Energy from Crops

Energy from Crops
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2003
Genre:
ISBN:

While it appears that biomass/energy crops may be successfully grown on phosphatic clay soils, a processing facility is needed to convert the biomass to energy in the form of methane, ethanol or electricity. Without an appropriate facility, there is no market for the crop.

Genetic Improvement of Bioenergy Crops

Genetic Improvement of Bioenergy Crops
Author: Wilfred Vermerris
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2008-08-02
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0387708057

Ethanol as an alternative fuel is receiving a lot of attention because it addresses concerns related to dwindling oil supplies, energy independence, and climate change. The majority of the ethanol in the US is produced from corn starch. With the US Department of Energy’s target that 30% of the fuel in the US is produced from renewable resources by 2030, the anticipated demand for corn starch will quickly exceed the current production of corn. This, plus the concern that less grain will become available for food and feed purposes, necessitates the use of other feedstocks for the production of ethanol. For the very same reasons, there is increasing research activity and growing interest in many other biomass crops. Genetic Improvement of Bio-Energy Crops focuses on the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass, which includes corn stover, biomass from dedicated annual and perennial energy crops, and trees as well as a number of important biomass crops. The biomass is typically pretreated through thermochemical processing to make it more amenable to hydrolysis with cellulolytic enzymes. The enzymatic hydrolysis yields monomeric sugars that can be fermented to ethanol by micro-organisms. While much emphasis has been placed on the optimization of thermo-chemical pretreatment processes, production of more efficient hydrolytic enzymes, and the development of robust microbial strains, relatively little effort has been dedicated to the improvement of the biomass itself.

Proceedings

Proceedings
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 470
Release: 1993
Genre: Biomass chemicals
ISBN:

Proceedings

Proceedings
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 816
Release: 1993
Genre: Biomass chemicals
ISBN:

Phytoremediation Potential of Bioenergy Plants

Phytoremediation Potential of Bioenergy Plants
Author: Kuldeep Bauddh
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2017-03-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9811030847

The globally escalating population necessitates production of more goods and services to fulfil the expanding demands of human beings which resulted in urbanization and industrialization. Uncontrolled industrialization caused two major problems – energy crisis and accelerated environmental pollution throughout the world. Presently, there are technologies which have been proposed or shown to tackle both the problems. Researchers continue to seek more cost effective and environmentally beneficial pathways for problem solving. Plant kingdom comprises of species which have the potential to resolve the couple problem of pollution and energy. Plants are considered as a potential feedstock for development of renewable energy through biofuels. Another important aspect of plants is their capacity to sequester carbon dioxide and absorb, degrade, and stabilize environmental pollutants such as heavy metals, poly-aromatic hydrocarbons, poly-aromatic biphenyls, radioactive materials, and other chemicals. Thus, plants may be used to provide renewable energy generation and pollution mitigation. An approach that could amalgamate the two aspects can be achieved through phytoremediation (using plants to clean up polluted soil and water), and subsequent generation of energy from the phyto-remediator plants. This would be a major advance in achieving sustainability that focuses on optimizing ‘people’ (social issues), ‘planet’ (environmental issues), and ‘profit’ (financial issues). The “Phytoremediation-Cellulosic Biofuels” (PCB) process will be socially beneficial through reducing pollution impacts on people, ecologically beneficial through pollution abatement, and economically viable through providing revenue that supplies an energy source that is renewable and also provides less dependence on importing foreign energy (energy-independence). The utilization of green plants for pollution remediation and energy production will also tackle some other important global concerns like global climate change, ocean acidification, and land degradation through carbon sequestration, reduced emissions of other greenhouse gases, restoration of degraded lands and waters, and more. This book addresses the overall potential of major plants that have the potential to fulfil the dual purposes of phytoremediation and energy generation. The non-edible bioenergy plants that are explored for this dual objective include Jatropha curcas, Ricinus communis, Leucaena leucocephalla, Milletia pinnata, Canabis sativa, Azadirachta indica, and Acacia nilotica. The book addresses all possible aspects of phyto-remediaton and energy generation in a holistic way. The contributors are one of most authoritative experts in the field and have covered and compiled the best content most comprehensively. The book is going to be extremely useful for researchers in the area, research students, academicians and also for policy makers for an inclusive understanding and assessment of potential in plant kingdom to solve the dual problem of energy and pollution.