The foremost questions debated in biofuel research reports and the press include 1) what impact will expansion of biofuel have on shortand intermediate-term food prices and security? 2) How will agriculture expand shortand intermediate-term output in response to increased shortand intermediate-term demand for food and feedstock, and 3) What will expanded biofuel production cost? Yet, there has ...

As an inevitable by-product of the biofuel industry, glycerol is becoming an attractive feedstock for biorefinery due to its abundance, low price and high degree of reduction. Converting crude glycerol into value-added products is important to increase the economic viability of the biofuel industry. Metabolic engineering of industrial strains to improve its performance and to enlarge the produc...

The price of feedstock is one of the most significant factors affecting the economic viability of biodiesel manufacturer. Many approaches were investigated to reduce the biodiesel production cost. The present work gave a preliminary study of two approaches to economically produce biodiesel from waste cooking oil (WCO) and flaked cottonseed. One was the use of ultrasound-assisted synthesis of bi...

Conversion of Glucose to Ethanol In the U.S., corn is the predominant source of starch (glucose) used to produce ethanol. With the exception of sugar cane, corn provides the highest ethanol yields compared to any other feedstock being used (Table 2). However, research is underway to develop methods to convert carbohydrates from cellulosic feedstocks such as softwood (Arwa et al., 2005), non-sta...

The use of switchgrass (panicum virgatum) as the feedstock for a biofuels complex requires a procedure that coordinates harvesting, drying, storage, and densification techniques with the perpetual availability of process heat from a nuclear reactor and gas from a hydrogen facility. Preparation of feedstock involves assuring a 20% moisture content and compacting the biomass into pellets that can...

Ammonia (NH3) is produced from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen from a hydrocarbon source. Natural gas is the most commonly used hydrocarbon feedstock for new plants; other feedstocks that have been used include naphtha, oil, and gasified coal. Natural gas is favored over the other feedstocks from an environmental perspective. Ammonia production from natural gas includes the following processe...

Currently the large surplus of glycerol formed as a by-product during the production of biodiesel offered an abundant and low cost feedstock. Researchers showed a surge of interest in using glycerol as renewable feedstock to produce functional chemicals. This Minireview focuses on recent developments in the conversion of glycerol into valueadded products, including citric acid, lactic acid, 1,3...

This paper reports the substitution of polyolefin backbone binder components with low melting temperature carnauba wax for powder injection moulding applications. The effect of various binder compositions of Al₂O₃ feedstock on thermal degradation parameters is investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. Within the experimental framework 29 original feedstock compositions were prepared and the s...

Diameter controlled and vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes were synthesized from pure and mixed ethanol/acetonitrile feedstock. With increasing acetonitrile concentration in the feedstock, nitrogen incorporation into the sp carbon network increased until saturating at approximately one atomic percent. The incorporation of nitrogen correlates with a significant diameter reduction ...