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Environmental Effects
Introduction
The demand for energy is increasing at an exponential rate due to the exponential growth
of world population. Advanced energy-efficiency technologies reduce the energy needed
to provide energy services, thereby reducing environmental and national security costs
of using energy and potentially increasing its reliability (Demirbas, 2006a).
In general, a sustainable energy system includes energy efficiency, energy reliability,
energy flexibility, energy development and continuity, combined heat and power (CHP)
or cogeneration, fuel poverty, and environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of
energy use are not new. For centuries, wood burning has contributed to the deforestation of
many areas. On the other hand, the typical characteristics of a sustainable energy system
can be derived from political definitions. A sustainable energy system can be defined
also by comparing the performance of different energy systems in terms of sustainability
indicators (Alanne and Sari, 2006). Because, by definition, sustainable energy systems
must support both human and ecosystem health over the long term, goals on tolerable
emissions should look well into the future. They should also take into account the publics
tendency to demand more (UNDP, 2000).
Address correspondence to Prof. Ayhan Demirbas, P.K. 216, 61065 Trabzon, Turkey. E-mail:
ayhandemirbas@hotmail.com
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According to International Energy Agency (IEA), scenarios developed for the USA
and the EU indicate that near-term targets of up to 6% displacement of petroleum fuels
with biofuels appear feasible using conventional biofuels, given available cropland. A 5%
displacement of gasoline in the EU requires about 5% of available cropland to produce
ethanol, while in the USA 8% is required. A 5% displacement of diesel requires 13% of
USA cropland, 15% in the EU (IEA, 2004).
The recent commitment by the U.S. government to increase bio-energy three-fold in
10 years has added impetus to the search for viable biofuels. The EU have also adopted
a proposal for a directive on the promotion of the use of biofuels with measures ensuring
that biofuels account for at least 2% of the market for gasoline and diesel sold as transport
fuel by the end of 2005, increasing in stages to a minimum of 5.75% by the end of 2010
(Hansen et al., 2005). Advantages of biofuels are the following: (a) Biofuels are easily
available from common biomass sources; (b) They represent a carbon dioxide cycle in
combustion; (c) Biofuels have considerable environmentally friendly potential; (d) There
are many benefits to the environment, economy, and consumers in using biofuels; and
(e) They are biodegradable and contribute to sustainability (Puppan, 2002).
Figure 2 shows the main biomass conversion processes. Biomass can be converted to
biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel and thermochemical conversion products such
as syn-oil, bio-syngas, and biochemicals. Bioethanol is a fuel derived from renewable
sources of feedstock, typically plants such as wheat, sugar beet, corn, straw, and wood.
Bioethanol is a petrol additive/substitute. Biodiesel is better than diesel fuel in terms of
sulfur content, flash point, aromatic content, and biodegradability (Bala, 2005).
If the biodiesel valorized efficiently at energy purpose, so would it benefit the
environment and the local population: job creation, provision of modern energy carriers to
rural communities, avoidance of urban migration and reduction of CO2 and sulfur levels
in the atmosphere. Biofuels include energy security reasons, environmental concerns,
foreign exchange savings, and socioeconomic issues related to the rural sector.
Figure 3 shows the shares of alternative fuels compared to the total automotive fuel
consumption in the world as a futuristic view. Hydrogen is currently more expensive than
conventional energy sources. There are different technologies presently being practiced
to produce hydrogen economically from biomass. Biohydrogen technology will play a
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Figure 3. Shares of alternative fuels compared to the total automotive fuel consumption in the
world. (Source: Demirbas, 2006b.)
major role in future because it can utilize the renewable sources of energy (Nath and
Das, 2003).
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technology more cost-effective, the focus must be on reducing both the capital and the
operating costs of such a plant (Vosloo, 2001). For some time now, the price has been
up to $60 per barrel. It has been estimated that the FT process should be viable at crude
oil prices of about $20 per barrel (Jager, 1998; Dry, 2004). The current commercial
applications of the FT process are geared at the production of the valuable linear alpha
olefins and of fuels such as LPG, gasoline, kerosene, and diesel. Since the FT process
produces predominantly linear hydrocarbons, the production of high quality diesel fuel
is currently of considerable interest (Dry, 2004). The most expensive section of an FT
complex is the production of purified syngas, so its composition should match the overall
usage ratio of the FT reactions, which in turn depends on the product selectivity (Dry,
2002).
The Al2 O3 /SiO2 ratio has significant influences on iron-based catalyst activity and
selectivity in the process of FTS. Product selectivities also change significantly with
different Al2 O3 /SiO2 ratios. The selectivity of low molecular weight hydrocarbons increases, and the olefin-to-paraffin ratio in the products shows a monotonic decrease
with increasing Al2 O3 /SiO2 ratio. Table 1 shows the effects of Al2 O3 /SiO2 ratio on
hydrocarbon selectivity (Jothimurugesan et al., 2000). Recently, Jun et al. (2004) studied
FTS over Al2 O3 - and SiO2 -supported iron-based catalysts from biomass-derived syngas.
They found that Al2 O3 as a structural promoter facilitated the better dispersion of copper
and potassium and gave much higher FTS activity. The reaction results from FTS with
balanced syngas are given in Table 2 (Jun et al., 2004).
More recently, there has been some interest in the use of FTS for biomass conversion
to synthetic hydrocarbons. Biomass can be converted to bio-syngas by non-catalytic, catalytic, and steam gasification processes. The bio-syngas consists mainly of H2 , CO, CO2 ,
and CH4 . The FTS has been carried out using CO/CO2/H2 /Ar (11/32/52/5 vol%) mixture
as a model for bio-syngas on co-precipitated Fe/Cu/K, Fe/Cu/Si/K, and Fe/Cu/Al/K
catalysts in a fixed-bed reactor. Some performances of the catalysts that depended on
the syngas composition are also presented (Jun et al., 2004).
To produce bio-syngas from a biomass fuel, the following procedures are necessary:
(a) gasification of the fuel, (b) cleaning of the product gas, (c) usage of the synthesis gas
Table 1
Effects of Al2 O3 /SiO2 ratio on hydrocarbon selectivity
Hydrocarbon
selectivities,
wt%
100
Fe/6
Cu/5
K/25
SiO2
100
Fe/6
Cu/5
K/3
Al2 O3 /22
SiO2
100
Fe/6
Cu/5
K/5
Al2 O3 /20
SiO2
100
Fe/6
Cu/5
K/7
Al2 O3 /18
SiO2
100
Fe/6
Cu/5
K/10
Al2 O3 /15
SiO2
100
Fe/6
Cu/5
K/25
Al2 O3
CH4
C2 4
C5 11
C12 18
C19C
6.3
24.5
26.8
21.9
20.5
8.7
27.8
27.6
21.2
14.4
10.4
30.8
32.2
15.8
11.0
10.7
29.9
33.9
15.0
10.6
14.3
33.4
40.0
6.0
6.1
17.3
46.5
31.0
4.9
0.4
Reaction condition: 523 K, 2.0 MPa, H2 /CO D 2.0, and gas stream velocity: 2,000 h
Source: Jothimurugesan et al. (2000).
1.
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CO C CO2
CH4
C2 C4
C5 C7
C8C
Olefin
selectivity,
%, in C2 C4
0.3
12.6
39.2
21.9
26.3
84.9
Conversion, %
CO
82.9
CO2
to produce chemicals, and (d) usage of the synthesis gas as energy carrier in fuel cells.
Figure 4 shows the production of diesel fuel from bio-syngas by FTS. Bio-syngas is a
gas rich in CO and H2 obtained by gasification of biomass.
Figure 4. Green diesel and other products from biomass via Fisher-Tropsch synthesis.
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alternative fuel, vegetable oil is one of the renewable fuels. Vegetable oil is a potentially
inexhaustible source of energy with an energetic content close to diesel fuel.
There are four alternative fuels that can be relatively easily used in conventional CI
engines: vegetable oil, biodiesel, Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel, and dimethyl ether (DME).
The vegetable oils, such as palm, soybean, sunflower, peanut, and olive oils as alternative
fuels, can be used for diesel engines. The vegetable oils as alternative engine fuels are all
extremely viscous, with viscosities ranging from 10 to 20 times greater than petroleum
diesel fuel. The major problem associated with the use of pure vegetable oils as fuels
for diesel engines are caused by high fuel viscosity in compression ignition. The direct
use of vegetable oils in fuel engines is problematic. Due to their high viscosity and low
volatility, they do not burn completely and form deposits in the fuel injector of diesel
engines.
The use of vegetable oils as alternative renewable fuel competing with petroleum was
proposed in the beginning of the 1980s. The advantages of vegetable oils as diesel fuel
are liquid nature portability, ready availability, renewability, higher heat content (about
88% of No. 2 petroleum diesel fuel), lower sulfur content, lower aromatic content, and
biodegradability.
The viscosity of the distillate was 10.2 mm2 /s at 311 K, which is higher than the
ASTM specification for No. 2 diesel fuel (1.94.1 mm2 /s) but considerably below that of
soybean oil (32.6 mm2 /s). Used cottonseed oil from the cooking process was decomposed
with Na2 CO3 as catalyst at 725 K to give a pyrolyzate containing mainly C8 20 alkanes
(69.6%) besides alkenes and aromatics. The pyrolyzate had lower viscosity, pour point,
and flash point than No. 2 diesel fuel and equivalent heating values. The cetan number
of the pyrolyzate was lower than that of No. 2 diesel fuel (Bala, 2005; Sang et al., 2003).
Vegetable oils may be resources for fuels as petroleum alternatives. There are four
different ways of modifying vegetable oils and fats to use them as diesel fuel, such
as pyrolysis (cracking) and dilution with hydrocarbons (blending, emulsification, and
transesterification). Figure 5 shows the use of vegetable oils as petroleum alternative
fuels. The saponification and pyrolysis of sodium soap of vegetable oil proceeds as
follows:
Saponification:
Vegetable Oils or Fats ! NaOH C RCOONa C Glycerin
(1)
Pyrolysis of Na-soaps:
2RCOONa C .1=2/O2 ! R R C Na2 CO3 C CO2
(2)
The soaps obtained from the vegetable oils can be pyrolyzed into hydrocarbon-rich
products, according to Eq. (2), with higher yields at lower temperatures (Demirbas,
2002).
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The vegetable oils can be converted to petroleum compounds by effectively separating the carboxylic group without breaking the hydrocarbon chain. Hot compressed
water is one of the candidates for treating the oils to produce petroleum (long chain
hydrocarbon) because of its capability to hydrolyze triglyceride into free fatty acid and
glycerol without catalyst (Holliday et al., 1997; King et al., 1999). However, a free fatty
acid is stable in subcritical water (Holliday et al., 1997). Thus, to develop the petroleum
recovery process from oils, decarboxylation of a free fatty acid is a key reaction.
Conclusion
A sustainable energy system includes energy efficiency, energy reliability, energy flexibility, fuel poverty, and environmental impacts. A sustainable biofuel has two favorable
properties, which are availability from renewable raw material and its lower negative
environmental impact than that of fossil fuels. The term modern biomass is generally
used to describe the traditional biomass use through the efficient and clean combustion
technologies and sustained supply of biomass resources, environmentally sound and
competitive fuels, and heat and electricity using modern conversion technologies.
Biofuels as well as green diesel produced from biomass by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
are the most modern biomass-based transportation fuels. Green diesel is a renewable
replacement to petroleum-based diesel. Pyrolysis is the most important process among
the thermal conversion processes of biomass. The vegetable oils can be converted to
petroleum compounds by effectively separating the carboxylic group without breaking
the hydrocarbon chain.
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