Progress in the production of biomass-to-liquid biofuels to decarbonize the transport sector - prospects and challenges
Annually the transport sector consumes a quarter of global primary energy and is responsible for related greenhouse gas emissions. Presently, petroleum derived liquid fuels are the overwhelming source of energy for the transport sector. Liquid biofuels are a viable substitution for petroleum-derived...
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| Published in | RSC advances Vol. 6; no. 38; pp. 3214 - 3217 |
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| Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
01.01.2016
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| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Annually the transport sector consumes a quarter of global primary energy and is responsible for related greenhouse gas emissions. Presently, petroleum derived liquid fuels are the overwhelming source of energy for the transport sector. Liquid biofuels are a viable substitution for petroleum-derived fuels in the transport sector and an important option to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO
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emissions. Substituting petroleum-derived fuels with liquid biofuel is also anticipated to reduce the dependency of the transport sector on fossil fuels. Different options are available for the production liquid biofuels. However, the production of liquid biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass has certain advantages. These advantages include the high abundance, availability, low procurement cost and current under-utilization of lignocellulosic biomass. However, the potential for successful deployment of technologies to produce liquid biofuel from lignocellulosic biomass and their cost reductions are surrounded by large uncertainties. High cost of production of liquid fuels from lignocellulosic biomass and their commercial immaturity are major obstacles for the widespread application of liquid biofuels in transportation. Other obstacles include the lack of infrastructure and lack of political as well as public support. This article reviews the obstacles behind the limited production of biomass to liquid (BTL) fuels and their diffusion in the transport sector. The potential approaches to make the production of lignocellulosic-based liquid biofuels economically attractive are also discussed. An approach that focuses on integrating individual operations and processes and adequately modelling these processes evaluated on the bases of the entire pathway can help in realizing the large scale commercial production of liquid biofuels through cleaner production.
Annually the transport sector consumes a quarter of global primary energy and is responsible for related greenhouse gas emissions. |
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| Bibliography: | Rashid Abro is a Chemical Engineer at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) in Pakistan. He is a currently PhD scholar (funded by Higher Education Commission - HEC, Pakistan) at Beijing university of Chemical Technology under the supervision of Dr Xiaochun Chen. His PhD research focuses on the applications of ionic liquids for production of clean fuels. He received his Bachelors and Master's Degrees in Chemical Engineering in 2007 and 2011, respectively, from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan. He also worked as a lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Dawood University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi for three years. Abdul Waheed Bhutto is an Assistant Professor at Dawood University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi. He is currently a PhD candidate at Mehran University Jamshoro. He is concentrating his efforts on improving the efficiency of processes for biofuel production from lignocellulosic material. He received his Master's Degree from NED University Karachi in 2001. He earned his Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Dawood Engineering College Karachi in 1998. His research work has focused on alternate energy sources for sustainable development. He is an author of more than 30 research papers. Dr Guangren Yu is a professor in the College of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Engineering (BUCT). He received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Shandong University of Industrial Technology in 2000, BUCT in 2003 and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007, respectively. In 2012, he did one-year visiting research at the University of California at Berkeley, USA under the supervision of Professor John M. Prausnitz. He is an author of more than 50 research papers and patents. He is researching on the theory and application of ionic liquids in clean fuel production, biofuels, acid gas capture separation, computer simulation and QSPR. Dr Khadija Qureshi is a Professor at Mehran University-Jamshoro. She has an extensive research and teaching background in chemical and environmental engineering. For 15 years she has supervised research projects on the reuse of waste materials and agricultural waste, the conversion of agricultural waste into useful chemicals and liquid fuels. She was also a post doctorate fellow at the University of Arizona working on the US Science and Technology Program. She is also a key trainer in gender and mainstreaming women in leadership and management. Dr Khanji Harijan is a Professor at Mehran University-Jamshoro. He received his PhD from Mehran University-Jamshoro in 2008 where he worked on the modeling and analysis of the potential demand for renewable sources of energy in Pakistan. He has an extensive research and teaching background in renewable energy. He is the author of over 100 articles and book chapters. His current research focuses on identifying and addressing barriers to renewable energy development. Dr Aqeel Ahmed Bazmi is a professional chemical engineer and holds PhD (Chemical Engineering) degree from UTM, Malaysia. He has been served as Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Dawood College of Engineering & Technology (DCET), Karachi for seven years and joined the Department of Chemical Engineering, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Lahore in 2006 as Assistant Professor. He is an author of several high impact factor articles in reputed ISI-indexed international journals. His research areas are sustainable development; environmental modeling; bioprocess engineering; optimization modeling; process system engineering. |
| ISSN: | 2046-2069 2046-2069 |
| DOI: | 10.1039/c5ra26459f |