Trends and Prospects of Biofuels: Literature, Experimental, and Techno-Economic Analysis

Dear Colleagues,

In 1987, Gro Harlem Brundtland signed the report of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development “Our Common Future” where a long-term environmental strategy to achieve sustainable development by the year 2000 was proposed. By 2025, it was assumed there would be a global population of 6.2 billion and global energy consumption of about 14 TW. In addition, an increase of CO₂ concentration from 280 ppmv (pre-industrial level) to 560 ppmv was also predicted between the middle and the end of the 21st century, which would increase the surface temperature between 1.5–4.5 °C if no actions on climate were adopted. Today, these projections are becoming true after thousands of million euros budgeted on environmental programs approved by the different states all over the world. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the role of biofuels (such as biofuels based on municipal wastes, biomass, biosolids, biocoal, biomethane from anaerobic digestion or other processes, etc.) to reduce the impacts of this environmental situation. Consequently, technologies based on biofuel valorization are called on to be protagonists in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

This Special Issue on "Trends and Prospects of Biofuels: Literature, Experimental, and Techno-Economic Analysis" aims to curate novel advances in the development and application of biofuels, their characteristics, and the processes involved in their production or utilization to address longstanding challenges in environmental change reduction. Relevant topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Trends and prospects of biofuels: based on municipal wastes, biomass, biosolids, biocoal, biomethane, etc.;
• Simulation of processes based on biofuels production;
• Techno-economic studies of processes in which biofuels are involved (production, utilization for electricity production, etc.;
• The use of artificial intelligence to optimize the conditions of biofuels production or using;
• Proposal of new technologies for biofuel production;
• Review of biofuel types, characteristics, production processes, uses, or others.
• Combustion, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, oxy-fuel combustion, hydrothermal carbonization processes simulations;
• Biofuels and power plants.

Dr. Camino Fernández
Dr. Roberto Lopez
Guest Editors

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