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Dear Colleagues,

Energy is one of the most important indicators of economic and social development. With a reduction in the use of conventional fossil fuels in mind, there is an aspiration for a safer, more sustainable, and more continuous energy supply, as well as future low carbon scenarios, it is expected that an increase in the production and consumption of RES will be even more present on a global level in the upcoming years. Moreover, decarbonizing transport will require a range of bio-based transport fuels, and especially advanced low carbon fuels which are suitable for long-haul transport applications including aviation. Therefore, it is expected that biomass will have the greatest contribution to achieving growth in the biofuel production sector, by introducing energy crops into the supply chain itself. Low requirements for fertilization and minimum application of herbicides makes energy crops environmentally friendly, but can also ensure the sustainability of the biomass supply, while using marginal lands for their growth. This makes both fuel output and climate benefits per unit of land important parameters, and, as such, life-cycle assessment is used to identify the aspects of the most important environmental impacts.

Therefore, authors are invited to contribute work related to the potential topics of this Special Issue, which include, but are not limited to, growing novel energy crops for biofuel production, analysis of biomass quality, biogas/ethanol production development processes, and advanced biofuels' production.

Dr. Vanja Jurišić
Guest Editor

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Keywords

biofuels
lignocellulosic biomass
annual energy crops
perennial energy crops
marginal lands
biochemical conversion
thermochemical conversion
ethanol
biogas
transport fuels
advanced biofuels
LCA

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

19 pages, 2978 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ultrasonication Assisted Catalytic Transesterification of Ceiba Pentandra (Kapok) Oil Derived Biodiesel Using Immobilized Iron Nanoparticles

by Mithileth Pasawan, Shiao-Shing Chen, Bhanupriya Das, Hau-Ming Chang, Chang-Tang Chang, Thi Xuan Quynh Nguyen, Hong-Ming Ku and Yue-Fang Chen

Fuels 2022, 3(1), 113-131; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/fuels3010008 - 22 Feb 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2334

Abstract

The embedded immobilized enzymes (Rhizopus-oryzae) on the magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄-NPs) is a new application for the sustainable production of high-quality biodiesel. In this study, biodiesel is derived from Kapok oil via ultrasonication (US)-assisted catalytic transesterification method. A novel attempt is made to prepare magnetic nanoparticles embedded by an immobilized enzyme to solve the problem of enzyme denaturation. This innovative method resulted in optimum biodiesel conversion of 89 ± 1.17% under reactant molar ratio (methanol: oil) of 6:1, catalyst loading 10 wt% with a reaction time of 4 h at 60 °C. The kinetic and thermal study reveals that conversion of Kapok oil to biodiesel follows a pseudo first-order reaction kinetic with a lower ΔE of 30.79 kJ mol⁻¹. The ΔH was found to be 28.06 kJ mol⁻¹ with a corresponding ΔS of −237.12 J mol⁻¹ K⁻¹ for Fatty Acid Methyl Ester formation. The ΔG was calculated to be from 102.28 to 109.40 kJ mol⁻¹ for temperature from 313 K to 343 K. The positive value of ΔH and ΔG is an indication of endothermic and non-spontaneous reaction. A negative ΔS indicates the reactant in the transition state possesses a higher degree of ordered geometry than in its ground state. The immobilized catalysts provided great advantages towards product separation and efficient biodiesel production. Highlights: 1. Effective catalytic transesterification assisted by the ultrasonication method was used for bi-odiesel production. 2. Magnetite nanoparticles synthesized by the co-precipitation method were used as heteroge-neous catalysts. 3. An immobilized enzyme (Rhizopus-oryzae) was embedded in the heterogeneous catalyst, as it is reusable and cost-effective. 4. The maximum biodiesel yield obtained from Kapok oil was 93 ± 1.04% by catalytic trans-esterification reactions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Crops for Biofuel Production)

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