The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

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The Environmental Protection Agency

Production of liquid biofuels from renewable resources

Progress and recent trends in biodiesel fuels

As the fossil fuels are depleting day by day, there is a need to find out an alternative fuel to fulfill the energy demand of the world. Biodiesel is one of the best available resources that have come to the forefront recently. In this paper, a detailed review has been conducted to highlight different related aspects to biodiesel industry. These aspects include, biodiesel feedstocks, extraction and production methods, properties and qualities of biodiesel, problems and potential solutions of using vegetable oil, advantages and disadvantages of biodiesel, the economical viability and finally the future of biodiesel. The literature reviewed was selective and critical. Highly rated journals in scientific indexes were the preferred choice, although other non-indexed publications, such as Scientific Research and Essays or some internal reports from highly reputed organizations such as International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy Information Administration (EIA) and British Petroleum (BP) have also been cited. Based on the overview presented, it is clear that the search for beneficial biodiesel sources should focus on feedstocks that do not compete with food crops, do not lead to land-clearing and provide greenhouse-gas reductions. These feedstocks include non-edible oils such as Jatropha curcas and Calophyllum inophyllum , and more recently microalgae and genetically engineered plants such as poplar and switchgrass have emerged to be very promising feedstocks for biodiesel production. It has been found that feedstock alone represents more than 75% of the overall biodiesel production cost. Therefore, selecting the best feedstock is vital to ensure low production cost. It has also been found that the continuity in transesterification process is another choice to minimize the production cost. Biodiesel is currently not economically feasible, and more research and technological development are needed. Thus supporting policies are important to promote biodiesel research and make their prices competitive with other conventional sources of energy. Currently, biodiesel can be more effective if used as a complement to other energy sources.

A comprehensive review on biodiesel as an alternative energy resource and its characteristics

Biodiesel production is a very modern and technological area for researchers due to the relevance that it is winning everyday because of the increase in the petroleum price and the environmental advantages. In this work it is made a review of the alternative technological methods that could be used to produce this fuel. Different studies have been carried out using different oils as raw material, different alcohol (methanol, ethanol, buthanol) as well as different catalysts, homogeneous ones such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sulfuric acid and supercritical fluids, and heterogeneous ones such as lipases. In this work advantages and disadvantages of technologies are listed and for all of them a kinetics model is introduced.

http://www.biofuelscoproducts.umn.edu/sites/biodieselfeeds.cfans.umn.edu/files/2005-marchetti-possible_methods_for_biodiesel_production.pdf

Possible methods for biodiesel production

Biodiesel is one of the new possible substitutes of regular fuel for engines and is produced from different vegetable oils or animal fats. The main reaction involved is the transesterification of triglycerides into esters. When an acid oil, such as spent or waste oil, is used, the amount of free fatty acids range from 3% to 40%, and another reaction takes place simultaneously with the transesterification, the direct esterification of the free fatty acid. In this work, the direct esterification reaction of triglycerides to biodiesel was studied and the effects of the main variables involved in the process, reaction temperature, amount of catalyst, initial amount of free fatty acid and the molar ratio alcohol/oil, were analyzed. For this investigation, we employed a model acid oil produced by mixing pure oleic acid with refined sunflower oil. Ethanol was used in the experiments instead of methanol since it is less toxic and safer to handle. Sulfuric acid was employed as catalyst because of its advantages compared with conventional homogeneous catalysts (NaOH). It was found that ethanol and sulfuric acid were suitable to perform not only the transesterification reaction but also the direct esterification reaction to increase biodiesel production of the process.

A.F. Errazu

Papers

Possible methods for biodiesel production

Esterification of free fatty acids using sulfuric acid as catalyst in the presence of triglycerides

Techno-economic study of different alternatives for biodiesel production

Heterogeneous esterification of oil with high amount of free fatty acids

Comparison of different heterogeneous catalysts and different alcohols for the esterification reaction of oleic acid