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In remote areas, such as India, Africa and Southeast Asia, typically not connected to the natural gas distribution network, tissue paper production is currently carried out using a Yankee cylinder and two hot air hoods heated with saturated steam produced in conventional boilers. In this way the drying air is heated at medium temperature, around 160-180 °C, with consequent low levels of dried paper production. In this context, the present study intends to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of using a wood biomass fixed bed downdraft gasification plant for the production of syngas to be used as fuel in gas hoods, in order to reach high drying temperatures (around 500 °C), comparable with those of the current modern hoods powered with natural gas. Using previously developed calculation codes, an evaluation of energy performance of the paper drying system and of the gasification plant has been performed. The present study also evaluates the possibility of applying a CHP plant, powered by biomass, for the production of steam and electric, this last obtained adopting a steam turbine, thus covering all the electrical and thermal needs of the paper mill. Results show that, for a paper mill with a production of about 80 t/day of paper, two gasification reactors with a thermal output of about 1.95 MWt, and a consumption of dry biomass of 0.86 t/h, are required. For the steam system, the net electric power needed to meet the needs of the paper mill is about 3100 kW with a consumption of 4.72 t/h of moist biomass and a net efficiency of 23.9 %.

This study aims to examine the economic and environmental benefits of recovered paper and potential contribution of the recovered paper to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Vision 2030. The Vision 2030 is an inclusive development policy, recently launched, with the objectives to build the best future for the country. The Vision 2030 is based on three ambitious goals: making the country a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation. It is estimated that by 2030, 5.05 million ton of waste paper would be recovered in the country. About 11.3 billion SAR (US $3.01 billion) would be added to the country’s GDP and would create about 16,536 new jobs if the recovered paper industry is built in the country. Moreover, a net environmental benefit of 9.6 million crude barrel oil savings and 4.5 million ton of CO2 savings from GHG emissions could be achieved by 2030 only from the paper waste recovery in the country. The potential benefits of paper waste recycling in KSA highlight the needs of effective measures to optimize the economic and environmental opportunities inherited in the waste paper industry. These measures should focus on capitalizing the local waste paper processing industry, restrict the export of raw waste paper materials, and enhance the waste paper collection process and quantity.

Green Energy efficiency is becoming more important because of the resulting cost reduction and image of green society which helps to enhance competitiveness in a globalized green market. Pulp and paper manufacturing is a large-scale industry which is generally regarded as important for national development. The Pulp and Paper industry consumes approximately 2.5% of total industrial energy consumption in Thailand by 44 factories distributed throughout the country. Therefore, energy efficiency improvement can play a significant role in the industry. Investigations of the cost effectiveness of energy efficiency measures and technologies using bottom-up Conservation Supply Curve (CSC) in the pulp and paper mill process are required. This study examines the concept, methodology, and the usefulness of the energy conservation supply curve, and the potential to create the appropriate energy policies to the Thai Pulp and Paper Industry.

Pulp and paper production is a highly energy intensive process and improvement of energy efficiency in this process is considered as promising measures for reducing industrial greenhouse gases emissions (GHG). This study focuses the Pakistan's pulp and paper industry which consumes around 7% of the country's industrial energy and contributes to over 317,269 tonnes of CO 2 emissions. With rising demands for fuels and consequently as harp increase in CO 2 emissions due to the growth of the paper sector in Pakistan, this article aims to analyse the energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions reductions potential through the incorporation of cogeneration technologies. The cogeneration technologies studied are agas turbine, steam turbine and combined cycle and are evaluated from the energetic and economic point of view to propose a best suitable technology for each paper mill. The proposed cogeneration technologies are selected on the basis of high energy utilisation factor, as implepayback period of five years or less with least Annualised life cycle cost. The result shows that a theoretical energy saving potential equivalent to 16.9% of the actual thermal energy requirement of mills can be achieved through cogeneration which will lead to 14.3% reduction of the present carbon emissions levels in Pakistan's paper sector.

This paper presents the results of a preliminary assessment towards the potential estimation of solar process heating in paper industry in India. To begin with, data for (i) classification of paper mills on the basis of size and feedstock used (ii) extent of cogeneration in paper mills (iii) annual paper production (feed stock wise) (iv) specific thermal energy requirement for process heating etc. have been collected. Annual process heating requirement for paper production (based on feed stock used) in paper mills in India has been estimated. Availability of adequate solar resource in different states of the country was assessed for potential estimation. Some commercially available solar collectors that can supply heat at required temperature of paper industry (50-250 0 C) have been selected and an assessment of their performance has been made. Majority of paper mills in India those are using agro residues and recycled fibers as raw feedstock are located in the states with adequate DNI availability (1900kWh/m 2 ). Annual process heating potential for the paper industry in India has been estimated at 43 PJ.

Biomass is a renewable energy and had been recognized as a promising feedstock for producing bio-fuels. In this work, pyrolysis of black wattle residues was investigated with the aim to study the product distribution and their chemical composition and predicting the optimal condition for maximized bio-oil especially aromatics content by using a two level factorial design of experiment. The pyrolysis were performed at temperature of 380 – 580 oC, Under screw feeder carried the biomass residues and weight of dolomite as catalyst of 1-5 wt% inside pyrolyzer with nitrogen gases flow rate of 20 to 80 cm3/min The detention time was controlled by reactor screw feeder at feeding rate of 120 to 240 rpm. Based on the analysis from a design-expert program to determine the appropriated condition of experiment was 515.18 oC, 120.01 rpm of feed rate and 20.00 cm3/min of nitrogen flow rate using 5.00wt% of dolomite catalyst. The elemental and physicochemistry analysis of bio-oil were determined, the chemical composition also investigated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and 1H NMR. The composition of bio-oil mainly oxygenated compound with high molecular weight and phenol. The results show that the biomass residual can be considered as a potential alternative fuels and relevant to valuable chemical feedstock.

The purpose of this study is to identify the indicators needed to analyze the competitiveness of major countries’ energy technologies and to conduct empirical analysis accordingly. In this paper, nine measurement variables were derived as an index centered on patents and papers for energy technology competitiveness analysis. For each of the nine set measurement variables, the index for each of the major energy technologies (photovoltaics, fuel cells, and secondary batteries) was calculated, compared, and analyzed for each of the eight major countries.

During the building operation phase, it is recognized that the performance of building envelope elements and energy supply systems drops with time. This performance degradation usually leads to lower energy efficiency and higher life cycle costs than predicted in the early design phase. This paper quantitatively reviews the impacts of this deterioration on the whole building performance. From the findings of the reviewed literature, it can be concluded that the whole building performance is very sensitive to several deterioration factors, particularly the performance degradation of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system. The impact on the whole building performance mostly ranges from 20% to 30% over 20 years, according to the reviewed studies.

Papermaking enterprises are major polluters that cause water pollution and air pollution. This paper aims to provide analysis of the energy saving and emission reduction in papermaking enterprises.It is the inevitable choice of establishment industrial ecology park as the leading of the papermaking industry by the implementation of cleaner production and circulation economy. Shandong Haiyun efficient ecological park is taken for example.Researches of the developing strategies and policy support of energy saving and emission reduction is discussed. The paper is divided into five parts, the first part is the preface, the second part introduces the general of Haiyun efficient industrial park, the third part puts forward the scheme of clean production of Haiyun efficient ecological industrial park, the fourth part puts forward ecological industry pattern of Haiyun efficient ecological industrial park, the fifth part puts forward policy guarantee measures, and the sixth part makes the summary.

In the era of climate change, life cycle analysis (LCA) has been acknowledged as a useful method for examining carbon footprints of products or services., Once captured and stored by trees and other plants, biogenic CO 2 would re-enter the atmosphere sooner or later after the use phase of the product. And many LCA studies did not calculate the temporary carbon storage in biogenic carbon. Thus, this paper proposed a hybrid LCA approach to provide a structured methodology for evaluating carbon footprint of copying paper in consideration of temporary carbon storage. The developed method was then applied to a paper mill of China. It is indicated that the hybrid LCA method could provide a comprehensive methodology for accounting carbon footprints as well as assessing effects of delaying GHG emissions. The results shows that the carbon footprint of 1000 kg copying paper was 647.89 kg CO 2 under scenario 1 and -5094 kg CO 2 under scenario 2. Concurrently, the effect of delaying the emission of the temporarily stored carbon in copying paper was 7.67%, 15.52%, or 23.58% for a certain period of time (i.e., 10, 25, or 30 years).

India is developing fast in the lines of some of the greatest cities of the world. Graph from the last 20-25 years show that India has majorly borne a paradigm shift in development icons as such Its cities have surpassed even double to its initial infrastructure during this period. Most of these infrastructural icons have a lot to do with the IT industry boom in the country as such most of these cities (e.g. Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc.) are further burdened with employable youth, who require transit accommodation in the same city as well. There are some other cities too who used to enjoy the tourist or the pilgrims’ inflow by virtue of some kind of religious, natural or heritage resource attached to it. But, as evident in History, India and the Indians are known to be cultural driven, Pilgrimage friendly people. As such, these Blessings to such cities are continuously turning out to be the sufferings in the light of the number of pilgrims/tourists (floating population) these cities bear on daily basis. Most of these cities lack the sustainable infrastructure to uphold these burdens and to meet the energy demands for the well-being of people and city. These infrastructural additions must contemplate the Energy demands of the built form, people and their activities. One of such vulnerable town due to Paradigm shift in its development priorities is KATRA town, which is continuously getting burdened with more and more buildings, people & loss of Rural Greens as such contemplation of energy requirements is the need of the hour. Katra town is world famous for the rich religious history attached to it as it forms the base town (Camp) of Trikuta Hills upon which (12 kms away from base town) the Holy Shrine of Goddess Maa Vaishno Devi is located. Every year millions of Pilgrims from around the globe visit the shrine & the Katra Town. The Katra town is the major contributor of J&K (Jammu & Kashmir State) economy & India at Large. Pertinently, its being projected as one of the smart cities of India in next few years in the lines of leading smart cities of the world.

At the present time, reliability and stability of electric power have been very important when it comes to electrical systems in any plants, especially in terms of distribution. Phoenix Pulp & Paper PCL (PPPC) in Khon Kaen, Thailand, is currently generating electric power about 90% of its current needed by themselves and buys the rest from Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA). Nonetheless, the protection system should be installed to protect the electrical bus when electrical generating process trips or breakdown. Otherwise, it would cause the shutdown of electrical system and lose all manufacturing. To protect electrical system, PPPC therefore has to use load shedding system for cutting the connection of the machines from the system within few minutes. Power flow of electric power from 115 kV PEA to 11 kV via 2 transformers of 115 kV/11 kV and PPPC's 3 generators are studied in this research by setting the real electric power (P), reactive electric power (Q), current (I) and voltage (V) in the protection relay of load shedding system of 11 kV switchboards. In addition, motor control panel, simulated by SKM Power Tools program, is investigated in this research work. The simulation results: P, Q, I and V will be divided into 4 cases: the trips from TG-PUC, TG2, TG3 (in-house generation) and the one from PEA. In the case that there is a trip from PEA electrical distribution, P, only generated from the first three generators in house, will be insufficient to cover the plant's electric need and require around 6,512 kW more. As a result, the machines would have to be stopped running. However, if there is a trip from its in-house generation (TG-PUC, TG2 and TG3) instead, some P can be directly received from PEA. Thus, the load shedding scheme is important to protect the blackout system from electrical system's trip in distribution.

In this paper, a two-staged entrained-flow bed gasifier is proposed for the co-gasification of coal and biomass. The effect of biomass blending ratio on the two-staged co-gasification characteristics and the influence of fuel price, loan ratio, biomass blending and electricity price on the technical and economic efficiency of the IGCC system are considered. The results indicated that the content of H 2 in syngas increased firstly and then decreased with the addition of biomass, which reached the maximum value of 30.87 % at 10 % biomass ratio. The content of CO increased with the raising of biomass ratio, and the growth rate reached the maximum at 10 % biomass ratio. The carbon conversion (CC) firstly raised and then decreased with the increase of the biomass ratio at the second stage. The cold gas efficiency (CGE) increased nearly 10 % when the biomass ratio increased from 0 to 10%. The CGE of two-stage co-gasification was above 85%, indicating two-staged co-gasification of coal and biomass can significantly improve the efficiency of cold gas. The technical-economical analysis on the IGCC system indicated that the loan rate had a significant influence on the system dynamic investment, internal rate of return and net present value. With the increasing of loan rate, the total dynamic investment based the benchmark interest rate of 6.15 increased from 413.67 million to 431.58 million under the maximum lending rate of 8.61%. When the lending rate was larger than 8.15%, the internal rate of return (IRR) was slightly higher than the benchmark rate of return in the power sector. The further increase of the loan interest rate would result in a reduction of the internal rate of return and a negative net present value.The internal rate of return, the cost ratio, and the net present value decreased with the increase in the fuel price. When the price ceiling of coal and biomass was 600 RMB·t -1 and 450 RMB·t -1 , the IGCC system was economically viable. The influence of biomass blending ratio on technical, economic indicators was nonlinear. When the biomass ratio increased from 0 to 50%, the IRR, income ratio and net present value of the project increased firstly and then decreased. The effect of the grid price on the technical economic indicators was opposite to that of the fuel price. This paper provides a useful guide for optimization of the co-gasification process.

With the popularity of ammonia fuel cell, nitrogen-containing compounds are becoming an alternative energy sources. However, most of those nitrogen compounds, especially ammonia, are dispersed in domestic wastewater and their treatment is often energy consumption. Therefore, the nitrogen retrieval from wastewater is becoming urgently needed of development. Adopting a new five-compartment electrodeionization technology, this paper demonstrates the possibility to concentrate ammonia nitrogen in synthetic wastewater. The result indicates that the optimum current is 0.18 A in artificial domestic sewage with low concentration ammonium ions among 15 mg/L. The nitrogen concentration can be enriched for about 12 times in single stage. The removal rate of nitrogen can reach over 90% with energy consumption of 19.104 g/kW·h. It explores a feasibility of recovering the ammonia nitrogen in wastewater.

The scope of this paper is to make a feasibility analysis for energy production from sugarcane byproducts in Peru. Therefore, it is shown the history, methods, current scenario and future prospects of sugarcane plantations related to the ethanol industry and the sugar industry. There will be shown analysis of harvest residues (top and leaves). Bagasse is a mill residue, produced after sugarcane juice is extracted from the sugarcane. Nowadays this residue is burnt in boilers and this energy is used to generate steam. In the other hand, harvest residues represent a significant part of the energy contained in the sugarcane, but it is left in the field, or worse; burnt before the harvest. There will also be shown an estimated value of the electricity generation potential from sugarcane residues.

This research work is based on experiments conducted with 20% blend of Jatropha Oil Methyl Ester (JOME) and Fish Oil Methyl Ester (FOME) with diesel, on a compression ignition engine with and without Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR). At the rated power output, the brake thermal efficiency decreases from 28.43% to 27.12% for 20% JOME with 20% EGR compared to diesel and the specific energy consumption increases from 12,936 to 13,264 kJ/kWh, the unburned hydrocarbon varies from 0.7 g/kWh with diesel to 0.8 g/kWh for 20% JOME with EGR while the variation is from 0.7 to 0.9 g/kWh for 20% FOME compared to 0.7 g/kWh for diesel and also carbon monoxide emissions at rated power output from 16.75 g/kWh with diesel to 14.235 g/kWh with 20% JOME and 20% EGR. Lowest carbon monoxide emission achieves at 20% JOME blend with 10.32 g/kWh. At rated power output the oxides of nitrogen emissions vary from 7.45 g/kWh with diesel and 20% JOME without EGR to 4.8 g/kWh with 20% JOME with 20% EGR while they vary from 7.6 to 6.4 g/kWh for 20% FOME compared to 7.3 g/kWh for diesel.

Entrained flow gasification of biomass has the potential to generate synthesis gas as a source of renewable chemicals, electricity, and heat. Nonetheless, formation of tar and soot is a major chall ...

In the recent decades, Jojoba biodiesel is considered as one of the most potential renewable energy sources of many countries. Thus, an investigation was conducted for the enhancement of jojoba biodiesel-diesel blends with the addition of 10% n-butanol by volume which is generally acknowledged as an oxygenated additive. Engine performance was examined at variable loads, ranging from no load (0 N.m) to 13.5 N.m at a constant speed of 2000 rpm on a compression ignition engine. The cylinder pressure and the heat release rate analysis were explored for the tested fuels to examine the behavior of the combustion process. Engine emissions of NO x , CO, and UHC were also investigated. The combustion outcomes exhibited that the maximum cylinder pressure and the peak heat release rate were slightly reduced as compared to diesel oil. There was a significant reduction in the exhaust emissions where the NO x , CO, and UHC were reduced by 80%, 80%, and 65%, respectively. It can be concluded that the addition of n-butanol with jojoba biodiesel-diesel blends has a remarkable positive effect on the engine performance and emissions.

A non-stoichiometry thermodynamic approach based on Gibbs free energy minimization is developed to predict the performance of hydrogen production from gasification of sewage sludge in supercritical water (SCWG). The study focuses on predicting of the influence of operating conditions on SCWG performance. It was done by varying the reaction temperature (400°C, 500°C, 600°C, 700°C, 800°C), feedstock concentration (5%–50%), and reaction pressure (25 MPa, 30 MPa, and 35 MPa). The potential addition of lignite coal into the process also has been investigated. The prediction results showed that the reaction temperature and feedstock concentration had a stronger influence than the reaction pressure. The higher temperature and lower feedstock concentration favored the hydrogen yield and cold gas efficiency. The addition of lignite coal during gasification of sewage sludge in supercritical water slightly influence to the H2 yield and cold gas efficiency. It was expected that the present work is very helpful for evaluating and optimizing the performance of gasification process in supercritical water.

Sludge treatment in wastewater treatment plants are one of the most difficult challenges. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of ultrasonic waves on soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), temperature and pH of the sludge during improving the sludge dewatering properties. In this research variables include ultrasound density and Time. With the increase of time, the SCOD also increased, which is due to increasing exposure of cells and microorganisms to sonification. This Enhancing Contacts with ultrasound waves leads to increasing cell wall collapse and the withdrawal of intracellular water, proteins and nutrients into the sludge. Also with the increase of ultrasound density, the rate of SCOD increase has raised. This means an increase of SCOD of the sludge and it is due to the higher import of energy and production of nano-bubbles and damage of cells and biological flocs. By increasing the ultrasound density and sonification time, the temperature was significantly increased.

Circular economy and bioeconomy factors has driven the economy sectors towards sustainable choices. Chemical industry, as stated by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, has a potential to reduce 36 % of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 [1] mainly linked with introduction of emerging energy technologies. Ethylene, chlorine, ammonia and hydrogen are important chemicals for such reduction as they are the most worldwide produced chemicals (16 % of the total production in 2050 for ethylene, 11 % for chlorine and 6 % for ammonia). Meanwhile planned GHG reduction potential for these chemicals, through introduction of compression and separation technologies, is estimated as 75 % for hydrogen, 54 % for ammonia, 31 % for chlorine and 27 % for ethylene. The aim of the study is to perform an indicator analysis (raw material consumption, emissions produced and associated costs per one tonne of bioethylene) of bioethylene production pathways focusing on the following raw materials – corn, manioc, sugar cane, sugar beet, wheat and conifer.

The results, obtained from paper based subjective assessment, of the indoor environment parameters, are presented in this paper. The assessment was made by untrained and unprepared occupants of small lecture room, during specially organized one hour lecture. Briefly described are the main objectives, as well as the methods used. The collected data was mostly analyzed in terms of the human response to the questionnaire based study. It was analyzed how successive the votes are and how reliable the answers of the questions are. The results show very low response to the unorganized and spontaneous experimental study. The explanation of these results seems to be complex task, which requires further interdisciplinary analyzes. The work is still in progress, and particular results, concerning the collected vote and the entire physical measurements of the indoor environment parameters, will be presented later on.

Daylight represents a free source of illumination of building's internal spaces. Tubular daylight devices (TDDs) are simple means of directing daylight (diffuse and direct light) into interior spaces and underground spaces. Many predict models of TDDs have been developed during the past years, but most of them were established based on only a few experiment results of TDDs with no generality. In this paper, a new mathematic model on the basis of daylight coefficient method for TDDs’ light transfer characteristic was presented, which makes it feasible to calculate the time series of efficiency of TDD, and an energy saving analysis of an underground garage using TDDs was introduced in this paper based on Beijing daylight climate data, from which the huge energy saving potential of TDD was clearly shown.

There is a potential to integrate biomass gasification with pulp & paper and CHP plants in order to complement the existing systems with production of chemicals, such as methane, hydrogen, and ...

This paper characterized the wood pellet and torrefied wood pellet fuel as compared to coal for 100 MW co-firing power generation plant. There were five experiments to characterise the chemical and physical properties of coal, wood pellet and torrefied wood pellet namely moisture analysis, Thermo gravimetric Analyser (TGA), Bomb Calorimeter, Organic Elemental Analyser and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The moisture analysis result from moisture analyser and TGA shows that the moisture content of torrefied wood pellet is lower than wood pellet at 6.760% and 3.629%. Moreover, the volatile matter, hydrogen and nitrogen content of torrefied wood pellet is lower than wood pellet at 65.20%, 5.993% and 0.4078% correspondingly. The calorific value, fixed carbon content, ash and sulphur also increase in torrefied wood pellet at 20.68 MJ/kg, 28.85%, 2.321% and 0.1656% respectively. In general, torrefaction improve the fuel properties of wood pellet similar to coal. The 100 MW direct co-firing power plant provides less capital investment, operation and maintenance cost for low rate co-firing ratio. However, there is economic challenges for high rate co-firing substation of torrefied wood pellets.

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has drawn much attention in recent years, because it can produce electricity from sewage and waste. This paper reported that the fermentation of primary and secondary sludges (i.e., mixed sludge) under the combined use of surfactant and alkaline pH condition highly improved the production of SCFAs, and using mixed sludge-derived SCFAs as the fuel could significantly enhance the performance of electricity generation of MFCs (630 mV versus 405 mV). The data indicated that the maximal SCFA production under the combined condition reached 2150 mg COD/L, which was much higher than that of the control (160 mg COD/L). The mechanism investigation showed that the combined strategy had greater sludge solubilization, higher protein hydrolysis and lower activity of methanogens. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis revealed that the abundance of bacteria was significantly increased, whereas that of archaea was decreased by fermentation under the combined condition. Therefore, the reuse of primary and secondary sludges under the combined use of surfactant and alkaline pH condition can be a good approach to highly improve the power generation of MFCs.

In this study, characteristics of 6 different fuels which are going to be gasified in a plasma reactor are analyzed. The types of fuels are Russian coal, South Africa coal, Simak-Turkey coal, hornbeam sawdust, pine tree sawdust and polyethylene. The characteristics of these fuels are examined by measuring heating values, densities and performing the proximate and ultimate analysis on their composition. The carbon and hydrogen content have a favorable influence on heating value meanwhile, moisture, ash, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur have an adverse effect. This fact is also confirmed by proximate and ultimate analysis. According to the results it is observed that the Russian and South Africa coals have the higher heating values because of their high carbon and hydrogen content. Meanwhile the moisture and volatile matter which are high in sawdust is the cause of reduction in heating values. Polyethylene has the highest heating value in calculation, although it could not be measured directly by a bomb calorimeter. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Bamboo torrefaction in a rotating packed bed (RPB) is investigated where three rotating speeds of 0, 900, and 1800 rpm are taken into account. The results suggest that the rotating speed intensifies the torrefaction performance drastically when light and mild torrefaction are practiced. In contrast, the torrefaction performance is affected slightly by the rotating speed when severe torrefaction is carried out. The highest higher heating value (HHV) and its enhancement factor (EF) are 28.389 MJ/kg and 1.61, respectively, yielding a coal-like fuel with the energy yield is 63.51%. The results suggest that torrefaction in a rotating packed bed is a efficient process to upgrade biomass for producing green and sustainable alternative to coal utilized in industry.

Biomass gasification is a very efficient process to produce clean energy in the form of a fuel gas (syngas). Hazelnut shells and poplar have good energy production potential and they are abundant in nature. Hazelnut shells have the characteristics of a very good fuel and poplar is among the fastest growing trees; furthermore, poplar demonstrated the capability to absorb organic contaminants (i.e. heavy metals) from the soil in which they are cultivated. However, poplar is not usually used for biomass gasification and its potential is not fully assessed. Here, 3 types of biomass, hazelnut shells (HS), simple poplar (P) and poplar coming from a phytoremediation procedure (PHYP), were chosen as representative samples to be characterized and tested in a steam gasification process carried out on a bench scale fluidized bed gasifier. A comparison is reported on gasification results, such as gas composition, tar production and gas yield for the biomass feedstocks mentioned above. It was concluded that hazelnut shells and poplar (P and PHYP) could be easily gasified in a fluidized bed gasifier, thus producing a good quality gas with low polluting by-products. The PHYP sample showed lower tar content and higher gas yield. It is guessed that Ca and Mg, found in higher quantities in the PHYP sample, could have had a catalytic effect in tar reforming thus producing lower quantity of heavy hydrocarbons.

Coal-derived flue gas is one of the main anthropogenic sources of mercury emission. It is always desirable to remove mercury from flue gas to eliminate associated environmental problems, which would become more beneficial if mercury is removed and recovered as a useful material. In this research, the capture and recovery of Hg0 over the TMDC MoS2-based material were carried out to study the possibility of recovery of Hg0 as a resource. The capture of Hg0 achieved above 90% in the 180 min test at 50°C at a GHSV of 4.5×104 ml/(h·g). The recovery of Hg0 was conducted during the regeneration of the adsorbent. Three regeneration temperatures, i.e., 200, 250 to 300 °C, were investigated. It was found that 200°C was the most appropriate operating temperature for the regeneration of the adsorbent, at which the maximum efficiency for the recovery of Hg0 was achieved. It can therefore be concluded that the TMDC MoS2-based material could be applied for the capture of Hg0 from flue gas as well as the recovery of Hg0 as a saleable product.

The anaerobic digestion (AD) process is being increasingly recognised as a technology for clean energy generation. However, in Ecuador, there is a little application of this technology due to lack of adequate research, economic incentives and the current relatively low price of electricity. This study examined the feasibility of biogas production using anaerobic co-digestion of food waste (FW) and primary sludge (PS) under thermophilic (55 ⁰C) and mesophilic (35 ⁰C) conditions. The biogas is then used for power and heat generation. Using case study approach, data were collected from Riobamba vegetable market and Penipe waste treatment plant in Ecuador. Three different mixing ratios of FW: PS were used (1:2, 1:1 and 2:1) with volatile solids (VS) content of 84.53%, 86.99%, and 89.6% respectively. Furthermore, the organic loading rates (OLR) used were 2.08, 2.49 and 3.34 gvs 1-1 day-1 for the above mixing ratios with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 21 days. Computational models of biogas production and a combined heat and power (CHP) system were developed using Aspen Plus software. Results indicated that a mixing ratio of 1:2 and mass flow of 132.42 tonnes/day, the maximum specific methane production obtained was 270 and 205 ml CH4/ gVS at thermophilic and mesophilic conditions respectively. The power production with the aforementioned values were 188.42 and 137.79 kW for both thermal conditions. Finally, an economic analysis for both scenarios was carried out using Ecuadorian renewable energy tariffs. A positive NPV values of £147,580 and £186,307 with a discounted payback period of 20.97 and 17.33 years were obtained for both scenarios respectively, assuming that the interest rate was 4.89% and a lifetime of 25 years.

Biogas has been considered as an alternative renewable energy, and CO2 removal from raw biogas (i.e. biogas upgrading) is needed for producing biomethane used as vehicle fuels or injected into the natural gas grid. Biogas upgrading using physical absorbents is a simple and efficient technology with low energy requirements for regeneration. In this work, the conceptual process for biogas upgrading using 4 kinds of physical solvents, i.e. water, dimethyl ether of polyethylene glycol (DEPG), propylene carbonate (PC) and aqueous choline chloride (ChCl) /urea (AQDES) was developed and simulated with Aspen Plus. The energy utilization, the amount of recirculated solvent and the diameters of absorber and desorber were analyzed based on equilibrium approach. After that, the rate-based simulation was established to evaluate the specific cost of the process using different solvents. Based on equilibrium approach the comparison between the solvents in respect to the energy utilization for biogas upgrading using different solvents shows the following order: DEPG > water > AQDES > PC, whereas the amount of recirculated solvent and the diameters of absorber and desorber follow another order: water > DEPG > AQDES > PC. The rate-based results show that the process using PC has the lowest total specific cost, followed by AQDES, water and DEPG.

Biomass torrefaction, co-gasification of coal with raw and torrefied biomass, and an approach to co-processing the torrefaction condensates with coal and coal char were investigated in this study. Torrefaction pretreatment produced not only high-quality solid fuels but also waste condensates. Co-gasification of coal/torrefied biomass blends exhibited stronger synergy compared to the lower synergy degree of the coal/raw biomass blends. Furthermore, we proposed a rational approach to blending the torrefaction condensates with coal or coal char, by which a binary-mixed solid fuel with biomass constituents to coal or coal char mass ratio of 12–18:100 could be obtained. In this way, the condensates can be co-converted in a coal-based gasification or combustion systems. The most attractive technical benefit of this approach is that the blending of the condensates with coal or coal char significantly enhanced the gasification reactivity of the blends.

Nowadays, alternative fuels to fossil-based ones are emerging, one of them consisting in the use of oxygenated fuels, i.e. short-chain alcohols. Their main advantage is that alcohols may be produced by renewable processes. In the present work, diesel engine exhaust and acoustic emissions using different short-chain alcohols (ethanol and 1-propanol)/diesel fuel blends have been analyzed. For this purpose, nine engine steady-state operating conditions at moderate loads, covering the most used quarter of the engine map, have been selected. The effect of the increase of alcohol in the blend provided a reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions, while soluble organic fraction (SOF), total hydrocarbons (THC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions increased. Moreover, a rise of noise was observed with the increase of the amount of alcohol in the blend. It may be concluded, from this field trial, that at similar concentration of alcohol blended with diesel fuel (10% v/v), propanol showed better behavior in terms of global exhaust and noise emissions than ethanol.

In this work, the condensable gases of the bio-oil produced from its fast pyrolysis at 500 oC for 30 s has been analyzed by Py-GC/MS. Relatively high yields of acetic acid, phenolics and levoglucosan have been found. Levoglucosan can be used as a source for synthesizing bio-fuels and both, phenolics and levoglucosan in the production of chemicals. However, further research is necessary in order to find adequate ways of using the great potential of this type of lignocellulosic biomass for developing a bio-based economy less dependent on fossil fuels and more respectful with the environment.

The objective of this research was to experiment of solar drying and Low-Temperature system drying (45-50%RH, 27-30°C) for drying red chili. Solar drying during daytime (greenhouse dryer) and during at night using climate control system to coordinate with air conditioner in drying. The Low-Temperature system consists the humidity control unit (ultrasonic), air-conditioner, temperature and relative humidity sensor, heating coil and microcontroller unit. For Low-Temperature drying process, climate control system controls the compressor in the air conditioner by turn on-off to control the temperature and relative humidity in the chamber. The dehumidification process by controlling the temperature of the surface evaporator coil is decreased to the dew point temperature, making water vapor in the air condensed to be water drops. The result of solar drying and Low-Temperature system takes 52h to reduce the moisture content of about 74% to 13.5% (w.b). For temperature and relative humidity of the solar drying at 50 °C and 36%RH by average, in during daylight and at night with Low-temperature drying system by the climate control system coordinate with air conditioning system in moisture reduction at 27-30°C and relative humidity at 45-50%RH for drying chili in the night. These processes were found to have average temperatures and relative humidity for drying at 27.55°C, 47.37% RH., moisture condensation rate and specific energy consumption at 2.16 kgwater/h and 0.75 MJ/kg.

In Malaysia, palm oil wastes are identified as the potential biomass for renewable energy sources. Usually the higher heating value (HHV) is essential for energy analysis and can be estimated using bomb calorimeter but this method usually is time consuming with possibilities of experimental errors. Thus many correlations have been established to predict the HHV based on the proximate analysis. However, most of the correlations only take into account the HHV of raw biomass. No attempts have been made on estimating HHV of torrefied biomass using model correlation. Therefore, the objective of this study is to propose new correlation based on proximate analysis which is applicable for raw and torrefied palm oil wastes. The HHV and proximate analysis of raw and torrefied palm oil wastes at different torrefaction temperature ranges from 240 to 330°C are measured experimentally for model correlation. In addition the HHV and proximate analysis of raw and torrefied palm oil wastes from published literature are included in order to enhance the reliability of model correlation. Based on the model correlation, low average absolute error (AAE) of 5.37% and low average bias error (ABE) of -1.00% are obtained indicating the estimated model correlation is suitable and reliable to estimate the HHV of raw and torrefied palm oil wastes from proximate analysis.

Article is about economic analysis of promising wood products in Latvian forest sector. Three products: bio-oil, lyocell and xylan were analyzed. Currently none of the products are manufactured in Latvia. System dynamics modelling was used to determine which of the products have higher added value and which of them is more feasible. Input data for the model was taken from scientific literature and from already existing factories. It was assumed that the chosen products were manufactured as separate products, while treating the leftovers as energy source or waste. It was done to see how feasible the products are on their own. Results show that for both bio-oil and lyocell there is a positive profit value with a possibility to increase it even more in the future, while decreasing the share formed by capital costs. In case of xylan, the profit is negative, which makes xylan unprofitable. Although xylan is not feasible as a separate product, its value can be increased by manufacturing it together with other co-products, which can be obtained and manufactured from wood leftovers, therefore decreasing the specific capital costs per product and using wood in efficient manner.

The bark is very promising technological raw material and classic biorefinery object because of its unique barks biomass chemical composition and possibility to get many different products with the added value of individual or group of compounds of the synergistic biological activity, raw materials to produce various materials. Bark product market is poorly developed because bark treatment to produce product with high added value requires high investment, large amount of time. However, this market segment is currently growing in Latvia and in Europe due to the restrictions on the use of synthetic products, “green” thinking and growth of renewable material use. That is why authors did research about wood bark use opportunities, by analyzing different wood bark products which are currently at the research stage or already being manufactured. Using multi-criteria analyze (MCA) determining the main products which can be introduced in the Latvian market. Results showed that the best two products which potentially should be implemented are tannin and betulin, currently these products are not industrial produced in Latvia.

By the investigation of the frozen cooked shrimp production process in Zhanjiang area of Guangdong, China, it is found that Most of the production of frozen cooked shrimp production process control strategy will not be considered. Therefore, some individual processing sometimes may be caused repeat. Product quality would be affected and increase the processing energy use. Intelligent control of frozen cooked shrimp processing strategy as processing instructions, the quality of frozen cooked shrimp would be better, more conducive to energy saving, water saving and improve the production processing environment.

This research demonstrates the technique of predicting pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass. Modeling of pyrolysis of biomass is complex and challenging because of short reaction times, temperatures as high as a thousand degrees Celsius, and biomass of varying or unknown chemical compositions. As such a deterministic model is not capable of representing the pyrolysis reaction system. To be able to predict a pyrolysis reaction of an unknown lignocellulosic biomass without an experimental data support or data fitting is an even more challenging work. In this research, we are trying to predict pyrolysis of Pongmia in Nitrogen to demonstrate that our technique is useful for predicting pyrolysis reaction of other biomass source. There are three main chemical compositions in lignocellulosic biomass which are cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. We are considering that the total pyrolysis reaction is affected by the reaction of three main compositions. However, these three main chemical compositions of biomass is vary not only by type of biomass but also by other things such as where it is grown or even which part of biomass since the chemical compositions in the leaf can be different from the trunk. Our propose method is an extending study of our previous paper “pyrolysis of biomass – fuzzy modeling”. Our model successfully gives a good predicting result. The result shows that our model can predict 91.82% of pyrolysis of Pongmia in Nitrogen correctly without any data from the experiment. Therefore, we could use this method to predict other lignocellulosic biomass before we perform an experiment.

Forest biomass is a renewable and sustainable source of energy that can be used for producing electricity, heat, and biofuels. The production of biomass for energy is considered to be an important step in developing sustainable communities and managing greenhouse gas emissions effectively. Biomass properties vary and are commonly associated with plant species. Hence, efficient methods to predict biofuel characteristics will greatly affect the utilization and management of feedstock production. In this paper attempt was made to correlate various chemical characteristics with NIR spectra. Wood chips from various plant species was analyzed for lignin content, heating value, ash content and NIR and the results were evaluated with correlation, PCA and PCR. Initial evaluation showed promising results where chemical components in the wood correlate to NIR spectra. A selection of results will be presented in this paper. Further analysis as well as results from PCA and PCR models will be presented in the full paper version.

Energy recovery from black liquor can be performed through gasification process at temperatures above the melting point of the inorganic chemicals. Complementing the experimental research, this study was conducted in Aspen Plus software to simulate thermodinamic modeling of detail process for gasification and combined cycle in an integrated system power plant. Mass and energy balances were examined to quantify process performance. The unrecoverable energy in a single process will be utilized in other processes. The combination of these technologies is expected minimizing the total exergy destruction the throughout system. Kraft black liquor was used as sample during process calculation. The proposed integrated-system shows a high energy efficiency. A significant positive energy harvesting from black liquor can be achieved for further development.

In this study, microwave torrefaction of leucaena was studied to find out the potential applications and energy usage benefit of this technique. Both maximum temperature and heating rate increased with increasing microwave power level. Processing time was also an important operational parameter, but its effect was weaker than that of microwave power level. The heating value of torrefied product was higher at higher power level and longer processing time, but the mass and energy yields were lower due to higher energy input and thus more severe reaction. Heating value was approximately 30 MJ/kg at a microwave power level of 250 W for 30 min processing time. The fuel ratio of torrefied leucaena was up to 3.7, which is much higher than that of bituminous coal and thus can be regarded as an alternative fuel to replace or co-fire with coal. The energy return on investment of microwave torrefaction of leucaena can be 1.4, 17, and 34 when handling capacities are 8, 100, and 200 g, respectively. Therefore, microwave torrefaction of leucaena is a promising technique, and it can be more competitive when it is scaled up.

The idea of using microalgae as a bio-source of biodiesel is being taken seriously because of the escalating price of fossil fuel. As the tropical country, which gets the sun a year round, Indonesia has big potential for cultivating microalgae in large scale, as biodiesel feedstock. This study examines the algal oil extraction of selected monoculture microalgae species of Botryococcus braunii , Nannochloropsis sp. , Arthrospira platensis and mixed cultures microalgae from South Coast of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Among all species of microalgae studied, Nannochloropsis sp. was found to have the highest algal oil yield (0.0346 g dry algal oil/g dry microalgae) and theoretical calorific value (187.69 kcal/kg dry microalgae).

Economic evaluation of a reactive distillation for biodiesel production is performed. Palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) consisting of a mixtures of triglycerides, moisture and free fatty acids is considered a feedstock. A simulation model of the biodiesel production process based on a reactive distillation is developed using Aspen Plus. Effect of key operating parameters, such as the number of reactive stages and liquid holdup, is investigated. The economic analysis considers total investment costs, operating costs and economic indicators, such as return on investment (ROI) and net present value (NPV). Performance of the reactive distillation processes is compared with a conventional process using two continuous reactors. The simulation results show that a single step acid – catalyzed process can be carried out in a reactive distillation for higher biodiesel productivity and purity. Although the conventional process has lower total production cost, the reactive distillation process is more economical process providing a higher ROI and NPV. The biodiesel production using a reactive distillation without recycling upstream is the most preferred configuration. Furthermore, the reactive distillation process can save the energy requirement of 51.2% compared with the conventional process.

Current biofuel production utilizing microalgal biomas is not cost effective. Hence increasing research interest is to find out new microalgal candidate to make microalgal products and by-products economically viable. Several promising microalgal species have drawn scientific interest as they offer commercial sources of high-value by-products (chemicals) such as β-carotene, astaxanthin, docosahexaenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, bioactive and functional pigments, natural dyes, polysaccharides, antioxidants and algal extracts. These species play a significant role in cosmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, fodder, aquaculture, bioremediation and human foods. For making algal biomass production economically viable, high value by-product extracting is paramount. This article emphasises on some important microalgal species that offer such high value by-products for commercial applications.

Biomass is one of the renewable and sustainable energy sources that does not lead greenhouse gas emissions. Efficient use of biomass energy will help to solve problems resulting from fossil fuels. However, the main concern relevant to use of this energy is mainly related to low calorific value of biomass. Therefore, calorific value is the key parameter to evaluate the fuel quality of a special biomass material in energetic applications. In this context, twenty-seven different biomass species that represent very wide range of biomass materials such as herbaceous and woody biomasses, nut shells, fruit stones, stem and husks, pulps, and agricultural residues have been characterized by proximate analysis (moisture, volatile matter, fixed carbon, and ash contents). Then, various empirical equations which contain linear and nonlinear terms have been tested in order to predict the higher heating values (HHV) of full sample set from the proximate analysis results. It was concluded that since biomasses used in this study have different structures and fuel characteristics, the predicted HHVs for the full sample set were a bit different from the experimental HHVs and the r2 of these equations varied in the range of 0.812-0.837, while standard deviations were between 1.469 and 1.493 MJ/kg. Nevertheless, considering the number of the biomass species used in this study and their differences in properties, these standard deviations may be regarded in the acceptable limits.

Nyamplung ( Calophyllum inophyllum L.) is one of the most potential plants for biodiesel feedstock because of its high oil content. Mechanical extraction using screw press is one method to get oil from nyamplung seed. Result of the extraction is affected by the seed's condition, such as moisture content and particle size. The paper presents experimental results that estimate the vegetable oil production potential of C. inophyllum . The results show the effect of C. inophyllum seed moisture content and particle size on oil yield, andthe characteristics of C. inophyllum oil.The seed moisture contents used in this experiment are 0%, 1.2%, and 20%, whereas the average seed particle size used are 0.81, 2.90, and 8.60 mm. The C. inophyllum fruits were obtained from Cipatujah Sub-district, Tasikmalaya Regency. The methods used include fruit and seed preparation, seed moisture content and particle size conditioning, mechanical extraction, oil characteristics analysis, and C. inophyllum oil production potential calculation. The optimum seed moisture content to obtain high oil yield is 1.2% which yields 33.39%oil, while the optimum seed particle size to obtain high oil yield is 8.60 mm which yields 33.46% oil. The bigger the particle size will affect on higher oil yield. From this research, it can be concluded that the trees in Cipatujahhave potential to produce C. inophyllum oil up to 5.13 L/tree/year. C. inophyllum oil yield is effected by seed moisture content and particle size, and it has characteristics that support its utilization as biodiesel feedstock.

This paper presents the results of an experimental pineapple (Ananas comosus L.) drying study in a new solar hybrid dryer. The dryer is a direct and integrated type, with a black mate pan which measures 1.675 x 0.61 x 0.055 m (1.02m2). It uses a copper helical tube that conducts hot water, at 80°C, generating extra heat for the drying process; the tube is located at the bottom of the black pan. A caliber 6, transparent vinyl film is used as a cover and the walls and base of the dryer are isolated by 0.0254 m thick fiberglass. It is inclined 23° south and uses pump to recirculate water. The variety of pineapple used was honey, 1/4 of grown age. Each slice was 0.005 m thick, resulting in a mass density of 2.83 kg/m2 in the drying trays area. To be able to have useful comparisons, drying tests were performed during winter and spring of 2013, using both the hybrid dryer and the traditional solar dryer. Results showed that when initial humidity between pineapples is quite similar (this being one of the most influential factors in changing efficiency, time and other important process variables), evaporation efficiencies are higher in the traditional process; such efficiencies ranging between 22.7% and 24.0%; while the efficiency of the hybrid dryer ranges between 9.3% and 14.0%. This is basically due to the increase of energy loss when using both sunlight and heated water. On the other hand, the time the process took to reach the humidity goal (24.0% humid base or 0.32 dry based) was much faster when using the hybrid dryer. This dryer ended the process in a range of 6.0 to 6.8 hours while the traditional solar process took between 8.0 and 8.8 hours. It is also important to note that the final process was basically homogeneous throughout the dryer, especially when the drying trays on the top end of the dryer were placed 0.03 m further away from the top, and produced a fine quality product with only slight discoloration of the pineapples’ side which faced the sun. homogeneous throughout the dryer, especially when the drying trays on the top end of the dryer were placed 0.03 m further away from the top, and produced a fine quality product with only slight discoloration of the pineapples’ side which faced the sun.