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Bioenergy and Environment

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 4671

Special Issue Editors

Natural Resources Institute. Chemical, Environmental and Bioprocess Engineering Group, University of León, 24071 León, Spain
Interests: Pyrolysis of biomass and organic waste, hydrothermal carbonization of biomass and organic waste, energy valorization of waste from biomass, co-pyrolysis of waste from biomass.
Natural Resources Institute. Chemical, Environmental and Bioprocess Engineering Group, University of León, 24071-León, SPAIN.
Interests: microbial fuel cell, microbial electrolysis cell, CO2 valorization, waste treatments, microbial electrosyntesis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Throughout the world, bioenergy is becoming more relevant, increasingly replacing other types of non-renewable sources such as coal or natural gas. However, in the context of sustainability, bioenergy exerts positive and negative impacts on a variety of environmental and economic problems. This special issue aims to discuss the problems and impacts of bioenergy in society, taking into account the technical, economic, cultural, energy and environmental policies of the countries.

The growing global concern about greenhouse gases and the current trend of decarbonization to reduce the increase in temperature on Earth and its consequences, is driving the production of energy increasingly sustainable with the environment. Although bioenergy is considered a renewable energy, the production of energy from biomass or waste derived from biomass is not accepted as much in the social level as in the case of other clean energies, such as solar energy. A biorefinery includes all those technologies for obtaining biofuels and other added-value chemical compounds from biomass and waste derived from it.

This special issue seeks original contributions on the developments in the technology of obtaining energy from the biomass or waste derived from it, and its involvement at an environmental and economic level. Potential topics include but are not limited to: thermoconversion of biomass and derived waste, combustion, pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization. Anaerobic digestion processes, microbial fuel cells. Life cycle assessment of biomass and waste treatment processes derived from biomass. Calculation of the carbon footprint for all processes of obtaining bioenergy.

Dr. Jorge Cara-Jiménez
Dr. Raul Mateos
Guest Editors

References:

  1. Alejandro Padilla-Rivera, María Guadalupe Paredes, Leonor Patricia Güereca. A systematic review of the sustainability assessment of bioenergy: The case of gaseous biofuels. Biomass and Bioenergy, Volume 125, June 2019, Pages 79-94.
  2. Reo Iigatani, Toshihiro Ito, Fumiko Watanabe, Miyuki Nagamine, Kengo Inoue. Electricity generation from sweet potato-shochu waste using microbial fuel cells. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Volume 128, Issue 1, July 2019, Pages 56-63.
  3. Natalia Gómez, José Guillermo Rosas, Jorge Cara, Olegario Martínez, José Antonio Alburquerque, Marta Elena Sánchez. Slow pyrolysis of relevant biomasses in the Mediterranean basin. Part 1. Effect of temperature on process performance on a pilot scale. Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 120, 2016, Pages 181-190.
  4. Raúl Delgado, José Guillermo Rosas, Natalia Gómez, Olegario Martínez, Marta Elena Sanchez, Jorge Cara. Energy valorisation of crude glycerol and corn straw by means of slow co-pyrolysis: Production and characterisation of gas, char and bio-oil. Fuel, Volume 112, 2013, Pages 31-37.
  5. J.D. Marin-Batista, J.A. Villamil, J.J. Rodriguez, A.F. Mohedano, M.A. de la Rubia. Valorization of microalgal biomass by hydrothermal carbonization and anaerobic digestion. Bioresource Technology,
  6. Volume 274, 2019, Pages 395-402.
  7. B. Holmatov, A.Y. Hoekstra, M.S. Krol. Land, water and carbon footprints of circular bioenergy production systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 111, 2019, Pages 224-235.
  8. Jenol, Mohd A.; Ibrahim, Mohamad F.; Kamal Bahrin, Ezyana; Kim, Seung W.; Abd-Aziz, Suraini. "Direct Bioelectricity Generation from Sago Hampas by Clostridium beijerinckiiSR1 Using Microbial Fuel Cell." Molecules 24, 2019, n. 13.
  9. A. Escapa, R. Mateos, E.J. Martínez, J. Blanes. Microbial electrolysis cells: An emerging technology for wastewater treatment and energy recovery. From laboratory to pilot plant and beyond. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 55, 2016, Pages 942-956.

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. Sustainability 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 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

  • biomass
  • biofuel
  • life cycle assessment
  • carbon footprint
  • combustion
  • pyrolysis
  • hydrothermal carbonization
  • bioelectrochemical systems
  • biogas

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2599 KiB  
Article
Long-Term Assessment of Temperature Management in an Industrial Scale Biogas Plant
by Senem Onen Cinar, Abdullah Nsair, Nils Wieczorek and Kerstin Kuchta
Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 612; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14020612 - 06 Jan 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1571
Abstract
Temperature management is one of the primary considerations of biogas plant operation, and influences physical and biochemical processes. An increase in the temperature leads to an increase in the hydrolysis rate of the feedstock, while it can inhibit microorganisms taking part in different [...] Read more.
Temperature management is one of the primary considerations of biogas plant operation, and influences physical and biochemical processes. An increase in the temperature leads to an increase in the hydrolysis rate of the feedstock, while it can inhibit microorganisms taking part in different stages of anaerobic digestion. Because of the complexity of the biochemical processes within the anaerobic digestion process, there is a lack of knowledge about the effects of temperature and temperature change on efficiency. Moreover, the impact of stirring directly affects the temperature distribution in the anaerobic digestion reactors. In this study, the temperature management in an industrial-scale biogas plant was examined, and the effect of small temperature changes (from the operation temperature 42 °C) on the efficiency was studied in a laboratory under two different conditions: with stirring (at 40 and 44 °C) and without stirring (at 40 and 44 °C). The examination results from the biogas plant showed that heat transfer in the reactor was not sufficient at the bottom of the digester. Adaptation of the post-digester samples to the temperature changes was more challenging than that of the digester samples. From digestate samples, higher biomethane generation could be obtained, resulting from sufficient contact between microorganisms, enzymes, and substrates. Overall, differences between these changing conditions (approx. 6 NmL CH4 g VS−1) were not significant and could be adapted by the process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioenergy and Environment)
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18 pages, 1667 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Joint Management of Pine Wood Waste and Residual Microalgae for Agricultural Application
by José Guillermo Rosas, Natalia Gómez, Jorge Cara-Jiménez, Judith González-Arias, Miguel Ángel Olego and Marta E. Sánchez
Sustainability 2021, 13(1), 53; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13010053 - 23 Dec 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2351
Abstract
This work addresses the joint management of residual microalgae and pine wood waste through pyrolysis to obtain a solid product for its use as soil amendment and two other by-products (liquid and gaseous) that can be used for energy purposes. Two management routes [...] Read more.
This work addresses the joint management of residual microalgae and pine wood waste through pyrolysis to obtain a solid product for its use as soil amendment and two other by-products (liquid and gaseous) that can be used for energy purposes. Two management routes have been followed. The first route is through the co-pyrolysis of mixtures of both residual materials in several proportions and the later use of their solid fraction for soil amendment. The second route is the pyrolysis of pine wood waste and its direct combination with dried residual microalgae, also using it as soil amendment. The solid fraction assessment shows that from seven solid products (biochar) three stand out for their positive applicability in agriculture as soil amendment. In addition, they also present the benefit of serving as carbon sink, giving a negative balance of CO2 emissions. However, caution is suggested due to biochar applicability being subject to soil characteristics. To ensure the sustainability of the overall process, the energy available in liquid and gaseous fractions has been assessed for covering the drying needs of the residual microalgae in both cases. These results suggest that the pyrolysis process is a sustainable way to manage specific evaluated residues and their products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioenergy and Environment)
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