scholarly journals Comparative review of three approaches to biofuel production from energy crops as feedstock in a developing country

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 100412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Nikkhah ◽  
Mamdouh El Haj Assad ◽  
Kurt A. Rosentrater ◽  
Sami Ghnimi ◽  
Sam Van Haute
Keyword(s):  
Developing Country ◽  
Energy Crops ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Comparative Review

Past Infrastructures and Future Machine Intelligence (MI) for Biofuel Production: A Review and MI-Based Framework

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Hansen ◽  
Amin Mirkouei
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Machine Intelligence ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Economic Resilience ◽  
Capture Process ◽  
Alternative Energy Sources ◽  
Comparative Review

Recent interest in alternative energy sources, particularly biofuels from biomass, is becoming increasingly evident due to energy security and environmental sustainability concerns, such as depletion of conventional energy reserves and carbon footprint effects, respectively. Existing fuels (e.g., biodiesel and ethanol) are neither sustainable nor cost-competitive. There is a need to integrate the recent advanced manufacturing approaches and machine intelligence (MI) techniques (e.g., machine learning and artificial intelligence), targeted on the midstream segment (i.e., pre-/post-conversion processes) of biomass-to-biofuel supply chains (B2BSC). Thus, a comparative review of the existing MI approaches developed in prior studies is performed herein. This review article, additionally, proposes an MI-based framework to enhance productivity and profitability of existing biofuel production processes through intelligent monitoring and control, optimization, and data-driven decision support tools. It is further concluded that a modernized conversion process utilizing MI techniques is essential to seamlessly capture process-level intricacies and enhance techno-economic resilience and socio-ecological integrity of B2BSC.

A comprehensive review of biomass resources and biofuel production in Nigeria: potential and prospects

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adewale Allen Sokan-Adeaga ◽  
Godson R.E.E. Ana
Keyword(s):  
Crop Residues ◽  
Primary Energy ◽  
Global Dimension ◽  
Energy Crops ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Agricultural Crop ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Biomass Resources ◽  
The Government

AbstractThe quest for biofuels in Nigeria, no doubt, represents a legitimate ambition. This is so because the focus on biofuel production has assumed a global dimension, and the benefits that may accrue from such effort may turn out to be enormous if the preconditions are adequately satisfied. As a member of the global community, it has become exigent for Nigeria to explore other potential means of bettering her already impoverished economy. Biomass is the major energy source in Nigeria, contributing about 78% of Nigeria’s primary energy supply. In this paper, a comprehensive review of the potential of biomass resources and biofuel production in Nigeria is given. The study adopted a desk review of existing literatures on major energy crops produced in Nigeria. A brief description of the current biofuel developmental activities in the country is also given. A variety of biomass resources exist in the country in large quantities with opportunities for expansion. Biomass resources considered include agricultural crops, agricultural crop residues, forestry resources, municipal solid waste, and animal waste. However, the prospects of achieving this giant stride appear not to be feasible in Nigeria. Although the focus on biofuel production may be a worthwhile endeavor in view of Nigeria’s development woes, the paper argues that because Nigeria is yet to adequately satisfy the preconditions for such program, the effort may be designed to fail after all. To avoid this, the government must address key areas of concern such as food insecurity, environmental crisis, and blatant corruption in all quarters. It is concluded that given the large availability of biomass resources in Nigeria, there is immense potential for biofuel production from these biomass resources. With the very high potential for biofuel production, the governments as well as private investors are therefore encouraged to take practical steps toward investing in agriculture for the production of energy crops and the establishment of biofuel-processing plants in Nigeria.

scholarly journals Effectiveness evaluation of energy crops production as a biofuel sources

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (91) ◽  
pp. 83-88
Author(s):  
V. L. Nosko ◽  
O. V. Pavliv ◽  
A. Iu. Linnik
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Moisture Content ◽  
Unit Cost ◽  
Payback Period ◽  
Energy Crops ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Temperate Climate ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Fast Growing

Energy crops are grown for energy purposes. Traditionally energy crops are corn and sugarcane which are grown for industrial scale ethanol, rapeseed for producing biodiesel, annual and perennial grasses, for example cane, miscanthus, cereal straw, as well as fast-growing tree crops for biomass production. The most interesting for the temperate climate zone of Europe are the fast-growing willow species. The interest in growing energy crops, which can be used as a renewable energy source, in European countries arose in the 1970s, which was related with rising prices for traditional energy sources. The growth of energy crops has been fueled by political decisions at the international level, in particular by documents such as the Renewable Energy Development Plan for Europe and the Kyoto Protocol. After some recession, landing areas for energy crops in the EU and North America have been stabilized. The fastest growing willow occupies the largest area in Europe. The average yield of willow wood in our experiments was about 50 tons per hectare at a moisture content of 45%, with a three-year biomass harvest cycle or 9.2 tons per year and dry matter from 9 to 15 tons per year per dry biomass, in depending on the conditions of cultivation, soil, clone. The weighted average cost of one ton of willow wood with a moisture content of 10% at an area of 100 hectares of plantation for its lifetime (22 years) will be $ 30.5. The cost of growing willow, transporting and shredding timber at a plantation area of 30 hectares is about $ 510 per hectare. About half of all biofuel production costs are depreciation deductions for the operation of special planting and harvesting equipment. The expansion of the plantation area 3–4 times compared to the base variant (30 hectares) allows to increase the profitability of energy production by 30–50%. The return on initial costs required to organize a willow plantation depends on the use of biomass. When replacing wood with traditional energy sources (natural gas), according to our calculations, the simple payback period is 3.8 years and the discounted time is 4.7 years, which corresponds to the time of harvesting the first biomass crop. With the direct sale of biomass on the market in the payback period increases to 6–11 years, which corresponds to the second or third harvesting period (with a three-year cycle). The unit cost of energy derived from willow wood is lower relatively to other energy crops, but 1.5 times and 1.8 times higher than that of natural marsh vegetation and straw, respectively. However, the additional interest in planting willow is due to their conservation value. The main indicators for calculating cost-effectiveness have been taken experimentally. The higher combustion heat of the above-ground part of the willow tree stand averaged 18500 kJ/kg. This is in line with the results obtained by other researchers for willow wood. The maximum specific heat of combustion of willow wood according to the results of experiments carried out in Sweden ranged from 18.3 to 19.7 MJ/kg, depending on the harvesting time and the willow clones. Therefore, we can confidently say that to grow energy willow is expediently and cost-effectively.

scholarly journals A Life Cycle Assessment of Biomass Production from Energy Crops in Crop Rotation Using Different Tillage System

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6978
Author(s):  
Anna Vatsanidou ◽  
Christos Kavalaris ◽  
Spyros Fountas ◽  
Nikolaos Katsoulas ◽  
Theofanis Gemtos
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Crop Rotation ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Energy Crops ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Cotton Crop ◽  
Tillage Practices

A three-year experiment was carried out in Central Greece to assess the use of different tillage practices (Conventional, Reduced, and No tillage) for seedbed preparation, in a double cropping per year rotation of irrigated and rainfed energy crops for biomass production for first- and second-generation biofuel production. A life cycle assessment (LCA) study was performed for the first year of crop rotation to evaluate the environmental impact of using different tillage practices, identifying the processes with greater influence on the overall environmental burden (hotspots) and demonstrating the potential environmental benefits from the land management change. LCA results revealed that fertilizer application and diesel fuel consumption, as well as their production stages, were the hot-spot processes for each treatment. In the present study, different tillage treatments compared using mass- and area-based functional unit (FU), revealing that reduced tillage, using strip tillage for spring crop and disc harrow for winter crops, and no tillage treatment had the best environmental performance, respectively. Comparison between the prevailing in the area monoculture cotton crop with the proposed double energy crop rotation adopting conservation tillage practices, using mass and energy value FU, showed that cotton crop had higher environmental impact.

Energy crops for biofuel production: Analysis of the potential in Tuscany

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1041-1052 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Dalla Marta ◽  
M. Mancini ◽  
R. Ferrise ◽  
M. Bindi ◽  
S. Orlandini
Keyword(s):  
Energy Crops ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Production Analysis

Screening boreal energy crops and crop residues for methane biofuel production

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 541-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lehtomäki ◽  
T.A. Viinikainen ◽  
J.A. Rintala
Keyword(s):  
Crop Residues ◽  
Energy Crops ◽  
Biofuel Production

scholarly journals Biomass valorisation of Arundo donax L., Miscanthus × giganteus and Sida hermaphrodita for biofuel production

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 575-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tajana Krička ◽  
Ana Matin ◽  
Nikola Bilandžija ◽  
Vanja Jurišić ◽  
Alan Antonović ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lignin Content ◽  
Arundo Donax ◽  
Energy Crops ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Miscanthus Giganteus ◽  
Solid Biofuels ◽  
Solid Biofuel ◽  
Biomass Valorisation ◽  
Lower Heating ◽  
The Eu

Abstract In the context of the growing demand for biomass, which is being encouraged by the EU directives on the promotion of the use of renewable energy, recent investigations have been increasingly focused on fast-growing energy crops. The aim of this study was to investigate the energy properties of three types of agricultural energy crops: Arundo donax L., Miscanthus × giganteus and Sida hermaphrodita. This investigation looked into the content of non-combustible and combustible matter, higher and lower heating values, lignocellulose content, and biomass macro-elements. The results indicate that the energy values of these crops are comparable, while their lignocellulose content shows significant variations. Thus, Arundo donax L. can best be utilised as solid biofuel due to its highest lignin content, while Miscanthus × giganteus and Sida hermaphrodita L. can be used for both liquid and solid biofuels production. As far as Arundo donax L. is concerned, a higher ash level should be taken into consideration.

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