Sustainable Development Goals

▶ Addresses a wide range of timely environment, economic and energy topics ▶ A forum to review, analyze and stimulate the development, testing and implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies at regional, national and global scales ▶ Contributes to real-time policy analysis and development as national and international policies and agreements are discussed and promulgated ▶ 94% of authors who answered a survey reported that they would definitely publish or probably publish in the journal again

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

Production of liquid biofuels from renewable resources

Cultivation, photobioreactor design and harvesting of microalgae for biodiesel production: A critical review

Biodiesel is a renewable transportation fuel consisting of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), generally produced by transesterification of vegetable oils and animal fats. In this review, the fatty acid (FA) profiles of 12 common biodiesel feedstocks were summarized. Considerable compositional variability exists across the range of feedstocks. For example, coconut, palm and tallow contain high amounts of saturated FA; while corn, rapeseed, safflower, soy, and sunflower are dominated by unsaturated FA. Much less information is available regarding the FA profiles of algal lipids that could serve as biodiesel feedstocks. However, some algal species contain considerably higher levels of poly-unsaturated FA than is typically found in vegetable oils. Differences in chemical and physical properties among biodiesel fuels can be explained largely by the fuels’ FA profiles. Two features that are especially influential are the size distribution and the degree of unsaturation within the FA structures. For the 12 biodiesel types reviewed here, it was shown that several fuel properties – including viscosity, specific gravity, cetane number, iodine value, and low temperature performance metrics – are highly correlated with the average unsaturation of the FAME profiles. Due to opposing effects of certain FAME structural features, it is not possible to define a single composition that is optimum with respect to all important fuel properties. However, to ensure satisfactory in-use performance with respect to low temperature operability and oxidative stability, biodiesel should contain relatively low concentrations of both long-chain saturated FAME and poly-unsaturated FAME.

Review of biodiesel composition, properties, and specifications

Sustainable production of renewable energy is being hotly debated globally since it is increasingly understood that first generation biofuels, primarily produced from food crops and mostly oil seeds are limited in their ability to achieve targets for biofuel production, climate change mitigation and economic growth. These concerns have increased the interest in developing second generation biofuels produced from non-food feedstocks such as microalgae, which potentially offer greatest opportunities in the longer term. This paper reviews the current status of microalgae use for biodiesel production, including their cultivation, harvesting, and processing. The microalgae species most used for biodiesel production are presented and their main advantages described in comparison with other available biodiesel feedstocks. The various aspects associated with the design of microalgae production units are described, giving an overview of the current state of development of algae cultivation systems (photo-bioreactors and open ponds). Other potential applications and products from microalgae are also presented such as for biological sequestration of CO 2 , wastewater treatment, in human health, as food additive, and for aquaculture.

/pdf/microalgae-for-biodiesel-production-and-other-applications-a-54vmwufrsu.pdf

Microalgae for biodiesel production and other applications: A review

Parametric study of a brewery effluent treatment by microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus.

https://recipp.ipp.pt/bitstream/10400.22/3030/1/ART_TeresaMata_2010_GRAQ.pdf

Simulation and life cycle assessment of process design alternatives for biodiesel production from waste vegetable oils

This work presents the application of a new framework for sustainability metrics to industrial processes, in particular, to chemical processes. The sustainability of an industrial process can be evaluated using a set of three-dimensional (3D) indicators that represent all three dimensions of sustainability:  economic, environmental, and societal. The four 3D metrics proposed in this worknamely, material intensity, energy intensity, potential chemical risk, and potential environmental impactare applicable to a wide range of process systems. The first two metrics are associated with the process operation. The remaining two metrics, potential chemical risk and potential environmental impact, respectively represent chemical risk to human health in the process environment, and the potential environmental impact of the process on the surrounding environment. To illustrate this framework and the applicability of the proposed set of 3D metrics, two case studies are presented:  chlorine production process using th...

Teresa M. Mata

Papers

Microalgae for biodiesel production and other applications: A review

Parametric study of a brewery effluent treatment by microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus.

Simulation and life cycle assessment of process design alternatives for biodiesel production from waste vegetable oils

Framework for Sustainability Metrics

Bio-refinery approach for spent coffee grounds valorization.