The Past, Present, and Future of Biofuels – Biobutanol as Promising Alternative

Köpke, Michael; Steffi, Noack; Dürre, Peter

doi:10.5772/20113

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 162 publications

(174 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, the high enzymatic specificities of biological conversions also result in higher product selectivity with the formation of fewer by-products. Crucially, the biocatalysts are also less susceptible to poisoning by sulfur, chlorine, and tars than the inorganic catalysts (Michael et al, 2011 ; Mohammadi et al, 2011 ), which reduces the gas pre-treatment costs.…”

Section: Gas Fermentation Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Fermentation—A Flexible Platform for Commercial Scale Production of Low-Carbon-Fuels and Chemicals from Waste and Renewable Feedstocks

et al. 2016

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There is an immediate need to drastically reduce the emissions associated with global fossil fuel consumption in order to limit climate change. However, carbon-based materials, chemicals, and transportation fuels are predominantly made from fossil sources and currently there is no alternative source available to adequately displace them. Gas-fermenting microorganisms that fix carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) can break this dependence as they are capable of converting gaseous carbon to fuels and chemicals. As such, the technology can utilize a wide range of feedstocks including gasified organic matter of any sort (e.g., municipal solid waste, industrial waste, biomass, and agricultural waste residues) or industrial off-gases (e.g., from steel mills or processing plants). Gas fermentation has matured to the point that large-scale production of ethanol from gas has been demonstrated by two companies. This review gives an overview of the gas fermentation process, focusing specifically on anaerobic acetogens. Applications of synthetic biology and coupling gas fermentation to additional processes are discussed in detail. Both of these strategies, demonstrated at bench-scale, have abundant potential to rapidly expand the commercial product spectrum of gas fermentation and further improve efficiencies and yields.

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Section: Gas Fermentation Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Fermentation—A Flexible Platform for Commercial Scale Production of Low-Carbon-Fuels and Chemicals from Waste and Renewable Feedstocks

et al. 2016

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“…During the same period, biodiesel production increased more than threefold, from 12 to 41 billion litres. Currently, biofuels account for about 3.4% of total transportation fuels worldwide [2]. The global production of biofuels is dominated by the USA and Brazil-producing 69% of all biofuels in 2018-followed by Europe (EU-28) with 9% [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Rudolph Diesel tested his first engine on peanut oil [ 3 ] after pulverized coal was found to be unsuitable. Until the 1940s, biofuels were seen as viable transport fuels and bioethanol blends, such as Agrol, Discol and Monopolin, were commonly used in the USA, Europe and other regions [ 3 ]. Further development of bioethanol ceased after the Second World War as petroleum-derived fuel became cheaper.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental sustainability of biofuels: a review

2020

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Biofuels are being promoted as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels as they could help to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the related climate change impact from transport. However, there are also concerns that their wider deployment could lead to unintended environmental consequences. Numerous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have considered the climate change and other environmental impacts of biofuels. However, their findings are often conflicting, with a wide variation in the estimates. Thus, the aim of this paper is to review and analyse the latest available evidence to provide a greater clarity and understanding of the environmental impacts of different liquid biofuels. It is evident from the review that the outcomes of LCA studies are highly situational and dependent on many factors, including the type of feedstock, production routes, data variations and methodological choices. Despite this, the existing evidence suggests that, if no land-use change (LUC) is involved, first-generation biofuels can—on average—have lower GHG emissions than fossil fuels, but the reductions for most feedstocks are insufficient to meet the GHG savings required by the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). However, second-generation biofuels have, in general, a greater potential to reduce the emissions, provided there is no LUC. Third-generation biofuels do not represent a feasible option at present state of development as their GHG emissions are higher than those from fossil fuels. As also discussed in the paper, several studies show that reductions in GHG emissions from biofuels are achieved at the expense of other impacts, such as acidification, eutrophication, water footprint and biodiversity loss. The paper also investigates the key methodological aspects and sources of uncertainty in the LCA of biofuels and provides recommendations to address these issues.

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“…With an ever present demand for energy worldwide combined with a growing population and reliance on fuel powered applications (expected to grow by 57% until 2030) [1], the dependency on the finite and diminishing supply of fossil derived fuels alongside the requirement for enhanced environmental consciousness had resulted in vast investment, interest and continuous investigation into the future generation of alternative fuels [2]. The prevalent interest in recent years considered the derivation, functionality and potential of biological fuels, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, whilst bio-ethanol afforded a high volume of production, it resulted in a large energy consumption during processing, negating the benefits of its use as a primary fuel or component blend additive [1,5]. This was supported by unfavourable physical attributes, including: a low energy density (high gravimetric oxygen content), high volatility, and high solubility (fuel quality affected by atmospheric water content, affecting its long term stability) [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laminar burning characteristics of ethyl propionate, ethyl butyrate, ethyl acetate, gasoline and ethanol fuels

Badawy

Williamson

2016

Fuel

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The Past, Present, and Future of Biofuels – Biobutanol as Promising Alternative

Cited by 10 publications

References 162 publications

Gas Fermentation—A Flexible Platform for Commercial Scale Production of Low-Carbon-Fuels and Chemicals from Waste and Renewable Feedstocks

Gas Fermentation—A Flexible Platform for Commercial Scale Production of Low-Carbon-Fuels and Chemicals from Waste and Renewable Feedstocks

Environmental sustainability of biofuels: a review

Laminar burning characteristics of ethyl propionate, ethyl butyrate, ethyl acetate, gasoline and ethanol fuels

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