The European Union's (EU) Directive 2003/30/EC [1] set an objective of reaching a 5.75% share of renewable energy as a proportion of the total energy consumption of the transport sector by 2010. As all the Member States (MSs) of the EU-27 were obliged to comply with this directive different...

Biomethane is an indigenously produced gaseous sustainable transport fuel that uses organic feedstock. Allowing for a realistic collection of organic residues and grass silage from 2.5% of pasture land would allow Ireland to generate 17% renewable energy supply in transport (RES-T) and surpass...

Biodiesel is an alternative energy source used in internal combustion engines (ICE), as a replacement for diesel oil. In general, the farming and livestock activities can be used to obtain biomass sources for bioenergy production. Several raw materials (fatty acids sources) obtained from...

Algae have recently received growing attention given its prospects as a source of renewable energy and its potential for CO2 capture. Algae culture is of increasing value given that: (i) algae can be cultivated on non-agricultural land using wastewater, (ii) algae can provide a high yield on a...

Microbial lipids have the potential to substantially reduce the use of liquid fossil fuels, though one obstacle is the energy costs associated with the extraction and subsequent conversion into a biofuel. Here we report a one-step method to produce FAME (fatty acid methyl esters) from...

Methanol production process configurations based on renewable energy sources have been designed. The processes were analyzed in the thermodynamic process simulation tool DNA. The syngas used for the catalytic methanol production was produced by gasification of biomass, electrolysis of water, CO2...

The aim of this work is to evaluate some production processes of biomass-derived fuels by introducing an exergo-environmental indicator called the Renewability Performance Indicator (λ). This study clearly demonstrates that not all biofuel production processes are sustainable. According to this...

Biofuel is a prominent alternative fuel because of its environmental benefits and similar physiochemical properties to diesel fuel. This study investigated the impact of high quality refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) coconut oil blends and fuel throttle setting on performance and exhaust...

Two models of a dimethyl ether (DME) fuel production plant were designed and analyzed in DNA and Aspen Plus. The plants produce DME by either recycle (RC) or once through (OT) catalytic conversion of a syngas generated by gasification of torrefied woody biomass. Torrefication is a mild pyrolysis...

Bimetallic Gold–silver core–shell nanoparticles (Au@Ag NPs) were synthesized at room temperature, where gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) served as seeds for continuous deposition of silver atoms on its surface. The core–shell structure was examined by UV–vis spectroscopy, transmission electron...