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Processes
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Recent Advances in Biorefining Processes
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Recent Advances in Biorefining Processes

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental and Green Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021) | Viewed by 9757

Special Issue Editor

Dr. José F.O. Granjo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CERENA, Department of Chemical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: biorefining; process systems engineering; energy; thermodynamics; process modeling; process integration; optimization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Enhancing the industrial utilization of lignocellulosic and other waste biomass is a key element to move towards a more sustainable and circular economy. Realizing this goal requires advances and the deployment of energy-efficient and clean processing technologies, as well as the development of integrated biorefineries to optimize the utilities usage, lowering investment, and making full use of the raw materials. In such a context, thermodynamic and kinetic modeling frameworks need to be obtained and validated to provide reliable insights into how the selection of feedstocks impacts the biorefinery structure, equipment selection, and the portfolio of bio-products attainable. Advanced technologies including intensified methods for biomass fractionation, product recovery, and purification with low energy intensity and chemical load are vital in lowering heat and power needs, as well as wastewater generation. These initiatives must be complemented with systematic approaches and tools to discover optimized biorefinery process designs and exploit mass and energy integration opportunities that improve the sustainability of existing state-of-the-art biorefineries.

This Special Issue aims to curate both experimental and theoretical latest advances in biorefining processes, focusing on second-generation feedstocks and including, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Prediction methods for thermophysical properties for biorefinery process engineering
  • Development and optimization of biomass thermochemical and biochemical conversion technologies
  • Emerging separation technologies
  • Process intensification of biorefining operations
  • Process integration including links with other infrastructures (e.g., oil refinery, pulp & paper mills, CCUS systems)
  • Waste heat recovery in biorefineries
  • Techno-economic analysis and sustainability assessment

Dr. José F.O. Granjo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Processes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Biorefinery
  • Biomass
  • Biomass conversion
  • Process modeling
  • Process integration
  • Process intensification, Techno-economic analysis
  • Sustainability
  • Waste heat recovery

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 1912 KiB  
Article
Raw Glycerol Based Medium for DHA and Lipids Production, Using the Marine Heterotrophic Microalga Crypthecodinium cohnii
by Patrícia Moniz, Carla Silva, Ana Cristina Oliveira, Alberto Reis and Teresa Lopes da Silva
Processes 2021, 9(11), 2005; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9112005 - 10 Nov 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1718
Abstract
Crude glycerol, a biodiesel industry byproduct, and corn steep liquor (CSL) derived from a starch industry, were used as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, for lipid production, using the heterotrophic microalga C. cohnii grown in a bench bioreactor, in a batch culture. The [...] Read more.
Crude glycerol, a biodiesel industry byproduct, and corn steep liquor (CSL) derived from a starch industry, were used as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, for lipid production, using the heterotrophic microalga C. cohnii grown in a bench bioreactor, in a batch culture. The maximum biomass concentration, lipid content and lipid productivity attained were 5.34 g/L, 24.6% (w/w Dry Cell Weight-DCW) and 0.016 g L−1 h−1, respectively. Flow cytometry analysis was used to evaluate the impact of these substrates on the microalgae cells. A high proportion of intact cells with enzymatic (esterases) activity (>50%) was present throughout the cultivation time course. These results indicate that crude glycerol and CSL can be used in the medium formulation for DHA and lipid production using this microalga, which reduce the process costs in an expected maximum of 84%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Biorefining Processes)
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15 pages, 1483 KiB  
Article
Counter-Current Suspension Extraction Process of Lignocellulose in Biorefineries to Reach Low Water Consumption, High Extraction Yields, and Extract Concentrations
by Marc Conrad and Irina Smirnova
Processes 2021, 9(9), 1585; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9091585 - 4 Sep 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2666
Abstract
The processing of large quantities of water in biorefining processes can lead to immense costs for heating, evaporation, and wastewater disposal. These costs may prohibit the exploitation of alternative products, e.g., xylooligosaccharides from straw, which are regarded as too costly. A new counter-current [...] Read more.
The processing of large quantities of water in biorefining processes can lead to immense costs for heating, evaporation, and wastewater disposal. These costs may prohibit the exploitation of alternative products, e.g., xylooligosaccharides from straw, which are regarded as too costly. A new counter-current extractions method is proposed that aims at low solvent (water) consumption, as well as high yields and extract concentrations. This process was evaluated with suspension extraction experiments with steam pretreated wheat straw and the process window analysis based on a mass balance for a washing and a leaching scenario. The latter was conducted with two other suspension extraction processes as a comparison. The equilibration time was found to be well below 10 min. While the suspension extraction with and without recycling need to be designed to achieve a high yield or a high concentration and low solvent consumption, the proposed extraction method can reach all three simultaneously. Thus, this new process is evaluated as a potential method to spare water and downstream costs and allow new processing pathways in second-generation biorefineries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Biorefining Processes)
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Review

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24 pages, 925 KiB  
Review
The Role of Heterotrophic Microalgae in Waste Conversion to Biofuels and Bioproducts
by Teresa Lopes da Silva, Patrícia Moniz, Carla Silva and Alberto Reis
Processes 2021, 9(7), 1090; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9071090 - 23 Jun 2021
Cited by 36 | Viewed by 4744
Abstract
In the last few decades, microalgae have attracted attention from the scientific community worldwide, being considered a promising feedstock for renewable energy production, as well as for a wide range of high value-added products such as pigments and poly-unsaturated fatty acids for pharmaceutical, [...] Read more.
In the last few decades, microalgae have attracted attention from the scientific community worldwide, being considered a promising feedstock for renewable energy production, as well as for a wide range of high value-added products such as pigments and poly-unsaturated fatty acids for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, food, and cosmetic markets. Despite the investments in microalgae biotechnology to date, the major obstacle to its wide commercialization is the high cost of microalgal biomass production and expensive product extraction steps. One way to reduce the microalgae production costs is the use of low-cost feedstock for microalgae production. Some wastes contain organic and inorganic components that may serve as nutrients for algal growth, decreasing the culture media cost and, thus, the overall process costs. Most of the research studies on microalgae waste treatment use autotrophic and mixotrophic microalgae growth. Research on heterotrophic microalgae to treat wastes is still scarce, although this cultivation mode shows several benefits over the others, such as higher organic carbon load tolerance, intracellular products production, and stability in production all year round, regardless of the location and climate. In this review article, the use of heterotrophic microalgae to simultaneously treat wastes and produce high value-added bioproducts and biofuels will be discussed, critically analyzing the most recent research done in this area so far and envisioning the use of this approach to a commercial scale in the near future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Biorefining Processes)
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