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Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels
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Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2019) | Viewed by 20439

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Byong-Hun Jeon

grade E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Earth Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
Interests: bioenergy; pretreatment; fermentation; anaerobic digestion; co-digestion; microalgal biofuels
Dr. El-Sayed Salama

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Interests: microagal biotechnology; nutrient removal; wastewater treatment; anaerobic digestion; bioremediation; bioenergy; biofuels
Dr. Mayur B. Kurade

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Earth Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
Interests: environmental remediation; wastewater treatment; anaerobic digestion; biomass; sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biomass-derived fuels have been attracting increasing attention during recent years because of the abundance of renewable and sustainable resource supplies. Several kinds of biomasses, such as grasses, agricultural wastes, animal residues, and waste cooking oils, can be used as substrate for the production of biofuels. However, effective biomass pretreatment and conversion processes are of prime importance in order to minimize processing costs and maximize yields to successfully compete with existing conventional fuels. Advances in pretreatment technology are important to develop high-yielding, cost-effective methods for the generation of renewable fuels. The state-of-art catalytic biotechnologies for the conversion of biomass into different varieties of liquid fuels, such as ethanol, biodiesel, and butanol, and gaseous fuels, such as hydrogen and methane, need special attention.

This Special Issue will cover all aspects related to pretreatment technologies for the processing of biomass and further conversion of biomass to biofuels. Emphasis will be given to the new advancements in biological processes, such as fermentation and anaerobic digestion of biomass for achieving high yields of biofuels.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Cost-effective biological and thermochemical pretreatments for the conversion of biomass;
  • Factors influencing biomass conversion, such as the composition and structure of biomass;
  • Biomass conversion to liquid fuels through fermentation;
  • Advancements in anaerobic digestion of biomass for higher yield in gaseous fuels;
  • Anaerobic co-digestion of biomass;
  • Process inhibitors and challenges in biological conversion of biomass and the strategies to eliminate them;
  • Economics of biomass conversion to fuels via biological processing.

Prof. Dr. Byong-Hun Jeon
Dr. El-Sayed Salama
Dr. Mayur B. Kurade
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biomass pretreatment
  • Biofuels
  • Anaerobic digestion
  • Fermentation
  • Biological conversion of biomass to biofuels

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1141 KiB  
Article
Changes of Bacterial Communities in an Anaerobic Digestion and a Bio-Electrochemical Anaerobic Digestion Reactors According to Organic Load
by Jun-Gyu Park, Won-Beom Shin, Wei-Qi Shi and Hang-Bae Jun
Energies 2019, 12(15), 2958; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12152958 - 01 Aug 2019
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2714
Abstract
Bacterial communities change in bulk solution of anaerobic digestion (AD) and bio-electrochemical anaerobic digestion reactors (BEAD) were monitored at each organic loading rate (OLR) to investigate the effect of voltage supply on bacterial species change in bulk solution. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation [...] Read more.
Bacterial communities change in bulk solution of anaerobic digestion (AD) and bio-electrochemical anaerobic digestion reactors (BEAD) were monitored at each organic loading rate (OLR) to investigate the effect of voltage supply on bacterial species change in bulk solution. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation and methane production from AD and BEAD reactors were also analyzed by gradually increasing food waste OLR. The BEAD reactor maintained stable COD removal and methane production at 6.0 kg/m3·d. The maximum OLR of AD reactor for optimal operation was 4.0 kg/m3·d. pH and alkalinity decline and volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulation, which are the problem in high load anaerobic digestion of readily decomposable food wastes, were again the major factors destroying the optimal operation condition of the AD reactor at 6.0 kg/m3·d. Contrarily, the electrochemically activated dense communities of exoelectrogenic bacteria and VFA-oxidizing bacteria prevented VFAs from accumulating inside the BEAD reactor. This maintained stable pH and alkalinity conditions, ultimately contributing to stable methane production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels)
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15 pages, 2121 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Infrared Radiation Combined with Hot Air Convection for Energy-Efficient Drying of Biomass
by Hany S. EL-Mesery, Abd El-Fatah Abomohra, Chan-Ung Kang, Ji-Kwang Cheon, Bikram Basak and Byong-Hun Jeon
Energies 2019, 12(14), 2818; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12142818 - 22 Jul 2019
Cited by 40 | Viewed by 4724
Abstract
Cost-effective biomass drying is a key challenge for energy recovery from biomass by direct combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis. The aim of the present study was to optimize the process of biomass drying using hot air convection (HA), infrared (IR), and combined drying systems [...] Read more.
Cost-effective biomass drying is a key challenge for energy recovery from biomass by direct combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis. The aim of the present study was to optimize the process of biomass drying using hot air convection (HA), infrared (IR), and combined drying systems (IR-HA). The specific energy consumption (SEC) decreased significantly by increasing the drying temperature using convective drying, but higher air velocities increased the SEC. Similarly, increasing air velocity in the infrared dryer resulted in a significant increase in SEC. The lowest SEC was recorded at 7.8 MJ/kg at an air velocity of 0.5 m/s and an IR intensity of 0.30 W/cm2, while a maximum SEC (20.7 MJ/kg) was observed at 1.0 m/s and 0.15 W/cm2. However, a significant reduction in the SEC was noticed in the combined drying system. A minimum SEC of 3.8 MJ/kg was recorded using the combined infrared-hot air convection (IR-HA) drying system, which was 91.7% and 51.7% lower than convective and IR dryers, respectively. The present study suggested a combination of IR and hot air convection at 60 °C, 0.3 W/cm2 and 0.5 m/s as optimum conditions for efficient drying of biomass with a high water content. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels)
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17 pages, 2543 KiB  
Article
Fuzzy-Enhanced Modeling of Lignocellulosic Biomass Enzymatic Saccharification
by Vitor B. Furlong, Luciano J. Corrêa, Roberto C. Giordano and Marcelo P. A. Ribeiro
Energies 2019, 12(11), 2110; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12112110 - 01 Jun 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2158
Abstract
The enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass incorporates many physico-chemical phenomena, in a heterogeneous and complex media. In order to make the modeling task feasible, many simplifications must be assumed. Hence, different simplified models, such as Michaelis-Menten and Langmuir-based ones, have been used to [...] Read more.
The enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass incorporates many physico-chemical phenomena, in a heterogeneous and complex media. In order to make the modeling task feasible, many simplifications must be assumed. Hence, different simplified models, such as Michaelis-Menten and Langmuir-based ones, have been used to describe batch processes. However, these simple models have difficulties in predicting fed-batch operations with different feeding policies. To overcome this problem and avoid an increase in the complexity of the model by incorporating other phenomenological terms, a Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy approach has been proposed, which manages a consortium of different simple models for this process. Pretreated sugar cane bagasse was used as biomass in this case study. The fuzzy rule combines two Michaelis-Menten-based models, each responsible for describing the reaction path for a distinct range of solids concentrations in the reactor. The fuzzy model improved fitting and increased prediction in a validation data set. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels)
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21 pages, 4777 KiB  
Article
Anaerobic Digestion Technology for Methane Production Using Deer Manure Under Different Experimental Conditions
by Hanxi Wang, Jianling Xu, Lianxi Sheng, Xuejun Liu, Meihan Zong and Difu Yao
Energies 2019, 12(9), 1819; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12091819 - 13 May 2019
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 3910
Abstract
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an important technology for the treatment of livestock and poultry manure. The optimal experimental conditions were studied, with deer manure as a fermentation material and mushroom residue as an inoculum. At the same time, methane production was increased by [...] Read more.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an important technology for the treatment of livestock and poultry manure. The optimal experimental conditions were studied, with deer manure as a fermentation material and mushroom residue as an inoculum. At the same time, methane production was increased by adding zeolite and changing the magnetic field conditions. The results showed that a 6% solid content was the best condition for producing methane. The optimal conditions for methane production were obtained by adding 35 g of mushroom residue to 80 g of deer manure at 35 °C. The addition of organic wastewater (OW) improved methane production. The result of improving the methane production factor showed that adding zeolite during the reaction process could increase the methane production rate. When the amount of zeolite was over 8% total solids (TSes), methane production could improve, but the rate decreased. Setting a different magnetic field strength in the AD environment showed that when the distance between the magnetic field and the reactor was 50 mm and the magnetic field strength was 10–50 mT, the methane production increment and the content of methane in the mixed gases increased. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels)
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13 pages, 1196 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of the Use of Energy in the Production of Sweet Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench) under Different Production Systems
by Iosvany López-Sandin, Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Soto, Adriana Gutiérrez-Díez, Nancy Medina-Herrera, Edgar Gutiérrez-Castorena and Francisco Zavala-García
Energies 2019, 12(9), 1713; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12091713 - 06 May 2019
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2601
Abstract
The growing global demand for energy and the reduction of energy based on oil are driving the search for new sources of energy that are environmentally friendly. To achieve this goal, it is also necessary to optimize the related processes. In this study, [...] Read more.
The growing global demand for energy and the reduction of energy based on oil are driving the search for new sources of energy that are environmentally friendly. To achieve this goal, it is also necessary to optimize the related processes. In this study, the behavior of the agronomic parameters of, and the energy invested in, production systems based on a new variety of sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) called ROGER were determined to define the optimal production conditions. To this end, three methods of tillage (minimum, traditional, and traditional tillage with rupture of the plow layer) and three types of fertilizers (inorganic, organic, and without fertilizer) were established, and to estimate the energy efficiency, the inputs and the energy outputs of each system were considered. The traditional tillage with breaking of the plow layer and the organic fertilizer showed the highest values of plant height (2.45 and 2.39 m, respectively); total fresh weight of the plant (51.66 and 50.77 t·ha−1, respectively), of the stem (42.7 and 41.05 t·ha−1, respectively), and of the juice (21.89 and 22.57 t·ha−1, respectively); the volume of the juice (20,783.12 and 22,529.59 L·ha−1, respectively); and Brix degrees (16.04% and 15.01%, respectively). However, the highest energy efficiency was registered in the production system that used the minimum tillage, with a value of 15.11, as well as when no fertilizer was applied with 18.68. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels)
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15 pages, 1193 KiB  
Article
Sugarcane Bagasse Hydrolysis Enhancement by Microwave-Assisted Sulfolane Pretreatment
by Patricia Portero-Barahona, Enrique Javier Carvajal-Barriga, Jesús Martín-Gil and Pablo Martín-Ramos
Energies 2019, 12(9), 1703; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12091703 - 06 May 2019
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3691
Abstract
Sugarcane bagasse is the major by-product of the sugarcane industry and, due to its abundant availability, it has been extensively studied for lignocellulosic bioconversion in the production of bioethanol and other value-added commercial products. In the study presented herein, a combined pretreatment using [...] Read more.
Sugarcane bagasse is the major by-product of the sugarcane industry and, due to its abundant availability, it has been extensively studied for lignocellulosic bioconversion in the production of bioethanol and other value-added commercial products. In the study presented herein, a combined pretreatment using sulfolane, TiO2 and alkali microwave irradiation (MW-A) was assessed for the dissolution of lignin prior to enzymatic saccharification of holocellulose. Total reducing sugars (TRS) and saccharinic acid yields were investigated. The increase in NaOH concentration up to 5% and in temperature from 120 °C to 140 °C were found to have a positive influence on both yields. While increasing the reaction time from 5 to 60 min only led to an increase in TRS yield <2%, a reaction time of 30 min almost doubled the saccharinic acids production. TRS yields and saccharinic acid production were approximately 5% and 33% higher when the sulfolane-TiO2 reaction medium was used, as compared to MW-A in water, reaching up to 64.8% and 15.24 g/L of saccharinic acids, respectively. The proposed MW-A pretreatment may hold promise for industrial applications, given the good TRS yields obtained, and the associated enzyme and time/energy savings. The use of sulfolane-TiO2 reaction medium is encouraged if saccharinic acids are to be recovered too. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Pretreatment and Biomass Conversion to Biofuels)
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