Alternative Energy

The development of new biomass sources for alternative fuels has become a subject of increasing importance as the nation strives to resolve the economic and strategic impacts of limited fossil fuel resources on our national security, environment, and global climate. Algae are among the most...

Some processes aimed to biofuels production, use lignocellulosic wastes as feedstocks for fermentative conversion. If this is the case, pretreatment is required to make these resources fully digestible. Among a wide range of pretreatment options, this study focuses and compares oxidative-alkaline...

Concerns about dwindling fossil fuel reserves and climate change, energy independence, and depletion of ecosystem goods and services have driven the development of alternative technologies such as biomass-based fuels (biofuels). Although biofuels may be a step towards alleviating the aforementioned...

Chemical looping process is effective in converting carbonaceous fuels into hydrogen and electricity while generating a sequestration-ready CO 2 stream. The process scheme is enabled by the cyclic reduction and oxidation reactions of an oxygen carrier (OC). The properties of OCs are of critically...

Due to the recent surge in energy costs and uncertainties in fuel prices, there is significant interest in seeking alternative sources of energy particularly from renewable such as biomass. Indirect liquefaction of biomass (via the thermo-chemical conversion to syngas followed by liquefaction via...

Variety of oxygenated compounds are detected in the pyrolysis oils, which leads to a number of associated problems such as low stability and reduced heating values. As a consequence, complete deoxygenation of bio oils with minimum hydrogen uptake is one of the proposed strategies toward improving...

Research over several decades by several institutions has shown that alkali-promoted metal sulfide catalysts are capable of producing mixed alcohols from syngas with high selectivity and yield. Unfortunately, process models suggest that syngas to mixed alcohol processes, and especially...

Traditional sandwich cell battery chemistries are used in a flow cell where a pump circulates fluid between electrodes through a permeable membrane. The energy densities of these batteries are many fold higher than flow batteries where one or more reagent is stored in the electrolyte. Side-by-side...

Accidental fires in wood pellets silos happen frequently in the last five years. Experiments were carried out in this work at temperature range of 100 o C to 200 o C to study wood pellets chemical oxidation process. A self-heating model was developed to simulate the self-heating process using the...

One key parameter in Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) is the oxygen transport capacity of the CLC materials between the two process reactors; in practice, it may be limited by a combination of many factors, including the metal content of the inert binder, the oxygen uptake and release kinetics and...