Collection

Current Progress on Advanced Technologies for Biofuel Production and Utilisation

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Closed

Sustainable bioenergy has tremendous potential to reduce carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere – simply by switching from fossil-based petroleum to bio-based fuels as our primary energy source. In order to achieve that, recent technologies and approaches that can convert biomass feedstock to bio-based fuels such as biogas, crude bio-oil, bioethanol and biodiesel have been extensively studied. However, the main challenge is how to increase global production and utilization of bio-based fuels without creating distortionary incentives that might pose risks to food security and the environment, particularly in developing countries. Thus, the answer may involve the selection of a wider array of non-edible biomass feedstock, including those available from the forestry, and agricultural waste as well as waste recycling sectors.

This Thematic Collection will provide a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive, and insightful analysis of the issues that need to be considered in Sustainable biofuel production from biomass and its utilization. Authors should report on research advances and are encouraged to contextualize their results by considering the relevant issues of sustainability, economics, social license and policies in stimulating biofuel production. The work scale should also be described, where the demands and policies (e.g., markets, subsidies, regulations) that are implemented at the regional, national or multi-national levels may act as an incentive or discourage the production of sustainable biofuels. In addition, economic evaluation of biofuel production and life cycle assessment for each biofuel route are highly recommended to be submitted to the current special issue as a step forward towards commercialization.

Although many studies have been carried out on biofuel, collection of recent advances and challenges in a thematic collection is a timely step for in-depth evaluation of the progress in this field. This special issue represents a cutting-edge contribution from global experts. It will specially discuss the integrated approaches of biomass conversion and utilization as well as sequential biofuel production. Therefore, we welcome contributions from researchers and scholars in various fields to close the gaps and shed light on the recent advanced technologies for biofuel production and utilisation. Theoretical contributions, reviews, and case studies are also welcomed. The cutting-edge and integrated technologies including anaerobic digestion, gasification, transesterification, waste treatment for biofuel production, life cycle assessment are also considered for this special issue.

This Thematic Collection aims to draw together current progress on alternative strategies for biofuel production from different kinds of biomass materials and their utilization, taking into account technical suitability, economic feasibility, market competition and environmental sustainability. The special issue will focus also on the integrated and sequential biofuel production in order to achieve the full biomass conversion and reduce the waste byproducts.

The potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

State-of-the-art biodiesel and bioethanol conversion technology

Biogas and biohydrogen

Algae-based biofuels

Biofuel applications in domestic, industrial and transport sector

Waste recycling for biofuel production

Recent technologies for separation and conversion of biomass

Biomass pretreatment, fractionation, and extraction

Nanomaterials and nanotechnology for bioenergy and biofuels production

Impacts of biofuels production/consumption on climate change

Biofuel and bioenergy policy formation

Enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass

Genetic and metabolic engineering for biofuels

Microbial fuel cells

Bioreactor systems for biofuel and bioelectricity

Life cycle assessment of biofuel production and utilization

Green supply chain for biofuels

Full biomass conversion by integrated and sequential approaches

Sustainability assessment of biofuel production systems

Kinetic-based modeling of biofuel production

Editors

  • Dr. B. Deepanraj Dr. B. Deepanraj , 

    Dr. B. Deepanraj

    Dr. B. Deepanraj, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jyothi Engineering College, Thrissur, India Email: deepanrajb@jecc.ac.in

  • Dr. Abd El-Fatah Abomohra Dr. Abd El-Fatah Abomohra , 

    Dr. Abd El-Fatah Abomohra

    Dr. Abd El-Fatah Abomohra, Professor, New Energy and Environmental Laboratory (NEEL), Department of Environmental Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China

  • Dr. Hwai Chyuan Ong Dr. Hwai Chyuan Ong , 

    Dr. Hwai Chyuan Ong

    Dr. Hwai Chyuan Ong, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Australia Email: HwaiChyuan.Ong@uts.edu.au

  • Dr. Martin Kaltschmitt Dr. Martin Kaltschmitt  &

    Dr. Martin Kaltschmitt

    Dr. Martin Kaltschmitt, Professor, Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany Email: kaltschmitt@tuhh.de

  • Dr. Hamed El Mashad Dr. Hamed El Mashad

    Dr. Hamed El Mashad

    Dr. Hamed El Mashad, Professor, Agricultural Engineering Department, Mansoura University,El Mansoura, Egypt Email: heelmashad@ucdavis.edu

Articles (15 in this collection)