The direct use of crude vegetable oils in diesel engines is envisageable, but could lead to numerous technical problems. For example, their characteristics (high viscosity, high density, difficulty to vaporize in cold conditions) cause deposits in the combustion chamber, with a risk of fouling and an increase in most emissions (Basha et al., 2009). These … Read More

Thermochemical biomass conversion involves processes at much higher temperatures and generally higher pressures than those found in biochemical conversion systems. Key intrinsic characteristics distinguishing thermochemical from biochemical biofuels are the flexibility in feedstocks that can be accommodated with thermochemical processing and the diversity of finished fuels that can be produced. Thermochemical production of biofuels begins … Read More

Second-generation biofuels share the feature of being produced from lignocellulosic biomass, enabling the use of lower-cost, non-edible feedstocks, thereby limiting direct food vs. Fuel competition. Second-generation biofuels can be further classified in terms of the process used to convert the biomass to fuel: biochemical or thermochemical. Second-generation ethanol or butanol would be made via biochemical … Read More

The most well-known first-generation biofuel is ethanol made by fermenting sugar extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets, or sugar extracted from starch contained in maize kernels or other starch-laden crops. Similar processing, but with different fermentation organisms, can yield another alcohol, butanol. Commercialization efforts for butanol are ongoing, while ethanol is already a well-established … Read More