Biofuel production, generation, production method, biogas production

1. BIOFUEL
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2. Biofuels
• A biofuel is a fuel that contains energy from
geologically recent carbon fixation. These fuels are
produced from living organisms. Examples of this
carbon fixation occur in plants and microalgae.
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3. • Ethanol
• Biodiesel
• Other bioalcohols
• Green diesel
• Biofuel gasoline
• Vegetable oil
• Bioethers
• Biogas
• Syngas
• Solid biofuels
Second generation
biofuels
 Second generation biofuels,
also known as advanced
biofuels, are fuels that can
be manufactured from
various types of biomass
 Made from lignocellulosic
biomass or woody crops,
agricultural residues or
waste, which makes it
harder to extract the
required fuel.
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6. Third & fourth generation
• "Third-generation" algae biofuels and "fourth-generation"
biofuels that are either created using petroleum-like
hydroprocessing, advanced bio-chemistry, or revolutionary.
• The processes like Joule’s "solar-to-fuel" method that defies
any other category of biofuels opportunities that "advanced
biofuels" present are greatly misunderstood by both policy-
makers and financiers.
• While corn, sugar, and cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel are
what most people think about when they hear the term
"biofuel," none of these fuels are suitable candidates to ever
wean society off of its "addiction to oil."
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7. Biofuel production
Three different ways:
– Thermal conversion,
– Chemical conversion,
– Biochemical conversion.
• This biomass conversion can result in fuel in solid, liquid, or
gas form. This new biomass can be used for biofuels.
• Biofuels have increased in popularity because of rising oil
prices and the need for energy security.
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8. Biogas production
• Biogas is an inflammable gas produced by bacteria in the
process of fermentation of organic matter such as animal
manure under anaerobic conditions. The process takes place
in what is called a digester.
• The process of decomposition can take place only if:
I. Oxygen is excluded from the process (air – tight
conditions)
II. The raw material contains Nitrogen
III. The temperature is favorable – the optimum is
about 35 degrees Celsius (a range of 20 – 40) as a temperature
much below or above this retards or arrests the process
IV. The reaction is slightly alkaline, with pH of about
7.5
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9. Biogas production
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10. Examples of Digesters Around the World
India
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11. What is it used for?
• Biogas is a fuel used as an energy
source for light, heat or movement
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12. Application/use of Biogas digester
i. A bio digester makes an important contribution and improvement of
natural resources and environment through provision of energy for
cooking and lighting
ii. It can be used as a tool for clearing and digesting animal manure
making it better and ready as fertilizer for use in gardens and fish
ponds
iii. It improves the sanitary conditions in homesteads.
Among other advantages are: -
• Being smokeless, reduce amount of petroleum products needed by a
household, saves household time and money as well as firewood.
• The gas is non – poisonous.
• Biogas can be produced from and animal (cattle, pigs and chicken)
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13. Biodiesel
• A diesel fuel replacement
produced from vegetable
oils or animal fats through
the chemical process of
transesterification
• Mono-alkyl esters
• Biodiesel can be used in
any diesel motor in any
percent from 0-100% with
little or no modifications
to the engine
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14. The Chemistry of Biodiesel
• All fats and oils consist of
triglycerides
– Glycerol/glycerine = alcohol
– 3 fatty acid chains (FA)
• Transesterification describes the
reaction where glycerol is
replaced with a lighter and less
viscous alcohol
– e.g. Methanol or ethanol
• A catalyst (KOH or NaOH) is
needed to break the glycerol-FA
bonds
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15. Transesterification
(the biodiesel reaction)
Fatty Acid Chain
Glycerol
Methanol
(or Ethanol)
One triglyceride molecule is converted into
three mono alkyl ester (biodiesel) molecules
Biodiesel
Triglyceride
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16. Production methods
Biodiesel production is the process of producing the biofuel,
biodiesel, through the chemical reactions transesterification and
esterification. This involves vegetable or animal fats and oils
being reacted with short-chain alcohols (typically methanol or
ethanol).
Supercritical process
Ultra- and high-shear in-line and batch reactors
Ultrasonic reactor method
Lipase-catalyzed method
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17. Advantages
• Requires no engine
modifications (except replacing
some fuel lines on older
engines).
• Can be blended in any
proportion with petroleum
diesel fuel.
• High cetane number and
excellent lubricity.
• Very high flashpoint (>300°F)
• Can be made from waste
restaurant oils and animal fats
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18. Disadvantages
• Lower Energy Content
– 8% fewer BTU’s per gallon, but also higher cetane #, lubricity, etc.
• Poor cold weather performance
– This can be mitigated by blending with diesel fuel or with additives, or
using low gel point feedstocks such as rapeseed/canola.
• Stability Concerns
– Biodiesel is less oxidatively stable than petroleum diesel fuel. Old fuel
can become acidic and form sediments and varnish. Additives can
prevent this.
• Scalability
– Current feedstock technology limits large scalability
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20. Bioethanol
• The history of ethanol fuel in Brazil dates from the 1970s and
relates to Brazil’s sugarcane.
• Biologically produced alcohols, most commonly ethanol, and
less commonly propanol and butanol, are produced by the
action of microorganisms and enzymes through the
fermentation of sugars or starches (easiest), or cellulose
• Ethanol fuel is the most common biofuel worldwide,
particularly in Brazil.
• substrates
Wheat, corn, sugar beet,
sugar cane, molasses,
any sugar or starch
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21. Biomass
(cellulose, Hemicellulose, lignin)
Milled Biomass
Ethanol
Prehydrolysate Liquid
(xylose, 2-furaldehyde)
Pretreated solid
(cellulose, lignin)
Mechanical chipping/grinding
Pretreatment
(Dilute acid, 180oC)
FermentationEnzymatic saccharification
(fungal cellulases)
Hydrolyzed Solid
(lignin)
Hydrolysate Liquid
(glucose)
Ethanol
fermentation
Ethanol
production
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22. Reduction of pyruvate to ethanol (microorganism)
• It occurs by the 2 reactions shown below:
• The overall reaction of alcohol fermentation:
• Glc+2ADP +2P---------> 2 Ethanol + 2CO2 + 2ATP + 2 H2O
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23. Advantages
• It reduces greenhouse gases.
• It reduces the amount of high-octane additives.
• The fuel spills are more easily biodegraded or
diluted to non toxic concentrations.
• Exhaust gases of ethanol are much cleaner, it burns
more cleanly (more complete combustion)
• Positive energy balance
• You can use any plant for production of bioethanol,
it only has to contain sugar and starch.
• It is carbon neutral
• Ethanol-blended fuel as E10 (10% ethanol and
90% gasoline) reduces greenhouse gases by up to
3.9%
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24. Disadvantages
• Biodiversity
• The food Vs. fuel debate
• Carbon emissions
• Transportation – ethanol is
hygroscopic
• Pure ethanol is also difficult to
vaporize
• phosphorous and nitrogen used
in the production have negative
effect on the environment
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25. Current research
Ethanol biofuel
• The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) is a
research division of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
dedicated solely to ethanol-based biofuel research projects.
• On the federal level, the USDA conducts a large amount of
research regarding ethanol production in the United States.
Much of this research is targeted toward the effect of ethanol
production on domestic food markets.
• A division of the U.S. Department of Energy, the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), has also conducted
various ethanol research projects, mainly in the area of
cellulosic ethanol.
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26. Algal biofuel
• In 1942 Harder and von Witsch were the first to propose
that microalgae be grown as a source of lipids for food or fuel.
• Following World War II, research began in the US,
Germany, Japan, England, and Israel on culturing techniques
and engineering systems for growing microalgae on larger
scales, particularly species in the genus Chlorella.
• Meanwhile, H. G. Aach showed
that Chlorella pyrenoidosa could be induced
via nitrogen starvation to accumulate as
much as 70% of its dry weight as lipids.
• Since the need for alternative transportation
fuel had subsided after World War II,
research at this time focused on culturing
algae as a food source or, in some cases, for
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27. • Algae fuel or algal biofuel is an alternative to fossil fuel that
uses algae as its source of natural deposits.
• Several companies and government agencies are funding
efforts to reduce capital and operating costs and make algae
fuel production commercially viable.
• Like fossil fuel, algae fuel releases CO2 when burnt, but
unlike fossil fuel, algae fuel and other biofuels only
release CO2 recently removed from the atmosphere via
photosynthesis as the algae or plant grew.
• Many companies are pursuing algae bioreactors for various
purposes, including scaling up biofuels production to
commercial levels.[69][70] Prof. Rodrigo E. Teixeira from the
University of Alabama in Huntsville demonstrated the
extraction of biofuels lipids from wet algae using a simple and
economical reaction in ionic liquids
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28. Jatropha
• Several groups in various sectors are conducting
research on Jatropha curcas, a poisonous shrub-like
tree that produces seeds considered by many to be a
viable source of biofuels feedstock oil.
• Much of this research focuses on improving the
overall per acre oil yield of Jatropha through
advancements in genetics, soil science, and
horticultural practices.
Fungi • A group at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, in a 2008
paper, stated they had isolated large amounts of lipids from single-
celled fungi and turned it into biofuels in an economically efficient
manner.
• More research on this fungal species, Cunninghamella japonica, and
others, is likely to appear in the near future.
• The recent discovery of a variant of the fungus Gliocladium roseum
points toward the production of so-called myco-diesel from
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29. References
• Biotechnology expanding horizons/ B.D.Singh/ Kalyani
publishers (2013).
• A text book of biotechnology/ R.C.Dubey/ S.Chand&
company ltd (2012).
• Biotechnology/ U.Sathyanarayana.
• www.bebioenergy.com- Biodiesel, Farming for the Future
• http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/index.html
• http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/publications.html
• www.bioproducts
bioenergy.gov/pdfs/bcota/abstracts/19/z347.pdf
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