Modern agriculture is an extremely energy intensive process. However, high agricultural productivities and the growth of green revolution has been possible only by large amount of energy inputs, especially those coming from fossil fuels. These energy resources have not been able to provide an economically viable solution for agricultural applications. Biomass energy-based systems had been extensively used for transportation and on farm systems during World War II: the most common and reliable solution was wood or biomass gasification. The latter means incomplete combustion of biomass resulting in production of combustible gases which mostly consist of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2) and traces of methane (CH4). This mixture is called syngas, which can be successfully used to run internal combustion engines (both compression and spark ignition) or as substitute for furnace oil in direct heat applications. The aim of the present paper is to help the experimentation of innovative plants for electric power production using agro-forest biomass derived by hazelnut cultivations. An additional purpose is to point out a connection among the chemical and physical properties of the outgoing syngas by biomass characterization and gas-chromatography analysis.
Decomposition of gaseous NH 3 from ammonia (NH 3 )-containing wastewater was explored using Ni-loading Al 2 O 3 catalysts. The thermochemical decomposition of an NH 3 /steam mixture (wet-NH 3 ) with different steam contents at 873, 923, and 973 K using a fixed-bed reactor under ambient pressure. The present results indicated that the catalysts can be deactivated by the formation of NiAl 2 O 4 , which can be thermodynamically generated, and confirmed that the extent of deactivation was greatly affected by the partial pressure of the steam (P H 2 O ). The catalytic activities at 873 K decreased with increasing P H 2 O , whereas the activity was constant above P H 2 O of 25 kPa. However, the NH 3 conversion was almost independent of the NH 3 flow rate and temperature, and ∼30% of the NH 3 was decomposed at each temperature. This study indicated that, even in the presence of steam, this catalyst could decompose NH 3 from NH 4 + -containing water.
The use of renewable energy is becoming increasingly necessary in order to address the global warming problem and, as a consequence, has become an high priority for many countries. Biomass is a clean and renewable energy source with growing potential to replace conventional fossil fuels. Among biomass, residual and waste ones represent a great resource for energy generation since they permit both to eliminate a possible waste and to produce energy. In the present work, the case of slaughterhouse wastes (SHWs) has been investigated. Anaerobic digestion is nowadays considered as one of the most important and sustainable conversion technology exploiting organic matter and biodegradable wastes. Biogas results from this bio-chemical process and mainly consists of methane and carbon dioxide, leading to produce thermal energy and/or electricity. In this paper, the European Regulations on animal by-products (ABPs) are described, and some previous study on anaerobic digestion and co-digestion of ABPs - more precisely SHWs - are considered and compared in order to fix a starting point for future tests on their co-digestion in a micro-scale pilot digester. This is to define optimal feed ratio values which ensure an increasing content of methane in the outgoing biogas.
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