Delhi Technological University

Basic Mechanical Engineering ( Part- A )

First Semester Project Presentation

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Dr Janardan Prasad Kesari Mohul Katyal, 2k20/A9/71
Department of Mechanical Engineering Harshit Gupta, 2k20/A9/36
 ETHANOL AS A BIOFUEL
AND PYROLYSIS

 INTRODUCTION
 PYROLYSIS
 USE OF ETHANOL AS A FUEL
 EFFECTS ON ENVIRONMENT AS
A FUEL
 INTRODUCTION
IMPORTANCE OF BIOFUELS

Bioenergy refers to electricity and gas that is generated from biomass.

Biomass is an organic material which absorbs sunlight and storea it in the form of chemical energy.
Material can be anything from plants and timber to agricultural and garbage and even sewage, this is the
carbon ­based material which reacts with oxygen in combustion and natural metabolic processes to
release heat.
The initial material could also be transformed by chemical and biological processes to supply biofuels
i.e., biomass processed into a more convenient form, particularly liquid fuels for transport.
Examples of biofuels include methane gas, liquid ethanol, methyl esters, oils and solid charcoal.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) defines bioenergy as a renewable form of
energy and IEA (International Energy Agency) defines bioenergy as the most important source of
renewable energy today.
This shows how important bioenergy is for us in today’s world.
 PYROLYSIS

• Pyrolysis is a general term for all processes whereby organic

material is heated or partially combusted with minimal air to
produce secondary fuels and chemical products.

• The could be wood, biomass residues, municipal waste, or,

indeed, coal. The products are gases, condensed vapors as
liquids, tars and oils, and solid residue as char (charcoal) and ash.

• There is a range of conditions and products for pyrolysis. The

input material must be graded to get rid of excessive non-­
combustible material, dried if necessary, chopped or shredded,
then stored to be used. The air/fuel ratio during combustion is a
critical parameter affecting both the temperature and therefore
the sort of product.
 Pyrolysis units are most easily operated at temperature of about
600°C but increased temperatures of 1000°C need more
sophistication, but more hydrogen is going to be produced
within the gas.
 The hemicelluloses break down first at temperatures of 470 to
530 K, cellulose follows in the temperature range 510 to 620 K,
and lignin is the last component to pyrolyze at temperatures of
550 to 770 K.
 If the purpose is to maximize the yield of liquid products
resulting from biomass pyrolysis, a low temperature, high
heating rate, short gas residence time process would be
required.
 For a high char production, a low temperature, low heating rate
process would be chosen.
 If the purpose was to maximize the yield of fuel gas resulting
from pyrolysis, a high temperature, low heating rate, long gas
residence time process would be preferred.
 TORREFACTION
Special form of Pyrolysis
Torrefaction may be a thermal process to convert biomass into a coal­
like material, which has better fuel characteristics than the first
biomass.

With reference to bioenergy, interest in torrefaction has increased

significantly within the last decade.

Torrefied biomass is more brittle, making grinding easier and less

energy intensive. Compared to fresh biomass, storage of the torrefied
material are often substantially simplified since biological degradation
and water uptake is minimized. Torrefaction involves the heating of
biomass within the absence of oxygen to a temperature of typically 200
to 400°C.

Although the weight loss is about 30%, the energy loss is only 10%.
Main product is the solid, torrefied biomass. During the torrefaction
process a combustible gas is released, which is utilised to supply heat to
the method.
 ETHANOL AS A FUEL
There are several advantages of using Ethanol as a fuel like-
It is a relatively low-cost alternative fuel that boasts less pollution and more availability
compared to unblended petrol.
Ethanol-fuelled vehicles produce lower carbon dioxide emissions, and the same or lower
levels of hydrocarbon and oxides of nitrogen emissions.
Therefore, ethanol and other biofuels are often promoted as clean, low-cost alternatives to
petrol.
But the production and use of ethanol have not all positive the
positive points.

The major debate about corn and soy-based biofuels is the amount of land it takes away
from food production. It also involves large amounts of synthetic fertilizer and herbicide
which is a frequent source of nutrient and sediment pollution.

The challenge of growing enough crops to meet the demands of ethanol and biodiesel
production is significant and, some say, insurmountable. mean converting most of the
world’s remaining forests and open spaces to farmland — a sacrifice few people would be
willing to make.
But overall it can be used in place of our existing sources of fuel. Also, liquid fuel are used very much because of their
ease of use and azeotropic ethanol (i.e. constant boiling-point mixture with 4.4% water) is a liquid between –114°C and
+78°C, with a flashpoint of 9°C and a self-ignition temperature of 423°C. And so used as a direct substitute or additive
for gasoline.
 Production of Ethanol by various Sources
The production method of ethanol depends on the type of feedstock
used. There are basically two sources by which ethanol is produced,
that is starch based crops and cellulose. The process is shorter for
starch- or sugar-based feedstocks than with cellulosic feedstocks.
Starch- and Sugar-Based Ethanol Production
Most ethanol in our country is produced from starch-based crops by
dry- mill or wet-mill processing. In dry mill It is a process that grinds
corn into flour and ferments it into ethanol with co-products of
distillers grains and carbon dioxide whereas in wet-mill plants
primarily produce corn sweeteners, along with ethanol and several
other co-products (such as corn oil and starch).
This is how ethanol is produced from starch and sugar- based sources.

Cellulosic Production
There are two primary pathways to produce cellulosic
ethanol these are biochemical and thermochemical
processes.
The biochemical process involves a pre-treatment to release
hemicellulose sugars which is followed by hydrolysis to break
cellulose into sugars. Sugars are fermented into ethanol, from
where lignin is recovered which is then used to produce energy to
power the process.
The thermochemical conversion process involves adding heat and
chemicals to a biomass feedstock to produce syngas, which is a
mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Syngas is mixed with
a catalyst and reformed into ethanol and other liquid co-products .  Distribution of Ethanol
Delivering ethanol by pipeline is the most efficient option, but
there are some hurdles in it.
Due to ethanol's affinity for water and solvent properties, it
require the use of a dedicated pipeline or significant cleanup of
existing pipelines to convert them into dedicated pipelines.

Use of Ethanol as a fuel has many pros and cons therefore, one lesson to learn from these analyses is that
the whole system has to be carefully defined and scrutinized to assess its environmental impact, carbon
footprint and sustainability, etc., to use it as viable replacement for our existing fuels.
 Development of a Novel Biofuel Blend Using Ethanol-
Biodiesel-Diesel Microemulsions: EB-Diesel
Oxygenated diesel fuel blends have advantages over regular
diesel. Oxygenation significantly reduces particulate matter
(PM) and reduces toxic gases such as CO, sulphur oxides
(SO x), and, at times, nitrogen oxides (NOx) from tailpipe
emissions. Ethanol, which is the oxygenate in E-diesel.
Recent studies conducted on E-diesel confirm substantial
reductions in PM, sometimes even up to 40. It was also
reported that the CO and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions
were significantly lower when a 20% blend of E-diesel was
used in a constant-speed stationary diesel engine, as
opposed to diesel fuel.
This study also reported that the optimum percentage for
ethanol in E-diesel fuel blends was 15%, which produced
reductions of 43.3%, 34%, and 32% in CO, HC, and PM
emissions, respectively. The addition of ethanol to diesel
may result in a volumetric reduction in sulfur, by as much
as 20%, thus significantly reducing SO2 emissions.
The major drawback in E-diesel is that ethanol is immiscible in diesel over a wide range
of temperatures. various commercial surfactants are used as emulsifiers to form ethanol-
diesel emulsions. Typically, these surfactants are added at a concentration of <5%.
Low-Sulfur (0.5%) Diesel Certification Fuel-Ethanol-Biodiesel System at Room
Temperature (20 °C), on adding biodiesel to this fuel system made ethanol and diesel
miscible in each other at room temperature.
This miscibility was due to the fact that biodiesel acted as an ambiphile and formed
micelles that had nonpolar tails and polar heads. In small amounts, the biodiesel
molecules were in random order; however, in larger numbers, the molecules bound
together in an ordered form. The concentration at which they became ordered is called
the critical micelle concentration.
When diesel fuel was in the continuous phase, the polar head in a biodiesel molecule
oriented itself with the ethanol and the nonpolar tail was oriented with the diesel. This
phenomenon held the micelles in a thermodynamically stable state, depending on the
component concentrations and other physical parameters.
 At 20 °C, fuel ethanol, which was denatured with natural gasoline, was completely
miscible in diesel when the diesel concentration in the E-diesel mix was 85%.
The microemulsion fuel blends had the same energy values as their reference
diesel counterparts.
The flash points of both of the a forementioned EB-diesel fuel blends were reduced
only by a few degrees, in comparison to low-sulfur and ultralow-sulfur reference
diesel fuels.

We can see indeed there are several

advantages of using Ethanol as a fuel. But the
analysis of the carbon cycle shows that all
leftovers from ethanol production must be
returned back to the fields to limit the
irreversible mining of soil humus.
 Environmental Effects of Using Biofuel
Compared with the conventional fossil fuel,
bioenergy has obvious advantages-

Biofuel is made from renewable resources and relatively less-flammable
compared to fossil diesel. It has significantly better lubricating properties.

As of now, biofuels cost the same in the market as gasoline does. However, the
overall cost-benefit of using them is much higher. 

When biodiesel is used as a combustible fuel, the durability of the engine
increases. 

So, as we can see by above points it has many

advantages , and thus plays a crucial role in
helping defend the energy security
However, the bioenergy development may potentially cause
serious environmental alterations, which remain unclear. 
 Biofuels are produced from crops, and these crops need fertilizers
to grow better. 
The carbon footprint of biofuels is less than the traditional forms of
fuel when burnt. However, the process with which they are produced
makes up for that.
Large quantities of water are required to irrigate the biofuel crops,
and it may impose strain on local and regional water resources,
Although we recognize that the bioenergy production can indeed exert negative
effects on the environment, the adverse impacts varied greatly depending on
biomass types, land locations, and management practices.

 Identifying the reasonable cultivation locations,

appropriate bioenergy crop types, and optimal
management practices can be beneficial to
environment and sustainable development of
bioenergy.
 Also, not all biomass energy solutions are created
equal; some of the environmental downsides of
bioenergy can be mitigated through more sustainable
forest management, and making careful choices about
the type of biomass we harvest for fuel and how we
harvest it.
 Advancements in research and technology, along with
policy development, can help ensure that future
investments in bioenergy are more environmentally
friendly. And then it can be used as a perfect
alternative for our current resources.