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Special Issue "Advanced Biodiesel Production Processes"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 June 2022) | Viewed by 9009

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. María Dolores Redel-Macías

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Guest Editor

Department Rural Engineering, Ed Leonardo da Vinci, Campus de Rabanales, University of Cordoba, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Agroalimentario, ceiA3, 14071 Cordoba, Spain
Interests: renewable energy; biofuels; sound quality; scientific disclosure; women in engineering

Dr. Meisam Babaie

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Guest Editor

School of Science, Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, Manchester M54WT, UK
Interests: renewable/alternative energy; energy system analysis; modelling and optimization; air quality and emission control; modern automotive engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biofuel is one of the main renewable fuels capable of substituting fossil fuel in power generation and transportation. Although electric vehicles will be the one of the options for the substitution of internal combustion engines, until this substitution is complete, biofuel is an excellent alternative. It is particularly relevant in the mid-term for road transport and in the long-term for rail, marine, and aviation transport as well as electricity generation. Biofuel is a renewable and sustainable energy source made from raw materials and wastes, among other resources. Advanced technologies and processes are employed to produce biofuels, such as transesterification, esterification, pyrolysis, etc. Thus, due to the merits of biodiesel for environmental sustainability, bioenergy technologies and processes play a crucial role in renewable energy development. This Special Issue aims to publish a comprehensive overview and in-depth technical research papers addressing recent progress in biofuel processes and applications. Studies of advanced techniques and methods for biofuel production and biofuel applications are also welcomed. Research involving experimental and numerical studies, review papers, recent developments, and the current state-of-the-art and emerging technologies in this field are highly encouraged.

Prof. Dr. María Dolores Redel-Macías
Dr. Meisam Babaie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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

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

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biofuel production technologies
biofuel processing
biofuel process design and optimization
biofuel resources
emissions and environmental impact
bioenergy
biofuel applications

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Bibliometric Studies on Emissions from Diesel Engines Running on Alcohol/Diesel Fuel Blends. A Case Study about Noise Emissions

María Dolores Redel-Macías

Sara Pinzi

Meisam Babaie

Ali Zare

Antonio Cubero-Atienza

and

M. Pilar Dorado

Processes 2021, 9(4), 623; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9040623 - 01 Apr 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1884

Abstract

The growing demand for fossil fuels, the rise in their price and many environmental concerns strengthen the incessant search for fuel alternatives. Recently, traffic noise has been described as a threat to human health and the environment, being responsible for premature deaths. In this context, the usage of alcohol/diesel fuel blends in diesel engines has gained increasing impact as a substitute fuel for use in internal combustion engines. Moreover, alcohol can be derived from environmentally friendly processes, i.e., fermentation. Furthermore, alcohols can enhance combustion characteristics due to a rise of the oxygen concentration, thus decreasing major emissions such as soot and reducing knock. The commonly used alcohols blended with diesel fuel are methanol and ethanol, recently followed by butanol. In contrast, there are very few studies about propanol blends; however, emissions reduction (including noise) could be remarkable. In the present work, an analytical literature review about noise and exhaust emissions from alcohol/diesel fuel blends was performed. The literature review analysis revealed a continuous increase in the number of publications about alcohol/diesel fuel blend exhaust emissions since 2000, confirming the growing interest in this field. However, only few publications about noise emission were found. Then, an experimental case study of noise emitted by an engine running on different alcohol (ethanol, butanol and propanol)/diesel fuel blends was presented. Experimental results showed that although diesel fuel provided the best results regarding noise emissions, butanol displayed the least deviation from that of diesel fuel among all tested alcohol blends. It may be concluded that tested alcohol/diesel fuel blends in general, and butanol blends in particular, could be a promising alternative to diesel fuel, considering noise behavior. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Biodiesel Production Processes)

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Open AccessArticle

A Hybrid Genetic Programming–Gray Wolf Optimizer Approach for Process Optimization of Biodiesel Production

and

Processes 2021, 9(3), 442; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9030442 - 01 Mar 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1563

Abstract

Biodiesel is one the most sought after alternate fuels in the current global need for sustainable and renewable energy sources due to their lower emissions and no major modification requirement to existing engines. However, the performance and productivity of the biodiesel production process are significantly dependent on the process parameters. In this regard, a novel hybrid genetic programming-gray wolf optimizer approach for the process optimization of biodiesel production is proposed in this paper. For an illustration of the proposed approach, kinematic viscosity is expressed as a symbolic regression metamodel to account for the influence of catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, alcohol-to-oil molar ratio, and reaction time. Then, the genetic programming-based symbolic regression metamodel is used as an objective function by the gray wolf optimizer to optimize the process parameters. The obtained results show that the proposed approach is simple, accurate, and robust. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Biodiesel Production Processes)

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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

The Effects of Port Water Injection on Spark Ignition Engine Performance and Emissions Fueled by Pure Gasoline, E5 and E10

Farhad Salek

Meisam Babaie

Maria Dolores Redel-Macias

and

Processes 2020, 8(10), 1214; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8101214 - 27 Sep 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2860

Abstract

It has been proven that vehicle emissions such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are negatively affecting the health of human beings as well as the environment. In addition, it was recently highlighted that air pollution may result in people being more vulnerable to the deadly COVID-19 virus. The use of biofuels such as E5 and E10 as alternatives of gasoline fuel have been recommended by different researchers. In this paper, the impacts of port injection of water to a spark ignition engine fueled by gasoline, E5 and E10 on its performance and NOx production have been investigated. The experimental work was undertaken using a KIA Cerato engine and the results were used to validate an AVL BOOST model. To develop the numerical analysis, design of experiment (DOE) method was employed. The results showed that by increasing the ethanol fraction in gasoline/ethanol blend, the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) improved between 2.3% and 4.5%. However, the level of NOx increased between 22% to 48%. With port injection of water up to 8%, there was up to 1% increase in engine power whereas NOx and BSFC were reduced by 8% and 1%, respectively. The impacts of simultaneous changing of the start of combustion (SOC) and water injection rate on engine power and NOx production was also investigated. It was found that the NOx concentration is very sensitive to SOC variation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Biodiesel Production Processes)

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Review

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Open AccessFeature PaperReview

Noncatalytic Biodiesel Synthesis under Supercritical Conditions

Violeta Makareviciene

and

Egle Sendzikiene

Processes 2021, 9(1), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9010138 - 12 Jan 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1639

Abstract

The constant increase in greenhouse gases in the environment is forcing people to look for different ways to reduce such pollution. One of these ways is the use of biodiesel for road transport. Conventional biodiesel production involves the catalytic triglyceride transesterification process. When using homogeneous two-stage catalysis, it is difficult to purify the resulting product from the by-products formed, and the catalysts cannot be reused. In the case of heterogeneous catalysis, the process costs are increased due to separation and regeneration of the catalysts. To solve these problems of catalytic synthesis, a noncatalytic process has been recently studied that which takes place under supercritical conditions for an alcohol or other acyl receptor. In such biodiesel production, fatty feedstocks and alcohols are used as raw materials, with the synthesis taking place at supercritical conditions for alcohol, i.e., high temperature and pressure, thus making the process quite simple. This paper reviews the results obtained from biodiesel synthesis using a noncatalytic supercritical process for transesterification using both alcohols and carboxylate esters of low molecular weight, evaluating the optimal conditions for these processes and biofuel stability at high temperatures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Biodiesel Production Processes)

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