Cell phone application for sizing anaerobic digesters and computing energy production, biogas and methane yields

To perform the calculations required for sizing anaerobic digesters and computing energy production and biogas and methane yields, various procedures should be conducted; this requires time and efforts, with the risk of making mistakes. The objective of this study was to create a tool to aid users and specialists in managing these computations by offering an application which can be installed on cell phones. A mathematical model was developed to perform the calculations. Then, a flowchart was created, and the mathematical model was incorporated into the flowchart. Then, MIT App Inventor was used to configure an application software by combining the flowchart and the mathematical model and making the user interface. Data were acquired from governmental institutions, livestock farms having biogas units, biogas plants, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and literatures. The data acquired were used to perform the calculations through applying the conventional method to produce results which were compared with results produced by the developed application software. The results of both conventional method and the application software were identical. The developed cell phone application can size the anaerobic digesters and compute the energy production and biogas and methane yields from livestock manure and agricultural crop residues

Implementation of Nanotechnology for Increasing Biohydrogen Production from Anaerobic Digestion of Biomass

Biohydrogen has significant feasibility since biological processes are much less energy intensive compared with electrolysis and thermo-chemical processes. Biological processes and bacterial fermentation are considered as the most environmentally friendly alternatives for satisfying future hydrogen demand. Biohydrogen production from biomass is considered profitable as biomass is abundant, cheap, and biodegradable. The combustion of H2 with O2 produces water as its only product: Unlike other fuels, the combustion of H2 does not produce CO2, CO, NOx, or SO2. Therefore, H2 is an environmentally friendly fuel. The objective of this study is to increase biohydrogen production from biomass using nanotechnology. In this study, it is hypothesized that the biostimulation of hydrogen-producing purple non-sulfur (PNS) bacteria through the addition of nutrients in form of nanomaterials can enhance the bioresponses of such bacteria, where this leads to increase biohydrogen production from biomass. A biohydrogen production system and a model of photobioreactor were manufactured and installed. Food wastes were collected from kitchen leftovers of different fast-food suppliers and were used in this study as feedstocks for biohydrogen production. The production process was conducted as following: addition of 50 mg/l of nickel nanoparticles to the bacterial inoculum and then mixing them with biomass and water by a ratio of 0.5:1:2 which were then kept in the photobioreactor exposed to white light emitting diodes (LEDs) with a luminous flux of 3600 lumen and at 30oC for 14 days with mixing for 5 min every 30 min to produce biohydrogen. The results showed that the maximum biohydrogen yield was 40.7 mol H2/mol sugar (2.68 times control) when Ni nanoparticles were added. Besides, during the active production period the H2 percentages were ranging from 48.0 to 51.7% when Ni nanoparticles were added which were higher by 15% than the control. It was concluded that the addition of nanomaterials leads to biostimulate the bacterial cells and enhance their activity and growth rate and, therefore, increase biohydrogen production from biomass

Biobutanol and bioethanol production from agricultural wastes: A cell phone application for computing the bioconversion rates

To carry out the calculations required for modelling and computing for kinetics biobutanol and bioethanol yields and production rates, several procedures should be accomplished; this requires time and effort, and there is a chance that mistakes will be made. The goal of this study is to provide a tool that will assist users, engineers, and experts in conducting these computations by creating a mobile application to reduce time and effort. The calculations were carried out using a mathematical model. The mathematical model was then included in a flowchart that was created later. After that, Kodular was used to configure the mobile application by fusing the interface design, mathematical model, and flowchart. Information was gathered from publications, wastewater treatment facilities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government groups. To offer output data that matched the output data obtained from the configured program, the data collected for doing the calculations in the conventional manner was used. Both the standard strategy and the program's outcomes were consistent. The created mobile application can do kinetic modeling and determine the yields and rates of generation of biobutanol and bioethanol from agricultural waste

An Approach to Modify the Current Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Systems into Integrated Bioindustrial Systems and Biorefineries to Develop Sustainable Bioeconomy

The existing agricultural and agro-industrial systems are not economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable as they implement the linear mode of production, which should be amended to the cyclic mode of production to promote sustainability. Therefore, this study aims at providing an approach to transform the present agricultural systems (beef, dairy, and poultry farms as well as cereals and vegetable crops production) and agro-industrial systems (ethanol industry and fish industry) into integrated bioindustrial systems and biorefineries by altering their linear mode of production into a circular mode of production to create a coherent bioeconomy, where the bioeconomy includes the conversion of renewable bioresources and waste streams into value-added bioproducts, such as food, feed, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, biomaterials, biochemicals, biofuels, and bioenergy. Whereas the integrated bioindustrial systems allow designing cyclic production and consumption systems to maximize the resources and energy use efficiencies, forming a further ecologically sound and healthy environment through conversion of biowaste into value-added bioproducts, and emphasizing the socio-economic development through creating new employment opportunities and ground-breaking technologies and novel bioproducts. An important key issue is that digitalization is essential to the development of the bioeconomy, where digitalization supports practices innovation by boosting both supply and value chains in the circular bio-based economy

A Sustainable Revolution

The parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) attained the Paris Agreement to tackle climate change and to strengthen the actions required for a sustainable transition towards an environmentally friendly future. This transition will involve holistic approaches and multifaceted societal shifts, requiring answers and collaboration between private, public, and academic sectors. This book gathers together contributions which study the transition towards a more sustainable future, involving and identifying the development and implications of more sustainable alternatives, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders (e.g. communities, firms, policy makers, researchers, etc.), to achieve this transition. The approaches proposed are all concerned with a common perspective: imaging our globe with a greener picture, built upon a transversal sustainable revolution to clean up the Earth

Recent Development of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

Abstract: The use of renewable energies continues to increase. However, the energy obtained from renewable resources is variable over time. The amount of energy produced from the renewable energy sources (RES) over time depends on the meteorological conditions of the region chosen, the season, the relief, etc. So, variable power and nonguaranteed energy produced by renewable sources implies intermittence of the grid. The key lies in supply sources integrated to a hybrid system (HS)

ENGINEERING INFORMATICS AND SYSTEMS MODELING FOR OPTIMIZATION OF ANIMAL MANURE MANAGEMENT

There is no doubt that animal feeding operations (AFO) significantly improve meat production at a lower cost. However, accumulative manure produced in AFOs cannot be efficiently utilized in a sustainable and economical way. How to develop the animal manure management strategy is a challenge for both the local agricultural production industry and the ecological system. The overall goal of this dissertation research is to develop decision support models that enhance AFO manure management in the pursuit of sustainability and profitability. A systematic approach is proposed to assist in informatics management, analysis, and decision-making through the graphical user interface, cyber map service, operation research, geographic information systems (GIS), and techno-economic analysis. To bridge existing information gaps between AFO productions, local conditions, and technologies, a cyber-map enabled decision support platform was developed. This platform integrates data for manure production, treatments, application regulations, agronomist recommendations, and local electronic maps with user interactions to examine potential alternative manure management plans. To address the manure management problem of a single farm in a region that lacks adequate crop land for manure spreading, we present a modeling approach (Analytic target cascading, ATC) to optimize the design and operation of a swine manure management system by formulating economic, engineering, and environmental objectives into individual tasks. The conceptual design of a manure management plan was conducted by the decision support platform. Then, the ATC-based model identifies optimal capacities of main components, and operations of manure and crop management sequentially through updating the targets and responses in each iteration. A case study in Hangzhou, China (a swine farm with Anaerobic Digestion process + Ectopic Fermentation) is presented to illustrate the decision process and the sensitivity of the economic parameters i.e., a configuration of mass flows in the system and the size of each process in different seasons under different economic scenarios. Additionally, the scenario analyses are discussed to provide further insights of opportunities and risks. Manure is generated, processed, transported, and utilized in various ways. Manure management requires the coordination of animal feeding operations (AFOs), centralized processing facilities (CPF), and crop farms. Such a manure utilization chain is more than an individual farm scale, and it is a complex nexus between different production systems. To minimize annual manure utilization costs and identify the optimal manure flow patterns, a mixed-mode manure utilization chain (RMUC model) was proposed to ensure sustainable manure utilization for distributed animal farms. The model was implemented to evaluate the manure utilization chain in Hangzhou, China. The scenario analyses are discussed to estimate that the average solid and slurry manure utilization costs under existed and optimal logistics configurations. The decision-making of management practices needs intensive knowledge and a scientific basis while accommodating unique local conditions. The RMUC model can be used to inspect potential configurations (numbers and capacities of facilities, transportation routes, crop farms), quantify performance (economic returns, available manure application lands, nutrient utilization efficiency), and analyze the synergies and trade-offs among different objectives. The scenario analysis suggests setbacks for manure land application and determines the availability of manure applicable lands. The slurry-manure RMUC model was modified to analyze the operational cost and operational greenhouse gas emission of the slurry manure utilization chain in Hangzhou, China. The Pareto-optimal results of baseline scenario demonstrated how the GHG emission constraints affect the optimal configuration of the manure utilization chain, and how the improvement of those practices could change manure utilization cost, increase nutrient utilization, and reduce overall cost and GHG emission. A scenario analysis was conducted to allow the manure nutrient contents to vary within specific ranges. The results conceptually approved the benefits of accurate measurement of nutrient composition in manure management. Finally, we compared four different transportation modes and the results showed that adding a secondary storage station in each village will improve animal manure utilization. This study is an example of dealing with systematic agricultural problems with social, environmental, and economic constraints. It assists in overcoming the barrier to implement high-quality analysis tools in optimization models for establishing an ideal approach to use the information and computational science

Engineering Advantage, Spring 2013

https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/ceng_news/1013/thumbnail.jp

African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

This open access book discusses current thinking and presents the main issues and challenges associated with climate change in Africa. It introduces evidences from studies and projects which show how climate change adaptation is being - and may continue to be successfully implemented in African countries. Thanks to its scope and wide range of themes surrounding climate change, the ambition is that this book will be a lead publication on the topic, which may be regularly updated and hence capture further works. Climate change is a major global challenge. However, some geographical regions are more severly affected than others. One of these regions is the African continent. Due to a combination of unfavourable socio-economic and meteorological conditions, African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. The recently released IPCC special report "Global Warming of 1.5º C" outlines the fact that keeping global warming by the level of 1.5º C is possible, but also suggested that an increase by 2º C could lead to crises with crops (agriculture fed by rain could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020) and livestock production, could damage water supplies and pose an additonal threat to coastal areas. The 5th Assessment Report produced by IPCC predicts that wheat may disappear from Africa by 2080, and that maize— a staple—will fall significantly in southern Africa. Also, arid and semi-arid lands are likely to increase by up to 8%, with severe ramifications for livelihoods, poverty eradication and meeting the SDGs. Pursuing appropriate adaptation strategies is thus vital, in order to address the current and future challenges posed by a changing climate. It is against this background that the "African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation" is being published. It contains papers prepared by scholars, representatives from social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies, undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects in Africa, and working with communities across the African continent. Encompassing over 100 contribtions from across Africa, it is the most comprehensive publication on climate change adaptation in Africa ever produced

CCCC Kick the Habit: A UN Guide to Climate Neutrality

This book describes the importance of climate neutrality in order to reduce the impact of global warming. Climate neutrality requires reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and others