Engineering Commons^™

Anaerobic Digestion Of Olive Mill Wastewater: Anaerobic Filter Vs. Hybrid, Isabel Paula Marques, Marta Gonçalves, Paulo Freitas

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Two types of anaerobic digesters - a filter (AF) and a hybrid (H) - are tested in the treatment of original olive mill wastewater (OMW), without any pre-treatment or chemical correction of this substrate. The anaerobic filter is equipped with a packed bed material that fills the entire column of digestion; the hybrid digester results from the combination of anaerobic filter with the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket and the packed bed only occupies the top section of the column.

OMW is the effluent generated from olive oil industries, which activity has a great economic and social importance in the olive …

Hydrogen Production By Aqueous-Phase Reforming, Lucía García, Ana Valiente, José Antonio Medrano, Miriam Oliva, Joaquín Ruiz, Jesús Arauzo

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Nowadays, there is a great interest in hydrogen production because of its chemical uses in industry and its utilization as a clean fuel in high energetic efficiency systems like fuel cells. At present, fossil fuels (natural gas, naphtha, coal …) are the main feedstock for hydrogen production, but they have the inconvenience of a net increase of CO2 emissions and other environmental problems. The use of different types of biomass, among them waste streams, should be considered.

In the present work, aqueous-phase reforming (APR) process will be studied. The APR process has some advantages in comparison to the current steam …

Comparative Fast Pyrolysis Of Agricultural Residues For Use In Biorefineries, Dietrich Meier, Jens Markgraf

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

In the light of depleting fossil resources, biomass is gaining renewed interest as a source of renewable carbon, which can be used for energy and chemicals. The production of biofuels such as ethanol, palm oil and bio-diesel has come under criticism for its likely competition with food. These production systems need either huge areas of monocultures or use some parts of plant material such as the carbohydrate fraction only for fermentation to produce ethanol. Other technologies such as fast pyrolysis offer the advantage of using whole plant material for the production of so called 'bio-oils', which adheres to the condensates …

Production Of Ethylic Biodiesel From Hydrolysis And Esterification Of Acid Animal Fat, Jose Geraldo Pacheco, Ligia Martinelli, Jadson P. A. Silva, Luiz Stragevitch, Donato Aranda

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Biodiesel is a fuel derived from the oils and fats of plants and animals. Some vegetable oils after extraction and seed storing may have high acidity due to the conversion of triglycerides into free faty acids. Transesterification of high acidic oils with basic catalyst will form a large amount of soap as residue. The objective of this work is to study hydrolysis of tallow fats estherification free fatty acids followed by estherification of free fatty acids with ethanol using homogeneous catalyst. Tallow fat was hydrolyzed by enzyme lipase extracted from Ricinius Communs seeds. Estherification was done in a pressurizes reactor, …

Bio-Energy Ii - Conference Program, José Duarte, Cedric Briens

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

List of speakers, talks and more.

Transtersterfication Of Jatropha Curcas Oil Radiated With The Microwave, Zahira Yaakob, Irwan S. Sukarman, Faizal Mohamed

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

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Thermophilic Enzymes For Biomass Conversion, Mosè Rossi

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

There is a growing interest in the conversion of lignocellulose biomasses into useful products since the exploitation of agro-industrial waste could provide alternative substrates for low-cost fuels and chemical productions. A key factor for the fruitful utilization of the biomasses is represented by an efficient hydrolysis (saccharification step) of cellulose and hemicellulose using enymes as alternative to the chemical hydrolysis. Since in lignocelluloses the chains of carbohydrates are embedded in a lignin matrix which hinders the enzyme action, a pre-treatment of the biomasses is required for a more effective saccharification.

The drastic conditions required by many pre-treatment techniques, give rise …

Use Of Genetically Modified Saccharomyces Cerevisiae To Convert Soluble Starch Directly To Bioethanol, Bo Liao, W. J. Roesler, G. A. Hill

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Ethanol can be used as a complete fuel or as an octane enhancer, and has the advantages of being renewable and environmentally friendly. Ethanol produced by a fermentation process, generally referred to as bioethanol, is considered to be a partial solution to the worldwide energy crisis. Traditionally, industrial bioethanol fermentation involves two major steps: starch hydrolysis and fermentation. Since the key microorganism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, lacks amylolytic activity and is unable to directly utilize starch for proliferation and fermentation, it requires intensive amount of energy and pure starch hydrolyzing enzymes to gelatinize, liquefy and dextrinize the raw starch before fermentation.

It …

Characterization Of The Pesticide Properties Of Tobacco Bio-Oil, Christina J. Booker, Rohan Bedmutha, Tiffany Vogel, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens, K.K.-C. Yeung, Ian Scott, Ken Conn

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Pyrolysis converts biomass such as agricultural and forestry waste into bio-oil. Our interest in the chemical analysis of bio-oil began with tobacco, which is rich in nicotine (a known pesticide). Initial inhibition assays performed with the bio-oil on the Colorado potato beetle, a pest currently resistant to all major insecticides, showed high pesticide activity as expected. Surprisingly, the nicotine-free phases of the bio-oil were also found to be highly lethal to the beetles. Thus, it was hypothesized that some of the alkaloids in plants were preserved during pyrolysis, and gave rise to the activity.

Pesticide characteristics of tobacco and coffee …

Production Of Biodiesel From Waste Oil Via Catalytic Distillation, Flora T. T. Ng, Zhiwen Qi, Yuanqing Liu, Blaise Pinaud, Peter Rehbein, Garry L. Rempel

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

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In Silico Analysis For The Production Of Higher Carbon Alcohols Using Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Balaji Balagurunathan, Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, Dong-Yup Lee, Rajagopalan Srinivasan

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Technology for the production of alternative fuels is receiving increased attention owing to concerns on global energy and environmental problems. Using higher carbon alcohols as gasoline substitutes has several advantages compared to ethanol, the first generation biofuel. Higher carbon alcohols also have other applications as flavor/aroma compounds and as building blocks for several other products. Two different pathways for the production of higher carbon alcohols have been recently reported. This work looks at evaluating the different pathways for higher carbon alcohol production and identification of metabolic bottlenecks for their production using Saccharomyces cerevisiae .

Quantitative characterization of the metabolic pathways …

The Impact Of Storage Conditions On The Forest Biomass Quality For Biofuels Production, Denilson Da Silva Perez, Jerome Moreau, Alain Berthelot, Audrey Guillemain, Francis De Morogues, Michel Petit-Conil

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Biomass quality is an essential parameter for the production of biofuels both by thermal ways (gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, etc) or biochemical ways (enzymatic hydrolysis and yeast saccharification). Storage is one of the most important parameters to be taken in account in the logistics chains of biomass supply for biofuel conversion sites. Morever, some benefits in terms of biomass quality can be obtained by storing biomass prior transportation or usage. In this case, storage can be considered as a pre-treatment of biomass for biofuel production.

In this project, we have studied the evolution of biomass quality of different wooden resources (softwoods …

High Performance Vapour Permeation With Organic Membranes For Dewatering Ethanol And Other Organic Solvents, Meik Wusterhausen, Torsten Brinkmann

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Major advantages of the vapourpermeation in a distillation hybrid-process in comparison to molecular sieve adsorption are lower operating costs and steady state behaviour. Polymeric membranes are also cheap in production costs compared to inorganic membrane types. Disadvantages of state of the art organic membrane dewatering technology are sensitivity, unreliability and insufficient purified product quality.

GKSS has developed a new organic/inorganic membrane (based on polyvinylalcohol), which is longterm stable to common organic solvents (methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, etc.), temperatures up to 130°C and 15wt-% water in the feed. Higher temperatures and feed water-contents are being investigated currently in longterm tests.

Above 5wt-% …

Liquefaction Of Wood Particles By Using Pyrolytic Oil, Mehmet H. Alma

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

In this study, Scots pine wood (P. sylvestris L.) particles were liquefied into pyrolytic oil, which was provided from pyrolysis of the same wood species, at various temperatures under pressure. The results showed that the wood particles could easily be liquefied with different fractions of pyrolytic oil at a variety of temperatures and times. The highest yield of liquefied wood oil (about 98%) was determined at 250 ºC for 150 min for the heavy fraction of pyrolytic oil obtained at a temperature of 550 ºC with the highest amount of phenolic fraction. The heating value of the liquefied wood was …

Ethanol Production Using Organic Waste, Daewon Pak, Jun Cheol Lee, Jae Hyung Kim

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

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Investigating Catalyst Design Strategies For Selective Reaction Of Cyclic C4 Oxygenates From Biomass, Clay Horiuchi, Andrea S. Loh, Stephen T. Marshall J. Will Medlin, Benjamin M. Israel

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Numerous studies have shown that the properties of metal catalysts can in principle be fine-tuned by controlling the composition of the metal surface with high precision. The ability to design catalysts capable of high selectivity towards the conversion of a single functional group in a multifunctional molecule is a major objective for heterogeneous catalysis research. This need for high selectivity toward a single functional group is of growing importance in efforts to improve biorefining operations, where biomass-derived multifunctional carbohydrates are key "building block" intermediates that must be converted to a vast range of commodity chemical products such as fuels, pharmaceuticals, …

Combustion Of Pyrolysis 'Bio-Oils' In A Tunnel Furnace, Fernando Preto, Irene Coyle, Joe Wong, Frank Zhang

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

A test program has been carried out in a pilot-scale (2.5 GJ/h) tunnel furnace to evaluate potential emission levels from combustion of various biomass pyrolysis oil 'cuts'. Two pyrolysis oil cuts were tested: a “whole” oil and a “premium” high moisture (30% H2O) oil, both supplied by Ensyn. A CETC-O designed external mixing air-assisted atomising nozzle originally designed for coal liquid mixtures was used. The oils were preheated to 48 – 52°C. The atomizing air was not preheated and main combustion air preheat was varied from ambient to 120°C. Under steady state operation both pyrolysis oil cuts were found to …

Pyrolysis Of Agricultural And Forestry Residues Into Bio-Oil, Ran Xu, Lorenzo Ferrante, John Edwards, Franco Berruti, Cedric Briens

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

The pyrolysis of various agricultural wastes (grape residues, dried distillers grains, forestry residue and sugarcane residues) was carried out in a pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed pyrolyzer operating at temperatures ranging from 300oC to 600oC , for vapor residence times ranging from 2 to 20 seconds. Products yields and properties, as well as process heat requirements were determined. The main objective was the optimization of the production of liquid bio-oil without any use of fossil fuel.

The composition of the product gases was measured, from which their heating value was calculated. The liquid bio-oil was recovered with cyclonic condensers and separated …

Conversion Of Woody Biomass To Energy, Chemicals And Materials, Shijie Liu, Thomas E. Amidon

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Conversion of renewable biomass to chemicals and energy is imperative to sustain our way of life as known to today. Fossil fuels have become the predominant energy source today. However, fossil deposits are limited and not renewable. Biomass is a reliable source of chemicals and energy that can be replenished at the rate of our needs. The biorefinery is a concept for the collection of processes used to convert biomass to chemicals and energy. The Biorefinery is a “catch and release” way of using carbon that is beneficial to the environment and the economy. Discussions are made for the elements …

Effects Of Temperature And Residence Time On The Thermal Cracking Of Bio-Oil For Syngas Production, Mohammad Latifi, Lorenzo Ferrante, Matt Klaas, Cedric Briens, Franco Berruti

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Bio-oil, the valuable liquid product obtained from biomass through pyrolysis, may be either combusted to generate carbon-neutral electricity or converted to a synthesis gas from which chemicals or clean fuels can be produced Producing bio-oil from biomass and then converting the bio-oil to syngas has several advantages. The bio-oil may be generated in distributed or mobile plants and then shipped to a central facility for conversion to syngas, thus avoiding the expensive transportation of bulky and perishable biomass. The syngas produced from bio-oil is CO2 neutral and produces no net greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, valuable green chemicals may be extracted …

Synthesis Gas By Catalytic Steam Reforming Of Bio-Oil, Lucía García, Fernando Bimbela, Miriam Oliva, Joaquín Ruiz Jesús Arauzo, De Chen

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

The concept of biomass refinery or biorefinery, has attracted great attention during the last decade. The idea is to process lignocelullosic residues converting the resulting products or fractions of them into a variety of fine chemicals or high added value products and raw materials serving as a feedstock for other valuable chemicals and commodities.

One of the most interesting paths for the thermochemical conversion of biomass is fast pyrolysis of biomass followed by catalytic steam reforming of the liquid pyrolysis products (bio-oil) or its fractions. The product gas from this process is a H2 rich with moderate CO content which, …

Hydrous Thermolysis Of Biomass Production Of Hodge' Carbonyls And Oligomeric Lignin, Jan Piskorz, Piotr Majerski, Ed Hogan

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Continuous, bench scale fast pyrolysis investigation was carried out to evaluate thermal behaviour of variety of biomass feeds. The emphasis was put into obtaining realistic material balances. Yields of (1) water of pyrolysis, (2) oligomeric lignin, (3) water-soluble chemicals, and (4) chars were targeted. Some identification/quantification of chemical components present in the water phase (Hodge' carbonyls, acids) were attempted. The use of superheated steam was also investigated. The use of steam seems to increase yields of some components of pyrolytic liquid. It minimizes yields of pyrolytic water and non-condensable gases. An utilization of fast pyrolysis water-insolubles, together with char in …

Conversion Of Lower Lignin Mutants Of Sorghum Bicolor To Ethanol, Michael A. Cotta

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

The United States Government has targeted aggressive development of ethanol as one route for decreasing oil dependence and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving future production targets depends on expanding feedstock sources beyond corn and towards lignocellulose. This is expected to include new low-input and high yielding energy crops. Utilizing dedicated energy crops allows for the possibility of breeding them for increased conversion efficiency to ethanol. In this study, the effect of reducing lignin content was evaluated for sugar and ethanol production in forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.)). The sample set included wild-type and brown midrib mutants for reduced lignin contents. …

Real-Time Observation Of Cellulose Biodegradation By Atomic Force Microscopy, Anthony Clarke, Amanda Quirk, Jacek Lipkowski, Darrell Cockburn, Dan Glickman

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Cellulose, the major structural component of plant cell walls, is a homopolymer of β-1,4-linked glucose residues. As cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth comprising approx. 50% of the bioshpere, it has attracted renewed interest as a potential source of energy through its biodegradation and fermentation to biofuels. The biodegradation of cellulose involves the concerted action of three types of enzymes, cellulases (EC 3.2.1.4, endo-β-1,4-glucanases), cellobiohydrolases (EC 3.2.1.91; cellulose 1,4-β-cellobiosidase), and β-glucosidases (EC 3.2.1.21; β-d-glucoside glucohydrolase). The former two classes of enzymes function to hydrolyze insoluble cellulose into soluble oligosaccharides which then serve as substrates for β-glucosidases to release …

Biofuels And Biochemicals: Investment Opportunities?, Fernando Preto

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

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A Novel Fast Gas-Solid Separator For Pyrolysis Reactors, Martin Huard, Cedric Briens, Franco Berruti

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

From escalating global concern over the exhaustion of non-renewable energy sources comes an imperative need for the use of renewable resources. Among possible renewable sources and subsequent conversion processes, biomass pyrolysis is a very promising alternative for fuel and chemical production. Previous work has shown that the most effective biomass pyrolysis processes employ downer reactors. Ongoing research at the Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR) has led to the development of a new downer reactor design for the pyrolysis of biomass feedstock. However, this process requires a gas-solid separator that achieves a minimum spread of the gas …

Comparison Of Laboratory And Industrial Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Strains For Their Inhibitor Resistance And Xylose Utilization, Anli Geng, Wang Zhankun, Lai Kok Soon Tan Wei Yi Mark, Goh Kiow Leng Hedy, New Jen Yan

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

There are various kinds of stresses during the process of ethanol fermentation and more inhibitory factors are produced when lignocelluloses hydrolysate is used as the substrate. The pretreatment of lignocelluloses biomass before fermentation causes the increase in the amount of acids and thus the decrease in pH. Low-molecular weight aliphatic acids, furaldehydes and a broad range of aromatic compounds are produced during the pretreatment process. They are the inhibitors for the ethanol producers, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Furthermore, besides glucose, lignocellulose hydrolysate contains other sugars, such as xylose, arabinose, galactose and mannose etc., among which xylose is taking the major …

A Novel Toa-Glycerol Based Extraction - Re-Extraction Process For The Separation Of Chemicals Produced By Acidogenic Fermentation Of Biomass, Juray De Wilde, Emilie Fockedey, Patrick A. Gerin

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Acidogenic fermentation of biomass for the production of ethanol and acetic, propionic, butyric and lactic acids is a promising technology, in the sense that germ free conditions are not required, very diversified, less pretreated and cheap biomass can be used, and the molecules produced and their esters are consumed on a large scale by industries. The product recovery, separation and concentration steps downstream of the biomass transformation remain, however, a major challenge for the industrial application of acidogenic fermentation which produces very dilute (concentrations of only a few percent) and complex aqueous solutions of acids and ethanol. A novel extraction …

Assessment Of Kinetics For Butanol Production By Clostridium Acetobutylicum, Fabio Napoli, Antonio Marzocchella, G. Olivieri P. Salatino

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

The economic scenario established at the beginning of the third millennium has revived the interest in Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentations. Recent developments in molecular techniques applied to solventogenic microrganisms in combination with recent advances in fermentation systems and downstream processing have contributed to improve ABE fermentation processes feasibility and competitiveness. The challenges raised over the last years as regards ABE production may be synthesized in: i) use of renewable resources as substrate; ii) selection of strains characterized by high ABE productivity; iii) development of new fermentation systems; iv) development of new downstream strategies for enhanced solvent recovery. The selection of unconventional …

Environmentally Sustainable Biofuels - Biodiesel, Palligarnai T. Vasudevan

Bioenergy - II: Fuels and Chemicals from Renewable Resources

Biodiesel is a clean-burning fuel produced from grease, vegetable oils, or animal fats. Biodiesel is produced by transesterification of oils with short-chain alcohols or by the esterification of fatty acids. The transesterification reaction consists of transforming triglycerides into fatty acid alkyl esters, in the presence of an alcohol, such as methanol or ethanol, and a catalyst, such as an alkali or acid, with glycerol as a by-product. Due to diminishing petroleum reserves and the deleterious environmental consequences of exhaust gases from petroleum diesel, biodiesel has attracted attention during the past few years as a renewable and environmentally friendly fuel. Since …