A Critical Review of Biofuels as an Alternative Fuel to Diesel in Gulf Regional Corporation (GCC) Region: Current Market Trends and Future Opportunitie

Bio Fuels are considered as good alternatives for conventional fossil fuels. By the year 2020, in the GCC region these fuels are able to meet around 0.5 - 1% of total transportation fuel demand. This industry grew at rate of 3.4% over the period of 2015-2020 with a strong projected growth in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Bio fuels are used to operate automotive for mining and construction industries. Critical barriers in foreign investments pose a major challenge for growth of this sector in the GCC region. The presented work discusses situation and growth predictions of Bio-Fuel industry in the GCC region. It also discusses about current growth, trends, opportunities and challenges being faced by major companies operating in the GCC region.

Facile Construction of Magnetic Ionic Liquid Supported Silica for Aerobic Oxidative Desulfurization in Fuel

With the rapid growth in fuel demand, deep desulfurization of fuel oil is vitally necessary for the sake of health and environmental protection. In this work, a kind of magnetic ionic liquid supported silica is prepared by a facile ball milling method, and applied in the aerobic oxidative desulfurization of organosulfurs in fuel. The experimental results indicated that ball milling procedure can increase the specific surface area of samples, which is beneficial to oxidative desulfurization process. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the prepared materials can have an entire removal of aromatic sulfur compounds as well as a good recycling ability. Moreover, the introduction of Fe3O4 did not decline the desulfurization performance, but help the catalyst to be easily separated after reaction.

SOFCEV: Conventional LCC reduction and NPV based on savings in fixed carbon by sugarcane

Carbon pricing is a cost-effective method for mitigating climate impacts. This article examines the conventional life cycle cost (LCC), net present value (NPV), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (SOFCEV) powered by Brazilian fuels. The cost reduction potential of the SOFCEV was evaluated, considering the Brazilian productivity of sugarcane and the carbon fixed by these plantations, through the mechanism of carbon credits sale. Sugarcane ethanol and gasoline C (73% gasoline A and 27% anhydrous ethanol) were considered. Three scenarios were outlined: a) Cost of investment, fuel production, and vehicle maintenance and operation in USD/km, over a 10-year amortization period; b) SOFCEV emission cost from well-to-wheel added to cost (a); c) Cost of carbon fixed by hectares of sugarcane in Brazil necessary to supply the fuel demand of the SOFCEV subtracted from (b). Results showed that the ethanol-fuelled SOFCEV attends the carbon-neutral cycle, since the carbon credit sale resulted in an avoided cost 1.1 times higher than the emissions cost. Gasoline C showed similar results for the three scenarios, with an emission cost 2.5 times higher than the avoided cost. Carbon pricing was not sufficient to make the technology more viable for consumer, with an expected NPV of -USD 8006.38 after the amortization period. Thus, it is expected to obtain economic indicators to encourage the use of biofuels in electric fleets.

Cyanobacterial biofertilizers as an alternative to chemical fertilizers in paddy fields: a review.

In India, rice is the most significant crop in terms of the total area of cultivation and fertilizers. Distributed in 44.7 million hectares, it accounts for 31.8% (5.34 million tons) of the net use of the chemical fertilizer. Continuously using chemical fertilizers in agricultural production poses a severe environmental risk. The cost of chemical fertilizers is expensive and contributing to less crop yield. There is a need to adopt alternatives for chemical fertilizers in paddy fields. Cyanobacteria are abundant in paddy fields, and it presents remarkable contribution in producing the rice crop. It fixes atmospheric nitrogen, increases the accessibility of available phosphorus, and produces innumerable plant growth-promoting factors. It requires sunlight as the source of energy for carbon and nitrogen fixation in the soil. It represents remarkable potential as a biofertilizer and thereby decreases fuel demand for chemical fertilizer production. Cyanobacterial biofertilizers are inexpensive, simple to use, and do not harm the environment. This review focuses on the potential application of cyanobacterial biofertilizers in paddy fields.

IoT Based Smart Kitchen System

In today's world fuel demand is increasing day by day. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is the most used fuel in Kitchen. This is filled in a cylinder in liquid state. These cylinders blast sometimes, the main reason of cylinder blast is gas leakage. So, to avoid this we need to detect the leakage of gas. For this we need an automatic gas leakage detection system which detects leakage of gas and gives alerts. This type of automatic security system can save people from dangerous blasts and prevent accidents. Nowadays IOT (Internet of Things) is widely used in day-to-day life. There are many home appliances which are based on IOT thus it becomes easier to manipulate them. As we know the kitchen is the most important part of our home, but we also heard about the disasters happening in the kitchen due to various reasons and many people lost their lives. There might be various reasons behind the cause of these disasters but the main and mostly happens is due to the leakage of LPG gas from the cylinder. As LPG gas is highly inflammable gas, a small leakage of gas can be costly for human life. So, if we can detect these leakages of gas before it causes any serious issue then we might save many lives.

The Availability and Assessment of Potential Agricultural Residues for the Regional Development of Second-Generation Bioethanol in Thailand

The agricultural sector is a major source of biomass feedstocks for biofuels. Even though biomass potential in Thailand has been analyzed on a national level, its distribution and potential have yet to be assessed on a regional and provincial scale. Therefore, the study aims to verify the possibility of decentralized second-generation bioethanol production from regionally available agricultural residues. Most of the generated residues stem from the country’s major crops (sugarcane, cassava, rice and palm), totaling 174.1 million tons per year. The volume of bioethanol from these residues is projected to be 20,213.5 million liters per year, meeting 31.2% of the overall fuel demand of the transport sector. At the regional level, the northeast produces the highest amount of bioethanol at 9099.7 million liters per year, followed by the central, northern and southern regions. In terms of provincial distribution, the highest amount of bioethanol is converted in Nakhon Ratchasima, amounting to 1328 million liters per year. Data from the top ten potential provinces suggest that decentralizing production facilities is possible. One of the hotspots is Surat Thani in the south which can potentially utilize palm residues as feedstocks. This regionalized assessment also found that conventional feedstocks could be substituted with regionally available residues in the 26 production plants currently in operation. The results confirm that there would be enough alternative regional feedstocks to meet existing production capacities and they indicate that there would be enough regional residues left over for future value-added utilization. Graphic Abstract

Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Diesel Pollution in Antarctica and a Review on Remediation Techniques

Diesel is a fuel commonly used in Antarctica to supply vessels and domestic applications on site. The increasing human activities in the continent consequently have generated high fuel demand, which in turn has increased the occurrence of oil pollution due to accidental events during refueling. A related study received growing interest as more detrimental effects have been reported on Antarctic ecosystems. By adopting the bibliometric analysis, the research on diesel pollution in Antarctica collected in the Scopus database was systematically analysed. An increment in annual publication growth from 1980 to 2019 was observed and two research clusters were illustrated with “hydrocarbons” as the core keyword. Several attempts have been conducted over the past decades to remove anthropogenic hydrocarbon from previous abandoned whaling sites as well as recent oil spill incidents. However, the remote and polar conditions of Antarctica constrained the installation and operation of clean-up infrastructure. This review also briefly encompasses the approaches from past to present on the management of fuel pollution in Antarctica and highlights the potential of phytoremediation as a new bioremediation prospect.

Energy consumption and atmospheric emissions from refined petroleum in Mexico by 2030

One of the basic needs for a country’s economic development is to cover the major fuel demand, and both energy consumption and environmental impacts resulting from the production of such fuels need to be fast and reliable. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to an estimate of energy consumption and atmospheric emissions of some of the pollutant species reported by Pemex Refinacion under different projections. The predictive estimate model was applied considering four different gasoline demand scenarios, as well as different refining technology options to satisfy fuel consumption needs, based on production yields: four different types of refineries, three types of crude oils and eight different processes. Emission estimates were determined applying emission factors, both for the type of fossil fuel energy source used in the direct heating processes for vapor generation, as well by using electric energy. Results show that the equivalent energy consumption relative to the total processes crude is greater in complex refineries (full conversion); however, a greater conversion efficiency allows a smaller volume of crude consumption needed to satisfy the fuel demand with lower emissions relative to other types of technologies. Mexico’s possible refineries need to adapt themselves to different operation scenarios, such as changes in the crude’s yield, the quality of the product, variations in the prices of the crude and of the refined products. Therefore, is important to develop and apply perspectives than maximize productivity and minimize energy consumption, reducing air emissions, in constant change scenarios. Finally, the problem would then be evaluating which would be more convenient to obtain a greater socio-economic benefit: reduce emissions to the atmosphere or to lower operation costs of the refinery.