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

CO2 conversion covers a wide range of possible application areas from fuels to bulk and commodity chemicals and even to specialty products with biological activity such as pharmaceuticals. In the present review, we discuss selected examples in these areas in a combined analysis of the state-of-the-art of synthetic methodologies and processes with their life cycle assessment. Thereby, we attempted to assess the potential to reduce the environmental footprint in these application fields relative to the current petrochemical value chain. This analysis and discussion differs significantly from a viewpoint on CO2 utilization as a measure for global CO2 mitigation. Whereas the latter focuses on reducing the end-of-pipe problem “CO2 emissions” from todays’ industries, the approach taken here tries to identify opportunities by exploiting a novel feedstock that avoids the utilization of fossil resource in transition toward more sustainable future production. Thus, the motivation to develop CO2-based chemistry does...

Sustainable Conversion of Carbon Dioxide: An Integrated Review of Catalysis and Life Cycle Assessment

Dimethyl ether (DME) as an alternative fuel

Hierarchical and comparative kinetic modeling of laminar flame speeds of hydrocarbon and oxygenated fuels

An updated H2/O2 kinetic model based on that of Li et al. (Int J Chem Kinet 36, 2004, 566–575) is presented and tested against a wide range of combustion targets. The primary motivations of the model revision are to incorporate recent improvements in rate constant treatment and resolve discrepancies between experimental data and predictions using recently published kinetic models in dilute, high-pressure flames.

Attempts are made to identify major remaining sources of uncertainties, in both the reaction rate parameters and the assumptions of the kinetic model, affecting predictions of relevant combustion behavior. With regard to model parameters, present uncertainties in the temperature and pressure dependence of rate constants for HO2 formation and consumption reactions are demonstrated to substantially affect predictive capabilities at high-pressure, low-temperature conditions. With regard to model assumptions, calculations are performed to investigate several reactions/processes that have not received much attention previously. Results from ab initio calculations and modeling studies imply that inclusion of H + HO2 = H2O + O in the kinetic model might be warranted, though further studies are necessary to ascertain its role in combustion modeling. In addition, it appears that characterization of nonlinear bath-gas mixture rule behavior for H + O2(+ M) = HO2(+ M) in multicomponent bath gases might be necessary to predict high-pressure flame speeds within ∼15%.

The updated model is tested against all of the previous validation targets considered by Li et al. as well as new targets from a number of recent studies. Special attention is devoted to establishing a context for evaluating model performance against experimental data by careful consideration of uncertainties in measurements, initial conditions, and physical model assumptions. For example, ignition delay times in shock tubes are shown to be sensitive to potential impurity effects, which have been suggested to accelerate early radical pool growth in shock tube speciation studies. In addition, speciation predictions in burner-stabilized flames are found to be more sensitive to uncertainties in experimental boundary conditions than to uncertainties in kinetics and transport. Predictions using the present model adequately reproduce previous validation targets and show substantially improved agreement against recent high-pressure flame speed and shock tube speciation measurements. Comparisons of predictions of several other kinetic models with the experimental data for nearly the entire validation set used here are also provided in the Supporting Information. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 44: 444–474, 2012

Deming Jiang

Papers

Measurements of laminar burning velocities for natural gas–hydrogen–air mixtures

Combustion and emissions of a DI diesel engine fuelled with diesel-oxygenate blends

Combustion characteristics of a direct-injection engine fueled with natural gas–hydrogen blends under different ignition timings

Combustion behaviors of a direct-injection engine operating on various fractions of natural gas-hydrogen blends

Combustion characteristics of a direct-injection natural gas engine under various fuel injection timings