Special Issue "Environmental Sustainability of Renewable Gas Fuels for Energy and Transportation"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 March 2022.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Valerio Paolini
E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IIA), 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Interests: biofuels; circular economy; air pollution

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change mitigation is a global challenge to be addressed my means of fossil fuels’ substitution with renewable energy sources. On the other hand, the health of the population is still threatened by polluting emissions from conventional fuels, such as oil and coal. In the upcoming decade, we are therefore facing a double challenge: the global reduction of greenhouse gases and the local improvement of air quality. With this regard, we can no longer ignore the emissions from solid biomass, wood pellets, liquid biofuels, and municipal waste incineration. In this framework, it is expected that renewable gas fuels will play a major role, both in the energy and in the transportation sector. Examples of renewable gas fuels are biogas, biomethane, syngas, biohydrogen, and H2 and CH4 from renewable electricity. Hence, renewable gas fuels can be obtained from agricultural biomass, municipal waste, sewage sludge, as well as from other RES, promoting energy security and circular economy.

This Special Issue focuses on renewable gas fuels and the environmental impact of their application in the energy and transportation sectors. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and dark fermentation of biomass, by-products and waste;
  • Power-to-gas from renewable energy sources;
  • Electricity and thermal energy production from renewable fuels;
  • Application of renewable fuels to conventional and alternative engines (fuel cells, etc.).

The following kinds of manuscripts will be particularly welcome: assessment of biofuels from novel kinds of biomass or waste; novel concepts in the production of renewable fuels; chemical characterization and energy performance; optimization of operational parameters; analysis of emitted pollutants; case studies; LCA; reviews. Manuscripts related to the economic and/or social sustainability will be considered as well, as far as they also include an environmental analysis.

Dr. Valerio Paolini
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 papers will be 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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 1900 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

  • Biogas
  • Biomethane
  • Biohydrogen (bioH2)
  • Syngas
  • Power-to-gas (PtG)
  • Anaerobic digestion
  • Gasification
  • Sustainable transportation
  • Fuel cell
  • Life cycle assessment (LCA)

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
Sustainability of Vehicle Fuel Biomethane Produced from Grass Silage in Finland
Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 3994; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12103994 - 13 May 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 840
Abstract
Increasing demand of fossil-free fuels in the transport sector drives towards using new biomass sources in fuel production. Municipal waste as a substrate is used in many countries in biomethane production, but the amount of waste can cover only a small portion of [...] Read more.
Increasing demand of fossil-free fuels in the transport sector drives towards using new biomass sources in fuel production. Municipal waste as a substrate is used in many countries in biomethane production, but the amount of waste can cover only a small portion of the fuel used. In Europe, the new renewable energy directive (RED II) was established December 2018 to ensure the sustainability of renewable fuels. The directive includes typical and default greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for several potential substrates, such as biogas from manure or maize silage, which the biogas plants can use to verify their emissions directly or to calculate their emissions using the methods provided. However, such default value for grass silage as biogas substrate is lacking. We defined the conditions needed to fulfil the sustainability criteria of the directive when producing biomethane for vehicle fuel using grass silage as the feedstock in Finland. The emission reduction targets are not easy to achieve in Finland when using grass cultivated exclusively for energy production. The reduction targets can be achieved, however, if the grass is cultivated due to an improved crop rotation, where the grass is co-digested with manure and/or energy sources with zero emissions for the process can be applied. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Effect of Substrate Concentration on Photo-Fermentation Bio-Hydrogen Production Process from Starch-Rich Agricultural Leftovers under Oscillation
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2700; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072700 - 30 Mar 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 701
Abstract
China has plenty of starch-rich agricultural leftovers, which can be degraded and further utilized for biogas production. Potato, which has more and more cultivated areas, was taken as a substrate. The pH, OD540, biogas yield, hydrogen yield, biogas production rate, and [...] Read more.
China has plenty of starch-rich agricultural leftovers, which can be degraded and further utilized for biogas production. Potato, which has more and more cultivated areas, was taken as a substrate. The pH, OD540, biogas yield, hydrogen yield, biogas production rate, and hydrogen production rate were determined to evaluate the effect of substrate concentration on the photo-fermentation bio-hydrogen production process under an oscillation condition. Results showed that the photo-fermentation period was extended to 264 h under oscillation, which was two times longer than the static condition. It was found that 8 g per 100 mL fermentation broth was the most suitable substrate concentration under oscillation, the cumulative hydrogen yield was 510 mL VS−1, and the hydrogen content was 38.36%. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Article
Environmental Licensing as an Instrument for the Environmental Management of Brazilian Public Ports
Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2357; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062357 - 18 Mar 2020
Viewed by 924
Abstract
Port environmental management initiatives have not yet been properly implemented in Brazilian public ports, and when they exist, they are still very fragmented and are not based on techniques of planning or environmental management, but instead are only intended to answer the minimum [...] Read more.
Port environmental management initiatives have not yet been properly implemented in Brazilian public ports, and when they exist, they are still very fragmented and are not based on techniques of planning or environmental management, but instead are only intended to answer the minimum requirements of the legal licensing process for construction and port operation. The purpose of this article was to analyze if environmental licensing can be considered an environmental management tool for Brazilian public ports. For this, exploratory research with a qualitative focus was carried out in the 37 Brazilian public ports, regarding the current situation of environmental licensing. It was concluded that the environmental licensing of public ports in Brazil is still a long process and associated with a lot of unpredictability, where some ports, after many years, do not even have the proper operating licenses and the environmental management of most public ports is still insufficient or even non-existent. In this context, environmental licensing can be considered a management tool; however, it cannot be replaced by the planning and constant improvement of environmental compliance—both those provided for by law and other environmental regulatory mechanisms—at a national and international level. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Biohydrogen and Energy Productions from Vegetable Wastes by Anaerobic Digestion

Sopee Panin1, Worajit Setthapun1, Hathaithip Sintuya1*, Alicia Sinsuw3,4 and Chen-Yeon Chu 2,3,4,**

1Asian Development College for Community Economy and Technology, Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, Thailand; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected].ac.th

2Master’s Program of Green Energy Science and Technology, Feng Chia University,  Taiwan; [email protected].edu.tw

3PhD Program of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Feng Chia University,  Taiwan; [email protected].edu.tw

4Faculty of Engineering, Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia; [email protected]

* Correspondence: [email protected].edu.tw ; Tel.: +886-4-24517250 ext.5323; F: +886-4-35072114 (CYC);  [email protected].ac.th (H.S)

Abstract. The vegetable wastes are abundant in Thailand, three kind of vegetable wastes such as broccoli, onion and sweet potato were test in this study by using environmental-friendly biological process to produce hydrogen. This work presented the utilization of vegetable wastes to produce biohydrogen by using batch mode of anaerobic digestion. The results showed that the maximum hydrogen accumulation of 14.00 mL equal to 0.44 mL H2/gCOD with total solid 10% of waste water mixed with powdered broccoli. The maximum biohydrogen production of 424.1 mL Hequivalent to 5 kJ were obtained under the ratio of inoculum to mashed onion substrate of 1:1 with 35oC temperature and 120 rpm agitated speed during 7 days.

Keywords: broccoli; onion; sweet potato; environmental-friendly; biohydrogen

 

 

Article

Sustainability of biomethane from grass silage in North-Europe

Saija Rasi

Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

Abstract: The aim of this work was to calculate greenhouse gas emission values for grass silage in Finland and use the values to calculate greenhouse gas emissions of biogas plant when biogas is upgraded to biomethane and used as vehicle fuel. Calculations were made to biogas plant operating with grass only and with grass-manure mix. When using only grass silage as substrate to biogas production and the grass is cultivate for energy purpose, the emission reduction targets set in Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) are not easy to achieve due to emissions from cultivation phase. The use of grass as substrate with manure can be the solution of utilising excess grass lands for renewable energy production.

Back to TopTop