Fuel ethanol production has increased steadily in the U.S. since the 1980's, when it was given impetus by the need to reduce energy dependence on foreign supplies. The momentum has continued as production costs have fallen, and as the U.S. Clean Air Act has specified a percentage of renewable fuels to be mixed with gasoline. New technologies that may further increase cost savings include co-product development, such as recovery of high-value food supplements, and cellulosic conversion. Though improvements in processing and technology are important, however, the fluctuating rise of inputs such as corn, the cost of energy alternatives, and environmental developments play larger roles in the fortunes of the industry. This book examines the use of ethanol as fuel, as well as its other applications in different parts of the world. This book also addresses a policy initiative by the Federal Administration to apply United States Department of Energy (DOE) research to broadening the country's domestic production of economic, flexible, and secure sources of energy fuels. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

This book discusses the current development of the study on coal combustion, which mainly involves devolatilization, volatiles combustion, char combustion and the formation of pollutants. Regarding the devolatilization of coal, it is well-known that devolatilization has a significant impact on the other processes during coal combustion. The process of char combustion is of central importance in practical pulverized applications. However, the mechanism of char combustion has not yet been completely understood due to the existence of many factors such as the thermal annealing of char, the pore structure, inherent mineral content in char and the fragmentation of the char particle. This book also presents a detailed discussion on the intrinsic reactivity and thermal annealing of char, as well as the comparison of different char combustion models.

Coal use today is responsible for large, and mostly avoidable, damages to human health and our water and land. Coal use in the future, along with other fossil fuels, threatens to wreak havoc in the earth's climate system. This book looks at "clean coal" technologies such as coal gasification and carbon capture. Coal gasification, when done in conjunction with carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one technology option that offers our nation an attractive approach to utilise our indigenous fossil energy resources in a more efficient and environmentally sound manner for producing clean, affordable power from coal with dramatically reduced carbon emissions. Coal gasification with CCS can also reduce the carbon impact of using coal to produce ultra-clean fuels for the transportation sector, substitute natural gas (SNG) to heat our homes and fuel our industrial sector, fertilisers to ensure an abundant food supply, and chemicals that play an integral part in our every day lives. Another coal gasification concept explored in this book that could further reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is co-feeding coal and biomass into gasifiers to produce electricity or conventional transportation fuels. In addition to these technologies, this book also describes ways at improving or optimising the performance of coal-fired power plants, in addition to tools that can be used and are available to cut global warming emissions. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.

The principle fuel used as a petrol substitute for road transport vehicles is bioethanol. Bioethanol fuel is mainly produced by the sugar fermentation process, although it can also be manufactured by the chemical process of reacting ethylene with steam. The main sources of sugar required to produce ethanol come from fuel or energy crops. These crops are grown specifically for energy use and include corn, maize and wheat crops, waste straw, willow and popular trees, sawdust, reed canary grass, cord grasses, Jerusalem artichoke, myscanthus and sorghum plants. Ethanol or ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) is a clear colourless liquid, it is biodegradable, low in toxicity and causes little environmental pollution if spilt. Ethanol burns to produce carbon dioxide and water. Ethanol is a high octane fuel and has replaced lead as an octane enhancer in petrol. By blending ethanol with gasoline we can also oxygenate the fuel mixture so it burns more completely and reduces polluting emissions. This new and important book gathers the latest research from around the globe in this promising field.

Advanced Coal Combustion - Advanced Energy Conversion Systems

New Trends in Coal Conversion: Combustion, Gasification, Emissions, and Coking covers the latest advancements in coal utilization, including coal conversion processes and mitigation of environmental impacts, providing an up-to-date source of information for a cleaner and more environmentally friendly use of coal, with a particular emphasis on the two biggest users of coal-utilities and the steel industry. Coverage includes recent advances in combustion co-firing, gasification, and on the minimization of trace element and CO2 emissions that is ideal for plant engineers, researchers, and quality control engineers in electric utilities and steelmaking. Other sections cover new advances in clean coal technologies for the steel industry, technological advances in conventional by-products, the heat-recovery/non-recovering cokemaking process, and the increasing use of low-quality coals in coking blends. Readers will learn how to make more effective use of coal resources, deliver higher productivity, save energy and reduce the environmental impact of their coal utilization.

Sustainable Management of Coal Preparation explains both the upstream and downstream of coal preparation, stressing clean coal technologies for coal utilization. It not only discusses the sustainability of coal preparation, but also considers the governance and management issues that come with fulfilling economic, social and environmental obligations of a sustainable mining operation. Divided in three parts, the book explains the preparation of coking and non-coking coal, clean technologies, the principles of sustainable management and emerging management issues. The inclusion of case studies also provides a practical perspective for the planning and design of coal preparation activities and environmental management.

Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Technologies discusses this innovative power generation technology that combines modern coal gasification technology with both gas turbine and steam turbine power generation, an important emerging technology which has the potential to significantly improve the efficiencies and emissions of coal power plants. The advantages of this technology over conventional pulverized coal power plants include fuel flexibility, greater efficiencies, and very low pollutant emissions. The book reviews the current status and future developments of key technologies involved in IGCC plants and how they can be integrated to maximize efficiency and reduce the cost of electricity generation in a carbon-constrained world. The first part of this book introduces the principles of IGCC systems and the fuel types for use in IGCC systems. The second part covers syngas production within IGCC systems. The third part looks at syngas cleaning, the separation of CO2 and hydrogen enrichment, with final sections describing the gas turbine combined cycle and presenting several case studies of existing IGCC plants.

Advances in Bioenergy is a new series that provides both principles and recent developments in various kinds of bioenergy technologies, including feedstock development, conversion technologies, energy and economics, and environmental analysis. The series uniquely provides the fundamentals of the technologies, along with reviews that will be invaluable for students in understanding the technology.

Among the oil-bearing tree species, Jatropha curcas is currently becoming an interesting crop for the production of biodiesel due to some of its interesting properties including resistance to drought, possibility to grow well and quickly on marginal lands without much fertiliser inputs and the need for only moderate rainfall. In this book, a series of biotechnological methodologies is reported, such as vitro propagation and plant breeding of jatropha curcas for the sustainable production of biodiesel. An overview of the currently available information on the different research on the production of biodiesel using jatropha al raw material is also given in terms of catalysts and possible non-edible feedstocks to be utilised in the process. In addition, the different options to include Jatropha in agroforestry systems are described. Their potential social, economic and environmental risks and benefits are discussed. In particular, land use changes related to Jatropha cultivation, their possible impact on food supplies and the up-scaling possibilities are focused upon. Based on this assessment, the authors provide clear guidelines for the expansion of Jatropha cultivation on a sound socio-economic and environmental basis. Moreover, Yunnan is the richest wild Jatropha resources province now and is to become the greatest Jatropha planting forest province in the following ten years. This book describes the flowering, fruit setting, pollination, seeds biological characteristics of Jastropha under various conditions in Yunnan. Other chapters review the studies available to date about the impact of the introduction of the biofuel crops Jatropha curcas on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use change in tropical regions. This book also attempts to go beyond the pro-contra debate on bio-fuels to search for possible sustainable trajectories.

Large scale production and consumption of biofuel is being promoted by many nations because of its potential for economic, political, and environmental benefits. Biofuels are partially renewable and substituting them for petroleum fuels may reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and dependency on imported oil. Of special interest is the possibility of widespread use of biofuels such as biodiesel in the transportation sector, especially if integrated with existing and new hybrid and plug-in technologies and emission control technologies such as particle traps. This book provides new research on this field from around the globe.