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Energy Valorization of Sustainable Biomass and Bioresidues

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 12651

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. VItaliano Chiodo

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Guest Editor

CNR-Istituto di Tecnologie Avanzate per l′Energia “Nicola Giordano”, Via Salita S. Lucia sopra Contesse 5, 98126 Messina, Italy
Interests: biofuels; alternative fuels; bioenergy; biomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Mauro Prestipino

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Guest Editor

Department of Engineering, University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: renewable energy systems; process simulation; bioenergy; thermodynamic sustainability; combined heat and power; polygeneration systems; bio-hydrogen production

Prof. Dr. Antonio Galvagno

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Guest Editor

Department of Engineering, University of Messina, C.da Di Dio, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: energy systems; engines; gas turbines; renewable energy; bioenergy; biomass gasification; process simulations; CHP

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The bioenergy sector is gaining additional interest in the last year.

Biomass is a programmable source of renewable primary energy that can be exploited for bioenergy and biofuel production and utilization. Bioenergy can facilitate the energy transition and replace fossil fuels by converting traditional fossil-based energy and fuel infrastructures. The benefits of bioenergy rely on the neutral or low-carbon nature of such a form of renewable energy. The exploitation of sustainable feedstocks and processes is crucial for effectively addressing climate challenges. To this regard, sustainable forest management, nonfood energy crops, and bioresidues from agricultural, urban, and industrial activities are potential sources of local sustainable feedstocks. The different nature of these residues requires the production of experimental and simulation data for the optimization of technologies and processes for both biomass conversion and downstream application (e.g., fuel upgrading and utilization). Furthermore, the proper process integration allows the efficient and sustainable use of bioresources for the development of local low-carbon energy.

This Special Issue will provide a multidisciplinary analysis of sustainable biomass conversion technologies and processes for biofuel production and utilization. The Guest Editors welcome the submission of original research papers and review papers investigating topics related to Energy Valorization of Sustainable Biomass and Bioresidues, including but not limited to:

Process and technologies for sustainable biomass and bio-residues conversion to bio-fuels (thermochemical, biochemical, etc.);
Process and technologies for utilization of sustainable bio-fuel (e.g., reforming, upgrading, using in engines and fuel cells);
Polygeneration from sustainable biomass and bio-residues;
Integrated biofuels and bioenergy production systems;
Energy and exergy analysis of bioenergy and biofuel processes;
Integrating bioenergy with other renewable energy technologies and systems;
Planning and designing innovative bioenergy systems and supply chains;
Assessment of carbon emissions of bioenergy and biofuel production systems.

Dr. VItaliano Chiodo
Dr. Mauro Prestipino
Prof. Dr. Antonio Galvagno
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

bioenergy
biofuels
biomass
bio-residues
bioenergy systems
biomass conversion technologies

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 1745 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Combined Bio-Hydrogen, Heat, and Power Production Based on Residual Biomass Gasification: Energy, Exergy, and Renewability Assessment of an Alternative Process Configuration

by Mauro Prestipino, Antonio Piccolo, Maria Francesca Polito and Antonio Galvagno

Energies 2022, 15(15), 5524; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15155524 - 29 Jul 2022

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 1986

Abstract

Bio-hydrogen from residual biomass may involve energy-intensive pre-treatments for drying and size management, as in the case of wet agro-industrial residues. This work assesses the performance of an alternative process layout for bio-hydrogen production from citrus peel gasification, with the aim of cogenerating heat and power along with hydrogen, using minimal external energy sources. The process consists of an air-steam fluidized bed reactor, a hydrogen separation unit, a hydrogen compression unit, and a combined heat and power unit fed by the off-gas of the separation unit. Process simulations were carried out to perform sensitivity analyses to understand the variation in bio-hydrogen production’s thermodynamic and environmental performance when the steam to biomass ratios (S/B) vary from 0 to 1.25 at 850 °C. In addition, energy and exergy efficiencies and the integrated renewability (IR) of bio-hydrogen production are evaluated. As main results, the analysis showed that the highest hydrogen yield is 40.1 kg_H2 per mass of dry biomass at S/B = 1.25. Under these conditions, the exergy efficiency of the polygeneration system is 33%, the IR is 0.99, and the carbon footprint is −1.9 kg_CO2-eq/kg_H2. Negative carbon emissions and high values of the IR are observed due to the substitution of non-renewable resources operated by the cogenerated streams. The proposed system demonstrated for the first time the potential of bio-hydrogen production from citrus peel and the effects of steam flow variation on thermodynamic performance. Furthermore, the authors demonstrated how bio-hydrogen could be produced with minimal external energy input while cogenerating net heat and power by exploiting the off-gas in a cogeneration unit. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Valorization of Sustainable Biomass and Bioresidues)

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38 pages, 5543 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Multi-Criteria Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Nitrogen and Sulfur Fertilization in Different Cultivars of Winter Rapeseed—Productivity, Economic and Energy Balance

by Dariusz Antoni Groth, Mateusz Sokólski and Krzysztof Józef Jankowski

Energies 2020, 13(18), 4654; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13184654 - 07 Sep 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 2285

Abstract

This article presents the results of a three-year experiment involving a multi-criteria evaluation (productivity, economic and energy balance) of the effectiveness of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) fertilization in different cultivars of winter oilseed rape (open-pollinated, semi-dwarf hybrid, long-stem hybrid) grown in north-eastern (NE) Poland. The yield of the semi-dwarf cultivar was 11% lower than the yield of the long-stem hybrid cultivar and 18% higher than the yield of the open-pollinated cultivar. In all cultivars, N fertilization improved yields up to a rate of 180 kg ha⁻¹ and up to a rate of 230 kg ha⁻¹ in years with low precipitation in spring and summer. Seed yield increased in all cultivars in response to S fertilization at 40 kg ha⁻¹. Higher rates of N fertilizer decreased the content of crude fat and glucosinolates (GLS) and increased the concentration of total protein in all cultivars. Sulfur fertilization increased the content of total protein (in long-stem cultivars) and GLS (in all cultivars). Production costs ranged from €542–624 ha⁻¹ (≤130 kg N ha⁻¹) to €619–697 ha⁻¹ (≥180 kg N ha⁻¹). The demand for energy in the production of winter rapeseed ranged from 14.5–19.3 GJ ha⁻¹ (≤130 kg N ha⁻¹) to 22.4–27.0 GJ ha⁻¹ (≥180 kg N ha⁻¹). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Valorization of Sustainable Biomass and Bioresidues)

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22 pages, 3866 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Novel Approach to Minimize Energy Requirements and Maximize Biomass Utilization of the Sugarcane Harvesting System in Sri Lanka

by Thilanka Ariyawansha, Dimuthu Abeyrathna, Buddhika Kulasekara, Devananda Pottawela, Dinesh Kodithuwakku, Sandya Ariyawansha, Natasha Sewwandi, WBMAC Bandara, Tofael Ahamed and Ryozo Noguchi

Energies 2020, 13(6), 1497; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13061497 - 22 Mar 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5159

Abstract

Sugarcane harvesting requires a significant amount of energy and time to manage dry leaves after the harvesting process. Therefore, the objective of this study was to minimize the energy requirement to process the cane and dry leaves’ harvesting (CDLH) for sugarcane while, at the same time, maximizing sugar production from cane and energy from dry leaves in Sri Lanka. The CDLH was conceptualized using a novel approach to optimize sugarcane harvesting to maximize biomass supply for energy production while reducing supply chain sugar-loss. The CDLH was investigated for manual harvesting capacity, energy consumption, sugar loss, and biomass energy potential. It was observed that CDLH consumed higher energy compared to the present practices of harvesting. However, the energy used for fieldwork was reduced because of the shifting of cane chopping and cleaning from the field to the factory. Low bulk density of the harvested cane of the CDLH system had a higher energy requirement in transportation. Comparatively, CDLH showed higher biomass energy potential and less sugar loss. High energy potential increases the energy potential to consumption ratio compared to the existing method. Therefore, the theoretical evaluation showed that the CDLH system can produce more than 20 kg of sugar and 879 MJ of electricity when processing 1 t of sugarcane. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Valorization of Sustainable Biomass and Bioresidues)

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11 pages, 1825 KiB

Open AccessPerspective

Organic Waste Gasification by Ultra-Superheated Steam

by Sergey M. Frolov

Energies 2023, 16(1), 219; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en16010219 - 25 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2024

Abstract

The perspective of the emerging environmentally friendly and economically efficient detonation gun technology for the high-temperature gasification of organic wastes with ultra-superheated mixture of steam and carbon dioxide is discussed. The technology is readily scalable and allows the establishment of a highly reactive atmospheric-pressure environment in a compact water-cooled gasifier due to very high local temperature (above 2000 °C), intense in situ shock-induced fragmentation of feedstock, and high-speed vortical convective flows enhancing interphase exchange processes. These unique and distinctive features of the technology can potentially provide the complete conversion of solid and liquid wastes into syngas, consisting exclusively of hydrogen and carbon monoxide; microparticles, consisting of environmentally safe simple oxides and salts of mineral residues, as well as aqueous solutions of oxygen-free acids such as HCl, HF, H₂S, etc., and ammonia NH₃. A small part of the syngas product (ideally approximately 10%) can be used for replacing a starting fuel (e.g., natural gas) for the production of a detonation-born gasifying agent, while the rest can be utilized for the production of electricity, heat, and/or chemicals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Valorization of Sustainable Biomass and Bioresidues)

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