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

Catalytic reforming has been considered as an effective technique to produce hydrogen (H2)/syngas from the various feedstocks. The present study focussed on the dry reforming of biogas with Ni (10 wt %) catalysts supported on ceria (CeO2) and Ni catalyst with mixed support of ceria and zinc oxide (ZnO). The synthesized catalysts were characterized by H2-TPR, FESEM, EDX, XRD and BET techniques. The effect of Zn loading (10 and 20 wt %) on the catalytic activity was assessed with respect to various performance parameters. Increased reaction temperature from 650 °C to 900 °C caused a significant increase in reactant conversion and product yield. At 650 °C, CH4 conversion and H2 selectivity achieved were 18.1 and 5.2%, respectively, whereas, at 900 °C, enhanced CH4 conversion (78.5%) and H2 (35.7%) selectivity was achieved with Ni0.1/CeO2 catalyst. Further, it was observed that Ni supported on mixed support exhibited higher reactant conversions when compared to Ni supported with ceria. At 900 °C, Ni0.10/(Zn0.1-Ce0.9) catalyst showed higher CH4 and CO2 conversion of 83.1 and 97.0%, respectively, with 40.3% of H2 enrichment. Carbon deposition rate in mixed support catalyst was observed to be less when compared to single support material after 7 h of continuous dry reforming reaction. Further, in order to reduce carbon deposition on the catalyst bed, dry oxidative reforming was carried out at 650 °C with varying proportions of O2/CH4 ratio which resulted in significantly higher CH4 conversion with low catalyst deposition.

Catalytic reforming of synthetic biogas for hydrogen enrichment over Ni supported on ZnOCeO2 mixed catalyst

An erosion and corrosion study on thermally sprayed WC-Co-Cr powder synergized with Mo2C/Y2O3/ZrO2 feedstock powders

In the present study, erosion wear of a 90 pipe bend has been investigated using the Computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT. Solid particles were tracked to evaluate the erosion rate along with k-ɛ turbulent model for continuous/fluid phase flow field. Spherical shaped sand particles of size 183 μm and 277 μm of density 2631 kg/m are injected from the inlet surface at velocity ranging from 0.5 to 8 ms at two different concentrations. By considering the interaction between solid-liquid, effect of velocity, particle size and concentration were studied. Erosion wear was increased exponential with velocity, particles size and concentrations. Predicted results with CFD have revealed well in agreement with experimental results. The magnitude and location of maximum erosion wear were more severe in bend rather than the straight pipe.

https://jafmonline.net/JournalArchive/download?file_ID=48989&issue_ID=256

Saroj Kumar Mohapatra

Papers

Catalytic reforming of synthetic biogas for hydrogen enrichment over Ni supported on ZnOCeO2 mixed catalyst

An erosion and corrosion study on thermally sprayed WC-Co-Cr powder synergized with Mo2C/Y2O3/ZrO2 feedstock powders

Modeling of Erosion Wear of Sand Water Slurry Flow through Pipe Bend using CFD

Slurryability and flowability of coal water slurry: Effect of particle size distribution

Environmental impact assessment of ash disposal system of a thermal power plant