F. Aderibigbe, Sherif Ishola Mustapha, T. L. Adewoye, Ishaq Alhassan Mohammed, Adebola Bukola Gbadegesin, F. Niyi, Opeyemi Idowu Olowu, Akinpelumi Gabriel Soretire, H. B. Saka
Biodiesel properties are in general attributed to the composition and properties of the oil feedstock used, overlooking the possible impacts of the catalyst preparation details. In light of that, the impacts of different catalyst preparation techniques alongside those of different support materials on the yield, composition, and fuel properties of biodiesels produced from the same oil feedstock were investigated. More specifically, tri-metallic (Fe-Co-Ni) catalyst was synthesized through two different techniques (green synthesis and wet impregnation) using MgO or ZnO as support material. The generated catalyst pairs, i.e., Fe-Co-Ni/MgO and Fe-Co-Ni/ZnO prepared by wet impregnation and Fe-Co-Ni-MgO and Fe-Co-Ni-ZnO prepared by green synthesis (using leaf extracts) were used in the transesterification process of Jatropha curcas oil. Detailed morphological properties, composition, thermal stability, crystalline nature, and functional groups characterization of the catalysts were also carried out. Using Box-Behnken Design response surface methodology, it was found that the green-synthesized Fe-Co-Ni-MgO catalyst resulted in the highest biodiesel yield of 97.9%. More importantly, the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles of the biodiesels produced using the four catalysts as well as their respective fuel properties were different in spite of using the same oil feedstock.
{"title":"Qualitative role of heterogeneous catalysts in biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas oil","authors":"F. Aderibigbe, Sherif Ishola Mustapha, T. L. Adewoye, Ishaq Alhassan Mohammed, Adebola Bukola Gbadegesin, F. Niyi, Opeyemi Idowu Olowu, Akinpelumi Gabriel Soretire, H. B. Saka","doi":"10.18331/brj2020.7.2.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18331/brj2020.7.2.4","url":null,"abstract":"Biodiesel properties are in general attributed to the composition and properties of the oil feedstock used, overlooking the possible impacts of the catalyst preparation details. In light of that, the impacts of different catalyst preparation techniques alongside those of different support materials on the yield, composition, and fuel properties of biodiesels produced from the same oil feedstock were investigated. More specifically, tri-metallic (Fe-Co-Ni) catalyst was synthesized through two different techniques (green synthesis and wet impregnation) using MgO or ZnO as support material. The generated catalyst pairs, i.e., Fe-Co-Ni/MgO and Fe-Co-Ni/ZnO prepared by wet impregnation and Fe-Co-Ni-MgO and Fe-Co-Ni-ZnO prepared by green synthesis (using leaf extracts) were used in the transesterification process of Jatropha curcas oil. Detailed morphological properties, composition, thermal stability, crystalline nature, and functional groups characterization of the catalysts were also carried out. Using Box-Behnken Design response surface methodology, it was found that the green-synthesized Fe-Co-Ni-MgO catalyst resulted in the highest biodiesel yield of 97.9%. More importantly, the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles of the biodiesels produced using the four catalysts as well as their respective fuel properties were different in spite of using the same oil feedstock.","PeriodicalId":46938,"journal":{"name":"Biofuel Research Journal-BRJ","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42154056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abudukeremu Kadier, Pratiksha Jain, Bin Lai, M. S. Kalil, S. Kondaveeti, K. Alabbosh, I. Abu-Reesh, G. Mohanakrishna
The degradation of waste organics through microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) generates hydrogen (H2) gas in an economically efficient way. MEC is known as the advanced concept of the microbial fuel cell (MFC) but requires a minor amount of supplementary electrical energy to produce H2 in the cathode microenvironment. Different bio/processes could be integrated to generate additional energy from the substrate used in MECs, which would make the whole process more sustainable. On the other hand, the energy required to drive the MEC mechanism could be harvested from renewable energy sources. These integrations could advance the efficiency and economic feasibility of the whole process. The present review critically discusses all the integrations investigated to date with MECs such as MFCs, anaerobic digestion, microbial desalination cells, membrane bioreactors, solar energy harvesting systems, etc. Energy generating non-biological and eco-friendly processes (such as dye-sensitized solar cells and thermoelectric microconverters) which could also be integrated with MECs, are also presented and reviewed. Achieving a comprehensive understanding about MEC integration could help with developing advanced biorefineries towards more sustainable energy management. Finally, the challenges related to the scaling up of these processes are also scrutinized with the aim to identify the practical hurdles faced in the MEC processes.
{"title":"Biorefinery perspectives of microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) for hydrogen and valuable chemicals production through wastewater treatment","authors":"Abudukeremu Kadier, Pratiksha Jain, Bin Lai, M. S. Kalil, S. Kondaveeti, K. Alabbosh, I. Abu-Reesh, G. Mohanakrishna","doi":"10.18331/brj2020.7.1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18331/brj2020.7.1.5","url":null,"abstract":"The degradation of waste organics through microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) generates hydrogen (H2) gas in an economically efficient way. MEC is known as the advanced concept of the microbial fuel cell (MFC) but requires a minor amount of supplementary electrical energy to produce H2 in the cathode microenvironment. Different bio/processes could be integrated to generate additional energy from the substrate used in MECs, which would make the whole process more sustainable. On the other hand, the energy required to drive the MEC mechanism could be harvested from renewable energy sources. These integrations could advance the efficiency and economic feasibility of the whole process. The present review critically discusses all the integrations investigated to date with MECs such as MFCs, anaerobic digestion, microbial desalination cells, membrane bioreactors, solar energy harvesting systems, etc. Energy generating non-biological and eco-friendly processes (such as dye-sensitized solar cells and thermoelectric microconverters) which could also be integrated with MECs, are also presented and reviewed. Achieving a comprehensive understanding about MEC integration could help with developing advanced biorefineries towards more sustainable energy management. Finally, the challenges related to the scaling up of these processes are also scrutinized with the aim to identify the practical hurdles faced in the MEC processes.","PeriodicalId":46938,"journal":{"name":"Biofuel Research Journal-BRJ","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45868280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brenda J. Alvarez-Chavez, S. Godbout, Étienne Le Roux, J. Palacios, V. Raghavan
The influence of operating conditions on the yield and quality of bio-oil obtained from black spruce wood mixture was studied using an auger reactor. Fast pyrolysis optimization through response surface analysis was carried out with four variables: pyrolysis temperature, solids residence time, nitrogen flow, and temperature of first stage of condensation. The optimal conditions obtained for bio-oil production were 555°C, 129 s, 6.9 L/min, and 120°C, respectively. The product yields were 38.61 wt.% of biochar, 25.39 wt.% of liquid, and 36.52 wt.% of non-condensable gases. Two liquid products were produced at the exit of the two condensers, following the concept of fractional condensation. The oily phase yield recovered in the first condenser was 10.59 wt.%, with a 16.86 wt.% of moisture content. Physical properties of the oily phase were analyzed and compared with the ASTM standard D7544-12. Qualitative identification of chemical compounds was carried out for the oily phase which helped in pyrolysis optimization for the bio-oil production targeted towards its use as fuel in commercial burners. In addition, the oil produced here is one of the lowest in water and solids content, attributable to the unique feature of auger reactors without the need for additional treatments.
{"title":"Bio-oil yield and quality enhancement through fast pyrolysis and fractional condensation concepts","authors":"Brenda J. Alvarez-Chavez, S. Godbout, Étienne Le Roux, J. Palacios, V. Raghavan","doi":"10.18331/brj2019.6.4.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18331/brj2019.6.4.2","url":null,"abstract":"The influence of operating conditions on the yield and quality of bio-oil obtained from black spruce wood mixture was studied using an auger reactor. Fast pyrolysis optimization through response surface analysis was carried out with four variables: pyrolysis temperature, solids residence time, nitrogen flow, and temperature of first stage of condensation. The optimal conditions obtained for bio-oil production were 555°C, 129 s, 6.9 L/min, and 120°C, respectively. The product yields were 38.61 wt.% of biochar, 25.39 wt.% of liquid, and 36.52 wt.% of non-condensable gases. Two liquid products were produced at the exit of the two condensers, following the concept of fractional condensation. The oily phase yield recovered in the first condenser was 10.59 wt.%, with a 16.86 wt.% of moisture content. Physical properties of the oily phase were analyzed and compared with the ASTM standard D7544-12. Qualitative identification of chemical compounds was carried out for the oily phase which helped in pyrolysis optimization for the bio-oil production targeted towards its use as fuel in commercial burners. In addition, the oil produced here is one of the lowest in water and solids content, attributable to the unique feature of auger reactors without the need for additional treatments.","PeriodicalId":46938,"journal":{"name":"Biofuel Research Journal-BRJ","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42171912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A systematic literature review was conducted to compare the efficacy of biological, chemical, physical, and combined pretreatments in enhancing biomethane production from crop residues (CR). Three electronic databases viz., Science Direct, EBSCOhost, and PubMed were used to identify the studies in literature. The pretreatment methods were compared in terms of their advantages and disadvantages with reference to techno-economic aspects. The techno-economic aspects considered included rate of hydrolysis, energy use, effectiveness, cost, and formation of toxic compounds. A total of 3167 studies, covering the period 2014 - 2018, were screened for relevance to the study. Forty-four records (n=44) consisting of 36 research papers (n=36) and eight narrative reviews (n=8) met the inclusion criteria. The results show that physical and chemical methods are the most effective and fastest. These methods have limited utility due to high cost of resources, operation, and energy as well as formation of inhibitory by-products. Despite generation of toxic compounds, combined methods are regarded as fast and costeffective. Biological method is inexpensive, eco-friendly, and low energy-consuming. However, it is a nascent technology that is still developing. A combination of trends in research and development provide the best pretreatment alternative to improve the biomethane production from CR.
{"title":"Comparison of pretreatment methods that enhance biomethane production from crop residues - a systematic review","authors":"R. Kamusoko, R. Jingura, W. Parawira, W. Sanyika","doi":"10.18331/brj2019.6.4.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18331/brj2019.6.4.4","url":null,"abstract":"A systematic literature review was conducted to compare the efficacy of biological, chemical, physical, and combined pretreatments in enhancing biomethane production from crop residues (CR). Three electronic databases viz., Science Direct, EBSCOhost, and PubMed were used to identify the studies in literature. The pretreatment methods were compared in terms of their advantages and disadvantages with reference to techno-economic aspects. The techno-economic aspects considered included rate of hydrolysis, energy use, effectiveness, cost, and formation of toxic compounds. A total of 3167 studies, covering the period 2014 - 2018, were screened for relevance to the study. Forty-four records (n=44) consisting of 36 research papers (n=36) and eight narrative reviews (n=8) met the inclusion criteria. The results show that physical and chemical methods are the most effective and fastest. These methods have limited utility due to high cost of resources, operation, and energy as well as formation of inhibitory by-products. Despite generation of toxic compounds, combined methods are regarded as fast and costeffective. Biological method is inexpensive, eco-friendly, and low energy-consuming. However, it is a nascent technology that is still developing. A combination of trends in research and development provide the best pretreatment alternative to improve the biomethane production from CR.","PeriodicalId":46938,"journal":{"name":"Biofuel Research Journal-BRJ","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43858007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Environmental deterioration, global climate change, and consequent increases in pollution-related health problems among populations have been attributed to growing consumption of fossil fuels in particular by the transportation sector. Hence, replacing these energy carriers, also known as major contributors of greenhouse gas emissions, with biofuels have been regarded as a solution to mitigate the above-mentioned challenges. On the other hand, efforts have been put into limiting the utilization of edible feedstocks for biofuels production, i.e., first generation biofuels, by promoting higher generations of these eco-friendly alternatives. In light of that, the present review is aimed at comprehensively assessing the role and importance of microorganisms such as bacteria and yeasts as catalysts for sustainable production of liquid biofuels including bioethanol, biomethanol, biobutanol, bio-ammonia, biokerosene, and bioglycerol. Various aspects of these biofuels, i.e., background, chemical synthesis, microbial production (including exploitation of wild and metabolically-engineered species), and product recovery as well as the derivatives produced from these biofuels which are used as fuel additives are thoroughly covered and critically discussed. Furthermore, the industrial features of these green liquid fuels including the industrial practices reported in the literature and the challenges faced as well as possible approaches to enhance these practices are presented.
{"title":"A review on green liquid fuels for the transportation sector: a prospect of microbial solutions to climate change","authors":"H. Panahi, M. Dehhaghi, J. Kinder, T. Ezeji","doi":"10.18331/BRJ2019.6.3.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18331/BRJ2019.6.3.2","url":null,"abstract":"Environmental deterioration, global climate change, and consequent increases in pollution-related health problems among populations have been attributed to growing consumption of fossil fuels in particular by the transportation sector. Hence, replacing these energy carriers, also known as major contributors of greenhouse gas emissions, with biofuels have been regarded as a solution to mitigate the above-mentioned challenges. On the other hand, efforts have been put into limiting the utilization of edible feedstocks for biofuels production, i.e., first generation biofuels, by promoting higher generations of these eco-friendly alternatives. In light of that, the present review is aimed at comprehensively assessing the role and importance of microorganisms such as bacteria and yeasts as catalysts for sustainable production of liquid biofuels including bioethanol, biomethanol, biobutanol, bio-ammonia, biokerosene, and bioglycerol. Various aspects of these biofuels, i.e., background, chemical synthesis, microbial production (including exploitation of wild and metabolically-engineered species), and product recovery as well as the derivatives produced from these biofuels which are used as fuel additives are thoroughly covered and critically discussed. Furthermore, the industrial features of these green liquid fuels including the industrial practices reported in the literature and the challenges faced as well as possible approaches to enhance these practices are presented.","PeriodicalId":46938,"journal":{"name":"Biofuel Research Journal-BRJ","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42927333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study reports for the first time on biohydrogen production by dark fermentation using a novel combination of mild heat-pretreated fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) as raw material and vermicompost as an economical source of hydrogen-producing bacteria. A suspension rich in reducing sugars obtained from FVW was used at different initial concentrations (5 to 25 g reducing sugars/L) during the bioprocess conducted in batch reactors at mesophilic temperature of 35 °C. The use of a mild heat-pretreated substrate and the consequent elimination of the natural microbiota present in the FVW led to higher hydrogen production than the control. Clostridium species, hydrogen-producing bacteria via butyric acid fermentation pathway, were the dominant microorganisms in the bioprocess. Hydrogen production, volumetric hydrogen production rate, and pretreated substrate degradation efficiency (63.0 mL/g VS, 372.6 mL/L/d, and 50% BOD5, respectively) obtained in the experiments performed with the highest substrate concentration demonstrated that the developed bioprocess was promising simultaneously leading to high hydrogen contents in biogas and high substrate removal efficiencies.
{"title":"Fermentative biohydrogen production from a novel combination of vermicompost as inoculum and mild heat-pretreated fruit and vegetable waste","authors":"María J. Pascualone, M. Costa, Pablo R. Dalmasso","doi":"10.18331/BRJ2019.6.3.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18331/BRJ2019.6.3.5","url":null,"abstract":"This study reports for the first time on biohydrogen production by dark fermentation using a novel combination of mild heat-pretreated fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) as raw material and vermicompost as an economical source of hydrogen-producing bacteria. A suspension rich in reducing sugars obtained from FVW was used at different initial concentrations (5 to 25 g reducing sugars/L) during the bioprocess conducted in batch reactors at mesophilic temperature of 35 °C. The use of a mild heat-pretreated substrate and the consequent elimination of the natural microbiota present in the FVW led to higher hydrogen production than the control. Clostridium species, hydrogen-producing bacteria via butyric acid fermentation pathway, were the dominant microorganisms in the bioprocess. Hydrogen production, volumetric hydrogen production rate, and pretreated substrate degradation efficiency (63.0 mL/g VS, 372.6 mL/L/d, and 50% BOD5, respectively) obtained in the experiments performed with the highest substrate concentration demonstrated that the developed bioprocess was promising simultaneously leading to high hydrogen contents in biogas and high substrate removal efficiencies.","PeriodicalId":46938,"journal":{"name":"Biofuel Research Journal-BRJ","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46151095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rohit K. Sharma, C. A. O’Neill, H. Ramos, Bibek Thapa, Vanessa Barcelo-Bovea, K. Gaur, K. Griebenow
Inexpensive but resourceful sources of lipids, for example, used cooking oil (UCO) and brown grease (BG), which often contain large amounts of free fatty acids (FFA), are difficult to convert into biodiesel economically and in good yield. Candida rugosa lipase nanoparticles (cNP) were formed first and subsequently cross-linked nanoparticles (CLNP) were obtained by crosslinking of them. Alternatively, cNP were conjugated to magnetic nanoparticles (mNP) to achieve a cNP-mNP conjugate. All three formulations were employed in three different organic solvents (n-heptane, 1,4-dioxane, and t-butanol) to produce biodiesel using BG and UCO in the transesterification reaction with ethanol and methanol. The radii of nanoparticles (NP) were 5.5, 75, 100, 85 nm for mNP, cNP, CLNP, and cNP-mNP, respectively, as measured by scanning/transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. The catalytic efficiency (Kcat/KM) of cNP, CLNP, and cNP-mNP was increased ca. -25, -68, -176 folds in n-heptane and -35, -131, -262 folds in 1,4-dioxane compared to the lyophilized lipase in the model transesterification reaction of p-nitrophenyl palmitate (PNPP) with ethanol. In biodiesel formation, the best performance with 100% conversion of BG was achieved under optimum conditions with cNP-mNP, ethanol at a 1:3 molar ratio of lipid-to-alcohol, NP at a 1:0.1 weight ratio of lipid-to-enzyme, and water at a 1:0.04 weight ratio of enzyme-to-water at 30 oC for 35 h. The operational stability of the CLNP and cNP-mNP was sustained even after five consequent biodiesel batch conversions while 50% and 82% residual activity (storage stability) were retained after 40 d.
{"title":"Candida rugosa lipase nanoparticles as robust catalyst for biodiesel production in organic solvents","authors":"Rohit K. Sharma, C. A. O’Neill, H. Ramos, Bibek Thapa, Vanessa Barcelo-Bovea, K. Gaur, K. Griebenow","doi":"10.18331/BRJ2019.6.3.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18331/BRJ2019.6.3.3","url":null,"abstract":"Inexpensive but resourceful sources of lipids, for example, used cooking oil (UCO) and brown grease (BG), which often contain large amounts of free fatty acids (FFA), are difficult to convert into biodiesel economically and in good yield. Candida rugosa lipase nanoparticles (cNP) were formed first and subsequently cross-linked nanoparticles (CLNP) were obtained by crosslinking of them. Alternatively, cNP were conjugated to magnetic nanoparticles (mNP) to achieve a cNP-mNP conjugate. All three formulations were employed in three different organic solvents (n-heptane, 1,4-dioxane, and t-butanol) to produce biodiesel using BG and UCO in the transesterification reaction with ethanol and methanol. The radii of nanoparticles (NP) were 5.5, 75, 100, 85 nm for mNP, cNP, CLNP, and cNP-mNP, respectively, as measured by scanning/transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. The catalytic efficiency (Kcat/KM) of cNP, CLNP, and cNP-mNP was increased ca. -25, -68, -176 folds in n-heptane and -35, -131, -262 folds in 1,4-dioxane compared to the lyophilized lipase in the model transesterification reaction of p-nitrophenyl palmitate (PNPP) with ethanol. In biodiesel formation, the best performance with 100% conversion of BG was achieved under optimum conditions with cNP-mNP, ethanol at a 1:3 molar ratio of lipid-to-alcohol, NP at a 1:0.1 weight ratio of lipid-to-enzyme, and water at a 1:0.04 weight ratio of enzyme-to-water at 30 oC for 35 h. The operational stability of the CLNP and cNP-mNP was sustained even after five consequent biodiesel batch conversions while 50% and 82% residual activity (storage stability) were retained after 40 d.","PeriodicalId":46938,"journal":{"name":"Biofuel Research Journal-BRJ","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41676980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}