Energy Efficiency of a Biofuel Production System

Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce, 2016

The aim of the paper was to determine the influence of the fertilization level on the energy and economics efficiency of the production technologies of selected crops processed into bioethanol or biogas. There were investigated the following crops: rye, triticale, wheat, sugar beets, maize, sorghum, reed canarygrass and Virginia fanpetals. In the energetic efficiency the Energy Return on Energy Investment index (EroEI) was used. Apart from the ERoEI ratio, the Net Energy Value (NEV) ratio was also used. In the economics efficiency attitude, the Gross Margin (GM) was determined.The investigations proved that in general, the production technologies of crops where the lowest levels of nitrogen fertilization were applied proved to have the highest energetic efficiency. The highest economic efficiency was characterized by the production of corn for biogas. In the case of the production of bioethanol (all plants), ratios were on the verge of profitability or the lack of it showed.The anal...

World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Electrical, Computer, Energetic, Electronic and Communication Engineering, 2017

Mathematical model describing energetic efficiency (defined as a ratio of energy obtained in the form of biofuel to the sum of energy inputs necessary to facilitate production) of agricultural subsystem as a function of technological parameters was developed. Production technology is characterized by parameters of machinery, topological characteristics of the plantation as well as transportation routes inside and outside of plantation. The relationship between the energetic efficiency of agricultural and industrial subsystems is also derived. Due to the assumed large area of the individual field, the operations last for several days increasing inter-fields routes because of several returns. The total distance driven outside of the fields is, however, small as compared to the distance driven inside of the fields. This results in small energy consumption during inter-fields transport that, however, causes a substantial decrease of the energetic effectiveness of the whole system. Keywo...

Energy derived from biomass is termed bioenergy. Biomass used as a fuel reduces need for fossil fuels for the production of heat, steam, and electricity for residential, industrial and agricultural use. Ethanol from sugarcane and corn, produced under proper conditions, is essentially a renewable fuel and has clear advantages over gasoline in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality in metropolitan areas. The energy content of the biofuel divided by the total energy used throughout the full lifecycle of the production of the feedstock, its conversion to biofuel, and transport is called Net Energy Balance. Farm energy use and the energy used in converting crops to biofuels must be compared to the amount of energy gain of biofuel.

Visegrad Journal on Bioeconomy and Sustainable Development, 2015

The article investigates methodological approaches towards economic efficiency, which may be applicable in case of biomass production with emphasis on agricultural biomass production – energy crops. The selected methods are: parametric stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA), which are suitable for efficiency measurement in agriculture. The study is organized in four sections. Introduction provides brief report on issues related to biomass production and term efficiency. Both methods (models) are shortly described in the material and methods chapter. In this part, bio-economy efficiency is shortly depicted as a modification of environmental efficiency. The results and discussion part explains limitations of models, inputs and outputs in terms of biomass production. The conclusion sums up the application of models. The results suggest the use of SFA on sector level and the use of DEA on farm level or regions basis.

Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 2012

In the near future, renewable energies will have a decisive role to play in attempts to achieve the ambitious objectives fixed by the European Union. Consequently, not only the economic aspect but also energy and environmental issues of agroenergy chains (AEC) must be carefully evaluated. Software (SE 3 A) able to assess economic, energy and environmental performance of AEC has been developed. The aim of this paper is to present SE 3 A and show its usefulness in evaluating different AEC and/or different technical solutions. For the moment, the analysis is restricted to: i) field and ii) post-harvest (transport/storage) phases of the AEC. As an example of SE 3 A flexibility, economic, energy and environmental costs (EEE costs) related to the cultivation technique used in northern Italy for the poplar short rotation coppice were evaluated.

Energy flow analysis is an interesting approach to assess and to improve sustainability of agricultural production systems, represented by the economy of energy resources and other inputs translated into energy terms. This type of analysis can complement the economic view contributing to more efficient production systems. Moreover, assessing crops with traditional food use may play an important role in energy provision. Energy efficiency tools were applied in order to determine the energy demand as well as the efficiency of the biomass production of several forage crops in mechanized systems conducted at Paraná state, Brazil. Material flow, input and output energy, energy balance, energy return over investment and embodied energy were used and identified that maize and sorghum were the crops that uses energy in the most efficient way, represented by the best results at net energy availability, profitability and embodied energy at the final product. Oat and ryegrass were the crops th...

Global Journal of Energy Technology Research Updates, 2018

This paper deals with the exergy analysis of the biodiesel production process from the binary mixture of soybean oil and beef tallow. The biodiesel is produced by transesterification of the methyl group and through basic catalysis. Thus, it was investigated the biofuel production process of a specific plant in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, characterizing the parameters of the main equipment and analyzing the raw material and by-products of the process and quantifying the mass and energy. The exergy analysis methodology followed the mass balance of each step, calculating irreversibility and exergetic balance and efficiency of the plant. The calculation of chemical exergy of the compounds of biomass from soybean oil and beef tallow, biodiesel, glycerol and free fatty acids was accomplished by raising the calorific value of the compounds by their chemical composition and mass percentage. Moreover, they were also calculated the specific irreversibility of methanol and process inputs, the irreversibility concerning electricity, mechanical work and steam. It was found that the useful exergy was 63.4%, however, considering that the glycerin can be sold as a final product and that some raw materials can be reused, the useful exergy of the system could be equal to 94.2%. The exergy efficiency of the plant is 71.7%, due to the irreversibility of the system. The exergy destroyed was 5.8% and could be minimized by changing variables such as temperature, reaction time and type of catalyst.

DEStech Transactions on Engineering and Technology Research

Large consumption of non-renewable fuels in the world has strongly encouraged the search for biofuels, due to inevitable shortage of fossil energy sources and catastrophic problems generated by their use. Under these circumstances the so called second generation biofuel production has been highlighted, where lignocellulosic materials such as sugarcane bagasse are used to produce bioethanol, unlike the traditional first-generation process, whose feedstock is sugarcane. Therefore, this work aimed to perform a comparative exergetic analysis between first and second-generation bioethanol production processes, in order to evaluate from the exergetic point of view, which of these processes is the most feasible. It was found an overall exergetic efficiency of 60.89 % for the exclusively first-generation plant, whereas for the integrated plant, it was obtained 41.58 %. In this way, insertion of new stages in production process, required by the second generation, has caused consequently an increase of irreversibilities and losses.

Biological Systems: Open Access, 2016

Various aspects of manufacturing and production processes contribute to technological, energetic, and economic efficiency in relevant production. The present paper gives preliminary considerations concerning the influence of biofuel production, and its energetic efficiency on potential fulfillment of agricultural energy demand and consequently sustainability of agricultural production. The energetic efficiency is defined as the ratio of energy obtained from biofuels produced basing on crops from particular area to energy required to satisfy needs of all subsidiary processes assuring correct functioning of plantations on that area. The effects of energetic efficiency of industrial processes converting agricultural crops onto biofuels also have to be analyzed. The derived model gives quantitative relations between energy efficiency of sc. "energetic plantations", energetic efficiency of industrial biofuel processing plants, and energy demand for other types of agricultural production. Investigations are aimed towards determination of the role of biomass as a source of energy, the possibility of assuring energetic self-sufficiency of agriculture and its effect on global energy demand. An attempt is also made to formulate quantitative basis for describing the idea of sustainable development. The effects of exclusion of a fraction of crops from food production towards biofuel production are also discussed.

E3S Web of Conferences, 2017

In the first part of the article were presented the technical possibilities of obtaining solid biomass, biogas, landfill gas, a biogas from wastewater treatment plants, bioethanol and biodiesel. Then processes was described, allowing use of energy from biomass. As first was discussed the incineration which includes drying and degassing of the wood materials, wood gas burning at 1200 0 C, post-combustion gas and heat transfer in the heat exchanger. Then had been described gasification, or thermochemical conversion process, occurring at high temperature. It is two-stage process. In the first chamber at deficiency of air and at relatively low temperatures (450-800 0 C), the fuel is being degasified, resulting in creating combustible gas and a mineral residue (charcoal). In the second stage, secondary combustion chamber and at a temperature of about 1000-1200 0 C and in the presence of excess of oxygen resultant gas is burned. A further process is pyrolysis. It consists of the steps of drying fuel to a moisture level below 10%, milling the biomass into very small particles, the pyrolysis reaction, separation of solid products, cooling and collecting bio-oil. Then discusses co-generation, which is combined production of heat and electricity. In this situation where the biomass contains too much water it can be used for energy purposes through biochemical processes. The alcoholic fermentation results in decomposition of carbohydrates taking place under anaerobic conditions, and the product is bioethanol. Another biochemical process used for the production of liquid biofuels is esterification of vegetable oils. Methane fermentation in turn causes a decomposition of macromolecular organic substances with limited oxygen available. As a result, we obtain alcohols, lower organic acids, methane, carbon dioxide and water. There was analysis of economic increasing of solid biomass energy, biogas and liquid biofuels in the following article.