Recently, a number of endophytic fungi have been discovered that produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) whilst growing on agricultural waste substrates, whose chemistry is best defined as hydrocarbon and hydrocarbon-like. These compounds have potential use as both 'green chemicals' and fuels. This report discusses the discovery of the first fungus proposed as a producer of 'Mycodiesel'. Also...

Gasification was chosen as one of the more conventional methods for conversion of biomass due to some important reasons such as space consideration, flexibility of fuels used, reducing the volume of solid waste and recovery of energy. Essentially, the process of gasification involves partial combustion of the organic part of the fuels to combustible gas rich in carbon monoxide, hydrogen and som...

Reduction of CO(2) by electrochemical and photoelectrochemical methods to produce carbon-rich fuels is a heavily pursued research theme. Most of the current efforts are focused on the development of transition-metal-based catalysts. In this tutorial review, we present an overview of the development of organic molecules as mediators and catalysts for CO(2) reduction. Four classes of organic mole...

This paper investigates whether a fusion power plant could be designed to be passively proliferation-proof. Even low neutron production rates enable fissile-fuel breeding, so such a fusion reactor must burn neutron-lean fuels. To burn these fuels economically requires a highpower-density fusion concept, and a D-He field-reversed configuration will be analyzed here. The paper discusses physics a...

The increasing use of fossil fuels has led to increased emissions of sulphur oxides into the air, which is a major cause of acid rain. Legislation already adopted in 2009 stipulates that the maximum level of sulphur allowed in fuels is only 10 ppm. The process of hydrodesulphurization (HDS) used in refineries is based on very expensive physico-chemical techniques, and has limitations in the rem...

Droplets of toluene and three chlorinated organics, ortho-dichlorobenzene, 1,2-dichloroethane, and trichloroethylene, were pyrolyzed in pure nitrogen. The composition and bacterial mutagenicity of the product tars were measured. The presence of organic chlorine was found to affect both pyrolysis product tar composition and total tar mutagenicity. Pyrolysis in the absence of chlorine produced ta...

Fossil fuels developed from ancient deposits of organic material, and thus can be thought of as a vast store of solar energy from which society meets >80% of its current energy needs. Here, using published biological, geochemical, and industrial data, I estimate the amount of photosynthetically fixed and stored carbon that was required to form the coal, oil, and gas that we are burning today. T...

Tests of ultra-low sulfur diesel blended with soy-biodiesel at 5% and 20% were conducted using a 2002 model year Cummins ISB engine (with exhaust gas recirculation) that had been retrofitted with a passively regenerated catalyzed diesel particulate filter (DPF). Results show that on average, the DPF balance point temperature (BPT) is 45°C and 112°C lower for B20 blends and neat biodiesel, respe...

Nowadays the world economy is based mainly on petrol as an energy source and raw material for chemical products. The global economic growth in the past century has led to high energy consumption, mainly from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. The extensive use of fossil fuels formed and stored underground for millions of years has made impossible for the present vegetation on Ear...

The continuous use of fuels like petroleum is recognized as unsustainable because of their natural exhaustion and contribution to the pollution in the environment. Not only for the environmental perspective but also for the economic sustainability, we necessarily need to develop alternative, renewable and pollution free fuels. Harvesting energy from the sun (solar energy), earth (geothermal ene...