Bioenergy

Pyrolysis is the thermal conversion of carbonaceous materials in the absence of molecular oxygen to liquids, solids and gases. In the most general sense, pyrolysis can occur in an inert or reducing atmosphere or within a solvent (including water); it can occur at atmospheric or elevated pressure;...

Glycerol produced as a waste product in biodiesel production has interesting potential as a low-cost biomass-derived feedstock for chemical processing. A process of current academic and commercial interest is the acid-catalyzed dehydration of glycerol to acrolein, a valuable platform chemical. Such...

Mineral acids have been used effectively for the pretreatment of cellulosic biomass to improve sugar recovery and promote its conversion to ethanol; however, substantial capital investment is required to enable separation of the acid, and corrosion-resistant materials are necessary. Disposal and...

Background: Biodiesel, monoalkyl esters of long-chain fatty acids attached to short-chain alcohols derived from triacylglycerols (TAGs), can be produced from renewable biomass sources. There has been interest in producing TAGs from oleaginous microorganisms. As published recently (J Biotechnol...

The current “state-of-art” dilute acid pretreatment to produce bio-ethanol from corn stover requires severe conditions to overcome biomass recalcitrance, which, in turn, offers 70~80% xylose monomer yield and 5~7% furfural yield. However, high acid loadings and high reaction temperatures harm the...

The influence of pretreatment chemistry and the severity of dilute acid pretreatment on the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of soluble oligomer-derived and insoluble crystalline cellulose using a commercial enzyme preparation (Novozymes) was investigated. A dilute acid pretreatment was performed on...

Evaluation of Membrane Separations Opportunities within Lignocellulosic Biorefining Processes: Tailoring Membrane Properties Jennifer Leberknight, Amitkumar Gautam, and Todd J. Menkhaus South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering 501 East Saint...

Lignin, an amorphous aromatic biopolymer that comprises up to 30% of plant matter, was dissolved and depolymerized in ionic liquids under acidic conditions. The acidic ionic liquid 1-methylimidazolium chloride (HMIMCl) acts as a combination solvent and catalyst that facilitates degradation of...

Production of biodiesel by esterification or transesterification of long-chain fatty acids is a well known process, but the fuel product has characteristics making it not fully compatible with petroleum diesel engines. A better option is to convert fatty acid molecules to hydrocarbons by removing...

A major challenge in developing biorefinery is that the availability of biomass often limits the scale of the plant thus the feasibility of an operation. We proposed an integrated lipid-based platform as one technical option. According to this concept, different biomass resources will be first...