Sustainable conversion of agricultural biomass into renewable energy products: A Discussion

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of agricultural biomass as a promising resource for renewable energy production, e.g., bio-oil and biogas via pyrolysis and catalysis, among other technologies. In order to prevent the accumulation of agricultural biomass, most countries still use traditional disposal or processing methods, e.g., burning in the field, which not only has a low energy conversion rate, but also releases harmful gases, e.g., CO2, CO, and NH3. These traditional methods are regarded as inefficient with respect to the low utilization of waste; they also pose a threat to human health. The energy conversion of agricultural biomass makes full use of resources and accelerates the development of green energy. In particular, agricultural biomass can lead to the production of high-quality renewable fuels and chemical raw materials through catalytic pyrolysis technologies. The fuel produced using catalytic pyrolysis has a low sulfur and alkali metal contents and techno-economic analysis shows that catalytic pyrolysis greatly reduces the production cost and improves the utilization rate of agricultural biomass. The production of bio-oil and gas via catalytic pyrolysis and agricultural biomass are environmentally friendly and economically feasible for clean energy production. Therefore, additional research is needed to enable the upscaling of renewable energy products.

Pellets Obtained from the Husks of Sunflower Seeds and Beech Sawdust for Comparison

“…As a guideline, it is observed that the density of the pellets for a moisture content of 10% of 1100 g/cm 3 will decrease for a moisture content of 0% to about 0.909 g/cm 3 , i.e., 909 kg/m 3 . The difference in value determined the decision that the moisture of the pellets must be taken into consideration during the research [53][54][55][56][57]. The dependence relationship (7) can be used in another way by finding the density at a certain moisture content, thus finding the following general relationship (Equation ( 9)).…”

“…The ash content of the sunflower seed husks still fell within the limits of the European standard [32], below the value of 6%. Also, this value of ash content was lower than that of other plant resources, such as beet leaves, alfalfa, etc., [3,4,[8][9][10]53,54], whose content can sometimes reach values of 18%-20%. Also, the ash content of the charcoal was 54% [1] because during carbonization, most of the volatile substances are lost.…”

Biofuel production from agricultural residues: A promising pathway for renewable energy

“…The pseudo-first-order kinetic model and power-law model are used to forecast biodiesel production and reaction progress for transesterification kinetics [41].…”

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to Evaluate Sustainability and Circularity in Agricultural Waste Management

“…In this context, it is necessary to alleviate the environmental and climatic pressure on agricultural production, in particular by investigating the possibility of valorizing the considerable amount of waste that is produced [7][8][9] as a concrete contribution to the European climate change targets. It is possible to reduce these negative impacts by considering and evaluating the potential for the valorization of these raw materials, e.g., through energy production, nutrient extraction, the production of biomaterials, and other processes [9,10]. The need to move from an approach aimed at the maximum productivity of the land, crops, and means of production to limit environmental damage and the ecological footprint of agriculture [11] makes it necessary to measure the different Sustainability 2023, 15, 14878 2 of 17 types of impacts-not only environmental, but also economic, social, and cultural-that different agricultural systems have in order to modify them to minimize damage to the environment [12,13].…”