BIOFUEL
Self study Submitted to Bharathidasan University in Partial Fulfillment of
theRequirement for the Degree of Master of Science in Marine
Biotechnology
By
K.Pandi Selvi
Reg. No – 09MBT12
Under the Guidance of
Dr. D.Prabaharan
Associate professor
Department of Marine Biotechnology
Bharathidasan University
Thiruchirappalli– 620 024
July-2011
Synopsis
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Introduction
Biofuel Sources
Generations
Waste water treatment mthods
Cost of biofuel
Applications of biofuel
Future aspects
Conclusion
References
INTRODUCTION
• The term biofuel is referred to liquid, gas and solid fuels
predominantly produced from biomass. Biofuels include
bioethanol, biomethanol, vegetable oils, biodiesel, biogas, biosynthetic gas (bio-syngas), bio-oil, bio-char, Fischer-Tropsch
liquids, and biohydrogen.
• Biomass refers to a wide variety of organic and natural
resources that include solid biomass, liquid fuels and different
types of biogases. Biofuels can actually be extracted or derived
from both living and nonliving (they were at one point)
materials.
BIOFUEL SOURCES
• Biofuel is actually generated through 100% renewable
resources.
• Examples of renewable resources include forests and
crops. Today, renewable biofuels are produced from a
variety of different types of biomass that include sugar
crops, corn crops, vegetable oil, algae, wood and wood
by products.
GENERATIONS
• First generation of biofuel:
• Bioethanol and biobutanol
• Bio-ethanol can be produced from different kinds of raw
materials. These raw materials are classified into three
categories of agricultural raw materials : simple sugars,
starch and lignocellulose.
• Bio-ethanol is derived from alcoholic fermentation of
sucrose or simple sugars, which are produced from
biomass by hydrolysis process.
Cont…
• Biodiesel production:
• Biodiesel is a renewable replacement to petroleumbased diesel. Biodiesel is an alternative liquid fuel that
can be used in any diesel engine without modification.
• Biodiesel is produced by a mono-alcoholic transesterification process, in which triglycerides reacts with a
mono-alcohol (most commonly methanol or ethanol)
with the catalysis of alkali, acids, or enzymes.
Cont...
There are three basic methods of biodiesel production from
oils and fats:
* Base catalyzed transesterification of the oil.
* Direct acid catalyzed transesterification of the oil.
• Conversion of the oil to its fatty acids and then to
biodiesel.
Most of the biodiesel production is done with the base
catalyzed reaction for several reasons:
* It is low temperature and pressure.
* It yields high conversion (98%) with minimal side
reactions and reaction time.
* It is a direct conversion to biodiesel with no intermediate
compounds.
Biodiesel production process
Cont…
• The base catalyzed production of biodiesel generally
occurs using the following steps:
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Mixing of alcohol and catalyst
Reaction
Separation
Alcohol Removal
Glycerin Neutralization
Methyl ester Wash
Product Quality and Registration
Second Generation
• Jatropha
J. curcas containing highly unsaturated and fattyacids.
It is probably the most highly promoted oilseed crop.
The seeds contain alkaloids as well as curcin, a toxalbumin
then the oil contain a fatty acid ‘‘curcanoleic acid’’.
• Castor bean
Castor oil contains about 90% of the triglyceride as ricinoleic
acid, a C18 monounsaturated and monohydroxylated fatty acid,
without acute toxicity, i.e. a C12 hydroxylated derivative of oleic
acid.
Third Generation
• The extensive collections of microalgae have been
created by researchers in different countries.
• Examples – Freshwater Microalgae Collection
(University of Coimbra (Portugal).
• Then the collected strains were used in pharmaceutical
purposes, food crops for human consumption and as
energy source.
• Microalgae can fix CO2 from three different sources,
namely:
CO2 from the atmosphere,
CO2 in discharge gases from heavy industry,
CO2 from soluble carbonates.
Cont..
• The lipid content of Nannochloropsis strains ranging
from 39.4% to 44.9% of dry weight biomass.
• Transesterification of the lipids yielded 25 - 51% of fatty
acid methyl ester (FAME) i.e. In biodiesel, total FAME
content ranged between 11 and 21% of dry weight
biomass.
• There are four major types of cultivation conditions for
microalgae:
Photoautotrophic,
Heterotrophic,
Mixotrophic,
Photoheterotrophic cultivation.
Phototrophic cultivation
• In Phototrophic method the microalgae use sunlight, as
the energy source, and inorganic carbon (e.g., carbon
dioxide) as the carbon source to form chemical energy
through photosynthesis.
• In phototrophic cultivation of lipid content of microalgae,
ranging from 5 % to 68%, depending on the type of
microalgae species.
• The highest lipid productivity is about 179 mg/ L / d by
Chlorella sp. under phototrophic cultivation.
Open pond production system
• This system can be categorised into natural waters (lakes,
lagoons, and ponds) and artificial ponds or container.
• Raceway ponds are the most commonly used artificial
system.
• In 2008, the unit cost of producing Dunaliella salina, one of
the commonly cultivated algae strains, in an open pond
system was about 2.55 per kilogram of dry biomass, was
considered to be too high production for biofuels.
• There are several factors are determined, including,
evaporation losses, temperature fluctuation in the growth
media, CO2 deficiencies, inefficient mixing, and light
limitation.
Race way ponds
Closed photo bioreactor
• Microalgae production based on closed photobioreactor
technology .
• Closed systems include the tubular, flat plate, and
column photobioreactors. The costs of closed systems
are higher than open pond systems.
• It consist of an array of straight glass or plastic tubes .
Basic design of a horizontal tubular
photobioreactor
Hetrotrophic cultivation
• The microalgae use organic carbon as the source of
energy and carbon source is called heterotrophic
cultivation.
• Some microalgae species (Chlorella protothecoides)
show higher lipid content (40%)during heterotrophic
growth.
Mixotrophic cultivation
• The microalgae use both organic and inorganic carbon
(CO2) as a carbon source for growth.
• The microalgae are able to live under phototrophic or
heterotrophic conditions, or both.
• Photoheterotrophic cultivation:
• the microalgae require light using organic compounds as
the carbon source.
• In photoheterotrophic cultivation needs both sugars and
light.
Algal biomass conversion processes
Thermochemical conversion
• It covers the thermal decomposition of organic
components in biomass to yield fuel products, and is
achieved by different processes such as;
Direct combustion,
Gasification,
Thermochemical liquefaction,
Pyrolysis.
Biochemical conversion
• The biological process of energy conversion of biomass
into other fuels includes anaerobic digestion, alcoholic
fermentation and photobiological hydrogen production.
FOURTH GENERATION
• Biological hydrogen generation system is achieved by
co-cultivating a unicellular green alga whose
photosynthesis is driven by the visible light.
• The purple photosynthetic bacterium adsorbed infrared
light . The system works only at low light intensities.
waste water treatment methods
• wastewater treatment methods are broadly classified
into three categories;
• physical
• chemical
• biological treatment
• These methods are used to remove contaminants from
wastewater.
• wastewater treatment procedures are classified as
primary, secondary, and tertiary wastewater treatment.
wastewater treatment processes
Cost of biofuel (ethanol)
• In 200 5 and May 200 7 prices for ethanol feedstock is
between 6% and 68%.
Current and projected future ethanol production costs, compared with
recent
(pre-tax) gasoline prices / litre of gasoline equivalent.
Cost of biodiesel
• The production costs falling by up to 37% between 2005 and
2030 in the United States.
Current and projected future biodiesel production costs, compared with
recent
Applications of biofuel
1. Cells which use a primary fuel (usually an organicwaste
such as corn husks) and generate a material such as
hydrogen, which is then used as a secondary fuel within a
conventional hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell.
2. Cells which generate electricity directly from an organic fuel
such as glucose, using either enzymes or complete
microorganisms.
3. Cells which combine the utilisation of photochemically active
systems and biological moieties to harvest the energy from
sunlight and convert this into electrical energy.
Future Aspects
• Currently total fossil fuel consumption levels of
approximately 757 billion liters (200 billion gallons) per
year, this requires the United States to develop a
commercial infrastructure capable of producing
approximately 227 billion liters (60 billion gallons) of
biofuel per year.
• The production level of 24.6 billion liters (6.49billion
gallons) in 2007, it is estimated that the maximum
production levels of corn ethanol in the United States will
reach approximately 57 billion liters (15 billion gallons)
per year by 2015.
Conclusion
• The role of sustainable, cost-effective, and scalable
feedstock production is one of the most pressing needs
in the realization of a biofuels industry capable of
replacing a significant portion of the fossil-fuel
consumption of the United States. It is important to
recognize that different feedstocks will need to be grown
in different regions to meet the tonnage required.
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