Day 1 :
Keynote Forum
David Serrano
IMDEA Energy Institute & Rey Juan Carlos University
Spain
Keynote: Recent progress in the thermocatalytic processing of biomass into advanced fuels
Time : 10:00-10:25
Biography:
At present, Dr. David Serrano is the Director of the IMDEA Energy Institute and Full Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rey Juan Carlos University. He is also Head of the Thermochemical Processes Unit at IMDEA Energy.He received his Ph.D. from Complutense University of Madrid (1990) awarded with the Extraordinary Mention. He has been Visiting Associated in the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH, 1991) and in the California University of Santa Barbara (2006). He was appointed as Associate Professor at Complutense University of Madrid (1990-1999), and subsequently at Rey Juan Carlos University. In the latter, he was appointed as Full Professor (2002) and was in charge of different management and academic positions: Coordinator of the Environmental Sciences Area (1999-2001), Vice-rector for Research and Technological Innovation (2001-2002) and Head of the Chemical and Environmental Technology Department (2002-2007). His teaching activity has been focused on subjects related to Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Energy Engineering in a number of degrees, masters and Ph.D. courses.He has participated in about 50 research projects funded by both public and private institutions, with a significant number of collaborations established with the industrial sector. Currently, he is coordinator of the FP7 EU CASCATBEL project, aimed to the conversion of lignocellulosicbiomass into advanced biofuels through catalytic routes.He has been author of about 150 publications in scientific journals. Likewise, he has been author of more than 200 communications to congresses and scientific meetings, of 5 patents and of 4 books. He has been supervisor of 19 Ph.D. theses. He has been member of the Executive Board of the ACENET network (ERA-NET for Applied Catalysis Research in Europe) and of the “Círculo de Innovación en Tecnologías Medioambientales y Energía” (CITME). He is member of the Scientific Committee of CIESOL (Almería, Spain) and of the German Biomass Research Centre (Leipzig, Germany), as well as of different scientific associations. He has been member of the scientific committee of several journals and of a number of scientific workshops and congresses. In 2011 he was Chairman of the 6th edition of the International Symposium on Feedstock Recycling of Plastics (ISFR2011, Toledo, Spain).
Abstract:
A high interest has arisen in recent years in novel processes for the transformation of different types of biomass into advanced biofuels. The use of non-edible biomass sources and the overall sustainability of the process are very important factors to be considered in the development of new routes for the production of second-generation biofuels. In this way, lignocellulosic biomass appears as a very interesting source of biomass due to its independency with the food market, its low cost and high availability in the form of agriculture and forest residues or as energy crops. Three main pathways are being explored for the thermochemical conversion of lignocellulose: gasification, pyrolysis and liquefaction. Biomass pyrolysis, depending on the temperature and the heating rate, yields gases, liquid and solid fractions with different proportions. The maximum yield in the liquid fraction (bio-oil) is attained when working at temperatures of about 500ºC and high heating rates (fast and flash pyrolysis). This is a relatively simple process that it is being implemented now at commercial scale in different countries. However, one of the unsolved problems is related to the complex composition of the bio-oil, which limits its use as fuel mainly in not very demanding applications, such as heating fuel. Bio-oil presents both high oxygen content and low calorific value. Moreover, it has an acidic pH, which provides it with undesirable properties. Accordingly, a variety of routes are being investigated for bio-oil upgrading into advanced biofuels, showing properties suitable for the transportation sector. These routes include a number of chemical transformations, such as catalytic pyrolysis, hydrodeoxygenation, ketonization, esterification, aldol condensation, alkylation, etc. In most cases, the catalysts to be developed should combine bifunctional properties, for removing a large part of the oxygen contained in the bio-oil and to modify the chemical structure of the compounds for its use as transportation fuels, with a high accessibility to the active sites.
Keynote Forum
Anthony Bridgwater
European Bioenergy Research Institute
Aston University
UK
Keynote: Upgrading liquids from fast pyrolysis of biomass
Time : 10:25-10:50
Biography:
Anthony Bridgwater is Professor of Chemicalengineering at Aston University in Birmingham UK. He has worked at Aston University for most of his professional career and is currently director of the European Bioenergy Research Institute. He has a world-wide research portfolio focussing on fast pyrolysis as a key technology in thermal biomass conversion for power, heat, biofuels and biorefineries. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Fellow of the Institute of Energy. He was technical Director of the UK Flagship SUPERGEN Bioenergy programmes for 8½ years until the end of 2011. In addition he has led and coordinated nine major EC research and development projects in bioenergy and has an active current involvement in six further research and development projects. He has attracted funding from national research funding councils in Canada, Holland, Norway and the USA. He has been responsible for raising over £28 million during his research career. He formed and led the IEA Bioenergy Pyrolysis Task – PyNe from 1994 to 2008 with parallel European networks on pyrolysis, gasification and combustion which included the EC sponsored ThermoNet and ThermalNet networks.
Abstract:
Fast pyrolysis for production of high yields of liquids (bio-oil) has now reached commercial reality, and there continues to be considerably increasing activities at the R&D level to develop processes and improve the quality of the liquid. The technology of fast pyrolysis is described followed by a comprehensive examination of the characteristics and quality requirements of bio-oil. This considers all aspects of the special characteristics of bio-oil – how they are created and the solutions available to help meet requirements for utilisation. Particular attention is paid to chemical and catalytic upgrading including, for example, incorporation into an oil refinery, production of hydrocarbons, chemicals, synthesis gas and hydrogen production which have seen a wide range of new research activities. An appreciation of the potential for bio-oil to meet a broad spectrum of applications in renewable energy has led to a significantly increased R&D activity that has focused on addressing liquid quality issues both for direct use for heat and power and indirect use for biofuels and green chemicals. This increased activity is evident in North America, Europe and Asia with many new entrants as well as expansion of existing activities. The only disappointment is the more limited industrial development and also deployment of fast pyrolysis processes that are necessary to provide the basic bio-oil raw material.
Break: Coffee Break and Group Photo: 10:50-11:05
Keynote Forum
Philip T. Pienkos
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
USA
Keynote: Path to commercial algal biofuels through combination of process cost reductions and identification of novel coproducts
Time : 11:05-11:30
Biography:
Philip T. Pienkos earned his BS in Honors Biology at the University of Illinois and his Ph.D, in Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin. He has nearly 30 years of biotechnology experience in the pharmaceutical, chemical and energy sectors. He is a co-founder of two companies: Celgene, an established biotech/pharma company, and Molecular Logix, a case study for technology-rich/funding-poor biotech startup. He joined NREL in 2007 as a section supervisor and now holds the title of Principal Group Manager for the Bioprocess R&D Group in the National Bioenergy Center. His group is involved in various aspects of strain development, process integration, compositional analysis, catalytic upgrading, and molecular modeling for advanced biofuels based on a wide variety of feedstocks including lignocellulosic biomass, algal biomass and methane. In addition to his line management responsibilities, he is also the Algal Biofuels Platform Lead for the National Bioenergy Center at NREL and serves as lead for a number of projects that are relevant to this proposal, including the BETO funded Lipid Catalysis Project and the ARPA-E funded Biological Gas to Liquid Project (part of the REMOTE Program). He is part of a team of algae experts from NREL and Sandia National Laboratories who worked with the Department of Energy to organize National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap Workshop held in December, 2008 and was a contributor to the National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap document, published in May, 2010. Philip is a founding member of the Algae Biomass Organization and has served as a member of the board of directors for that organization from 2008 to 2013. He is currently on the board of directors of the Algae Foundation. He was named in Biofuels Digest’s list of the top 100 people in biofuels for four years running.
Abstract:
Although algal biomass is considered to be a potentially high value feedstock for biofuel production, the path to commercialization is challenged by high production costs. This is largely due to high capital and operating costs for algal cultivation based on current technologies, but improvements in other unit operations will also be needed. This presentation will highlight research activities at NREL that are aimed at development of production strains with improved biofuel production characteristics, identification of large volume co-products, and development of novel technologies for biomass conversion to reduce costs and energy inputs. These activities will be placed into a framework of techno-economic analysis to help establish a scenario for an integrated algal biofuel production process that could compete with petroleum-based fuels.
- Track 4: Biomass
Location: Melia Valencia
Chair
Blake Simmons
Joint Bioenergy Institute
USA
Co-Chair
Edward A. Bayer
Weizmann Institute
Israel
Session Introduction
Blake Simmons
Joint Bioenergy Institute
USA
Title: Development of advanced biofuels and biomass conversion technologies at the Joint BioEnergy Institute
Time : 11:30-11:50
Biography:
Dr. Simmons joined Sandia National Laboratories in 2001 as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff, serving as a member of the Materials Chemistry Department. He participated on and led a variety of projects, including the development of cleavable surfactants, enzyme engineering for biofuel cells, microfluidics, and the synthesis of silicate nanomaterials. He was promoted to Manager of the Energy Systems Department in 2006. The primary focus of the department was the development of novel materials-based solutions to meet the nation’s growing energy demands. He is one of the principal co-investigators of the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI, www.jbei.org), a $259M, ten-year DOE funded project tasked with the development and realization of next-generation biofuels produced from non-food crops. He is currently serving as the Chief Science and Technology Officer and Vice-President of the Deconstruction Division at JBEI, where he leads a team of 43 researchers working on advanced methods of liberating fermentable sugars and lignin from lignocellulosic biomass. He is also the Senior Manager of Biofuels and Biomaterials Science and Technology at Sandia, where he also serves as the Biomass Program Manager. He has over 220 publications, book chapters, and patents. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the KQED televised science program Quest.
Abstract:
Today, carbon-rich fossil fuels, primarily oil, coal and natural gas, provide 85% of the energy consumed in the United States. Fossil fuel use increases CO2 emissions, increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases and raising the risk of global warming. The high energy content of liquid hydrocarbon fuels makes them the preferred energy source for all modes of transportation. In the US alone, transportation consumes around 13.8 million barrels of oil per day and generates over 0.5 gigatons of carbon per year. This has spurred intense research into alternative, non-fossil energy sources. The DOE-funded Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI) is a partnership between seven leading research institutions (Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Sandia Labs, Lawrence Livermore Lab, Pacific Northwest National Lab, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, and the Carnegie Institute for Science) that is focused on the production of infrastructure compatible biofuels derived from non-food lignocellulosic biomass. Biomass is a renewable resource that is potentially carbon-neutral. Plant-derived biomass contains cellulose, which is more difficult to convert to sugars. The development of cost-effective and energy-efficient processes to transform cellulose and hemicellulose in biomass into fuels is hampered by significant roadblocks, including the lack of specifically developed energy crops, the difficulty in separating biomass components, low activity of enzymes used to hydrolyze polysaccharides, and the inhibitory effect of fuels and processing byproducts on the organisms responsible for producing fuels from monomeric sugars. This presentation will highlight the research efforts underway at JBEI to overcome these obstacles, with a particular focus on the development of an ionic liquid pretreatment technology for the efficient production of monomeric sugars from biomass.
Edward A. Bayer
Weizmann Institute
Israel
Title: Cellulosome-inspired multi-enzyme assemblies for conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels
Time : 11:50-12:10
Biography:
Ed Bayer is a professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel. In his early work, he helped develop the avidin- and streptavidin-biotin system as a general tool in the biological sciences. He is co-discoverer of the multi-enzyme cellulosome concept and has organized and chaired Gordon Research Conferences on this subject. He has also pioneered the development of designer cellulosomes for research and biotechnological applications. He has authored over 350 articles and reviews in these fields, is editor or serves on editorial boards of several journals in the field of biotechnology, on the scientific advisory board of the DOE BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), and was elected to Fellowship of both the American Academy of Microbiology and the European Academy of Microbiology. His interests focus on the structural and functional consequences of protein-protein, protein-carbohydrate and protein-ligand interactions, protein engineering, synthetic biology, nanobiotechnology, microbial and enzymatic degradation of plant biomass and biomass-to-biofuels processing.
Abstract:
Cellulose is the major component of the plant cell wall and as such comprises the most abundant renewable source of carbon and energy on our planet. This fact has spawned, in the last decade, a tremendous amount of interest in the use of cellulosic biomass to at least partially alleviate the burden and dependence of our society on fossil fuels. In the plant cell wall, however, cellulose and other polysaccharides assume a structural rather than a storage role, and their monosaccharide residues – whose facile production is the key to the subsequent processing of liquid biofuels – are essentially inaccessible to microbes and their polysaccharide-degrading enzymes. Unlike aerobic fungi and bacteria, various anaerobic bacteria secrete potent multi-enzyme cellulosome complexes, which contain numerous cellulases, hemicellulases and associated enzymes, attached to the bacterial cell surface, thus enabling efficient degradation of cellulosic substrates. We have exploited the enhanced synergistic properties of cellulosomes by reconfiguring their Lego-like multi-modular components into discrete artificial complexes of predetermined design. We have thus dismantled the cellulosome into its component parts and reassembled them into “designer cellulosomes” of precise content and organization. Designer cellulosomes provide a promising platform for understanding the rationale behind its catalytic efficiency, and knowledge gained from their study may provide the basis for creating improved multi-enzyme assemblies for efficient cost-effective conversion of plant-derived biomass into liquid biofuels.
Paul Gilna
BioEnergy Science Center
USA
Title: Research strategies to generate economically viable biofuels from cellulosic biomass: approaches and results from the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC)
Time : 12:10-12:30
Biography:
Dr. Paul Gilna is currently serving as the Director of Bioenergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory USA. Previously held a position at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology and the Center for Research in Biological Systems, both located at the University of California, San Diego. At San Diego he served as executive director for the Community Cyber infrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbialecology Research and Analysis project. Previously, Dr. Gilna was director of the Joint Genome Institute at Los Alamos National Laboratory and has worked at the National Science Foundation. His research interests range from molecular biology to microbiology to computational biology.
Abstract:
The challenge of producing and converting sustainable cellulosic biomass into fuels presents the opportunity for science and technology to make an appreciable national and indeed global impact in the next 20 years. However, overcoming the inability to easily access the sugars and other monomers from cellulosic sources in order to make fuels or other products, or recalcitrance, is one of the major challenges to cost-effective biofuel production. This is a central theme of the US DOE-funded Bioenergy Science Center (www.bioenergycenter.org). Transformative advances to understand biomass recalcitrance require detailed scientific knowledge of (1) the chemical and physical properties of biomass that influence recalcitrance, (2) how these properties can be altered by engineering plant biosynthetic pathways, and (3) how such changes affect biomass-biocatalyst interactions during deconstruction by enzymes and microorganisms. This talk will illustrate how the BESC Team is applying the knowledge gained from these activities to develop a set of approaches on both the plant and microbial components to improve generation of fuels from biomass resources.
Kamel Halouani
University of Sfax
Tunisia
Title: Catalytic pyrolysis of olive mill wastewater sludge to produce biofuels
Time : 12:30-12:50
Biography:
Dr Halouani is Full Professor of Energy Engineering at the University of Sfax, Tunisia. Since 1997, he taught in the Tunisian Universities, courses on Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Transport Phenomena, Thermo-Mechanics of multiphase systems, Energy Conversion systems: Fuel cells and renewableenergies, Thermochemical and Electrochemical conversion processes, Fuel Processing Engineering. Dr Halouani is known internationally as an expert in thermochemical biomass conversion (pyrolysis, gasification hydrothermal liquefaction), Fuel Cells Modeling and heat and masstransfer in energy conversion and production systems. His expertise in these areas was recognized locally and internationally through his invitation as reviewer in several high impacted international journals in the field. He is also member of scientific committees of several National and International Conferences in Energy Engineering and Heat and Mass Transfer. Dr Halouani has organized, chaired and Co-chaired several National and International Congress, Conferences and Special Sessions on Renewableenergy Conversion, Hydrogen and fuelcell, Heat and Mass Transfer Engineering. He was also an invited Speaker at several national and international conferences. In 2009, Dr Halouani was selected by the US State Department as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in Virginia Tech Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Dr Halouani was the Head of the Department of Technology Studies at IPEIS, University of Sfax (2002-2005 and 2008-2011). Dr Halouani has 2 patents, over 30 articles in High impact peer-reviewed international journals and over 60 papers in prestigious international conference proceedings.
Abstract:
Olive mill wastewater sludge (OMWS) is one of the major environmental pollutants in olive oil industry using traditional or 3-phase process. The major problem stems from the poor biodegradability of the OMWS because of its high phenolic compounds content. In most Mediterranean countries, olive mill wastewater are stored in ponds where the major part of water evaporates and the sludge dries up which is then later lanfilled for disposal. To resolve this serious environmental problem, we have developed a fluidized bed catalytic pyrolysis of OMWS to produce pyrolysis liquids that are very stable, low viscosity, neutral pH and very high higher heating value. The pyrolysis was conducted at 400-500oC in a red mud and HZSM-5 catalyst bed. The yields of the organic fraction ranged from 20 to 35 wt% which is much higher than what obtains for other lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. The viscosity of the oil was 5-7 cP, the pH ranged from 6-7 and the highest HHV of the oil was 41 MJ/kg. The char yield ranged from 20 to 25 wt% while the gas yield ranged from 26-45 wt%. The major challenges with this feedstock were poor flow properties because of its sticky nature, and the strong smell from both old and freshly stored material.
Break: Lunch Break 12:50-13:35
Daniela Thrän
German Biomass Research Center
Germany
Title: First and second generation fuels: How to assess their potential for sustainable transportation?
Time : 13:35-13:55
Biography:
Daniela Thrän is Head of the Department "Bioenergy Systems"at the German Biomass Research Center (DBFZ) and Head of the Department “Bioenergy” at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ). She is a graduate Diplom-Engineer for environmental technologies from the Technical University of Berlin and did her PhD at the University of Weimar. Her doctoral-thesis dealt with “Material Flow Account in rural areas”. Since 2011 she holds the professorial chair bioenergysystems at the Institute for Infrastructure and Resources Management, University of Leipzig. Further she is responsible for the coordination and management of national and international research projects for governmental, industrial and nongovernmental organisations in her leadership role as head of the department bioenergy systems at DBFZ and the department bioenergy at UFZ. Her work focuses on resource analysis on biomass, standardisation of solid biofuels, assessment of biomasstechnologies and trade, sustainability aspects and system integration of biomass and bioenergy, and development of market implementation strategies and support schemes for bioenergy. Furthermore she is member of working groups at ISO, CEN, VDI, DIN and European technology platform for biofuels. She has a long term work experience with over 100 publications in the biomass field.
Abstract:
Today many biofuel technologies and concepts are developed and discussed to supply different transport sectors. They differ in feedstock, conversion approach, levels of development, product quality, and availability on the market as well. In parallel there is an intensive debate on relevant sustainability dimensions for the assessment of biofuels in general (i.e. GBEP, RED etc.) and it is well known, that the frame condition from support schemes, the specific demand from different transport sectors (road, ship, aviation) and the development of feedstock markets will influence the future feasibility substantially. With regard to those expectations the assessment of the potential for current and future biofuel provision concepts has to consider different possible futures, which will be figured in a scenario approach. Based on this comparison of different biofuel concepts can be performed by (i) the assessment of their technical performance, (ii) optimization potential for greenhousegas emission reduction and (iii) simulation of market potentials considering different prices for feedstock, energy and carbon certificates. Finally, we will provide the most relevant driver for market implementation of the different biofuels for both, the short term perspective till 2020 and for the longer term.
Lew Christopher
Lakehead University
Canada
Title: Consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulosic biomass for sustainable production of hydrogen
Time : 13:55-14:15
Biography:
Dr. Lew Christopher is currently serving as the Director of Biorefining Institute, Lakehead University Canada. He holds a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Biotechnology & Biochemical Engineering. He has more than 20 years of industrial and academic experience in the field of industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing of lignocellulosic biomass. He worked as industrial research scientist and held faculty positions in departments of biotechnology, chemical and biological engineering, and environmental engineering in South Africa and USA. Currently he also served as Director of the Center for Bioprocessing Research & Development at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology lead a team of over 130 researchers from 15 departments at 2 universities in South Dakota, USA. His research mission is to add value to the national and global bioeconomy by applying an integrated biorefinery approach for the development of renewable energy technologies. Dr. Christopher is a member of the editorial board of several international biotechnology journals, advisory boards, and professional societies. He has over 400 contributions that include 8 patents, 4 books, 80 peer-reviewed publications, and over 290 presentations and invited lectures delivered in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.
Abstract:
Hydrogen (H2) is considered the “energy of the future” due to its high energy content (143 MJ/Kg) which is 5.3-fold and 3.3-fold higher than that of ethanol and gasoline, respectively, and non-polluting nature (water is the only product). An environmentally friendly and potentially viable alternative for sustainable H2 production is presented through the utilization of renewable, low-cost cellulosic materials (energy crops and biomass waste) employing robust microorganisms with high substrate utilization efficiency and high H2 yields. The H2 production potential of the extreme thermophile Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus DSM 8903 was examined on switchgrass and municipal solid waste. It was demonstrated that C. saccharolyticus can ferment switchgrass to H2 in one step without any physicochemical or biological pretreatment, whereas H2 production from glucose reached the theoretical maximum for dark fermentation of 4 mol H2/mol glucose. The thermophilic consolidated bioprocessing capabilities of C. saccharolyticus offer opportunities for significant savings of capital and operational expenses in excess of 50% by consolidating four processing step into a single operation.
Annick Bertrand
Soils and Crops Research and Development Centre
Canada
Title: Improved saccharification efficiency of alfalfa for bioethanol production: from phenotypic characterization to marker-assisted selection
Time : 13:55-14:15
Biography:
Dr. Bertrand has internationally recognized expertise on physiology and biochemistry of perennial forage crops. She developed new selection methods for the improvement of complex trait such as saccharification potential and abiotic stress resistance of perennials.
Abstract:
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) has a high potential for sustainable bioethanol production. Genetic improvement for the saccharification of structural carbohydrates could significantly increase ethanol conversion rate. Genetic gains for this trait are tributary to the availability of screening techniques for the precise identification of superior genotypes. We developed an efficient enzymatic assay to measure alfalfa stem saccharification, based on the quantity of glucose released by a customized commercially available enzyme cocktail. Using that new assay, we observed a large genetic diversity for saccharification within and among cultivars. To increase the analytical throughput, we used near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict cell wall (CW) saccharification in hundreds of lignified stem samples. Twenty (20) genotypes with high (S+) and 20 genotypes with low (S-) saccharification (S) expressed as the levels of enzyme-released glucose were selected within each of a biomass-type (Orca) and a winterhardy-type (54V54) cultivar. These genotypes were intercrossed to generate a first cycle of recurrent selection for high (S+1) and low (S-1) saccharification. Assessment of CW enzyme-released glucose after a second cycle of recurrent phenotypic selection confirmed that this trait is genetically inherited Populations recurrently selected for saccharification were used to identify DNA polymorphisms associated with this trait using the sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) PCR-based technique. Polymorphisms positively or negatively related to saccharification were identified in each genetic background using a bulk analysis of pooled DNA (50 genotypes/population). Subsequent scoring of these polymorphisms within each genetic background led to the identification of genotypes that combine two or more polymorphisms associated to saccharification. These elite genotypes were intercrossed to generate a first cycle of marker-assisted selection with potentially higher saccharification (MAS S+1). A second cycle of MAS selection was performed to further increase the frequency of these markers in MAS S+2 populations. Comparative assessment of populations obtained with phenotypic recurrent selection and marker-assisted selection is underway to assess the complementarity of these new selection methodologies and establish their performance for the development of populations with significantly higher ethanol conversion rates in alfalfa.
Daniel Hayes
Celignis Limited
Ireland
Title: Use of near infrared spectroscopy for the rapid low-cost analysis of a wide variety of lignocellulosic feed stocks
Time : 14:15-14:35
Biography:
Daniel Hayes is the CEO of Celignis Limited Ireland. Hehas extensive experience in the analysis of biomass and in the evaluation and development of biomass conversion technologie. He received his PhD from the University of Limerick in 2012 and played an important role in the development of UL’s Carbolea Biomass Research Group. He has been successful in securing project funding for the group from industrial, national, and European sources. One of these projects, funded by the EU's 7th Framework Programme and entitled DIBANET, involved 13 partners from a number of European and Latin American countries. Within DIBANET he was responsible for the development of a series of mathematical models that allow for many of the important properties of biomass (for production of second generation biofuels) to be predicted from their near infrared (NIR) spectra. This allows for analysis to be carried out much more quickly and at a lower cost than through conventional wet-chemical techniques.
Abstract:
It is important to know the lignocellulosic composition of a feedstock in order to ascertain its potential value for biorefining. The standard laboratory methods of analysis are costly and time consuming. Celignis personnel have worked on the development of rapid, low cost methods of analysis using near infrared spectroscopy (NIR). Over 1000 biomass samples have been collected and processed for conventional analysis with the NIR spectra of each sample collected at several stages of sample preparation. The dried samples were then analysed via reference methods for a number of lignocellulosic constituents, ash, extractives, and elemental composition. Following this NIR models were developed for a large number of constituents (including glucan, arabinan, galactan, xylan, mannan, rhamnan, total sugars, Klason lignin, acid soluble lignin, extractives, ash, and nitrogen) using a calibration set and the predictive abilities of the models were tested on an independent set. Separate models were developed on specific sample groups (Miscanthus, pre-treated biomass, peat, straws, waste paper/cardboard, sugarcane bagasse and others). In addition a global model was developed incorporating all those samples as well as many other sample types including: trees, energy crops, agricultural residues, animal excreta, biorefinery residues, grasses, municipal wastes, composts etc. The models developed were highly accurate and robust for important lignocellulosic constituents. For example, the root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) [and R2 in prediction] for the global dataset were 1.84% [0.976], 0.75% [0.989], and 1.73% [0.983] for glucan, xylan, and Klason lignin, respectively. This work is significant since it is the first demonstration of the utility of NIR in the commercial analysis of such a wide variety of biomass samples for all these lignocellulosic constituents.
Sandra D EkÅŸioÄŸlu
Clemson University
USA
Title: Optimization models in support of biomass co-firing decisions in coal fired power plants
Time : 14:35-14:55
Biography:
Sandra D. Eksioglu is an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida in 2002. Dr. Eksioglu’s research focus has been on the theory and application of operations research tools to problems that arise in the areas of transportation, logistics, and supply chain. She works on developing mathematical models and solution algorithms that help design and manage large scale and complex supply-chains. In particular, she is interested in the application of these tools to the biofuels supply chain. She received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation in 2011 for her work on biofuels supply chain. She has co-authored over 50 refereed journal papers and conference proceeding. She is the co-author of “Developing Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems Using Excel and VBA for Excel” 2nd Ed. which is the textbook used in one of the classes she teaches. Dr. Eksioglu is an active member of Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
Abstract:
We present an optimization model to aid with biomass co-firing decisions in coal fired power plants. Co-firing is a strategy that can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at coal plants. Co-firing is a practice that also impacts logistics-related costs, capital investments, plant efficiency, and tax credit collected. We present a nonlinear mixed integer programming model that captures the impact of biomass co-firing on the logistics-related costs, capital investments, plant efficiency, tax credit collected, and emission reductions. The objective of this model is to maximize the total profits. Profits are equal to the difference between the revenues generated from the tax credit and the additional logistics and investment costs. The constraints of this model represent the relationship between the amount of coal displaced and the amount of biomass used. These equations capture the reduced burners’ efficiencies due to burning a different product which has a lower heating value. In order to solve large instances of this problem we develop a linear approximation which is easier to solve. We test the performance of the models proposed on a case study developed using data from the State of Mississippi. We conducted a sensitivity analyses in order to evaluate the impact of biomass purchasing costs, biomass transportation costs, investment costs, and production tax credit on the cost of renewable electricity. Our results indicate that power plants would have no incentive to co-fire unless they are subsidized for their efforts. On the other side, increasing the tax credits beyond some threshold value would not necessary result in additional renewableenergy produced. That means, in order to increase the renewable energy production, instead of using a “flat rate” tax credit, a better system would be to make the tax credit a function of the amount of renewable electricity produced.
Dhanapati Deka
Tezpur University
India
Title: Bio-Inspired heterogeneous catalyst for sustainable biofuel production
Time : 14:55-15:15
Biography:
Dr. Deka is currently serving as professor and head of the department of energy and principal investigator of the biomass conversion laboratory , Tezpur University, Assam, India . He earned his Ph.D. from Tezpur University in 2004.He is having over 20 years of teaching experience and has supervised many Ph.D. students. His research interests include Biofuel, biomass conversion, catalytic aspects of biofuel production, value added products from Biomass.
Abstract:
One of the challenges in the current technology generation in biofuel production is derived from their reliance on the use of hazardous and corrosive chemicals such as NaOH, KOH, HCl, H2SO4 etc. as catalysts or during purification steps. Owing to the advantages of heterogeneous catalysts in terms of separation and reusability over the traditionally used homogeneous catalyst, the research has now been focused on the use of heterogeneous catalysts in recent years. In order to make the process fully “green”, researchers are trying to prepare catalysts from renewable sources such as biomass. Within this concept, bio-based CaO and Carbon based catalysts were recently introduced. We have extensively worked with both types of catalysts for the last few years. Ba and Li were also doped with bio-based CaO derived from waste shells of Turbonilla striatula and egg shell derived CaO respectively. In preparation of Carbon based solid acid catalyst, activated carbon produced from oil-cake waste was sulphonated by 4-Benzenediazoniumsulfonate to increase the acidity and the catalyst was employed against esterification/transesterification reactions for converting acid oils extracted from non-edible seeds to biodiesel. In another experiment, multifunctional mesoporous solid acids were prepared by the sulfonation of carbonized de-oiled seedwaste cake, a solid waste from biodiesel production. The catalyst was employed against two reactions of interest in biomass conversion: cellulose saccharification (glucose yield 35–53%) and fatty acid esterification (conversion upto 97%) outperforming H2SO4, conventional solid acids (zeolites, ion-exchange resins etc.) as well as sulfonated carbons reported earlier works. This led us to conclude that the applicability of the basic bio based-CaO is until so far restricted to trans-esterification only. The carbon based catalysts are more versatile in this sense due to the following points; (i) they can be made from any carbon source (agro-industrial residues, post crop harvest residues etc.)(ii) Their physicochemical and structural properties can be easily tuned by altering and fine-tuning the preparation conditions and (ii) they can be easily modified with metals, acids or bases through impregnation or functionalization aiming for various catalytic applications.
Break: Coffee Break 15:15-15:30
Yong-Chil Seo
Yonsei University
South Korea
Title: Removal effect of alkali and alkaline earth metallic species and ash from biomass (palm empty fruit bunch) on pyrolytic characteristics to produce oil
Time : 15:30- 15:50
Biography:
Dr. Yong-Chil Seo is currently serving as professor in Department of Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University. As a professor he is now directing two national programs to support graduate student research and fellowship in the fields of “Waste to Energy and Environmental Engineering He is also the Director of WtE Center, Project Leader of BK21Plus for Environmental Engineering. He earned his PhD in the year 1985 from Illinois Institute of Technology, U.S. He was Former President of Korea Waste Management Society.” His main research areas are Waste and Biomass to Energy, Waste Recycling and Air Pollution Controls, especially Heavy Metals including mercury.
Abstract:
In the palm oil industry, the palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) is used to make crude palm oil. During the oil manufacturing process, the palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), which accounts more than 20 wt. % of the FFB, is generated as a byproduct. Hence, if a robust conversion method is found, the EFB will be an appealing renewableenergy source. In this study, the fast pyrolysis of the EFB was conducted in a lab-scale (throughput = 1 kg/hr) bubbling fluidized bed reactor at the temperatures ranged from 400 to 650oC. However, one of the most difficult problems in manufacturing homogeneous bio-crude oil from EFB was found to be its high ash content. Also, alkali and alkaline earth metallic species (AAEM) in EFB affect to reduce quality of bio-crude oil. Thus, in this study, the EFB was washed by water (both tap water and distilled water) and nitric acid (0.1 wt. %) with different total washing times. After washing, ash content was decreased from 5.9 wt. % to 1.53 wt. % using all of the washing treatments, and the AAEM was removed over 80 wt. % of total AAEM, such as potassium, magnesium, calcium and sodium. For considering economic and efficiency, treated EFBs, by tap water (for 1days) and nitric acid (for 2days) were chosen and been used to experiments. The fast pyrolysis experiments were carried out using treated EFBs variably. Consequently, the highest yield showed 48 wt. % at approximately 500 oC, when used only treated EFB by tap water. However, for confirming the characteristic changes, the bio-crude oils were analyzed GC-MS, elemental analysis and homogeneity by digital microscope.
Juha Laitinen
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Finland
Title: Workers’ exposure to biological and chemical agents in biomass processing at CHP plants
Time : 15:50- 16:10
Biography:
Juha Laitinen is educated as an environmental hygienist, and holds a PhD in occupational hygiene and the biomonitoring of chemical agents and their health effects. He works as a Senior Research Scientist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and has over 20 years of experience in chemical risk characterization, evaluation and management. He also holds the title of Docent in Occupational Toxicology at the University of Eastern Finland. With his research group, he has published about 30 international peer-review articles on chemical exposure at different worksites. His research group is currently working on exposure studies among fire fighters and workers in the bioenergy supply chain, and actors who are exposed to theatrical smoke.
Abstract:
Combined heat and power plants (CHP) use different biomasses to produce energy for their customers, and during the processing of biomass, many particles and chemical agents may spread to the air. The aim of the study was to measure workers’ exposure to biological and chemical agents at the CHP plants. Occupational hygienic measurements were taken during normal duties. Material samples were collected from processed biomass, and air samples from workers’ breathing zones and stationary sites in the different phases of the production chain. The study was part of the BEST research program, and was funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. The results showed that workers’ exposure to bacterial endotoxins, actinobacteria, fungi, and dust was high. They were also exposed to volatile organic compounds and diesel exhausts. The highest emission levels were measured in the workers’ breathing zones when they had to take biomass samples and do maintenance work. Workers’ exposure to biological and chemical agents was at such a high level in biomass handling areas that it may cause health effects. This risk could be minimized if workers supervised the processes from ventilated control rooms or worked inside cabins during unloading. Local hoods are highly recommended in indoor spaces in which workers have to handle biomass in open sites. In places in which the fermentation of biomass is possible, workers should use a personal gas detector which warns them when carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide concentrations are too high.
Hanzade Haykiri Acma
Istanbul Technical University
Turkey
Title: Burning characteristics of carbonized chars from RDF, scrap tire, and their blends
Time : 16:10- 16:30
Biography:
Abstract:
Large amounts of garbage are collected in big cities where efficient disposal along with energy recovery is necessary without creating environmental pollution. For this purpose, all of the recyclable materials are sorted and separated from the organic part, and this organic residue known “Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)” is regarded as renewable and sustainable biomass energy resource. On the other hand, some problematic waste materials such as scrap tires are in huge amounts, and they also must be disposed efficiently by considering their energy potential. In this study, granulated RDF and shredded scrap tire was carbonized in a tube furnace at 600â°C under nitrogen atmosphere, and the solid residue (char) was obtained. The parent waste materials and their carbonized chars were characterized by proximate analysis and the calorific value determination. Then, several fuel blends were prepared from both char products. That is, the RDF char was the base ingredient in the blends while the scrap tire char was added to RDF char in the ratios of 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%. Burning characteristics of the parent samples, char products, and their blends were investigated under dry air flow up to 900â°C using a thermal analysis system. DTA (Differential Thermal Analysis), DTG (Derivative Thermogravimetry) and DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) curves were derived from these thermal analysis experiments.
Lior Artzi
Weizmann Institute of Science
Israel
Title: From biomass to biofuels: exploiting the cellulosome of Clostridium clariflavum for plant cell wall degradation
Time : 16:30-16:40
Biography:
Lior Artzi is a direct-track PhD student at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot Israel. Her work focuses on the Gram-positive, cellulolytic, thermophilic bacterium, Clostridium clariflavum, which produces the most intricate cellulosomal system yet described.
Abstract:
As the reservoir of unsustainable fossil fuels, such as coal, petroleum and natural gas, is over-utilized and continues to contribute to environmental pollution and CO2 emission, the need for appropriate alternative energy sources becomes more crucial. Bioethanol produced from dedicated crops and cellulosic waste can provide a partial answer, yet a cost-effective production method must be developed. The cellulosome system of the anaerobic thermophile, Clostridium clariflavum, comprises a large number of cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes and scaffoldins which self-assemble in a number of different cellulosome architectures for enhanced cellulosic biomass degradation. We determined the cohesin-dockerin interaction pattern of the cellulosomal system of C. clariflavum and suggested various possible cellulosome assemblies. Further on, we cultivated C. clariflavum on cellobiose-, microcrystalline cellulose- and switchgrass-containing media and isolated cell-free cellulosome complexes from each culture. Gel-filtration separation of the cellulosome samples revealed two major fractions, which were analyzed by label-free LC-MS/MS in order to identify the key players of the cellulosome assemblies therein. In addition, the catalytic activity of each cellulosome was examined on different cellulosic substrates, xylan and switchgrass. The cellulosome isolated from the microcrystalline cellulose-containing medium was the most active of all the cellulosomes that were tested and approaches the degradation capabilities of the cellulosome of the most efficient cellulose-degrading bacterium, Clostridium thermocellum. The results suggest that the expression of the cellulosome proteins is regulated by the type of substrate in the growth medium. Identification of the major cellulosomal components expressed during growth of the bacterium and their influence on its catalytic capabilities provide insight into the performance of the remarkable cellulosome of this intriguing bacterium. The findings, together with the thermophilic characteristics of the proteins, render C. clariflavum of great interest for future use in industrial cellulose-conversion processes.
Diana Pfeiffer
DBFZ Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gGmbH
Germany
Title: Efficiency of biomass energy use – approach for the determination of the efficiency of diverse bioenergy projects
Time : 16:40-16:50
Biography:
Diana Pfeiffer has been working at the “DBFZ Deutschen Biomasse for schungszentrum gGmbH” since 2009 as project coordinator of the programme "Promoting projects to optimise biomass energy use". Before joining the DBFZ Diana was as consultant in the Management & Audit Services (MAS) Audit Team within ERM based in Frankfurt/Main, Germany and in the Forestry section of the UN Food & Agriculture Organization/Sub-regional Office in Budapest (Hungary). She holds an university degree in Geo-Ecology (Earth System Sciences).
Abstract:
The provision of bioenergy is a function of highly complex supply chains and networks, thus multidisciplinary research is required to support and advance its provision. During the last five years the German funding programme “Optimization of the Use of Biomass for Energy Production” (in short “Biomass energy use”)* has supported 90 different research projects on cost-effective and sustainable bioenergy provision. There are a multitude of assessment approaches to ascertain the efficiency of a large range of bioenergy conversion technologies as well as advancing bioenergy concepts. Therefore, there is a serious need for harmonization and standardization of such methods in order to assure transparently the role of bioenergy in meeting the goals of the energy transition process. To enable the different projects to assess the related costs more effectively, as well as the GHG emission reduction potential, a method handbook has been developed. This handbook provides guidelines, checklists, calculation methods, reference data for different biomass conversion processes (combustion, gasification and biogas production), provision costs (economic assessment), biomass potentials, energy balances, as well as GHG balances. The developed method handbook considers itself as a compromise between different researchers to improve the assessment quality and the findings for bioenergy research projects in the programme “Biomass energy use”. It has also been used by research projects outside the programme and furthermore has the potential to support research activities on a European level. However, the approaches and calculation procedures listed in the method handbook are a crucial starting point for which further developments can be developed upon, both for scientifically and practical applications. The presentation will give an overview on the results of the process to provide approaches for harmonized and transparent methods used by the diverse projects within the funding programme to determine the efficiency of their technology, thus contributing to the future standardization of assessment methods.
- Track 8: Aviation Biofuels
Session Introduction
Mark Nimlos
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
USA
Title: Catalytic Upgrading of biomass pyrolysis vapors
Time : 09:50-10:10
Biography:
Dr. Mark Nimlos received B.S in chemistry from University of Massachusetts, Boston in 1981 and Ph.D in Chemical Physics from University of Colorado, Boulder in 1986.Currently he is a Principal Scientist in the National Bioenergy Center at the National Renewableenergy Laboratory (NREL). He has more than 25 years of experience in the design and management of complex, multiparty biomass-related research programs and projects, with a focus on thermochemical conversion research. Dr. Nimlos has served as lead scientist and manager on numerous projects funded by the Department of Energy and by private industry. His responsibilities have included DOE reporting, financial tracking and management, staff and subcontractor direction, and coordination of efforts by partner organizations. His areas of expertise are chemical and physical processes in thermochemical biomass conversion, including chemical kinetics and molecular modeling. He has authored or co-authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers/book chapters.
Abstract:
Catalytic upgrading of biomass pyrolysis vapors is a promising technology for producing renewable, drop-in transportation fuels. Fast pyrolysis of biomass is known to produce high yields (> 70%) of carbonaceous liquids that requires after condensation, but expensive upgrading is required. As an alternative, the vapors can be upgraded before they are condensed. This approach has been investigated in the past using microporous acid catalysts such as HZSM-5, which produces gasoline-range hydrocarbons with very little oxygen. However, the yields (10 – 15%) are too low for this to be practical, and further development is needed. This presentation will discuss some of the approaches being pursued at the National Renewable energy Laboratory improve the yields and the economics of vapor phase upgrading. This includes the development of new catalysts and catalytic processes that efficiently convert the vapors into hydrocarbons as well as an investigation of process conditions to improve yields. A key part of this effort is an investigation of the chemistry and physics of pyrolysis and catalytic reaction. This includes experimental and computational studies of the mechanisms of the conversion realistic model compounds, laboratory screening studies and studies of heat and fluid transfer.
Nicolaus Dahmen
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Germany
Title: The bioliq-process for synthetic chemicals and fuels production
Time : 10:10-10:30
Biography:
Nicolaus Dahmen studied chemistry at the University of Bochum, finishing his PhD in high pressure thermodynamics in 1992. He started his professional work on application of high pressure to chemical reactions and separation processes as a group leader and, since 2000, as head of division at the Research Centre Karlsruhe, which in 2010 merged into the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) together with the University of Karlsruhe. In 2005, he became project manager of the bioliq project, in which a large scale pilot plant was installed at KIT for synthetic fuels and chemicals production. Shortly after, he also took over the “Thermochemical biomass refining” division in the Institute for Catalysis Research and Technology (IKFT) and, after his habilitation on fundamentals for process developments with supercritical fluids, became a lecturer on physical and technical chemistry at the University of Heidelberg in 2010. After commissioning the pilot plant in 2014 he now is responsible for the bioliq R&D program.
Abstract:
The bioliq project aims at the large scale production of syntheticbiofuels from biomass (BTL, biomass to liquids). The bioliq process concept has been designed to overcome the problems met, when low grade, residual biomass are to be used to a large extent as required in a BTL process. Biomass such as straw, hay, residual wood etc. usually exhibit low energetic densities, thus limiting collection area and transportation distances. On the other hand, the production of synthetic fuels requires large scale production facilities in accordance with economy of scale considerations. In the bioliq process, biomass is pre-treated in regionally distributed fast pyrolysis plants for energy densification. The products, pyrolysis char and liquid condensates, are mixed to form stable, transportable and pumpable slurries also referred as to biosyncrude. Thus biomass is energetically concentrated allowing for economic transport also over long distances. In industrial plants of reasonable size, the biosyncrude would be gasified in an entrained flow gasifier at a pressure slightly above that of the following fuel synthesis. On site of KIT, a pilot plant was constructed and commissioned for process demonstration, to obtain reliable mass and energy balances, for gaining practical experience, and to allow for reasonable cost estimates. The fast pyrolysis plant has a biomass feed capacity of 500 kg/h (2 MW(th)). A twin-screw reactor, equipped with a pneumatic heat carrier loop with sand as the heat carrier medium is the main technical feature of the plant. The high pressure entrained flow gasifier of 5 MW(th) thermal fuel capacity is an oxygen blown slagging reactor equipped with an internal cooling screen, particularly suited for the conversion of ash rich feeds and fast start up and shut down procedures. The raw synthesis gas is purified and conditioned by a high pressure hot gas cleaning system, consisting of a hot gas filter with ceramic filter elements, a fixed bed adsorption for HCl and H2S removal and a catalytic converter for decomposition of nitrogen and sulfur containing trace compounds. Afterwards, CO2 is separated. The purified synthesis gas is then converted to dimethyl ether in a one-step synthesis process, which in a subsequently following reaction is converted into fully compatible gasoline. Now, the pilot plant construction is completed and first operation took place by commissioning the whole process chain. The process development is embedded into a coherent R&D framework, allowing operation and further development on a science based basis. The pilot plant will be used as a research platform and offers many opportunities for collaborative work and joint projects with additional partners. The bioliq pilot plant is constructed and operated in cooperation with partners from chemical engineering and plant construction industries. Financial support was provided by the Germany Ministry of Agriculture and Food (BMEL), the state Baden-Württemberg and the European Community.
Siek-Ting Yong
Monash University Malaysia
Title: Bioenergy produced from plant waste
Time : 10:30-10:50
Biography:
Dr. Siek-Ting Yong obtained her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from the National University of Singapore. She is a senior lecturer in Monash University Malaysia Campus. Her research interests include fuel reforming, direct carbon fuel cell, carbon capture, and membrane separation.
Abstract:
Direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) is a type of fuel cell which produces electricity through electrochemical oxidation of solid carbon into carbon dioxide, without involving combustion reaction. The most promising advantage of DCFC is its remarkably high theoretical efficiency in converting chemical energy into electricity which is close to 100%. Its overall system efficiency taking into account of auxiliary losses is in the range of 60-70%, as compared to less than 40% for a Carnot Cycle. In this work, plant waste was tested as a sustainable carbon source for DCFC. The waste was pyrolyzed at different temperatures to produce biochar. Analytical techniques including XRD, microporous CO2 adsorption, proximate and ultimate analyses were employed to characterize the biochar. The electrochemical performance of all samples in DCFC was also evaluated. The results shown that plant waste pyrolyzed at 600oC yielded the highest power density. This superior performance was attributed to its abundance of carbon available as fuel source, and large numbers of active sites available for the electrochemical reaction. .
Break: Coffee Break 10:50-11:05
Parvana Aksoy
TUBITAK MRC Energy Institute
Turkey
Title: Production of biocrude oil by waste biomass CatLiq process and characterization of oils
Time : 11:05-11:25
Biography:
Dr. Parvana Aksoy is currenly a senior researcher at the 1TUBITAK MRC Energy Institute working under Gasification and Combustion group. She received her B.S and M.S. from Department of Chemistry of Çukurova University/Turkey. She completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Chemistry at Çukurova University in 2004. After receiving her PhD degree, she visited Penn State University where she conducted post-doctoral research on the development of thermally stable jet fuels for 6 years. She did an extensive research on producing of jet fuel from coal. Dr. Aksoy also worked as a quality control manager at the private fuel testing laboratory AMSPEC LLC. Her research mainly based on production and upgrading of bio-oils, production of transportation fuels, gasification of coals and biomass.
Abstract:
The CatLiq process is a thermochemical conversion of wet biomass with process conditions at the critical point of water. This technology has similarities to other thermochemical conversion processes such as liquefaction, pyrolysis and gasiï¬cation. But it cannot be classiï¬ed exactly as one of these technologies. This process is a continuous process that takes place at supercritical point of water by using both heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts. Seven different waste biomass samples, such as saw dust, black liqour, paper mill sludge, bark, cow manure, sewage and bio gasification sludge were subjected to Catliq process. Biocrudes, gases and aqueous samples obtained from these processes were subjected to characterization tests. Biocrudes obtained from different waste biomass by Catliq process were dark brown, free-flowing liquids and had distinctive odor. The densities of biocrude oils were ~1.10 g/m3, higher than the density of petroleum crude oils. Crude bio-oils was a complex mixture of several hundreds of organic compounds, mainly including acids, alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ketones, phenols, and lignin-derived oligomers. Some of these compounds are directly related to the undesirable properties of bio-oil. Raw bio-oils obtained from liquefaction of different kinds of waste biomass had very high water content, high viscosity and density and high oxygen content. The heating values of raw bio-oils were between 32.0-37.06 MJ/kg, lower than crude oil. Biocrude obtained from catalytic liquefaction of sewage sludge had highest heat of combustion (37.06MJ/kg). It is obvious that waste biomass can be utilized to produce crude bio-oil and CatLiq process is a promising alternative technological pathway for the production of crude bio-oil. Crude bio-oils obtained from CatLiq process can be used as a combustion fuel in boiler/burner/furnace systems for heat generation, as a transportation fuel after upgrading, for the production of chemicals and resins (e.g., agri-chemicals, fertilizers, acids and emission control agents), also as a feedstock in making adhesives, e.g., asphalt bio-binders. Depending to feedstock some crude bio-oils can be mixed with crude petroleum oil up to 3% and can be refined together using petroleum refinery systems.
Mehmet Unsal
TUBITAK MRC Energy Institute
Turkey
Title: CatLiq- catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction process from pilot scale to demo scale
Time : 11:25-11:45
Biography:
Dr. Mehmet Unsal graduated from Chemical Engineering in 1999 from Firat University, Turkey and then completed his PhD on Process Development and Optimization in Biodiesel Production at Gebze Technical University. He joined to TUBITAK MRC eleven years ago. He is still working at the Energy Institute at TUBITAK MRC as a principal researcher under the “Gasification and Combustion of Biomass and Coal” research group. His research mainly based on process development, process optimization, equipment design, biogasification, and upgrading of biocrude oil production and upgrading, biodiesel production, combustion and gasification of coals and biomass, waste heat recovery.
Abstract:
The CatLiq® process is a catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction process that takes place at water supercritical conditions in the range of 230-250 bar and 350-420°C and the obtained biocrude oil is called as “Altaca oil”. “Altaca Oil” is synthesized from aqueous bio-waste such as lignocelluloses, proteins, fats and carbohydrates and their mixtures. In the development phase of the CatLiq® process, after a pilot scale studies, a demonstration plant was scaled up. The upgraded version of the lab pilot plant is currently operational in Gebze-Kocaeli, Turkey, and a series of tests have been conducted to optimize conversion conditions of bio-gasification and sewage sludges. Using delivered data via these tests, the pre-commercial demonstration plant was designed and, the plant is under construction at the Gönen, Balikesir/Turkey. During designing studies, for thermodynamic calculation and process simulation Aspen HYSYS 8.4, and Chemcad 6.1, for heat exchanger designs Aspen HTFS, for piping Bentley, for the stress analysis and materials choise PV Elite, and for fluid dynamic and heat transfer Fluent were used. General requirements were observed for ASME Section 3 Div.2 in the pre-commercial demonstration plant design. The demonstration plant mass flow feeding rate is 15 ton/h, while the mass flow feeding rate of pilot plant is 60 kg/h. It is limited for continuous process due to the fact that the pilot plant has some fluid behaviors as fouling, plug, particle flow. It has been forecast that these limitation will solved at the scale up. The demonstration plant is an energy integrated system with heat recovery of 70%. Each waste heat stream at the plant was investigated in terms of its waste heat quantity (the approximate energy in the waste heat stream), quality (typical exhaust temperatures). Energy content of waste heat streams was considered as a function of mass flow rate, composition, and temperature, and was evaluated based on process energy consumption, typical temperatures, and mass balances. Ultimately, waste heat of any equipment was used for reaction energy of other equipment. Moreover, the plant was scaled up based on Best Available Technology. The plant is based on transforming the waste into a useful material and minimalizing waste production of the process.
- Track 1: Algae Fuel
Chair
Philip T. Pienkos
National Renewable Energy Energy Laboratory
USA
Session Introduction
Philip T. Pienkos
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
USA
Title: The Algae Testbed Public Private Partnership (ATP3): facilitating the commercialization of algal technologies
Time : 10:00-10:20
Biography:
Philip T. Pienkos earned his BS in Honors Biology at the University of Illinois and his Ph.D, in Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin. He has nearly 30 years of biotechnology experience in the pharmaceutical, chemical and energy sectors. He is a co-founder of two companies: Celgene, an established biotech/pharma company, and Molecular Logix, a case study for technology-rich/funding-poor biotech startup. He joined NREL in 2007 as a section supervisor and now holds the title of Principal Group Manager for the Bioprocess R&D Group in the National Bioenergy Center. His group is involved in various aspects of strain development, process integration, compositional analysis, catalytic upgrading, and molecular modeling for advanced biofuels based on a wide variety of feedstocks including lignocellulosic biomass, algal biomass and methane. In addition to his line management responsibilities, he is also the Algal Biofuels Platform Lead for the National Bioenergy Center at NREL and serves as lead for a number of projects that are relevant to this proposal, including the BETO funded Lipid Catalysis Project and the ARPA-E funded Biological Gas to Liquid Project (part of the REMOTE Program). He is part of a team of algae experts from NREL and Sandia National Laboratories who worked with the Department of Energy to organize National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap Workshop held in December, 2008 and was a contributor to the National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap document, published in May, 2010. Philip is a founding member of the Algae Biomass Organization and has served as a member of the board of directors for that organization from 2008 to 2013. He is currently on the board of directors of the Algae Foundation. He was named in Biofuels Digest’s list of the top 100 people in biofuels for four years running.
Abstract:
The Algae Testbed Public Private Partnership (ATP3), a multi-institutional effort funded by the US Department of Energy has established a network of operating testbeds that brings together world-class scientists, engineers and business executives whose goal it is to increase stakeholder access to high quality facilities by making available an unparalleled array of outdoor cultivation, downstream equipment, and laboratory facilities. ATP3 utilizes the same powerful combination of facilities, technical expertise to support TEA, LCA and resource modeling and analysis activities, helping to close critical knowledge gaps and inform robust analyses of the state of technology for algal biofuels. ATP3 includes testbed facilities at ASU’s Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI), and augmented by university and commercial facilities in Hawaii (Cellana), California (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), Georgia (Georgia Institute of Technology), and Florida (Florida Algae). ATP3 uses its facilities to perform coordinated long term cultivation trials producing robust, meaningful datasets from this regional network determining the effects of seasonal and geographic variations on algal cultivation productivity. This presentation will provide a summary of the ATP3 capabilities as a user facility as well as outreach efforts to connect both local and international customers with resources. It will also provide a summary of the experimental framework termed “Unified Field Studies†(UFS), with year-long cultivation experiments using two different algal strains across five distinct geographic regions using standardized mini-raceway ponds.
Vincenzo Piemonte
Università Campus Bio-Medico
Italy
Title: Biofuels production from wastewater treatment plants
Time : 10:20-10:40
Biography:
Vincenzo Piemonte is an associate professor at the University “Campus Bio-medico†of Rome (chair on Refinery and Biorefinery Processes) and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering of University “La Sapienza†of Rome (Chair on Artificial Organs Engineering). His research activity is primarily focused on the study of Transport phenomena in the artificial and bioartificial organs; new biotreatment technology platform for the elimination of toxic pollutants from water and soil; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of petroleum-based plastics and bio-based plastics; extraction of valuable substances (polyphenols, tannins) from natural matrices; hydrogen production by membrane reactors for water gas shift reaction; concentrated Solar Power Plant integrated with membrane steam reforming reactor for the production of hydrogen and hydro-methane. He has about 100 publications on chemical thermodynamics, kinetics, biomedical devices modeling, Bioreactors, LCA studies, etc.
Abstract:
Biofuels represent a sustainable option to fossil fuels, since they are sufficiently similar to themand derived from potentially renewable, non-food sources (biological wastes). In this perspective, wastewaters high carbohydrate content can be exploited for the biomass growth and biofuels production. Thus, classical wastewater treatments could berecast for biofuels production from waste sludge. Two microorganisms phyla are able to convert nutrients in wastewater into biofuels: microalgae, transforming light and carbohydrates into biofuels through a photosynthetic path, and Clostridia, spontaneously present in civil wastewaters, which convert carbohydrates into methane and hydrogen through a solventogenic pattern. In this work, we present a study about the combination of wastewater treatment plants with biofuels production (biohydrogen and biogas by Clostridia activity). In this perspective, the wastewater remediation and reuse would come side by side with the production of biofuels by integrating specific devices (bioreactors for biofuels production) into the consolidated technology of biological wastewater treatment plants, with a high economical and environmental gain.
Dorinde M.M. Kleinegris
Institute of Food & Biobased Research
Netherlands
Title: An outlook on microalgae production chains
Time : 10:40-11:00
Biography:
Dr. ir Dorinde M.M. Kleinegris is a senior scientist in the field of microalgae at the Research Institute Food & Biobased Research at Wageningen UR. She is involved in several research projects in the field of microalgae cultivation and the combination with a biorefinery approach for the production of commodity products, as food, feed, chemicals and biofuels, from the microalgal biomass. She is project leader of several projects (a.o. FUEL4ME, WP-3 leader of the EU project SPLASH, and various bilateral projects), works on project acquisition (a.o. EU FP7 FUEL4ME and SPLASH, and many bilateral and smaller, national proposals). Moreover, she supervises two PhD theses and is involved in supervision of research assistants, BSc., MSc. and visiting PhD students.
Abstract:
An outlook on microalgal production and biorefinery, from sunlight to products will be given. Algal production needs to develop from a craft to a major industrial process for the production of commodities. Major challenges are to reduce production costs and energy requirements and increase production scale. Although microalgae are not yet produced at large-scale for bulk applications, recent advances – particularly in the methods of systems biology, genetic engineering, process control, and biorefinery – present opportunities to develop this process in a sustainable and economical way within the next 10 to 15 years.
Production costs have been recalculated based on experimental data of pilot plant studies. In addition costs for biorefinery have been included. Total costs of the production and biorefinery chain have been compared to the market values resulting from different combinations of end products from microalgae to assess economic viability of an industrial production chain.
A description of the model for cultivation will be provided. The outlook is given for different locations. Production costs have been done based on state of the art of technology. Improvement in production costs will be shown, supported by real production data and a more detailed insight on the process and technology. A research overview of various projects will be addressed to show examples of various approaches to improve productivity and decrease production costs. The effect of improvements were studied by means of a sensitivity analysis for the most promising systems.
Industrial microalgae chains are within reach, a number of market combinations could already be possible if the systems are scaled up to industrial production units. Further reduction costs will allow more markets combinations.
Arbib Zouhayr
FCC Aqualia
Spain
Title: From wastewater to bioenergy: nutrient and energy recovery with algae treatment
Time : 11:00-11:20
Biography:
Abstract:
Co-financed by the FP 7 programme of the EU Commission, the project “ENERGY.2010.3.4-1: Bio-fuels from algae†intends to demonstrate on large scale the sustainable production of bio-fuels based on low cost microalgae cultures. The objective of the project is: (1) Implement on a 10 ha scale the full process chain, from growth to harvesting to processing; (2) Demonstrate sustainable algae culture ponds, integrated with biomass separation; (3) Processing for oil and other chemicals extraction, and downstream biofuel production and (4) Treat and reuse wastewater for nutrient recovery. In the FP7 All-GAS project the major fuel component will be biogas, derived from anaerobic digestion of algal biomass grown in high-rate algal ponds and from the anaerobic digestion of the raw wastewater in UASB reactors. CO2 is separated from the biogas and recycled, together with a proportion of the carbon of the residual biomass after combustion together with supplements from local agricultural biomass. The overall process produces more than 150 L of biomethane per cubic meter of treated wastewater, and a net energy of 0.5 kWh th/m3. This process allows to convert WWTPs from energy consumers to net producers, creating a new concept of process sustainability based on microalgae
Harrison Onome Tighiri
Cyprus International University
Turkey
Title: Effect Of aeration flow rate on the growth of microalgae as a biofuel feedstock and wastewater treatment
Time : 11:20-11:30
Biography:
Harrison Onome Tighiri, holds a B.Sc. in Fisheries and Aquaculture technology from Delta State University, Nigeria (class of 2012) and a M.Sc. in Environmental Science from Cyprus International University, KKTC, Turkey (class of 2015). He is actively involve in microlagae biofuel production, wastewater treatment, Biomass scenario modeling, life cycle analysis research, he has also won several academic and research awards and currectly looking forward to start his PhD.
Abstract:
The objectives of this study is to evaluate the effect of aeration inlet gas flow rate on the growth of microalgae as a sustainable biofuel feedstock and also the use of these cultured microalgae as a means of biological nutrient removal medium in wastewater. The natural lagoon water from the New Nicosia membrane bioreactor WWTP containing microalgae was inoculated at 5% (Vinoculation/Vmedia) in 2000 mL BG 11 culture medium and was placed under Esco Class II Biosafety Cabinet photobioreactor in the laboratory and was supplied with different levels of aeration, under continuous illumination of white fluorescent light of 45-50µmol photon m-2s-1 for two weeks, afterwards the microalgae from the BG 11 was adjusted to an absorbance of 1.5 and further innoculated to treat wastewater collected from fine screen chambers of New Nicosia membrane bioreactor WWTP. The final biomass yield of trial II (4.5 L/Min aeration flow rate) culture media with value of 0.605 g/L was higher than trial I (9.0 L/Min aeration flow rate) and III (without aeration) with values of 0.418 g/L and 0.207 g/L respectively. The final Chlorophyll α content of the microalgae cultivated in trial II was higher with value of 2.450 µg/mL than trial I and III with values of 0.906 µg/mL and 0.903 µg/mL respectively. The concentration of total nitrogen and phosphorus from the fine screen chamber wastewater of NNMBRWWTP was reduced 105.909 mgN/L to 1.847 mgN/L and 6.442 mg P/L to 0.932 mg P/L respectively, with microalgae dry biomass yield value of 1.284 g/L and the nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiency was 98.256% and 83.078 % respectively over 5 days. From the result gotten from the study, we could say that aeration culture media with 4.5 L/Min was better, since it increase the growth rate of microalgae which is therefore suitable for biofuel production and also microalgae could be used as a secondary treatment for wastewater containing high nutrient from the research resulted reported.
Break: Coffee Break 11:30-11:45
- Track 3: Biodiesel
Track 7: Bioalcohols
Chair
Adam Lee
Aston University
Co-Chair
Antonio Meirelles
University of Campinas
Brazil
Session Introduction
Adam Lee
Aston University
UK
Title: Rational design of nanoengineered catalysts for biofuels production
Time : 11:45-12:05
Biography:
Adam Lee holds a BA in Natural Sciences and PhD in surface science and catalysis from the University of Cambridge, and was appointed a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at the University of Hull in 1997. After moving to the University of York and promotion to Senior Lecturer, he was appointed Professor of Physical Chemistry within the Cardiff Catalysis Institute at Cardiff University in 2009, and subsequently joint Chair of Sustainable Chemical Synthesis at the University of Warwick and Monash University. He was recently appointed Professor of Sustainable Chemistry in the European Bioenergy Research Institute, Aston University, where he holds an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship in “Nanoengineered Materials for Clean Catalytic Technologies”. Adam was awarded the 2000 CR Burch Prize by the British Vacuum Council, the 2004 Fonda-Fasella Prize of the Elettra synchrotron, the 2011 McBain Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Society of Chemical Industry, and 2012 Beilby Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, IOM3 and Society of Chemical Industry for outstanding contributions in the field of heterogeneous catalysis and surface science. His research spans heterogeneous catalysis, green chemistry and synchrotron science, in which he has authored over 140 articles (h-index = 33), with particular focus on the rational design of functional materials for sustainable chemical processes and energy production. Adam is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Associate Fellow of the IChemE, chair of the international spectroscopy peer review panel of the Diamond Light Source, and member of the international catalysis peer review panel of the Elettra Synchrotron.
Abstract:
Concerns over the economics of proven fossil fuel reserves, in concert with government and public acceptance of the anthropogenic origin of rising CO2 emissions and associated climate change from such combustible carbon, is driving academic and commercial research into new sustainable routes to fuel and chemicals. Catalysis has a rich history of facilitating energy efficient, selective molecular transformations, and in a post-petroleum era will play a pivotal role in overcoming the scientific and engineering barriers to economically viable, and sustainable, biofuels derived from renewable resources. Biodiesel is one of the most readily implemented and low cost, alternative source of transportation fuels to meet future societal demands. However, current practices to produce biodiesel via transesterification employ soluble acids and bases, resulting in costly fuel purification processes and undesired pollution. Heterogeneous acid and base catalysts, able to transform undesired free fatty acid (FFA) impurities and naturally-occurring triglycerides within algal or plant oils into clean biodiesel, can dramatically improve process efficiency. The microporous nature of conventional catalysts hinders their application to converting bulky and viscous plant/algal bio-oil feed streams. We show how advances in the rational design of nanoporous solid acid and base catalysts, and their utilisation in novel continuous reactors, can deliver superior performance in the energy-efficient esterification and transesterification of bio-oil components into biodiesel.
Antonio Meirelles
University of Campinas
Brazil
Title: Ethylic biodiesel: the bottlenecks for process optimization
Time : 12:05-12:25
Biography:
Dr. Antonio J. A. Meirelles graduated in Food Engineering (School of Food Engineering, University of Campinas, FEA-UNICAMP, Brazil, 1980), master's degree in Food Engineering (FEA-UNICAMP, Brazil, 1984), PhD in Process Engineering at TH Merseburg (now Martin Luther University, Germany, 1987) and PhD in Economics (Institute of Economics, UNICAMP, Brazil, 1997). He is a professor at FEA-UNICAMP (Brazil) and Fellow of CNPq Research Productivity - Level 1A. He supervised 32 doctoral theses, 33 dissertations and 52 scientific initiation (undergraduate) works, and published 180 articles in scientific journals (h-index = 22), more than 176 full papers and 235 abstracts in conference proceedings, eight book chapters and one book. He also developed four patented processes or patent applications under review by the Brazilian Patent Office and was awarded the Young Scientist Award (First Place, 1989) and twice the Academic Recognition Award Zeferino Vaz (UNICAMP, 2001 and 2010). He conducts research on phase equilibrium thermodynamics, mass transfer phenomena and purification processes related to food processing and to the production of biofuels and biocompounds from oilseeds and sugarcane.
Abstract:
Biodiesel is mainly produced using the methylic route. Ethanol has the advantage of being a renewable alcohol, but the ethylic route has drawbacks that must be overcome for process optimization. Ethanol enhances the mutual solubility of the hydrophilic and lipophilic substances that occur along the production process and makes more problematic the purification steps. Along the reaction path two liquid phases are formed, the upper one is rich in monoalkyl esters and the bottom one contains glycerol. The industrial process uses basic homogeneous catalysts and requires a sequence of purification steps. The use of alternative approaches, such as biocatalysis, heterogeneous catalysis or supercritical conditions, also generates a two-phase reaction system and requires the use of alcohol in excess due to the reaction´s reversible character. This means that phase splitting and alcohol recovery are steps required for purifying biodiesel as well as for recycling the reactant in excess. In case of bioethanol as reactant, the sequence of purification steps used in the methylic route is not the best option. For instance, the ethylic route pontentially requires a specific and complete dehydration unity for recovering bioethanol, increasing the production costs of biodiesel. A new approach must be developed for the ethylic route, based, for instance, on the concept of using bioethanol in the whole sequence of the biofuel production, from the seed to the tank. This approach involves the following main steps: extraction and deacidification of vegetable oils using bioethanol as solvent, reactive steps applied to both ethylic miscelas containing deacidified oil or free fatty acids, biodiesel purification steps with minimal addition of washing water and a recovery and dehydration step of the bioethanol by extractive distillation using glycerol as dehydrating agent. The bioethanol used as reactant can also be acquired in hydrated form (azeotropic mixture) and be dehydrated within the proposed process. The main bottlenecks of the production process were addressed and process optimization performed. Different sources of fatty compounds were considered, including the most important for the Brazilian case, such as soy and palm oils, as well as other sources of potential relevance for the future, as microalgae oil. Experimental runs and modeling approaches were conducted with the aim of measuring and prediciting the relevant phase equilibrium data and for evaluating the performance of equipments for oil extraction and for oil deacidification by liquid-liquid extraction or ion exchange. The sequence of ethylic biodiesel production was investigated using ASPEN PLUS, including the bioethanol recovery and dehydration step. Some aspects related to the integration of food, feed, bioproducts and biodiesel production were considered, for instance the quality of the deffated meal after oil extraction with bioethanol and the recovery of minor components (tocopherols, sterols, etc.) during oil deacidification and the biofuel production.
Rebeca Sánchez Vázquez
Rey Juan Carlos University
Spain
Title: In- situ transformation of municipal sewage sludge into biodiesel
Time : 12:25-12:45
Biography:
Dr. Rebeca Sánchez received her PhD in 2013 from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid working on biodiesel production by heterogeneous acid catalysts. She undertook a predoctoral research in the group of Prof. Adam Lee and Karen Wilson at Cardiff Catalysis Institute working on the synthesis of mesoporous Zr-SBA-15 hybrid materials for biodiesel production. She carried out a postdoctoral research in European Bioenergy Research Institute working on isosorbide production. She has published 10 papers in reputed journals and her teaching experience has been developed entirely at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos with different graduate and postgraduate teaching responsibilities.
Abstract:
Biodiesel production is gaining attraction as an efficient alternative for the valorization of sewage sludge. This waste, which can be considered as a raw material, contains significant quantitities of free lipids (10-30 wt%) liable to be transformed into biodiesel. Nevertheless, the low-quality of this feedstock makes necessary the use of novel conversion technologies, such as heterogeneous acid catalysis. This contribution deals with the extraction of lipids from primary and secondary sewage sludge collected from a wastewater treatment plant and their use in the synthesis of biodiesel over highly poison-resistant heterogeneous acid catalyst based on SBA-15-supported zirconium.
Catalytic tests were performed in a 25 mL stainless-steel autoclave. The sludge was treated with different organic solvents to extract the lipids which were subsequently transformed into biodiesel over Zr-SBA-15 (two-step process). Alternatively and advantageously, similar experiments were carried out using directly the dried and wet sludge, without previous extraction (in-situ process).
Zr-SBA-15 catalyst provided high biodiesel yields when processing primary and secondary sewage sludge in both the ‘two-steps’ and the ‘in-situ’ processes, converting almost 95% of the saponifiable fraction (free fatty acids and triglycerides) into fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). It must be noted that such good catalytic results are obtained even in the presence of high amounts of unsaponifiable matter and other impurities, typically accompanying such wastes. Besides, the excellent results (92%) obtained with wet (non-previously dried) sludge in the in-situ process demonstrate the high water tolerance of the Zr-SBA-15 catalyst, allowing to avoid the necessity of a sludge drying pretreatment.
Sandra Eskigolu
Clemson University
USA
Title: Supply chain planning and design for biodiesel production via wastewater sludge
Time : 12:45-13:05
Biography:
Sandra D. Eksioglu is an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida in 2002. Dr. Eksioglu’s research focus has been on the theory and application of operations research tools to problems that arise in the areas of transportation, logistics, and supply chain. She works on developing mathematical models and solution algorithms that help design and manage large scale and complex supply-chains. In particular, she is interested in the application of these tools to the biofuels supply chain. She received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation in 2011 for her work on biofuels supply chain. She has co-authored over 50 refereed journal papers and conference proceeding. She is the co-author of “Developing Spreadsheet-Based Decision Support Systems Using Excel and VBA for Excel†2nd Ed. which is the textbook used in one of the classes she teaches. Dr. Eksioglu is an active member of Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
Abstract:
This study presents mathematical models that capture the impact of different carbon emission-related policies on the design of the biocrude-for-biodiesel supply chain. These are two-stage stochastic programming models which identify locations and production capacities for biocrude production plants by exploring the tradeoffs that exist between location, transportation, inventory costs and emissions in the supply chain. The study analyzes the behavior of the chain under different regulatory policies such as carbon cap, carbon tax, carbon cap and trade, and carbon offset mechanisms. A number of observations are made about the impact of each policy on the supply chain designs and costs. The state of Mississippi is used as the testing grounds for these models. A number of solution algorithms are proposed to solve these problems, and ArcGIS is used to visualize and validate these solutions.
Jinesh C. Manayil
Aston University
UK
Title: Heterogeneous acid and base catalysts for biodiesel production
Time : 13:50-14:10
Biography:
Abstract:
Biomass is a promising sustainable feedstock for the production of chemicals and transportation fuels. Biodiesel is a clean burning and biodegradable fuel which, when derived from non-food plant or algal oils or animal fats, is viewed as a viable alternative to petroleum-derived diesel. Catalytic esterification of free fatty acids (FFAs) and the transesterification of triacyl glycerides (TAGs) represent efficient routes to biodiesels from non-edible oils or waste oils . A major hurdle in the commercialization of such processes is the synthesis of efficient, inexpensive and robust heterogeneous catalysts able to operate at low temperature and pressure, and with good water and FFA tolerance. Here we discuss the application of diverse nanocrystalline and nanoporous solid acid and base catalysts for FFA esterification and TAG transesterification. Promising solid base catalysts include hydrotalcites, MgO and dolomitic mineral waste . Sulfonic acid and zirconia functionalised mesoporous silicas (SBA-15, MCM-41, KIT-6 and PMO) are promising solid acid catalysts for esterification under mild conditions with both surface functionality and framework architecture playing an important role in promoting activity and permitting continuous biodiesel manufacture.
Shingjiang Jessie Lue
Chang Gung University
Taiwan
Title: Ethanol fuel as portable power source in alkaline fuel cells
Time : 14:10-14:30
Biography:
Prof. Lue obtained a B.S. and M.S. degrees from National Taiwan University, and a Ph.D. degree of Biotechnology Engineering from University of Missouri-Columbia, USA, in 1990. She joined Chang Gung University in 1996 and is now the department chair of the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at CGU. Her research interest focuses on the development of high-performance materials for separation, energy, and biotechnology applications. Prof. Lue has published more than SCI papers and 2 book chapters, given 140 conference presentations, and applied 2 patents.
Abstract:
Ethanol is an environmentally friendly fuel and possesses higher energy density than methanol (8.00 vs. 6.09 kWh kg–1). It can be easily produced in large quantities from biological processing of agriculture products and is considered a renewable energy source. This hydrogen-rich alcohol fuel is easier to transport, store, and handle than conventional hydrogen fuel, and has become an attractive alternative to hydrogen for direct oxidation fuel cells. Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) have become promising power generation technology because of the simple systems, especially for portable, mobile, and transportation applications. In this presentation, an overview of research progresses on DEFCs will be briefly summarized, with an emphasis on electrolyte membrane development. The pros and cons of DEFCs operated in acidic and alkaline modes will be discussed. Efforts on advancing ADEFCs include the development of catalysts, membrane electrolytes, single cell design, and improvements in operating conditions. Several membrane electrolytes based on nano-composites have been studied by the author’ group and the material design guideline will be proposed. DEFC performance using non-platinum based catalysts will be reported. The attempts to improve alkaline DEFC performance through several routes are reported in this work, including development of electrolytes, catalysts, and catalyst porous substrate. The results obtained by the author’s group are compared with literature data. The outlook and future work toward commercialization of the DEFCs will be discussed.
Pedro de Oliva Neto
São Paulo State University
Brazil
Title: Brazilian technology of fuel ethanol fermentation: new perspectives to improve the technology and diversification
Time : 14:30-14:50
Biography:
Pedro de Oliva Neto is a professor of the graduation courses - Biotechnology Engineering and Biological Science at São Paulo State University, Brazil. He has earned Bachelors in Biological Science from UNESP – São Paulo – Brazil (1986), Masters in Food Science from Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP (1990), São Paulo – Brazil, Doctorate in Food Engineering from UNICAMP (1995) He has vast experience in Industrial Microbiology, First and Second Generation Bioethanol, Special sugars, Biopolymers, Yeasts and derivatives, Enzymes production and inhibitory products against microorganisms.
Abstract:
Currently, the Brazilian bioprocess of fuel ethanol production is based on molasses and/or cane juice as substrate, and by fed-batch, continuous or mixed process. This bioprocess is operated in high scale with an stable cell recycle and high yeast concentration. The ethanol efficiency is controlled by several industrial parameters of fermentation and depending on the balance of these parameters and the control of some chemical and microbiological inhibitors. Sucrose and ethanol concentration, acid treatment of yeast cells, temperature and pH, yeast cells flocculation, and some chemical (lactic acid, sulphite) and biological (Lactobacillus fermentum) inhibitors will be discussed as a challenge to improve the bioprocess. The chemical control of microbial contaminants by monensin and some new alternatives will be shown. Recent studies of the control the yeast flocculation by reuse of enzymes as well as the use of bagasse for the production of xylo-oligosacharides as an alternative of diversification will be presented.
R. A. Pandey
CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute
India
Title: Evaluation of alkaline peroxide pretreatment of rice husk and its potential for Bioethanol production
Time : 14:50-15:10
Biography:
Abstract:
Rice husk was selected as a model lignocellulosic biomass since it serves as a low cost raw material available in surplus globally and is generally not used as fodder due to low digestibility and high silica content. However, its recalcitrance and high quantities of lignin and ash make the use of rice husk difficult in its bioconversion to bioethanol. This makes pretreatment an indispensable step in bioconversion of rice husk to bioethanol. Thus, in the present study, alkaline peroxide assisted wet air oxidation was investigated as a pretreatment for rice husk and its potential for bioethanol production was also studied. 185°C, 5 bar, 15 minutes was found to be the optimized condition for alkaline peroxide assisted wet air oxidation of rice husk wherein the glucan content enhanced from an initial 36.77% to 55.52% while lignin was reduced from 15.06% to 4.52% post pretreatment. The subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase (25 FPU/g dry matter) and β-glucosidase (12.5 IU/ g dry matter) yielded 21.4g glucose/ 100 g untreated rice husk. The hydrolysed sugars were consequently fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisea to produce bioethanol using different fermentation configurations. The ethanol concentrations of upto 28.74g/L were obtained with an overall volumetric ethanol productivity of 0.19g/L.h.
Mangesh. R. Avhad
Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Norway
Title: Investigation of catalytic activity of thermally treated waste mussel shells for biodiesel production from jojoba oil.
Time : 15:10-15:20
Biography:
Abstract:
Since the last few decades, a large amount of scientific investigations are focused on innovating a pathway for the production of value-added chemicals and fuels from renewable resources. The non-edible oils, such as jojoba oil is gaining consistent scientific and industrial considerations not only because of its applications in cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries but also due to the possibility of its transformation to biodiesel. An appropriate utilization of jojoba oil would avoid the usage of food-grade oil for biodiesel generation, and consequently, contribute in minimizing the capital cost of biofuel.
In the present study, a considerable waste M. Galloprovincialis shells were utilized as a precursor for the synthesis of an economically less-expensive calcium oxide catalyst. Moreover, butanol was selected as a reagent for the alcoholysis process because it can be derived from a bacterial fermentation process; hence, every components used in biodiesel production process can possibly be generated from the natural resources. The efficacy of the waste shells, when calcined at 800 ºC for 6 h, to assist the butanolysis of jojoba oil was investigated. The progress in the butanolysis reaction was systematically monitored for 10 h using variable operating parameters, such as butanol-to-oil molar ratio (6:1-10:1-12:1) and catalyst amount (8-12-16 wt. %); while, keeping a constant reaction temperature (85 °C). The obtained results suggested that the optimal reaction parameters (butanol-to-oil molar ratio: 10:1, catalyst amount: 12 wt. %, temperature: 85 °C, time: 10 h, stirring intensity: 350 RPM) resulted in 60 % jojoba oil conversion.
Break: Coffee Break15:20-15:35
- Session on Bio-oils Upgrading Into Advanced Biofuels.
Track 6: Biorefineries
Chair
David Serrano
IMDEA Energy Institute & Rey Juan Carlos University
Spain
Co-Chair
Andrea Kruze
University Hohenheim
Germany
Session Introduction
Andrea Kruse
University Hohenheim
Germany
Title: Hydrothermal liquefaction and carbonization for fuels and materials
Time : 12:05-12:25
Biography:
Abstract:
Hydrothermal biomass conversion processes provide the opportunity to use feedstocks with high water content for the formation of energy carriers, materials or platform chemicals. The water plays an active role in the processes as solvent, reactant and catalyst or catalyst precursor. This paper focus on the hydrothermal liquefaction of algae to produce fuel. Here algae without further treatment, like extraction with organic solvents, are used. Instead of lipids, here carbohydrates in algae are the resource to produce oil. A special process is the conversion of carbohydrates in plants to 2-hydroxymethylfurfural, which is an important platform application and e.g. basis of polymers. This process is now applied by the company AVA-Biochem. The hydrothermal carbonization is a process leading to a dark polymer with a heating value of coal. It is a fuel but also other applications like to improve soils are discussed. These processes are enabled by the special properties of liquid water at high temperatures. The influence of water will be discussed and how the change of water properties enables the different products. The water is necessary, on the other hand beside the wanted product a water phase with organic contaminates is formed in the hydrothermal processes. This water phase may be treated by chemical or biological gasification; results will be presented. Other, new applications are introduced as well.
Angelos Lappas
Centre for Research and Technology Hellas
Greece
Title: Optimization of bio-oil yields in fast biomass pyrolysis by demineralization of low quality biomass feedstocks
Time : 12:25-12:45
Biography:
Abstract:
Fast pyrolysis is a feedstock-flexible thermo-chemical process that can convert low-quality lignocellulosic biomass to a liquid bio-oil fuel with high yields. However, the minerals (ash) in biomass are known to act catalytically during fast pyrolysis and shift the selectivity away from the desired bio-oil, to char and gases. An efficient strategy for minimizing char and gas formation and optimizing the bio-oil yield from ash-rich feedstocks is to remove the inorganics from the biomass prior to pyrolysis.
In this work, water and acid washing were investigated as biomass pre-treatment techniques for the removal of inorganic matter from biomass and maximization of the bio-oil yields from pyrolysis. Water washing and acid washing were first carried out with a lignocellulosic feedstock from beech wood. The effect of treatment duration, temperature and acid type (acetic or nitric acid) was investigated. Optimal conditions were established and then applied for the demineralization of two wood residues (oak and pine), two agricultural residues (wheat and barley straws) and two energy crops (eucalyptus and miscanthus). It was found that washing biomass with acidic solutions is more efficient. For all six biomass samples, washing with water decreased the ash content in a range of 17-43% depending on the sample, whereas acidic washing led to ash removals of up to 90%. Among the two acids studied, nitric acid proved to be much more efficient than acetic acid.
Concerning the different biomass types, removal of ash from the forestry residues (which have much lower ash contents to begin with) was much easier than with from the other types of biomasses. Removals of over 87% were recorded for both pine and oak after pre-treatment with nitric acid solution. On the other hand, the agricultural residues, straw from wheat and straw from barley, exhibited much lower ash removal rates. The effect of the different biomass pre-treatment methods on the removal of specific elements of the ash in relation with the type of biomass was also examined. It was found that the alkali metals, K and Na, and P are easy to remove and exhibit over 80% removal rate for any of the applied pre-treatment methods. Calcium is the element that was most affected by the treatment method and its removal increased in the order nitric acid > acetic acid > water treatment.
Overall, washing biomass with 1% aq. solution of HNO3 at 50°C for 2h was determined as the most effective in removing all of the abundant elements of ash from biomass. The optimal acid washing treatment was up-scaled and applied for the production of sufficient quantities of demineralized biomass samples for pyrolysis in a bench-scale fixed bed pyrolyzer in order to investigate the effect of demineralization on the yields of the pyrolysis products and their composition. Deashing the feedstocks had a positive effect in the pyrolysis performance of all biomass types. Tests on the untreated and pretreated biomass types showed that the deashing helps by increasing the liquid organic yields and decreasing the coke and gas yields. Among the six feedstocks, the high ash content straws were the feedstocks that benefited the most from the pretreatment procedure, producing about 16-17 wt.% more bio-oil compared to the non-treated biomasses.
David KubiÄka
UniCRE-RENTECH (Renewables and Environmental Technologies)
Czech Republic
Title: Catalytic deoxygenation – industrial applications and catalysts
Time : 12:45-13:05
Biography:
Abstract:
Biomass is the most valuable renewable resource for the sustainable development of chemical industry, as it is the only renewable source of carbon. In contrast to the traditional carbon-containing fossil resources, biomass is rich in oxygen containing compounds. Consequently, there is a mismatch between the chemical compositions of the current products of the chemical industry and that of biomass. Catalytic deoxygenation is a key process to overcome this gap. Depending on the raw material composition, different catalytic deoxygenation strategy has to be selected. These can be classified as hydrogenation, decarboxylation or decarbonylation with water, CO2 or CO, being the primary oxygen-containing product. In this regard, the conversion of triglycerides is an interesting example, as all three reaction pathways take place to a different extent under the deoxygenation conditions.
In the first part, the presentation will briefly highlight the fundamentals of catalytic deoxygenation on the case study of triglycerides deoxygenation. In particular, it will look at different aspects of designing robust and efficient deoxygenation catalysts. The catalyst structure–activity and selectivity will be discussed and different possibilities to control hydrogen consumption during deoxygenation will be compared. In the second part, the alternatives of industrial implementation of catalytic deoxygenation within the existing infrastructure will be discussed from both automotive fuels as well as chemicals perspective. The last part will be focused on the potential application of HDO processes and catalysts for pyrolysis bio-oil upgrading.
Break: Lunch Break 13:05-13:50
Patricia Pizarro
IMDEA Energy Institute
Spain
Title: In-situ upgrading of eucalyptus woodchips fast-pyrolysis bio-oil using metal oxide/h-ZSM-5 catalysts
Time : 13:50-14:10
Biography:
Patricia Pizarro de Oro completed her academic degree in Chemical Engineering in 1999 at Complutense University of Madrid. After that, she joined Rey Juan Carlos University where she received her PhD in 2005 with the Extraordinary Doctorate Award. Currently she is working as Associate Professor at the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Group of Rey Juan Carlos University and as Associate Researcher at IMDEA Energy Institute (Móstoles, Madrid). Her research is mainly focused on the design of heterogeneous catalysts and materials for different chemical processes such as hydrogen production, energy storage and biofuels generation. She is co-author of 30 scientific publications; she has presented 58 communications to national and international conferences and has participated in 22 research projects.
Abstract:
Biomass forestry and agricultural residues can be thermally decomposed via fast-pyrolysis to maximize the production of bio-oil. This bio-oil offers advantages in terms of storage, transport and flexibility in applications like fuels for transportation. Nevertheless, this application is still in a relatively early stage of development, and fundamental understanding of the thermal decomposition behavior of biomass during fast-pyrolysis is crucial to control the end-product composition. Bio-oil obtained by conventional non-catalytic fast-pyrolysis is formed by complex mixtures of compounds and contains a high oxygen concentration (35-40 wt.%), acid pH and water contents between 20-50% wt. Catalytic fast-pyrolysis can promote partial deoxygenation reactions that could proceed by different pathways: dehydration, decarbonylation and decarboxylation, leading to the H2O, CO and CO2 formation, respectively. In this work, catalytic and no-catalytic fast-pyrolysis of Eucalyptus woodchips have been carried out at lab-scale. For catalytic tests, nanostructured materials having mild acidic properties and high accessibility (e.g. h-ZSM5 zeolite) have been employed. The catalytic properties of these materials for biomass catalytic pyrolysis have been also modified and adjusted by incorporation of different metal oxides. Likewise, Pd-containing h-ZSM5 zeolite has been tested. The catalysts activity has been analyzed in terms of their capacity to deoxygenate the bio-oil and compared with the non-catalytic tests. For that purpose, several parameters, including mass products yield (gas, char, coke and bio-oil (bio-oil*+H2O), gas composition, bio-oil* elemental analysis and H2O content, have been determined. The catalysts tested led to a higher gas yield than the thermal pyrolysis route, mostly due to the higher production of both CO and CO2. On the other hand, two phases (organic and aqueous) were distinguished in the catalytic bio-oil as a consequence of its higher H2O content (from 26.9 to 33.8-41.1 wt.%). All of these resulted in partially deoxygenated bio-oils*, whose oxygen contents decreased from 37.3 to 27.5-32.3 wt.%; but to the detriment also of the bio-oil* yield, which decreased from 42.5 to 26.1-30.7 wt.%.
T.M. Sankaranarayanan
IMDEA Energy Institute
Spain
Title: Hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oil model compounds over supported nickel catalysts
Time : 14:10-14:30
Biography:
T.M.Sankaranarayanan is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Thermochemical Processes Unit of the IMDEA Energy Institute. Before joining IMDEA, he worked as a senior research fellow at the National Centre for Catalysis Research for his doctoral research (2008-2013). During his doctoral research, he studied the Transesterification and Hydroprocessing of vegetable oil (non-edible oils) on mixed metal oxides. He was also involved in collaboration with others for the Hydrogenolysis of polyols, Catalytic cracking and Hydrotreating (viz. HDS, HDM, HDN and HDO) reactions. His postdoctoral research is focused on the Second Generation Biofuels from lignocellulose biomass. He has 11 publications in international journals.
Abstract:
Lignocellulosic biomass becomes very attractive as feedstock for the production of pyrolysis bio-oils, both scientifically and economically. Still, these products cannot be used as a liquid fuel or additive due to their excessive oxygen content, and poor chemical stability. Therefore, upgrading treatments are required. Catalytic hydrodeoxygenation is considered to be one of the most effective routes for bio-oil transformation. The present work involves the study and understanding the reaction pathway of the hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol as a representative chemical of the bio-oil obtained from pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass, which contains 25.8% of oxygen due to the characteristic of methoxyphenol linkages. For this purpose catalysts based on Ni (5 wt.%) loaded on various supports (hierarchical ZSM-5, SBA-15, Al-SBA-15 and commercial H-ZSM-5). The samples were characterized in detail using N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Temperature Programmed Reduction and Desorption (H2-TPR/NH3-TPD). Subsequently, all the prepared catalysts were tested in HDO of guaiacol (3.3 wt.% in decaline (50 ml) in a 100 ml stainless steel (SS) high pressure stirred batch reactor. The reaction was carried out under 40 bars of hydrogen partial pressure and the temperature was 260 ËšC, with the constant stirring speed (1000 rpm) for 2 hours. The liquid and gas products were analyzed by GC and GC-MS. These catalysts reveal different hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis routes based on supports. Ni/h-ZSM-5 exhibits a better deoxygenation activity with a percentage of HDO around 98 % at 260 ËšC, 2 hours. In addition, we correlated hydrophobic and hydrophilicity of the catalysts with HDO results.
Marta Arroyo
Rey Juan Carlos University
Spain
Title: Catalytic Cracking of Stearic acid over Pd supported over nanocrysralline and hierarchica HZSM-5
Time : 14:30-14:40
Biography:
Marta Arroyo is finishing now her PhD in the Rey Juan Carlos University (Spain) in which has been working in the development of heterogeneous acid catalysts for the conversion of plastic wastes and biomass derived oils into fuel. This work is supervised by prof. David Serrano and José MarÃa Escola. She will undertake these months a predoctoral research in the group of Prof. Adam Lee and Karen Wilson in European Bioenergy Research Institute (Birmingham) in bio oil esterification. At the same time, she has different graduate teaching responsibilities at Rey Juan Carlos University.
Abstract:
Recently, hydroconversion of triglycerides to produce hydrocarbons has been considered as an alternative way to produce high quality fuels, but it has the considerable drawback of requiring hydrogen. Catalytic cracking of vegetable oils appears as a possible alternative to obtain biofuels in the absence of hydrogen. In the present work, Pd supported over nanocrystalline (Pd/n-ZSM-5) and hierarchical ZSM-5 (Pd/h-ZSM-5) were tested in the catalytic cracking of stearic acid, which is a fatty acid usually present in the makeup of vegetable oils. These supports were chosen because of their strong acidity and high external surface/mesoporosity which enhanced the accessibility toward the acid sites. Additionally, Pd was incorporated since this metal favours decarboxylation and hydrogenation / dehydrogenation reactions, which are highly desirable for the preparation of biofuels. The catalytic experiments were carried out in autoclave reactor and the solution of 10 wt % stearic acid in dodecane was used as feedstock. The reactions were carried out under 6 bar of nitrogen, at different temperatures and reactions times. Pd/h-ZSM-5 almost doubled the conversion of stearic acid with regard to Pd/n-ZSM-5 (67 vs 33 %), pointing out that the remarkable properties of hierarchical supports in terms of accessibility really pays off. Additionally, this catalyst outperforms Pd/n-ZSM-5 not only in the attained conversion but also in the selectivity, since higher gasoline share was attained. Consequently, Pd/h-ZSM-5 was a better catalyst than Pd/n-ZSM-5 for the cracking of stearic acid.
Tobias C. Keller
Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering
Switzerland
Title: Design of base catalysts for the catalytic deoxygenation of bio-oil by aldol condensation
Time : 14:40-14:50
Biography:
Abstract:
The development of cost-efficient pathways to deoxygenate crude bio-oil will contribute greatly to the sustainable production of biomass-derived fuels, as established methods, such as catalytic cracking or hydrodeoxygenation, suffer from low carbon yield and excessive hydrogen consumption, respectively. A cascade combination of three catalytic transformations combining pyrolysis, intermediate deoxygenation, and a subsequent hydrodeoxygenation step could address both issues simultaneously. Among different deoxygenation strategies, we are investigating the development of efficient base catalysts to exploit the intrinsic reactivity of aldehydes for deoxygenation via aldol condensations. Three different catalytic systems are considered: alkali metal-doped high-silica zeolites, supported MgO catalysts, and hydroxyapatites. The optimization of the concentration and strength of basic sites is shown to be the key to attain catalysts combining excellent activity and stability with a high selectivity in the self-condensation of propanal, which is studied as a model reaction. To evaluate the deoxygenation performance of the optimized catalysts under more realistic conditions, the complexity of the reaction mixture is increased stepwise by co-feeding water and acetic acid as representative components in bio-oil. Preliminary results for acetic acid-propanal mixtures (5-95%v/v) have revealed that the alkali metal-doped high-silica zeolites and supported MgO catalysts retain their stable and selective character, whereas the activity decreases (by ca. 50%) in all cases. The catalytic insights obtained with realistic mixtures are expected to be key to rationalize the performance obtained with real bio-oil.
Manuel Garcia-Perez
Washington State University
USA
Title: Evolution of palm oil mills into bio-refineries: technical and environmental assessment of six bio-refinery options
Biography:
Abstract:
This paper reports the mass and energy balances, the carbon foot print, eutrophication potential and the Net Energy Consumed (NEC) per ton of Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) processed for six concepts that could be implemented to convert existing Palm Oil Mills (POMs) into bio-refineries. These parameters were also calculated per ton of product obtained using an allocation strategy based on the contribution of each product to the total sales of the bio-refinery. These bio-refinery concepts were developed as part of an evolution strategy consisting in the hypothetical gradual addition of emerging technologies to POMs. The technologies added to build new bio-refinery concepts were: (i) Production of biogas from the anaerobic treatment of the Palm Oil Mill Effluents (POME) and its utilization for electricity generation, (ii) Composting of Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB), oil palm fiber (fiber) with POME and electricity generation from biogas, (iii) High pressure steam Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit for the utilization of 100% of the biomass and biogas combustion for the production of electricity, (iv) Pellets production from dried biomass and biogas production and combustion in a gas engine, (v) Bio-char production and combustion of pyrolysis vapors for heat recovery, and (vi) Bio-char and bio-oil production plus biogas and syngas combustion. The studies were conducted using as starting point (or baseline) a traditional POM technology with a throughput capacity of 30 t Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) h-1. The baseline scenario was created using averaged data from POMs and oil palm plantations in Colombia. The results of the mass and energy balances of the studied bio-refinery concepts allow us to conclude that the available biomass residues used in integrated bio-refineries schemes could result in the production of up to: 125 kWh t FFB-1 electricity, 232 kg t FFB-1compost, 125 kg t FFB-1pellet, 46 kg t FFB-1 bio-char and 63 kg t FFB-1 bio-oil. The carbon footprint based on a Life cycle assessment of the bio-refinery concepts studied concludes that, compared with the baseline case studied, reductions in the range from 12 to 76% could be achieved through products diversification.
Chenyu Du
University of Huddersfield
UK
Title: The development of a wheat straw based biorefinery for bioethanol fermentation
Time : 14:50-15:10
Biography:
Dr. Chenyu Du is a Reader in Chemical Engineering in the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. His main research area is biosynthesis of biofuels, biochemicals and biopolymers using sustainable raw materials. He got both his bachelor and PhD degrees from Tsinghua University, China. Then he moved to the University of Manchester in 2006 working on a platform chemical production from sustainable raw materials project (funded by EPSRC). He developed four biorefinery strategies to convert wheat or wheat milling by-products into microbial generic feedstocks based on submerged fungal fermentation or solid-state fungal fermentation. Since joined the University of Nottingham in June, 2010, he has been involved in the research pertaining to the Lignocellosic Conversion to Ethanol programme. He is also interested in yeast genetic modification, yeast strain screening and yeast viability improvement.
Abstract:
The development of the 2nd generation of bioethanol production process from lignocellulosic raw materials has attracted increasing attention worldwide. Wheat straw is the most abundant lignocellulosic biomass in the UK and approximately 1.32 million tons wheat straw is available in the UK for the production of bioethanol. However wheat straw need to be pre-treated and hydrolyzed into simple sugars before it could be used for bioethanol fermentations. In this study, we report a biological pre-treatment strategy to convert wheat straw into a generic fermentation feedstock and then to convert the wheat straw hydrolysate into bioethanol via yeast fermentation.In this biorefining strategy, Aspergillus niger was firstly cultured on the wheat straw for the cellulosic enzyme production and then the cellulase-rich fungal extract was used to hydrolyse the fermented wheat straw. In a solid state fungal fermentation using autoclaved wheat straw, an cellulase activity of 9.5 FPU/g was achieved. When 0.5% yeast extract and a mineral solution were added, the enzyme activity increased to 24.0 FPU/g after 5 days of cultivation. When an alkali soaking modified wheat straw (1% NaOH at room temperature for overnight) was used, the cellulase activity reached 23.3 FPU/g just after 1 day of culture. The hydrolysis of the fermented wheat straw using the fungal culture filtrate led to 4.34 g/L glucose in the hydrolysate at a solid loading rate of 5%. Increase in solid loading rate resulted in a higher glucose concentration of over 10 g/L in the wheat straw hydrolysate. The wheat straw hydrolysate has then been utilized in bioethanol fermentation using saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, no substrate inhibitory affect was observed.
Jwan Abdullah Al- Dabbagh
University of Nottingham
UK
Title: The development of a bio refining strategy to convert municipal solid waste into bioethanol
Time : 15:10-15:20
Biography:
Abstract:
Municipal solid waste (MSW) contains high concentration of organic matters, which has been widely used for biogas production via anaerobic digestion. However, MSW also contains significant amount of lignicellulose, which is resistant to anaerobic digestion. In this project, we explored the possibility of converting the lignocellulosic components of MSW into bioethanol. In this first step, microwave, dilute acid, concentrate acid and alkali hydrolyses of MSW were assessed to identify a suitable condition to release fermentable sugars from MSW. The monomeric sugar compositions of the hydrolysate were determined together with the inhibitor concentrations. Phenotypic microarray analysis was used to identify a suitable yeast strain for the utilisation of MSW hydrolysate. Then yeast fermentations were carried out to examine the bioethanol production. The results revealed that the hydrolysate resulted from 30% sulphuric acid treatment led to the highest monomeric fermentable sugars, but a lower ethanol conversion yield (around 25%). In comparison, hydrolysis using 2% sulphuric acid led to a lower sugar release yield in the hydrolysate, but a higher ethanol conversion yield (around 47%).
Break: Coffee Break 15:20 -15:35
Amina Ahmed El-Imam
University of Nottingham
UK
Title: Itaconic acid production from soghum bran-a biorefining approach
Time : 15:35- 15:45
Biography:
Amina Ahmed El-Imam is currently a PhD student in Life Sciences in the University of Nottingham United Kingdom, with interests in the application of biotechnology in the production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals. Ahmed El-Imam obtained her BSc. and M.Sc. in Microbiology and Industrial Microbiology respectively from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, in Nigeria.
She is currently looking at the fermentative production of itaconic acid, a high-value albeit less-investigated monomeric organic acid from sorghum bran, a food-processing waste.
Abstract:
Itaconic acid (IA) is a unique di-carboxylic acid widely used as a platform chemical to produce several value-added industrial products. It is currently produced industrially by the fermentation of glucose-based sugar solutions using Aspergillus terreus which compete with potential food applications and this in turn limits its industrial applications.
This work replaces commercial glucose with glucose from a relatively underutilised feedstock, sorghum bran the residue of the starch extraction process, for the production of IA to decrease its production cost. Compositional analyses of brans from the white and red sorghum varieties did not reveal significant differences in most parameters. The starch content was high in both brans, with white bran having 52.96% and Red bran having 67.26% starch content. They also contained fairly considerable amounts of minerals (1.4% and 1.7% respectively) and protein (19.2% and 21.4% respectively). The brans were saccharified enzymatically and using various chemicals and the hydrolysates obtained from the most efficient conditions were tested for their ability to support A. terreus growth using a phenotypic microarray process. The hydrolysates were then utilised in shake flask fermentations to produce IA. No inhibitory effect on A. terreus growth in the dilute acid hydrolysates while production was limited relative to glucose controls. The effects of various factors including phosphates, sulphates, sorghum tannins and buffer type as potential inhibitors of IA production were investigated. A yield of around 10g/L IA was produced from the enzymatic hydrolysate.
M. Ali Mandegari
University of Stellenbosch
South Africa
Title: Biorefinery annexed to typical South African sugar mill, part 1: flowsheet development and simulation
Time : 15:45- 15:55
Biography:
At present Dr. Mandegari is a postdoctoral fellow in the process engineering department at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. His Current research work is to develop biorefinery simulations annexed to an existing sugar mill in South Africa and these include a baseline bioethanol plant as well as the production of biobutanol, lactic acid, furfural, syn-crude, methanol and electricity. In addition to my thesis, He conducted and cooperated in eight research projects, seven of which have been finished. The results of his research are summarized by six ISI published papers, three ISI papers and one book chapter in preparation and twenty two presented conference papers. Also,he supervised undergraduate students in their major research projects, under the direction of the course instructor and he was advisor and consulting advisor of four MSc thesis of chemical engineering. Apart from his research and teaching activities, he have more than 8 years industrial experience in the petroleum, gas and petrochemical plants as R&D manager, Project engineer, Engineering manager and Energy auditor
Abstract:
Sugar is one of the main agricultural industries in South Africa and approximately livelihoods of one million South Africans are indirectly dependent on sugar industry which is economically struggling with some problems and should re-invent in order to ensure a long-term sustainability. Second generation biorefinery is defined as a process to use waste fibrous for the production of biofuel, chemicals animal food, and electricity. Bioethanol is by far the most widely used biofuel for transportation worldwide and many challenges in front of bioethanol production were solved. Biorefinery annexed to the existing sugar mill for production of bioethanol and electricity is proposed to sugar industry and is addressed in this study.
Since flowsheet development is the key element of the bioethanol process, in this work, a biorefinery (bioethanol and electricity production) annexed to a typical South African sugar mill considering 65ton/h dry sugarcane bagasse and tops/trash as feedstock was simulated. Aspen PlusTM V8.6 was applied as simulator and realistic simulation development approach was followed to reflect the practical behaviour of the plant. Latest results of other researches considering pretreatment, hydrolysis, fermentation, enzyme production, bioethanol production and other supplementary units such as evaporation, water treatment, boiler, and steam/electricity generation units were adopted to establish a comprehensive biorefinery simulation.
Steam explosion with SO2 was selected for pretreatment due to minimum inhibitor production and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) configuration was adopted for enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of cellulose and hydrolyze. Bioethanol purification was simulated by two distillation columns with side stream and fuel grade bioethanol (99.5%) was achieved using molecular sieve in order to minimize the capital and operating costs. Also boiler and steam/power generation were completed using industrial design data. Results indicates 256.6 kg bioethanol per ton of feedstock and 31 MW surplus power were attained from biorefinery while the process consumes 3.5, 3.38, and 0.164 (GJ/ton per ton of feedstock) hot utility, cold utility and electricity respectively. Developed simulation is a threshold of variety analyses and developments for further studies.
Somayeh Farzad
University of Stellenbosch
South Africa
Title: Biorefinery annexed to South African Sugar mill, part II; energy sufficiency analysis
Time : 15:55-16:05
Biography:
Currently Dr. Farzad is a postdoctoral researcher at Process Engineering Department of Stellenbosch University. Besides supervision of postgrad students, her current research involves biorefinery techno-economic analysis and also environmentally friendly tire production. Her PhD thesis and previous expertise were focused on petroleum industry in which she has 7 ISI published papers and three papers in progress. She supervised three master students while working as “Assistant Professor†at University of Environment. Apart from academic activities, she is having more than 6 years industrial experience in gas and petrochemical plants as R&D manager and project engineer.
Abstract:
The South African Sugar Industry which has significant impact on the national economy, is currently facing problems due to increasing energy price and low global sugar price. The available bagasse is already combusted in low efficiency boilers of the sugar mills while bagasse is generally recognized as promising feedstock for second generation bioethanol production.
Establishment of biorefinery annexed to the existing sugar mills, as an alternative for re-vitalisation of sugar industry producing biofuel and electricity has been proposed and considered in this study. Since scale is an important issue in feasibility of the technology, this study has taken into account a typical sugar mill with 300 ton/hr sugar cane capacity.
The biorefinery simulation is carried out using Aspen PlusTM V8.6, in which the sugar mill’s power and steam demand has been considered. Hence sugar mills in South Africa can be categorized as highly efficient, efficient and not efficient with steam consumption of 33, 40 and 60 tons of steam per ton of cane and electric power demand of 10 MW, three different scenarios are studied.
The sugar cane bagasse and tops/trash are supplied to the biorefinery process and the wastes/residues (mostly lignin) from the process are burnt in the CHP plant in order to produce steam and electricity for the biorefinery and sugar mill as well. Considering the efficient sugar mill, the CHP plant has generated 5 MW surplus electric power, but the obtained energy is not enough for self-sufficiency of the plant (Biorefinery and Sugar mill) due to lack of 34 MW heat. One of the advantages of second generation biorefinery is its low impact on the environment and carbon footprint, thus the plant should be self-sufficient in energy without using fossil fuels. For this reason, a portion of fresh bagasse should be sent to the CHP plant to meet the energy requirements. An optimisation procedure was carried out to find out the appropriate portion to be burnt in the combustor. As a result, 20% of the bagasse is re-routed to the combustor which leads to 5 tonnes of LP Steam and 8.6 MW electric power surplus.
- Session on Food V/S Fuels
Session Introduction
Frank Rosillo-Calle
Imperial College London
UK
Title: Moving beyond the food V/S fuel debate
Time : 16:50- 17:10
Biography:
Dr. Frank Rosillo Calle has done PhD in Biological Sciences and Policy, in the year 1985 from University of Aston, He has been working in the area of biomass for energy for more than 30 years. His areas of interests are: Biomass resource assessment, biomass energy (production, conversion and use, biofuels), agriculture, http://biofuels-bioenergy.conferenceseries.com/http://biofuels-bioenergy.conferenceseries.com/ and food security implications. He has published about 100 research articles in the respective area. He is also the editorial board member and advisor of various scientific journals.He has worked on EU funded Projects on Biomass Energy since early 1990s. He also acted as Consultant in biomass energy for over 30 years which include Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Environmental Leadership Programme 1991-1992, BUN, FAO, The Beijer Institute/SEI, UNDPCSD, Shell International, WEC, OTA of the US Congress, DTI, SOPAC-South Pacific Applied Geo-science Commission, etc.He also acted as Coordinator of a British Council/CESPES project in Brazil- Kings College London (KCL)/BUN, 1996-1999, Coordinator of British Council, KCL- Jos University, Nigeria, Higher Education Exchange, 1999-2002. He has been UK Representative of the IEA Bioenergy Task 40 from 2004 to 2012. He has taught biomass energy-related subjects to PhD and MSc level at Universities of Campinas and Manaus, Brazil, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonbury, Bangkok, Thailand; and Basque Country (Bilbao), Oviedo and Vigo, Spain.
Abstract:
The food versus fuel debate (FvF) is as old issue that refuses to go away. It has been plagued with many and often trivial arguments, and ethical, moral and policy considerations rather than by a solid scientific debate.
This specific Session will try to move beyond this old debate and focus on the “food and fuel” argument, in light of new evidence given the many and intertwined considerations that affect biofuels. In particular this Session will consider the following:
- Food Security and its wider implications for food production and biofuels
- Agricultural modernization and impacts on biofuels
- Land use changes [direct (DLUC) and indirect (iLUC)]
- Sustainability issues (environmental, social and economic)
Biomass for energy plays, and will continue to play, a major role in global energy supply. We need to improve our understanding of the wider implications and interactions. For example, the argument of undernourishment and the expansion of biofuels, must be seen within the context of huge food waste, poor agricultural productivity, and lack of infrastructure, obesity, diets changes, and social injustice. As for environmental sustainability, it often overlooks the impacts of fossil fuels, failing to apply the same principle to all energy sources, with too much emphasis on GHG. In the case of social sustainability, now required for all biofuels, it deals with neither underlying fundamentals e.g. applying the same principles to food production nor with wider social and policy implications.
DLUC also needs to be re-visited, particularly iLUC in light of new evidence. There are many and diverse models dealing with iLUC with a wide range of solutions given the nature, dynamism, and complexity of land use changes. In the specific case of iLUC it is very difficult, almost impossible, to model such effects because of the innumerable unproven assumptions; and hence it is often a case of just mere observations. Also, modelling has focused primarily on GHG in detriment of many other factors.
DLUC/iLUC suffer from a restricted and incomplete analysis which has resulted, in most cases, in a negative assessment of biofuels. A more complete assessment could show a very different outcome. iLUC in particular needs to move forward to deal with this high degree of uncertainty to attract new investment on biofuels.
This specific Session will try to move beyond this old debate and focus on the “food and fuel” argument, in light of new evidence given the many and intertwined considerations that affect biofuels. In particular this Session will consider the following:
- Food Security and its wider implications for food production and biofuels
- Agricultural modernization and impacts on biofuels
- Land use changes [direct (DLUC) and indirect (iLUC)]
- Sustainability issues (environmental, social and economic)
Biomass for energy plays, and will continue to play, a major role in global energy supply. We need to improve our understanding of the wider implications and interactions. For example, the argument of undernourishment and the expansion of biofuels, must be seen within the context of huge food waste, poor agricultural productivity, and lack of infrastructure, obesity, diets changes, and social injustice. As for environmental sustainability, it often overlooks the impacts of fossil fuels, failing to apply the same principle to all energy sources, with too much emphasis on GHG. In the case of social sustainability, now required for all biofuels, it deals with neither underlying fundamentals e.g. applying the same principles to food production nor with wider social and policy implications.
DLUC also needs to be re-visited, particularly iLUC in light of new evidence. There are many and diverse models dealing with iLUC with a wide range of solutions given the nature, dynamism, and complexity of land use changes. In the specific case of iLUC it is very difficult, almost impossible, to model such effects because of the innumerable unproven assumptions; and hence it is often a case of just mere observations. Also, modelling has focused primarily on GHG in detriment of many other factors.
DLUC/iLUC suffer from a restricted and incomplete analysis which has resulted, in most cases, in a negative assessment of biofuels. A more complete assessment could show a very different outcome. iLUC in particular needs to move forward to deal with this high degree of uncertainty to attract new investment on biofuels.
Rocio A Diaz-Chavez
Imperial College London
UK
Title: Sustainability perspectives on the energy-water-food nexus, a new technical or political paradigm?
Time : 17:10-17:30
Biography:
Dr Diaz-Chavez is a Research Fellow at CEP Imperial College London. She has over 15 years experience in sustainability assessment. She has worked on EU funded projects related to biomass, climate change, energy and sustainability assessment at global level. She has worked benchmarking standards related to bioenergy and contributed to the Global Bioenergy Partnership developing indicators. She obtained the Young Scientist on . Management Award from SCOPE in 2010.
Abstract:
The debate on the competition for resources use is long established. There have been (and will continue to be) conflicting interests between land, water and energy aims which have prompted searches for optimal options on how to reconcile the synergies and trade-offs that the use of these resources involve.
There have also been many different approaches and attempts to reconciliate the different views. In particular, the growing interest in bioenergy projects has led to increasing concerns with their wider implications, mainly if grown on a large scale. Concerns focus on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and on implications for land use, food prices, availability and purchase price of energy, social acceptance and how projects may integrate within society at the macro and micro levels.
An integrated production of chemicals and materials with that of bioenergy is essential to enable the maximisation of value at the same time as reducing the carbon footprint. Therefore, the need for a sustainable supply chain is a prerequisite for success. The main objective of the sustainability assessment is to evaluate the sustainability performance of the economic, environmental, social and political processes or products. A number of approaches to assess sustainability using an integrated approach have already been documented. Specifically for bioenergy, the link between constraints on the mapping of bioenergy resources, sustainability appraisal through stakeholder surveys and biodiversity assessment are considered when addressing the sustainability of bioenergy feedstocks.
Different methods and frameworks can be used to assess the sustainability of bioenergy production and use, from the environmental management tools (EIA, SIA, SEA) to focused frameworks (e.g. GBEP) and tools (e.g. BBEST) from international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Some of the main concerns will continue to be access and reliability of data and how to deal with the tradeoffs and synergies through collaboration and in a coordinated manner. This will probably require a new view at the energy-water-food nexus through a more efficient land use that evolves from the political will of joining different policy agendas. This paper offers an overview of these methodologies and examines how available tools can help to incorporate them into political contexts at the national and international levels.
There have also been many different approaches and attempts to reconciliate the different views. In particular, the growing interest in bioenergy projects has led to increasing concerns with their wider implications, mainly if grown on a large scale. Concerns focus on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and on implications for land use, food prices, availability and purchase price of energy, social acceptance and how projects may integrate within society at the macro and micro levels.
An integrated production of chemicals and materials with that of bioenergy is essential to enable the maximisation of value at the same time as reducing the carbon footprint. Therefore, the need for a sustainable supply chain is a prerequisite for success. The main objective of the sustainability assessment is to evaluate the sustainability performance of the economic, environmental, social and political processes or products. A number of approaches to assess sustainability using an integrated approach have already been documented. Specifically for bioenergy, the link between constraints on the mapping of bioenergy resources, sustainability appraisal through stakeholder surveys and biodiversity assessment are considered when addressing the sustainability of bioenergy feedstocks.
Different methods and frameworks can be used to assess the sustainability of bioenergy production and use, from the environmental management tools (EIA, SIA, SEA) to focused frameworks (e.g. GBEP) and tools (e.g. BBEST) from international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Some of the main concerns will continue to be access and reliability of data and how to deal with the tradeoffs and synergies through collaboration and in a coordinated manner. This will probably require a new view at the energy-water-food nexus through a more efficient land use that evolves from the political will of joining different policy agendas. This paper offers an overview of these methodologies and examines how available tools can help to incorporate them into political contexts at the national and international levels.
Sebastián Sánchez
Jaén University
Spain
Title: Bioethanol production: Corn vs lignocellulose biomass from olive oil industry and the potential role in ensuring food security
Time : 17:30- 17:50
Biography:
Dr. Sebastián Sánchez is currently a member of the Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering of University of Jaén. His research interests are in the areas of ‘Use of Lignocellulose materials for Biofuels Production’, ‘Oil Technology’ , ‘Use of By-products and Residues from Olive Oil Industry’, ‘Tertiary Treatment of Wastewater and Microalgaebiotechnology’, and ‘Gas Absorption with Chemical Reaction’
Abstract:
Biofuelsproduction cannot mean a threat for food security. Biofuels of second and third generation, nowadays in phase of research and development (R+D), imply the use of integrated bio-refineries for fuels production, electricity generation and biological products. In advanced technologies, it is predicted to reduce natural resources like earth and water, and with it the worry about food security. Amongst these advanced technologies stand out ethanol production from lignocelluloses residues (or lignocelluloses byproducts), biodiesel from algae, or conversion methods of solar energy in fuels by means of microorganisms. In recent decades numerous studies have attempted to enhance production yields of ethanol-based fuel from biomass through different biochemical pathways. The main substrates in the bioethanol industry are still cereals and sugarcane. In this sense, industrial yield of 0.35 kg ethanol/kg corn kernel has been reported. However, corn is also processed for human consumption so the diversion of resources from the food market to fuel production has caused a great controversy. In countries of the Mediterranean basin, olive generates different lignocellulose by-products not related to the animal or human food chain which can be regarded as a potential source of bioethanol. Ethanol yields of 0.072kg/kg, 0.13 kg/kg and near 0.10 kg/kg have been reached at laboratory scale from olive pruning, olive stone and extracted olive pomace, respectively. This indicates that feasibility of the production of ethanol-fuel from olive by-products will solely be possible by considering two key factors: the development of the concept of bio-refinery and the exploitation of economies of scale. The ongoing growth of the corn ethanol industry has brought about technological advances (e.g. in the enzymatic field) that will be implemented for the development of the lignocellulose ethanol industry. So rather than facing these industries they should be regarded, from the technological point of view, as allies. This presentation will look at the food versus fuel debate from the point of view of G2 and G3 biofuels.
- Track 2: Biogas
Chair
Luis Puchades Rufino
Ludan Renewable Energy
Spain
Co-Chair
Serge R. Guiot
National Research Council Canada
Canada
Session Introduction
Luis Puchades Rufino
Ludan Renewable Energy
Spain
Title: Maralfalfa grass: synergies with biogas plants and potential as bioenergy and biorefinery crop
Time : 15:35-15:55
Biography:
Luis Puchades Rufino was born in 1980 in Valencia (Spain). He is an Agricultural engineer and currently the managing director of Ludan renewable energy and biogas operation Spain. He was director of the Spanish branch of Biogas Nord AG (Germany), a German listed company (BG8:) and one of the pioneers and largest biogas companies in the world, from 2006 to 2009. In 2010 He founded a company called Biovic to run agricultural businesses (corn, elephant grass), trading of raw materials and waste management. He had been involved in the development, design, construction and operation of more than 40 biogas projects. His areas of interest includes conversion of waste to energy, waste to food and waste to fertilizers. He also have more than 20 publications and research articles .
Abstract:
Maralfalfa (Pennisetum spp.) Is a Poaceae family forage grass used as livestock feedstock in Latin America, but its popularity is growing worldwide. The origin of maralfalfa grass is still unclear but it is likely to be of Pennisetum violaceum (Lam.) Rich. expers. or a hybrid (Pennisetum hybridum) Pennisetum americanum between L. and Pennisetum purpureum. Like all Pennisetum grasses, it reacts very positively to nitrogen and organic fertilization (Ramos Trejo et al. , 2012). Several cultivars have been established in Spain, associated to agroindustrial biogas plants located in Vall d´Uixó (Castellón) and Los Alcázares (Murcia), with rows of Maralfalfa of 15 m length, planted with two canes in parallel 0,10 m deep. The planting frame was 0,75 m between plants. Those plants have been fertilized with different amounts of digestates coming from the biogas plants. The doses of fertilization where adjusted to 80, 170 and 340 kg of Nitrogen per hectare and year. The average productions of dry matter per hectare have been 40, 55 and 59 t of DM of biomass, with an average content of water of the harvested material in 82,5%. It was made three harvests per year. The level of Crude Protein reached 17,2%, very much dependent on the age of each harvest. On parallel, several biogas tests have been performed, leaving yields of biogas between 520 and 600 l of biogas per kg of Volatile Solids. This positive relation between the yield of biomass generated per hectare and the use of the surplus digestates from waste management biogas plants reveals with extraordinary potential. On the energy field, the potential of methane generation reaches 18.200 Nm3 per hectare, compared to the 9.000 Nm3/ha of maize silage and 8.000 Nm3/ha of sorghum. On the sustainability and economical fields, the enormous reduction of fertilizer costs and the recycle of agrifood waste originated Nitrogen intro vegetable protein and tissue opens many areas of development of this application. Biorefinery and bioethanol projects might also benefit from this synergic relationship between biogas plants and maralfalfa plantations.
Serge R. Guiot
National Research Council Canada
Canada
Title: Screening of a wide range of pre-treatments for improving the algal biomass solubilization and biogas potential
Time : 15:55-16:15
Biography:
Serge R. Guiot is Principal research scientist at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). After he obtained a D.Sc. degree in Environmental Science in Belgium, he joined NRC in Ottawa (Canada) in 1983, then the Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal in 1987. He is currently leading the Bioengineering group within the Energy, Mining & Environment Portfolio (EME) of NRC in Montreal. His research interests include: biofilm and microbial fuel cell reactors for wastewater biotreatment; enhanced anaerobic digestion of wastes and algae; acidogenic digestion towards carboxylic acids; biomethanation of syngas. He has ten patents to his credit and has published over 180 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He recently was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II\'s Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition for his reputable scientific work at NRC.
Abstract:
The microalgal biomass conversion into methane as a biofuel offers the best energetic balance among the different biomass–to-biofuel scenarios for microalgae containing less than 40% lipids. The anaerobic degradation limitation of algae at around 50% emphasizes the need for pre-treatment to obtain higher methane production from algae. This study was performed using Scenedesmus sp. AMDD, a green microalgae, as a model strain. Over 20 series of different pretreatments were evaluated, alone, or in sequence. The enzymatic pretreatments were performed with pectate-lyase and cellulase at incubation time from 2 to 24 hours. Chemicals pretreatments were done with H2SO4, NaOH or H2O2, at 0.2N and 2N and 2 to 24 h of reaction time. Thermal treatments were completed in an oven or a pressure vessel at 121 – 180°C or using a microwave (175 – 300°C). The enzymatic hydrolysis of Scenedesmus sp. AMDD followed with a three hours incubation in NaOH 0.2N resulted into a 75% solubilization. Similar results were found with incubation in 0.2N NaOH followed with short thermal treatment.
Caustic and thermal pretreatments improved the methane production by around 12% compared with the anaerobic digestion of untreated algal biomass, at 335 ± 28 ml CH4 STP/g volatile solid (VS) added. The results from the enzymatic pretreatment were less encouraging with improvement of 2-7% of the methane production only. However., a combination of enzymatic with a thermal treatment successfully solubilized up to 75% of Scenedesmus sp. AMDD biomass. The resulting methane production, although up to 15% higher than for the control biomass, did not fully correlate with the increased dissolved organic matter.
In anaerobic digesters continuously fed with solubilized biomass after combined enzymatic and thermal pre-treatment, the CH4 yield was improved by up to 35% in some operational conditions, while the degradation rate was faster, allowing for lower retention time.
Paz Gomez
AINIA Technology Centre
Spain
Title: Sustainable small-scale biogas production from agro-food waste for energy self-sufficiency (BIOGAS3 project)
Time : 16:15-16:35
Biography:
Paz Gomez is agricultural Engineer, specialization on Rural Engineering and Agricultural Technical Engineer, specialization on Livestock Exploitations, both University Degrees by the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain, 2007). Research fellowship in Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim in 2007, and visiting researcher in the Bavarian State Institute for Agricultrual Engineering (LfL, Fresing) in 2011. Researcher in ainia Technology Centre since 2008, in the field of biomethanation of agro-industrial waste through anaerobic co-digestion. Development of economic feasibility tools for biogas plants, analysis of agricultural valorisation of anaerobic digestates from horticultural crops and studies on biomethane applications. Experience in related projects: PROBIOGAS project, focused on development of sustainable production systems and use of agro-industrial biogas in Spain, DIGESMART project, focused on digestate from manure recycling technologies, and AGROBIOMET project, focused on sustainable production and use of biomethane as vehicle fuel using manure and alternative biomasses, among others.
Abstract:
The aim of BIOGAS3 is to promote the sustainable production of renewable energy from the biogas obtained of agricultural residues and food and beverage industry waste (agro-food waste) in small-scale concepts for energy self-sufficiency. Despite its multiple benefits, anaerobic digestion (AD) is not yet widely implemented in the agro-food sectors. New sustainable AD concepts are needed to increase the demand of biogas solutions. The project strategy includes: i) Analysis of the needs of end-users. ii) Development of tools to address these needs. iii) on-field actions to bring the developed tools to the end-users, including training sessions, workshops, webinars, etc.
The main results of the project are summarized below:
1) Sustainable small-scale AD models based on existing technologies of small-scale AD to serve as examples for potentially interested agro-food companies.
2) Business collaboration models and smallBIOGAS software to evaluate the sustainability of new small scale biogas plants.
3) Build-up of skills and awareness on small-scale AD through on-line and face-to-face trainings, live webinars, etc. (ongoing).
4) Set the ground for new investments in agro-food companies with potential to implement small-scale AD (ongoing).
The activities to date point to a growing interest in the small-scale biogas production for energy self-consumption, especially in the countries where policies supporting renewables are changing. The agro-food sub-sectors with higher interest are those that have high energy consumption and significant waste generation, and the waste management is costly. The biogas plant constructors are ready to provide small-scale solutions to the agro-food industry. Several examples exist with proven economic feasibility.
1) Sustainable small-scale AD models based on existing technologies of small-scale AD to serve as examples for potentially interested agro-food companies.
2) Business collaboration models and smallBIOGAS software to evaluate the sustainability of new small scale biogas plants.
3) Build-up of skills and awareness on small-scale AD through on-line and face-to-face trainings, live webinars, etc. (ongoing).
4) Set the ground for new investments in agro-food companies with potential to implement small-scale AD (ongoing).
The activities to date point to a growing interest in the small-scale biogas production for energy self-consumption, especially in the countries where policies supporting renewables are changing. The agro-food sub-sectors with higher interest are those that have high energy consumption and significant waste generation, and the waste management is costly. The biogas plant constructors are ready to provide small-scale solutions to the agro-food industry. Several examples exist with proven economic feasibility.
Silvia Tedesco
Dublin City University
Ireland
Title: Biochemical methane potential of Ulva spp. seaweed biorefinery residues
Time : 16:35-16:45
Biography:
Dr Silvia Tedesco is a lecturer and researcher at Dublin City University. She finished her IRCSET sponsored PhD in 2013, and she currently is co-principal investigator of two research grants on biogas generation, funded by Enterprise Ireland and SFI. Her research interests involve seaweed-based biorefinery, biogas production, biomethane upgrade and CHP generation.
Abstract:
Seaweeds (macroalgae) have been recently attracting more and more interest as a third generation feedstock for bioenergy and biofuels. However, several barriers impede the deployment of competitive seaweed-derived energy. The high cost associated to seaweed farming and harvesting as well as their seasonal availability and biochemical composition currently make macroalgae exploitation too expensive for energy production only. Recent studies have indicated a possible solution may lay in seaweed integrated biorefinery, in which a bioenergy and/or biofuel production step ends an extractions cascade of high-value chemicals. This results in the double benefit of producing renewable energy while adopting a zero waste approach, as fostered by recent EU societal challenges. This study investigates the biogas potential of residues from Ulva spp. seaweed after biorefinery extractions, which resulted close to raw un-extracted seaweed.
Muhammad Farooq
Heriot-Watt University
UK
Title: Upgrading of bio-gas into bio-methane by regenerative activated carbon system
Time : 16:45-16:55
Biography:
Muhammad Farooq is 2nd year PhD Mechanical Engineering student at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh UK. Currently, he is working on the Regenerative activated carbon adsorption for low lost Bio-methane production from Bio-gas. He is author of number of publications in the area of energy generation. In 2014, he presented his research findings at various conferences including Super-gen Bio-Energy Hub Annual Conference Birmingham, UK Energy Storage Conference, Coventry & 1st Energy Academy Conference Edinburgh. Energy Storage Research Network (ESRN) awarded him travel grant to attend UKES Conference. He has been selected as exchange research scholar for the Clean Coal Energy Generation at Zhejiang University China. In 2015, he presented his PhD research at UK AD & Bio-gas Conference Birmingham and 2nd IMPEE Conference Edinburgh
Abstract:
Anaerobic digestion (AD) industry in the UK has experienced rapid growth in recent years over 130 operational AD plants in the UK outside the sewage treatment sector and more than 340 further projects are under development. Thus, there is an increasing demand for upgraded biogas to be used as vehicle fuel or injected to the natural gas grid. Since a typical biogas contains 1000 - 10,000 ppm hydrogen sulphide, its removal below 5ppm is required for uses beyond combined heat and power (CHP). Although a number of established methods exist for removal of hydrogen sulphide they tend to be costly for an average sized AD facility. A common industrial alternative to large-scale water-scrubbing is to adsorb hydrogen sulphide using a granular activated carbon (GAC) bed which is subsequently disposed as hazard waste. Accordingly, this research will focus on regeneration of activated carbon using an electric potential. The driving force is a high capacity system that is regenerative, inexpensive and leaves no waste. A 1% hydrogen sulphide / 99% nitrogen gas mixture is used as a benchmarked against an industrial activated carbon specifically used for hydrogen sulphide removal. Several Electric Conductive Activated Carbons (ECAC) will then be reported for their adsorption/ desorption potential. It is envisioned that this method can transform the production of bio-methane where early estimates have calculated that a regenerative system could save up to 50% of running costs.
SofÃa González Hergueta
Instituto Tecnológico de la EnergÃa
Spain
Title: Biogas, tool of energy saving for companies: to transform the expenditures in savings and profits
Time : 16:55-17:05
Biography:
Mrs. Sofia Gonzalez is Hergueta, Master in Biotechnology and Management of Energy Projects. Currently she is serving as Technical Director of Biogas and Biomass Gasification in Husesolar.
Abstract:
The food industry (food processing, catering, agriculture and livestock farms) produce large amounts of organic waste. To reduce expenses and to gain profits, this waste can be recycled by means of anaerobic digestion to obtain biogas, which can be used as fuel gas, as well as digestate (a high quality fertiliser). The key to avoid dependence on subsidies for the production of renewable energy is to identify how much thermal or electric energy would be saved by the introduction of this process and how much time it would take to recover the initial investment. In this presentation, we will see a brief introduction to anaerobic digestion technology (i.e. what is biogas, how it is produced and what are its chemical properties) as well as:
1. What expenses of food industries and agricultural and livestock farms can be transformed into savings and income.
2. Relevant aspects in the management of biogas projects (evaluate and avoid risks to optimize the time) issues.
2.1. Strategy: Replacement of thermal consumption in an industry for the production of renewable thermal energy by biogas.
2.2. Design of proper diet of sustrates to ensure stability of anaerobic digestion process, correct composition of biogas for use as fuel gas, ensuring quality digestate.
2.3. Site selection: Analysis of real case scenario to identify key success criteria for the selection of the location of biogas plants.
2.4. Change management aspects: Communication with public administrations and the public.
1. What expenses of food industries and agricultural and livestock farms can be transformed into savings and income.
2. Relevant aspects in the management of biogas projects (evaluate and avoid risks to optimize the time) issues.
2.1. Strategy: Replacement of thermal consumption in an industry for the production of renewable thermal energy by biogas.
2.2. Design of proper diet of sustrates to ensure stability of anaerobic digestion process, correct composition of biogas for use as fuel gas, ensuring quality digestate.
2.3. Site selection: Analysis of real case scenario to identify key success criteria for the selection of the location of biogas plants.
2.4. Change management aspects: Communication with public administrations and the public.
Hasan Merdun
Akdeniz University
Turkey
Title: Comparison of scientific studies related to biomass conversion in Europe and Turkey
Time : 17:05-17:25
Biography:
Dr. Hasan Merdun is currently serving as a faculty member at the Department of Environmental Engineering, Akdeniz University in Turkey. He got his undergraduate degree on Agricultural Engineering in Turkey. He got his MSc degree at Agricultural Engineering Department and PhD degree at Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences in Clemson University, USA, on the subjects of soil and water resources. After getting his PhD degree, he started working at the university as an academician. Around five years ago, he shifted his research interests from soil and water resources to bioenergy production through thermochemical processes / technologies, specifically fast pyrolysis and gasification. He worked with the Catalytic Processes and Materials Group as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Twente, Netherlands, during June 4 - September 20, 2013. He studied the effects of different catalysts on the yield and quality of bio-oil and gas mixture produced by fast pyrolysis process. He has a specially designed drop-tube reactor for fast pyrolysis and is currently working on two projects. His research mission is to add value to the national and global bioenergy sector by applying an integrated biorefinery approach for the development of renewable energy technologies.
Abstract:
Energy demand is systematically increasing in almost all over the world based on the increase in population and technological development. Energy can be supplied mainly from fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.) and renewable resources (solar, wind, water/hydropower, biomass, etc.). Fossil fuels are heterogeneously distributed on earth, have limited reserves, and environmentally problems due to unwanted emissons to natural resources (air, water, soil, etc.). Renewable energy sources are renewable, reliable, environmental friendly, and sustainable; therefore, they are one of the best solutions to get rid of these problems of fossil fuels. Biomass is an important renewable energy source in all over the world used directly as combustion material or biofuel produced from conversion of biomass by means of modern technologies. Biomass energy or bioenergy studies have attracted attention to reduce fossil fuel consumption and emissons, as a result, global warming and climate change.
In this study, after giving basic knowledge on biomass and its properties in addition to biomass conversion technologies, it is aimed to compare scientific studies relate to biomass conversion in Europe and Turkey. Firstly, the processes of biochemical (anaaerobic digestion) and thermochemical (pyrolysis and gasification) technologies commonly used in the conversion of biomass to biofuels or useful chemicals, factors or parameters affecting these processes, and technologies used in these processes are explained. Then, scientific studies conducted in Europe and Turkey by using these conversion technologies of biomass are compared. For this purpose, the studies on biochemical and thermochemical conversion of biomass in Turkey are compared, in respect to the applied technologies and parameters, with the studies on biocemical in Germany and thermochemical in the Netherlands.
The results of this review study show that, in general, the studies on biomass conversion in European Countries has started earlier than that of Turkey, more modern technologies are applied in Europe because of more research funds to these studies, and based on that, more studies with more parameters with comprehensive values and more sensitive analyses are conducted in in European Countries compared to Turkey.