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Biomass Power Generation Technologies

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A4: Bio-Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 January 2022) | Viewed by 5771

Special Issue Editor

School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
Interests: Biomass; municipal solid waste; biosolids; renewable energy technologies; gasification; torrefaction; combustion; smouldering; biohydrogen; CFD analysis of thermal systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2015, provide a powerful framework for international cooperation to achieve a sustainable future for the planet. Among various sources, biomass is a crucial requirement of global alteration from coal energy. Biomass is a renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals. Bioenergy is carbon-neutral energy generated from renewable organic waste that would otherwise be dumped in landfills, openly burned or left as fodder for forest fires. Organic waste can be converted to bioenergy using a range of technologies depending on the type of feedstock (raw material), scale/size of the project and form of energy to be produced. Biomass is converted to energy through various processes, including direct combustion (burning) to produce heat; thermochemical conversion to produce solid, gaseous and liquid fuels; chemical conversion to produce liquid fuels; and biological conversion to produce liquid and gaseous fuels. Some conversion processes also produce byproducts that can be used to make useful materials and even biomass-based concrete. Therefore, biomasses are potentially major future renewable energy resources, with developed bioenergy systems being considered as vital contributors to future sustainable energy production. Additionally, advanced and innovative biomass power generation technologies are vital to the transition to sustainable energy systems. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to publish and feature various existing and future technologies in biomass power generation. Research highlighting innovations, recent developments, current state of the art, emerging technologies, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis of biomass power generation technologies, etc. along with other notable topics in this field are highly encouraged.

Dr. Jeeban Poudel
Guest Editor

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
  • biofuel
  • thermochemical conversion
  • chemical conversion
  • biological conversion
  • gasification
  • combustion
  • pyrolysis
  • torrefaction
  • smouldering
  • process modelling
  • CFD analysis

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 28795 KiB  
Article
Classification of Geomembranes as Raw Material for Defects Reduction in the Manufacture of Biodigesters Using an Artificial Neuronal Network
by Rocio Camarena-Martinez, Rocio A. Lizarraga-Morales and Roberto Baeza-Serrato
Energies 2021, 14(21), 7345; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14217345 - 04 Nov 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1681
Abstract
Recently, biodigesters have attracted much attention as an efficient alternative for energy generation and organic waste treatment. The final performance of a biodigester depends heavily on the quality of its building process and the selection of its raw material: the geomembrane. The geomembrane [...] Read more.
Recently, biodigesters have attracted much attention as an efficient alternative for energy generation and organic waste treatment. The final performance of a biodigester depends heavily on the quality of its building process and the selection of its raw material: the geomembrane. The geomembrane is the coat that covers the biodigester used to control the migration of fluids. Therefore, the selection of the proper geomembrane, in terms of thickness, resistance, flexibility, etc., is fundamental. Unfortunately, there are no studies for the selection of geomembranes, and usually, it is an empirical process performed by workers based on their own experience. Such empirical selection might be inaccurate, limited, inconvenient, and even dangerous. In order to assist workers during the building process of a biodigester, this study proposes the use of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to classify a geomembrane as appropriate or not appropriate for the manufacture of a biodigester. The ANN is trained with a database built from qualitative and quantitative evaluations of different characteristics of geomembranes. The results indicate that the proposed ANN classifies the most suitable geomembranes with a 99.9% success rate. The proposed ANN becomes a reliable tool that contributes to the quality and safety of a biodigester. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Power Generation Technologies)
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14 pages, 1972 KiB  
Article
Hydrothermal Treatment of Empty Fruit Bunches to Enhance Fuel Characteristics
by Hyeok Jin Kim, Chan Park, Rabin Nepal and Sea Cheon Oh
Energies 2021, 14(5), 1467; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14051467 - 08 Mar 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1553
Abstract
Hydrothermal pretreatment of biomass can improve fuel characteristics based on the decomposition properties of subcritical water. Thus, this study used a hydrothermal treatment to improve the fuel characteristics of empty fruit bunches (EFBs), which are generated as waste after palm oil extraction. The [...] Read more.
Hydrothermal pretreatment of biomass can improve fuel characteristics based on the decomposition properties of subcritical water. Thus, this study used a hydrothermal treatment to improve the fuel characteristics of empty fruit bunches (EFBs), which are generated as waste after palm oil extraction. The experimental reaction temperature was increased from 180 °C to 250 °C at an interval of 10 °C and the mass ratios between the dry sample and water content were set to 1:8 and 1:16 so that the sample was sufficiently immersed. Additionally, the material properties of EFB under hydrothermal treatment conditions were investigated using mass and energy yields, elemental analysis, proximate analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, derivative thermogravimetry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of the reaction products. As the reaction temperature increased, the fixed carbon content and heating value increased because volatile matter, including oxygen, was removed first, which is similar characteristics to coal. All analyses revealed that the water content exhibited little influence on EFB material properties since the samples were sufficiently immersed in water. Thus, it is not necessary to add more water that required for sample immersion for the hydrothermal treatment of EFB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Power Generation Technologies)
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18 pages, 19766 KiB  
Article
Combustion Melting Characterisation of Solid Fuel Obtained from Sewage Sludge
by Dongju Kim, Dong-kyoo Park, Yong-taek Lim, Soo-nam Park, Yeong-Su Park and Kyunghyun Kim
Energies 2021, 14(4), 805; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en14040805 - 03 Feb 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1866
Abstract
Solid fuelization technology can increase the heating value of sewage sludge such that it can be utilised as a fossil fuel substitutes. Reducing landfilling of bottom and fly ash resulting from heavy metals contained in sewage sludge is challenging. Hence, combustion melting technology [...] Read more.
Solid fuelization technology can increase the heating value of sewage sludge such that it can be utilised as a fossil fuel substitutes. Reducing landfilling of bottom and fly ash resulting from heavy metals contained in sewage sludge is challenging. Hence, combustion melting technology (CMT), which can discharge bottom ash in the form of slag, has been proposed herein as an alternative to the conventional incineration technology. However, further research is required to improve the flowability of slag. Applicability of CMT for the stable treatment of heavy metals in the ash generated during the energisation of sewage sludge solid fuel has been reviewed. The change in the degree of fluidity was identified via a laboratory-scale fluidity measurement experiment following changes in melting temperature, mixing ratio of sewage sludge and sawdust, and basicity. The pouring index (PI) of sewage sludge solid fuel (pellet) was maintained at a level of about 60% at a basicity index of 0.8. Based on the results, the slagging rates and volume reduction rates, exhaust gas analysis, and heavy metal elution characteristics under oxygen enrichment were derived from a 2 ton/day combustion melting pilot plant experiment; thereafter, the feasibility of combustion melting of sewage sludge solid fuel was determined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomass Power Generation Technologies)
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