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In this study, process simulation and techno‐economic analysis (TEA) were conducted to evaluate the production of renewable jet fuel (RJF) through the pyrolysis‐to‐RJF process. The process model was developed based on experimental results for the renewable jet fuel production process using the fast pyrolysis of rice husk, hydro‐processing of pyrolytic oil, and hydro‐cracking / isomerization of hydro‐processed oil. The mass and energy flows were input into the TEA model, which was established based on local conditions in Taiwan. The study included three parts: (1) the mass, energy and carbon balances – the major product, RJF, gave an energy yield of 26.8%, a mass yield of 9%, and a carbon yield of 21%; (2) an economic analysis – the MJSP of RJF for the pyrolysis‐to‐RJF process was $3.21/L, based on the plant capacity of 600 tonnes per day; (3) a sensitivity analysis: the impacts of the feedstock cost, catalyst life, co‐product selling price, catalyst cost, hydrogen cost, and plant capacity were discussed. This study demonstrated the economic potential of locally developing a pyrolysis‐to‐RJF process to produce RJF from solid biomass. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considered the techno-economic evaluations for the economic feasibility of jatropha derived hydro-processed renewable jet (HRJ) fuel, starting from the farming processes to the refinery (fruit-to-fuel) processes, based on the situations in Taiwan. The farming processes included plantation, growing and harvesting. The fruit-to-fuel processes included fruit dehulling, shell combustion, oil extraction, pyrolysis of press cake, oil refinery and product separation. In addition, the calculated minimum jet fuel selling price (MJSP) was compared to the cases from two different countries (Thailand and Cambodia) and to the scenario without cultivation. The MJSP of the Taiwan case, $6.25/L jet fuel, was higher than the cases of Thailand and Cambodia as well as the without-cultivation scenario. Moreover, according to the annual aviation fuel consumption from one of the aviation companies in Taiwan, the MJSPs of various blending fractions were calculated and compared with the cases of Thailand and Cambodia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feedstock has been the most significant issue for promoting a sustainable and economical renewable aviation fuel in Taiwan. In this study, the potential feedstocks available for producing hydro-processed renewable jet (HRJ) fuel locally in Taiwan were evaluated economically through the process simulation and techno-economic analysis. The productivities, H 2 consumptions, product distributions and properties of the produced fuel, which strongly depend on the fatty acid content within the oil/fat feedstocks, were demonstrated and discussed. The baseline economics, sensitivity analyses and pioneer plant analyses were also conducted in accordance with the simulation results. The minimum aviation fuel selling prices (MAFPs) of all feedstocks were calculated ranging from $0.91/L∼ $2.74/L. The feedstock costs, prices of hydrogen, prices of hydro-processing catalyst and plant capacities have influences on the selling prices of renewable aviation fuel by 54%, 18%, 12% and 11%, respectively. Furthermore, although the greases have the most economical benefits among the selected feedstocks, the feedstock pretreatment processes lead to the complexity of the production and result in higher pioneer plant costs compared to the ones of plant oils. This study provides the suggestions for the government to locally select an appropriate HRJ feedstock. Image 1 • The process simulation and TEA were conducted to evaluate HRJs from 12 feedstocks. • The MAFPs of all feedstocks were calculated as $0.91/L∼ $2.74/L. • Greases obtain high productivity but have relatively high pioneer plant costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Thermochemical processing of agriculture waste not only provides surrogates for combustion fuel but also reduces the environmental issues of waste. Miscanthus has been viewed as one of the largest agriculture wastes in Taiwan and a proper process for turning Miscanthus into a valuable product has become a significant subject. Here, fluidized‐bed fast pyrolysis was applied to convert Miscanthus into bio‐oil, bio‐char, and pyrolytic gases as the products. The product distributions were examined depending on various reaction parameters such as reaction temperature, carrier gas flow rate, feedstock feeding rate, and feedstock size. The chemical compositions of the bio‐oil, bio‐char, and product gases were analyzed and the properties of the bio‐oil were also tested via standard methods. So far, bio‐oil derived from Miscanthus is unfavorable for application in combustion engines without further upgrading processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) are a promising alternative energy resource for the off-grid generation of household electricity. In this study, we conducted a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption pertaining to the environmental impact of a Taiwanese-built 600 W HAWT. This investigation was divided into five phases: (1) materials; (2) production; (3) transport; (4) disposal; (5) recycling. Four main components of a HAWT were focused on: (a) rotor; (b) generators; (c) electronic components; (d) tower. Based on the evaluation, the production phase and the fabrication of generator make the highest contribution to GHG emissions, whereas the phase of materials and the fabrication of generator are responsible for the most energy consumption. Based on estimations of the power generated by the HAWT under the local wind conditions in Tainan, Taiwan, it is estimated that the HAWT would require 160.9 years to return the energy used in the production and disposal of the devices and 100.1 years to counter-balance the production of GHGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Producing renewable jet fuels from solid waste contributes greatly on circular economy with respect to the energy, environment and economics. The feedstock sources are resolved, the solid wastes are re-used, the pollution from aircrafts are reduced and the air energy is renewed. In this study, the rice husk biomass, which has been a headache agriculture waste in Taiwan, was turned into products similar to traditional jet fuel through fluidized bed fast pyrolysis, hydro-processing and hydro-cracking/isomerization, in which significant increases in normal alkanes, iso-alkanes and cycloalkanes were found. The final product from hydro-cracking/isomerization contained appropriate amount of normal, iso-, and cyclo-alkanes, which made it suitable to be the replacement for jet fuel. • Renewable jet fuel was produced from local agriculture wastes. • Process includes fast pyrolysis, hydro-processing and hydro-isomerization/cracking. • Final fuel contains proper amount of normal, iso- and cyclo-alkanes similar to JP5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of childhood atopic dermatitis (AD) and allergic rhinitis (AR) is increasing. This warrants development of measures to predict and prevent these conditions. We aimed to investigate the predictive ability of a spectrum of data mining methods to predict childhood AD and AR using longitudinal birth cohort data. We conducted a 14-year follow-up of infants born to pregnant women who had undergone maternal examinations at nine selected maternity hospitals across Taiwan during 2000-2005. The subjects were interviewed using structured questionnaires to record data on basic demographics, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, medical history, and 24-h dietary recall. Hourly concentrations of air pollutants within 1 year before childbirth were obtained from 76 national air quality monitoring stations in Taiwan. We utilized weighted K-nearest neighbour method (k = 3) to infer the personalized air pollution exposure. Machine learning methods were performed on the heterogeneous attributes set to predict allergic diseases in children. A total of 1439 mother-infant pairs were recruited in machine learning analysis. The prevalence of AD and AR in children up to 14 years of age were 6.8% and 15.9%, respectively. Overall, tree-based models achieved higher sensitivity and specificity than other methods, with areas under receiver operating characteristic curve of 83% for AD and 84% for AR, respectively. Our findings confirmed that prenatal air quality is an important factor affecting the predictive ability. Moreover, different air quality indices were better predicted, in combination than separately. Combining heterogeneous attributes including environmental exposures, demographic information, and allergens is the key to a better prediction of children allergies in the general population. Prenatal exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) and its concatenation changes with time were significant predictors for AD and AR till adolescent., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)