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

World energy demand is expected to increase due to the expanding urbanization, better living standards and increasing population. At a time when society is becoming increasingly aware of the declining reserves of fossil fuels beside the environmental concerns, it has become apparent that biodiesel is destined to make a substantial contribution to the future energy demands of the domestic and industrial economies. There are different potential feedstocks for biodiesel production. Non-edible vegetable oils which are known as the second generation feedstocks can be considered as promising substitutions for traditional edible food crops for the production of biodiesel. The use of non-edible plant oils is very significant because of the tremendous demand for edible oils as food source. Moreover, edible oils’ feedstock costs are far expensive to be used as fuel. Therefore, production of biodiesel from non-edible oils is an effective way to overcome all the associated problems with edible oils. However, the potential of converting non-edible oil into biodiesel must be well examined. This is because physical and chemical properties of biodiesel produced from any feedstock must comply with the limits of ASTM and DIN EN specifications for biodiesel fuels. This paper introduces non-edible vegetable oils to be used as biodiesel feedstocks. Several aspects related to these feedstocks have been reviewed from various recent publications. These aspects include overview of non-edible oil resources, advantages of non-edible oils, problems in exploitation of non-edible oils, fatty acid composition profiles (FAC) of various non-edible oils, oil extraction techniques, technologies of biodiesel production from non-edible oils, biodiesel standards and characterization, properties and characteristic of non-edible biodiesel and engine performance and emission production. As a conclusion, it has been found that there is a huge chance to produce biodiesel from non-edible oil sources and therefore it can boost the future production of biodiesel.

Non-edible vegetable oils: A critical evaluation of oil extraction, fatty acid compositions, biodiesel production, characteristics, engine performance and emissions production

Due to fast climate change and foreseen damage through global warming, access to clean and green energy has become very much essential for the sustainable development of the society, globally. Biomass based energy is one of the important renewable energy resources to meet the day to day energy requirements and is as old as the human civilization. Biomass gasification is among few important aspects of bioenergy for producing heat, power and biofuels for useful applications. Despite, the availability of vast literature, technological and material advancements, the dissemination of gasification technology could not overcome the critical barriers for the widespread acceptability over the conventional energy resources. This article presents a comprehensive review on the technical advancements, developments of biomass gasification technology and the barriers being faced by different stakeholders in the wide dissemination of the technology for day to day requirements of the society, followed by recommendations for policy makers to make this technology popular while serving the society.

Recent advances in the development of biomass gasification technology: A comprehensive review

Production and comparison of fuel properties, engine performance, and emission characteristics of biodiesel from various non-edible vegetable oils: A review

Plant biomass are woody and non-wood materials (e.g., oil palm, bamboo, rattan, bagasse, and kenaf) and are abundant and renewable resource. Unfortunately, the heavy reliance on this resource is a threat to forest ecosystems and a recipe for accelerated land resource degradation. Due to the increasing scarcity of wood resources, many rural communities have shifted to utilization of crop residues for many different applications. The non-wood biomass is readily available, environmental friendly, and technologically suitable, and therefore, an excellent raw material for the future. The non-wood materials like bamboo, rattan, oil palm, and bagasse have superior properties and durability, which can be further prolonged by the modifi cation treatment. The modifi cation treatments increase the performance of the non-wood and could make it suitable for applications in many fi elds ranging from construction industry to automotive industry. This chapter deals with the properties improvement techniques of the selected non-wood biomasses and evaluates its applications for various purposes. The new developments dealing with the improvement of non-wood properties have also been presented in the chapter. The performance of non-wood biomass materials has been compared to the wood-based materials. Recent studies pertaining to the above topics have also been cited. Finally, the advanced applications of the improved non-wood biomasses have been highlighted.

Biomass and bioenergy

Titanium has been known as the ‘metal of the future’ for last few decades owing to its ever increasing applications in aerospace; marine; defense; nuclear energy; missiles; chemical production; hydrocarbon processing; power generation; desalination; nuclear waste storage and processing; metal recovery; offshore; marine deep sea applications; anodes; automotive components, food and pharmaceutical processing, medical implants and surgical devices and many other emerging fields of science and technology. Titanium is branded as difficult-to-machine metal as the conventional machining processes are unable to provide cost-effective solution for its commercial machining. Titanium is machined commercially by non-traditional methods such as Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) and Laser Beam Machining (LBM), but the surface quality obtained is not satisfactory from the prospect of surface integrity as well as surface finish. Ultrasonic Machining (USM) is another non-traditional machining process that is widely used in commercial machining of hard and brittle materials such as ceramics, refractory materials and precision stones. USM is a process known for its capabilities in providing excellent surface finish without any significant alterations is surface integrity or structure of the work material. Moreover, the compressive stress induced in the sub-surface as a result of repeated impacts of abrasive grains contributes in improving the fatigue strength of the machined components; which is a very important aspect especially for a material like titanium. Hence, the study was aimed to investigate the machining characteristics of titanium using different tool materials in ultrasonic machining and to model these characteristics for their application in the concerned manufacturing industry. The machining characteristics investigated are material removal rate (MRR); tool wear rate (TWR) and surface roughness. In the present investigation, the work has been limited to commercially pure titanium (ASTM Grade-I) as work material, in combination with five different tool materials (High carbon steel; High speed steel; titanium; titanium alloy and cemented carbide) for experimentation. The results showed that the response variables were strongly influenced by control factors (input parameters).

http://tudr.thapar.edu:8080/jspui/bitstream/10266/762/5/762.pdf

Investigating the Machining Characteristics of Titanium Using Ultrasonic Machining

Today's power generation sources are largely dependent on fossil fuels due to which the future sustainable development has become a challenge. A signif- icant amount of the pollutant emissions such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide from the power sector is related to the use of fossil fuels for power generation. As the demand for electricity is growing rapidly, emissions of car- bon dioxide and other pollutants from this sector can be expected to increase unless other alternatives are made available. Among the energy sources that can substitute fossil fuels, biomass fuels appear as one of the options with a high worldwide poten- tial. In the Punjab region of India, Fluidized-bed combustion technology is being used for converting biomass into thermal energy and power generation in various small scale units. The investigation of biomass-based plant through experimental activities and numerical simulation is the scope of this study. The investigations were done at Captive Power Plant (CPP), Ambuja Cement Limited, a project of Holcim, District Ropar, India. During experimental investigations, the study of bed temperatures and steam temperatures at different zones has been done for coal fired and biomass fired combustors with 30% share. No clear effects of co-firing on boiler performance are observed. However, the operational behavior of the boiler in terms of bed temperature and stack emissions shows a different trend. During simulation, the contours of tem- perature have been obtained for both the boilers and the trends are found in agreement with real process.

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Study of a 30 MW bubbling fluidized bed combustor based on co-firing biomass and coal

CFD Analysis of a Bubbling Fluidized Bed Combustor Based on Co-Firing Biomass & Coal

http://tudr.thapar.edu:8080/jspui/bitstream/10266/1977/3/1977.pdf

Study of Various Methods of Biodiesel Production and Properties of Biodiesel Prepared from Waste Cotton Seed Oil and Waste Mustard Oil

Power generation in India is primarily coal-based in the present scenario. About 70% electricity generation produced by combustion of pulverized coal in thermal power plants. The available Indian c...

Saroj Kumar Mohapatra

Papers

Investigating the Machining Characteristics of Titanium Using Ultrasonic Machining

Study of a 30 MW bubbling fluidized bed combustor based on co-firing biomass and coal

CFD Analysis of a Bubbling Fluidized Bed Combustor Based on Co-Firing Biomass & Coal

Study of Various Methods of Biodiesel Production and Properties of Biodiesel Prepared from Waste Cotton Seed Oil and Waste Mustard Oil

Chemical treatment of low-grade coal using Taguchi approach