by Ahmed Abdellah* (Advanced Biofuels USA)When dealing with the conversion of raw materials into biofuels and biochemicals, the first step is to break down raw materials. During this process, the raw material may go through bailing, grinding, and condensing.
Then, the material which is essentially composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin can be broken down into the building blocks of biofuels. Products and co-products may include ethanol, hydrogen, carbon char, bio-oils, flavorings, industrial glues, and other industrial chemicals.
The major biorefinery platforms are the sugar platforms and the thermochemical platforms (including syngas platform). The sugar platform breaks down biomass into component sugars. These component sugars can then undergo fermentation to produce various fuels.
On the other hand, thermochemical biorefineries use various configurations to convert biomass into syngas or bio-oil. The syngas and bio-oil can then be converted into an ethanol mixture or building blocks for other renewable fuels.
After going through the biorefinery process, the products can then be made for use in transportation and industry.
Some types of conversion processes and illustrations to explain them
| Biochemical | Thermochemical/Catalysis |
| Fermentation | Gasification |
| Transesterification | Plasma arc gasification |
| Enzymatic Hydrolysis | Pyrolysis |
| Enzymatic Catalysis | Thermochemical conversion of sugars |
| Photosynthesis | Electrolysis |
| Hydrothermal Liquefaction |
Here are illustrations of some of the more common conversion processes.
Transesterification image: SRS International http://www.srsbiodiesel.com/technologies/transesterification/
Efficient production of biodiesel from waste grease: One-pot esterification and transesterification with tandem lipases
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960852412011571
Gasification image: Global Syngas technologies council https://www.globalsyngas.org/syngas-production/waste-to-energy-gasification/plasma-gasification/
What You Can Do
-Biomass feedstock growth contributes to job creation in rural America, the generation of renewable fuels, and the advancement of America’s energy independence. In order to help push for the advancements of biofuel and biochemical production, citizens and organizations can take the following measures:
- Recycling school system used cooking oil
- Public School Systems that utilize cooking oil in their cafeteria kitchens could recycle their used cooking oil to either produce their own biodiesel, or contribute to a biodiesel production plant locally.
- Example: The Twin Rivers Unified School District runs 75 buses on renewable diesel that is derived from waste sources such as used cooking oil and grease.
- Advocating for local restaurant biomass recycling
- Contacting local representatives to inquire about restaurant cooking oil recycling initiatives can help to jumpstart an advocacy project to encourage local restaurants to recycle their cooking oil as well as food waste.
- This also applies to grocery stores. Many local stores may simply throw away ingredient/food waste. By advocating the importance of donating the waste to a local anaerobic digestion site, waste can be kept out of landfills while contributing to renewable energy production.
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*Ahmed Abdellah (Advanced Biofuels USA) is a current senior at Howard High School and a rising freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. His main project over the past two years has involved planning for the integration of biodiesel in Howard County’s school bus system. Furthermore, at his internship at the University of Maryland, he conducts research on Microbial Fuel Cell usage and its applications for space energy. He hopes to continue to spread awareness on the use of biofuels and waste-to-energy technologies to help mitigate climate change.