detoxification, and enzymatic hydrolysis to produce fermentable sugars. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Process Design and Development of Biorefinery)
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17 pages, 2061 KiB  
Article
Enhancing Biobased Volatile Fatty Acids Production from Olive Mill Solid Waste by Optimization of pH and Substrate to Inoculum Ratio
by Yasmim A. da Fonseca, Adonai B. de Camargos, Gustavo S. M. Gomes, P. Fregulia, Silvana Q. Silva, Leandro V. A. Gurgel and Bruno E. L. Baêta
Processes 2023, 11(2), 338; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11020338 - 20 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1983
Abstract
The pH and substrate-to-inoculum ratio (S/I) are important parameters in the anaerobic fermentation of agroindustrial residues, and therefore the optimization of these two parameters is needed for a stable, efficient, and sustainable reactor operation. In this work, the parameters pH (5–9) [...] Read more.
The pH and substrate-to-inoculum ratio (S/I) are important parameters in the anaerobic fermentation of agroindustrial residues, and therefore the optimization of these two parameters is needed for a stable, efficient, and sustainable reactor operation. In this work, the parameters pH (5–9) and S/I (0.5–3 gVS gVS−1) were optimized to produce biobased volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from hydrothermally pretreated olive mill solid waste (HPOMSW). The response variables evaluated in the Doehlert design were total VFAs concentration (tVFAs) (mg L−1) and amounts (%) of isobutyric, butyric, isovaleric, and valeric acids on the VFAs profile. The pH was the variable that most influenced the mixed culture fermentation of HPOMSW, proving to be a key parameter in the process. Microbial community analyses of conditions 1 (S/I = 3 gVS gVS−1 and pH = 7) and 4 (S/I = 1.13 gVS gVS−1 and pH = 5) showed that Proteobacteria and Firmicutes accounted for more than 87% of the total microorganisms identified for both conditions. In addition, the second-order model best fitted the experimental data for the VFAs production at the desirable condition (S/I = 3 gVS gVS−1 and pH = 8). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Integrated Process Design and Development of Biorefinery)
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