Gasoline, Diesel, and Ethanol Biofuels from Grasses and Plants

by Ram B. Gupta, Ayhan Demirbas

Overview

The world is currently faced with two significant problems: fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation, which are continuously being exacerbated due to increasing global energy consumption. As a substitute for petroleum, renewable fuels have been receiving increasing attention due a variety of environmental, economic, and societal benefits. The first-generation biofuels – ethanol from sugar or corn and biodiesel from vegetable oils – are already on the market. The goal of this book is to introduce readers to second-generation biofuels obtained from non-food biomass, such as forest residue, agricultural residue, switch grass, corn stover, waste wood, municipal solid wastes, and so on. Various technologies are discussed, including cellulosic ethanol, biomass gasification, synthesis of diesel and gasoline, bio-crude by hydrothermal liquefaction, bio-oil by fast pyrolysis, and the upgradation of biofuel. This book strives to serve as a comprehensive document presenting various technological pathways and environmental and economic issues related to biofuels.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521763998
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/19/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dr Ram B. Gupta is a Distinguished Chair Professor and Chair of the Chemical Engineering Graduate Program at Auburn University. He has published numerous research papers and holds several patents on biofuels, nanotechnology, hydrogen fuel, and supercritical fluid technology and is the recipient of several national awards. He is a Fellow of the Alabama Academy of Science. He served on the editorial advisory boards of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research and Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine and is currently serving on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology, Research Letters in Nanotechnology, the Open Nanomedicine Journal, the International Journal of Chemical Engineering, and Research Letters in Chemical Engineering. His recent books are Nanoparticle Technology for Drug Delivery; Solubility in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide; Hydrogen Fuel: Production, Transport, and Storage; and Gasoline, Diesel, and Ethanol Biofuels from Grasses and Plants.

Ayhan Demirbas is a Full Professor at Sila Science and Energy. He was a Professor of Energy Technologies Science at Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey, between 1991 and 2001, and at Selcuk University, Turkey, from 2003 to 2007. His research is mainly concerned with renewable and sustainable energy.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Air pollution and global warming from the use of fossil fuels; 3. Renewable energy sources; 4. Biomass availability in the world; 5. Conventional ethanol production from corn and sugarcane; 6. Ethanol from biomass by fermentation; 7. Biodiesel from vegetable oils; 8. Diesel from biomass gasification followed by FT synthesis; 9. Bio-oil from biomass pyrolysis; 10. Bio-crude from biomass hydrothermal liquefaction; 11. Solar and wind energy for biofuel production; 12. Environmental impacts of biofuels; 13. Economic impact of biofuels; 14. Biofuel policy.