Renewable Energy and Alternative Fuel Technologies
1Biofuel Research Team (BRTeam), Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran, Karaj, Iran
2Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
3University of California, Riverside, USA
4School of Engineering, University of Borås, Borås, Sweden
Renewable Energy and Alternative Fuel Technologies
Description
Renewable bioenergies have attracted an increasing deal of attention as alternatives to fossil fuels in recent years. Feedstock used for most of the commercially available biofuels is sugars and starchy materials as well as vegetable oil resources. Such renewable energy carriers are also known as the first generation biofuels. However, not only the raw materials required to meet the growing global demand for such biofuels are limited but also continuing to rely upon such resources; that is, edible feedstock would result in a more serious global food versus energy conflict. In light of that, biofuels derived from nonedible feedstock, ranging from lignocellulosic materials to municipal solid wastes, also referred to as the second generation biofuels have been introduced. Although different types of such feedstock are widely available all around the world, the necessity to implement pretreatment processes prior to their bio/conversions is still challenging in most of the cases. This has highlighted the constant need for seeking novel technologies in order to economize waste-oriented biofuels production. Therefore, given the shortcomings of the first and second generation biofuels, algae-based fuels, also known as the third generation biofuels, have emerged and brought to the focus of numerous recent investigations. This is ascribed to the fact that the productivity of specific types of algae is much more considerable than those of the other energy crops.
Manuscripts are now invited for the special issue of the journal “BioMed Research International” that will stimulate the development of economically viable technologies for the production of different generations of biofuels. We are particularly interested in articles that explore aspects of novel processes and implementations using which the currently existing challenges associated with biofuels production are addressed. Moreover, integration of biomass conversion processes and equipment for production of fuels, heat, and value-added chemicals from biomass, referred to as biorefinery, is also of special interest in order to improve the economy of the process. Potential topics include, but not limited to:
- Algal biofuels
- Biorefinery processes
- Bioethanol (different generations)
- Biobutanol (different generations)
- Biodiesel (different generations)
- Biogas (biomethane and biohydrogen)
- Bio-oil (e.g., by pyrolysis)
- Waste incineration for energy production
- Gasification
Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/bmri/biotechnology/reaft/ according to the following timetable: