The Role of Biogas in the Global Energy Transition: Production Pathways and Sustainable Applications | Chapter 1 | New Horizons of Science, Technology and Culture Vol. 7

With the growing global demand for clean and renewable energy, biogas has a significant role to play in the global energy transition. Biogas is competitive, viable, and generally a sustainable energy resource due to an abundant supply of cheap feedstocks and availability of a wide range of biogas applications in heating, power generation, fuel, and raw materials for further processing and production of sustainable chemicals, including hydrogen, carbon dioxide and biofuels. Biogas is produced naturally from organic materials through the anaerobic digestion process. With huge biomass to biogas conversion potential and many feasible biogas to electricity conversion technologies, biogas plays an extremely important role in the energy transition as a renewable energy fuel resource and feedstock for industrial production of chemical fuels and renewable products. The capacity of biogas-based power has been growing rapidly for the past decade, with global biogas-based electricity generation capacity increasing from 65 GW in 2010 to 120 GW in 2019, representing a 90% growth. The main challenge to the use of biogas is unsteady production and quality variations, which can lead to interference in generation or biogas applications, hence lower reliability. This study presents the pathways for the use of biogas in the energy transition by application in power generation and the production of fuels. It is based on a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature and official reports covering biogas sources, production processes, and applications. The literature used in this study was published between 1932 and 2022 to give a clear view of the past and status of biogas technology and applications. Diesel engines, petrol or gasoline engines, turbines, microturbines, and Stirling engines offer feasible options for biogas to electricity production as prime movers. Biogas fuel can be used in both spark ignition (petrol) and compression ignition engines (diesel) with varying degrees of modifications on conventional internal combustion engines. In internal combustion engines, the dual-fuel mode can be used with little or no modification compared to full engine conversion to gas engines, which may require major modifications. Biogas can also be used in fuel cells for direct conversion to electricity, raw material for hydrogen and transport fuel production, which is a significant pathway to sustainable energy development. Enriched biogas or biomethane can be containerised or injected into gas supply mains for use as renewable natural gas. Biogas can be used directly for cooking and lighting as well as for power generation and for the production of Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuels. Upgraded biogas/biomethane, which can also be used to  process methanol fuel. Compressed biogas (CBG) and liquid biogas (LBG) can be reversibly made from biomethane for various direct and indirect applications as fuels for transport and power generation. Biogas can be used in processes like combined heat and power generation from biogas (CHP), trigeneration, and compression to Bio-CNG and bio-LPG for cleaned biogas/biomethane. Fuels are manufactured from biogas by cleaning and purification before reforming to syngas, and partial oxidation to produce methanol, which can be used to make gasoline. Syngas is used in the production of alcohols, jet fuels, diesel, and gasoline through the Fischer-Tropsch process. Development and adoption of efficient conversion technologies and equipment are a key strategy for wider adoption and use of biogas in the future energy transition to green and low-carbon sources. The study finally concluded that biogas to electricity and biofuel conversion provide sustainable pathways in the global energy transition and realisation of the Paris climate and emission  targets.

 

 

Author(s) Details

 

Moses Jeremiah Barasa Kabeyi
Department of Industrial Engineering, Institute of Systems Science, Durban University of Technology, South Africa.

 

Oludolapo Akanni Olanrewaju
Institute of Systems Science, Durban University of Technology, South Africa.

 

Please see the book here :- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/nhstc/v7/5666

Recent Advances Fermentation Technology for Bioethanol Production as One of Potential Energy Sources| Chapter 2 | Recent Progress in Science and Technology Vol. 4

 Rising the concern of energy security and the instability in fossil fuels price in addition to the adverse effect of these fossil fuels on the environment, made the world searching for alternative energy sources that are sustainable and clean to the environment. One of these alternative energies is bioethanol. Bioethanol is produced by microbial fermentation either from sugar crops or starchy grain crops depending on their availability as first-generation carbon sources for bioethanol production. These carbon sources are edible in nature and could lead into food-vs-fuel conflict and famine specially in developing countries. Inedible lignocellulosic biomass such as abundant agriculture byproducts and forestry waste are developed as second-generation carbon sources for bioethanol production. However so far, the excessive production cost of bioethanol from these lignocellulosic biomasses limiting the application of this technology for commercialization on large scale. In addition to the first and second generations of bioethanol technologies, there is third generation of carbon sources that currently under investigation for bioethanol production by gasification a wide verities of biomass sources into syngas (SG). Syngas is a mixture of carbo dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen. This syngas can be utilized as a carbon source for microbial fermentation using anaerobic bacteria such as Clostridium sp. to convert syngas into bioethanol and organic acids. In general, the interest in bioethanol as an alternative energy to fossil oil is due to its favorable properties as energy source.

Author(s) Details:

Osama O. Ibrahim,
Biotechnology,Bio Innovation LLC,7434 Korbel Dr.Gurnee IL. 60031, USA.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/RPST-V4/article/view/9439

Effects of Platinum and Palladium Metals on Ni/ Mg1−xCex 4+O Catalysts in the CO2 Reforming of Methane | Chapter 2 | Challenges and Advances in Chemical Science Vol. 7

 Catalysts Ni/Mg1−xCex4+O and Ni,Pd,Pt/Mg1−xCex4+O were developed using the co-precipitation–impregnation methods. Catalyst characterization took place using XRD, H2-TPR, XRF, XPS, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), TGA, TEM, and FE-SEM. Testing the catalysts for the dry reforming of CH4 took place at temperatures of 700–900°C. Findings from this study revealed a higher CH4 and CO2 conversion using the tri-metallic Ni,Pd,Pt/Mg1−xCex4+O catalyst in comparison with Ni monometallic systems in the whole temperature ranges. The catalyst Ni,Pd,Pt/Mg0.85Ce4+0.15O also reported an elevated activity level (CH4; 78%, and CO2; 90%) and outstanding stability. Following 200 hours under an oxygen stream, carbon deposition on used catalysts was investigated using TEM and temperature programmed oxidation-mass spectroscopy (TPO-MS). The findings of the TEM and TPO-MS analyses revealed that the decreased catalyst had improved anti-coking activity and a lower concentration of platinum and palladium metals. The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of reactant feed ratio, catalyst concentration, prepared catalyst conversion temperature, catalyst efficacy in the DRM process, and the enhancement of methane conversion by passing oxygen gas stream across the reaction.

Author (s) Details

Faris A. J. Al-Doghachi
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Basrah, Basrah 61004, Iraq.

Ali F. A. Jassim
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor 40000, Malaysia.


Yun Hin Taufiq-Yap

Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, University Malaysia Sabah, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia and Catalysis Science and Technology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor 40000, Malaysia.

View Book :- https://stm.bookpi.org/CACS-V7/article/view/5168