Environmental

Biotechnology
(BBT427)

Spring 2020

Lecture 04
Prepared by Dr. Ishrat Jabeen
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 Conventional fuels and their environmental
impacts
• Fire wood: use for cooking and heating.
• Fuel wood: Wood from trees planted purely for their use as fuels.
• Plant and Animal wastes: Crop residues, wild growing biomass, forest and wood
processing wastes, fruits and vegetable processing wastes, animal wastes.
• Coal: Fossilized material with a complex chemical structure (mostly C and H) derived from
plant organic matter.
• Crude oil and natural gas: Petroleum oil (rock oil) and natural gas ae found in similar
geological environments and often together.
 Crude oil consists almost entirely of liquid hydrocarbons with some gaseous hydrocarbons
dissolved in them. Its lighter but viscous than water.
 Natural gas consists of hydrocarbons simpler and higher than those of crude oil. Its much
lighter than crude oil and much less viscous than crude oil or water.

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 Pollutants caused by conventional fuels
The energy derived from conventional fuels used for industrial and domestic
purposes have important environmental implications.
• Firewood produces higher amounts of CO during combustion per unit mass than
other conventional fuels.
• CO, particulates, polycyclic organic matter and formaldehyde (HCHO) are the
pollutants generated by burning fuelwood.
• Inhalation of CO causes hypoxia-induced by reduction of oxygen availability to body
tissues. The polycyclic organic vapours containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAH) and benzo pyrene (BaP) have been shown to be cancerous and mutagenic.
HCHO in small amounts is harmless but large exposures might cause irritation,
pulmonary damage and even death.

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 Environmental impact of burning coal

• In the domestic sector, Coal is used for cooking, whereas in the industrial sector,
its been used for generating power.
• The composition of coal with respect to moisture, ash, volatile matter, carbon,
sulphur, hydrogen and nitrogen is dependent upon the source from where it has
been taken out.
• The major air pollutants emitted from coal burning are particulates, SO2, NO, CO,
hydrocarbons and trace elements. SO2 combines with water vapour in the
presence of sunlight to form H2SO4. This acidic mist condenses on unburnt
carbon particles and forms “acid smut”.

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 Environmental impact of crude oil and natural gas
• CO is the chief pollutant followed by hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
oxide and so on.
• CO is an intermediate product of the petrol combustion.
• The diesel oil has a higher sulphur content which could be as high as twenty
times that in petrol.
• Combustion of petrol and diesel generate hydrocarbons.
• Lead contamination arises from combustion of petrol.
• Soot emissions from combustion of petrol and diesel results from decomposition
of hydrocarbon fuel, nucleation of carbon particles in the flame.
• In addition to HCHO and acetaldehyde, Acrolein and benzaldehyde are also
generated due to partial oxidation of fuel in the preflame reaction zone.

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 Pollutants Health effects
Short term Long term
Unburnt hydrocarbon Difficulty in breathing Impaired lung function

Nitrogen oxides Soreness and coughing Lung cancer

Sulphur dioxide Asthma Lung cancer
Particulates Asthma Silicosis (lung fibrosis caused by the
inhalation of dust containing silica.)

Carbon monoxide Asphyxiation (the state or process of being Fatal at COHb level of 2-5%
deprived of oxygen, which can result in
unconsciousness or death; suffocation.)

Inorganic lead Effects kidney, liver, gastro-intestinal function Mental impairment

Effects of pollutants generated from conventional

fuels on human health
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 Modern fuels and their environmental impacts

• Methanogens: Methanogens are terminal members of the anaerobic food chain.

• It results from the activities of highly specialized group of bacteria that convert
fermentation products by other anaerobes (notably CO2, H, Format and acetate)
to methane or methane and CO2.
• They comprise at least 3 major groups.
Group I: Mechanobacteriales family: methanobacterium formicicum
Group II: Methanococcales family: Methanococcacaea
Group III: Methanomicrobiales family 1: Methanmicrobiaceae
Family 2: Methanosarcinaceae

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Biogas production from different
feedstocks
• Biogas: Its been produced by anaerobic digestion of plant and animal waste involving
hydrolysis, acidogenesis followed by methanogenesis.
• Cowdung
• Aquatic weeds:
 Azolla pinnata – contains a nitrogen fixing algae-Anabaena azolla within its leaves.
 Salviana – water fern. Grows in stagnant water.
 Eichhornia – water hyacinth-the removal of which may keep water body clean and less
eutrophic.
 Ipomea aquatica – tropical trailing herb, habituating muddy stream banks, also found in
fresh water ponds and marshy areas.
• Plant waste: leaves, grasses, weeds, tree or bush leaves, aquatic weeds, fruit peels,
sugarcane bagasse, vegetable dressings, waste paper or cardboards etc.
• Kitchen refuge, Sewage and Poultry litter waste
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Beneficial role of biogas
• Biogas technology requires the lowest financial input per unit output of
energy and the technology is among the most mature.
• The anaerobic digestion is a natural process and crucial nutrients such as
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are conserved and recycles.
• Anaerobic digestion is a versatile process and can utilize a wide variety of
organic feedstock
• The digestion process reduces plant, animal and human pathogens and
thereby results in the associated health benefits.
• Biogas is a clean burning fuel and hence reduces exposure to emissions
associated with the use of unprocessed fuels.

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 Hydrogen gas production using hydrogenase
• Some microbes such as Clostridium butyricum produce one molecule of hydrogen
gas by joining two electron and two hydrogen ions with the help of the enzyme
hydrogenase.

Hydrogen gas production using nitrogenase

• Some microbes such as cyanobacteria produce one molecule of hydrogen gas by
reducing nitrogen to ammonia with the help of the enzyme nitrogenase-less
sensitive to oxygen compared to hydrogenase.

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Manufacture of ethanol from a carbohydrate via
pyruvate and acetaldehyde

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Commercial production of
ethanol involves three steps:
• Substrate preparation: The substrates used as renewable raw
materials include roots, tubers or grains rich in starch, molasses or
juice derived from sugarcane, palm or sugar beet and wood or waste
products rich in cellulose.
• Fermentation: The soluble hexoses and pentoses, obtained in
solution after hydrolysis of sugar starch-cellulose, are subjected to
anaerobic fermentation by using bacteria, yeast and filamentous
fungi.
• Distillation: Ethanol from the fermented mixture is recovered by
distillation.

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Ethanol formation from the fermentable complex
substrates

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Environmental impacts of ethanol production

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 • In Bangladesh, the primary source of fuel comes
from natural gas and petroleum oil.
Bioethan • But the total output of fossil fuel is incapable of
meeting the annual fuel demand.
ol and Its • To meet the demand every year Bangladesh needs
Prospect to import a huge amount of petroleum oil from
overseas markets.
s in • Bioethanol production from potato and potato peel
Banglade waste may be a prospective source of renewable
energy. It can be used as an alternative clean-
sh burning fuel by replacing with regular vehicle fuel.
• It can not only save huge foreign currency but also
lessen greenhouse effect in the environment.

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ESTIMATION OF POSSIBLE
BIOETHANOL PRODUCTION
from potato

• The total production of bioethanol

from potato and potato peel waste
(PPW) is varied based on quality and
production techniques.

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• In Bangladesh potato is a potential source as
raw material for bioethanol production.
• Only by using the surplus and non-
marketable portion of potato,
122,786,678.73 to 143,670,082.36 US gallons
of bioethanol can be produced.
• This amount is enough to fulfil the
requirement of bioethanol for 5% blending
annually.
• It will also be helpful to reduce greenhouse
gasses, especially from Dhaka City.

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Production status of top biofuel producing countries in the world
(2013-2017, thousand tonnes oil
equivalent)

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