Kinetic-Based Model of Base-Catalyzed Biodiesel Production Process

Third generation biodiesel may prove to be a sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuels. Microalgae have a lot of potential as a biodiesel feedstock because of its high yield in lipids (up to 30, 50 or 70 wt% of dry biomass) [1]. Nevertheless, technical, economical and environmental problems have still to be solved before diesel from oil-producing microalgae becomes commercial.[...]N/

Energy transition in a business company – solar PV for a car fleet

Fossil fuels are increasingly limited in today's world, causing an energy crisis due to external factors, increasing prices in international markets. To solve this global problem, the energy transition related to mobility in companies that oversee their car fleets is highlighted. This transition to electric mobility influences several economic, technical, and social aspects, thus it becomes crucial for companies to adapt their infrastructure and dynamics to have more sustainable practices. According to the 2021-2022 EIB Climate Survey, 55% of Portuguese young people consider climate change when looking for a job. Furthermore, when asked about future car purchases, 84% of Portuguese car buyers say they will purchase either a hybrid or electric car, making Portugal the EU No. 1 country in terms of intentions to purchase electric cars. These statistics show the urgency for companies to adapt to future needs, as well as align with the European goals of reducing greenhouse gases emissions to 45% by 2030 and to zero by 2050.This work was financially supported by Base Funding – UIDB/04730/2020 of Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology, Portugal, CIETI – funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), Portugal; LA/P/0045/2020 (ALiCE) and UIDB/00511/2020 - UIDP/00511/2020 (LEPABE) funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

An overview of the evolution of civil engineering education towards sustainability in Portugal

Education is essential to prepare future professionals, preparing them for the labor market, by providing knowledge and practical experiences. The model that trains these professionals becomes crucial for professionals to adapt to the current needs of this market, which in itself is competitive and dynamic, so it is always in constant change of priorities and needs. It is undeniable that environmental and sustainability issues have become essential aspects in the performance of any business at a global level. Particularly, the concern with sustainability becomes evident in the field of civil engineering, due to the need of optimization of use of resources (raw materials, energy and water), that can have a huge impact on the environment, resulting both from reduction of consumption of resources, and pollutants emissions. Therefore, the MSc courses should have two levels of education on sustainability: at the mul-tidisciplinary level, Higher Education schools should offer courses specifically dedicated to sustainable development and sustainability should be analysed glob-ally; at the disciplinary level, each course should include the basic related concerns with sustainability issues. This work surveys civil engineering courses in Portugal and analyzes how subjects related to SDGs are directly or indirectly present in the respective curricula.This work was financially supported by Base Funding – UIDB/04730/2020 of Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology, Portugal, CIETI – funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), Portugal; LA/P/0045/2020 (ALiCE) and UIDB/00511/2020 - UIDP/00511/2020 (LEPABE) funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).N/

PHYTOENERGY: energetic valorisation of phytoremediation derived biomass

There are presently more than 3 million contaminated sites all over EU, according to the EEA (report 25186 EN), with the contamination with heavy metals being of particular concern, as they are not degradable. Soil recovery is thus becoming an urgency and diverse approaches can be applied. From these, phytoremediation has shown to be an attractive low cost alternative as it promotes the establishment of a vegetation cover, stabilizing these degraded sites and allowing for the slow extraction of the contaminants. In spite that the fate of the harvested plants is a common complication for its implementation, it can also represent an opportunity for producing added value. This work intends to assess the possibility of the production of biodiesel resulting from the transterification of sunflower seed oil with bioethanol resulting from the processing of sunflower stems. Sunflower plants growing either in agricultural and metal contaminated soils were assessed and the quality of the successive energetic products was evaluated. Sunflower seeds were used for oil extraction, with observable extraction efficiencies of up to 20 ml oil/m 2 ; plant stems were used for bioethanol production with yields of up to 280 ml/m 2 ; finally, biodiesel was generated via transterification. The final biodiesel as well as the obtained oil and bioethanol were characterized and it was possible to observe that the contamination of the soils with metals did not affect significantly the quality of the products, namely in concerning metal levels. This study reports thus the successful energetic valorisation of plants grown in degraded soils.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Engineering education towards sustainability

The traditional systems have been studied in an isolated mode, seek to respond to a specific need and deal with a restricted set of variables. The targets established for energy efficient systems and energy sustainability imply that new systems are more comprehensive and combine the various individual systems. This new topology requires a new kind of engineering professionals provided with new skills. New engineering professionals need to have not only a set of deep capabilities in a specific area, but also more comprehensive proficiencies that allow them to understand how to integrate their particular system into a wider functional system. This paper addresses some challenges and issues posed to Higher Education institutions and to engineering professionals of the future.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Life cycle energy and carbon analysis of a road-safety barrier produced using recycled tire rubber

Increasing end-of-life material recovery and its application in new products is essential to reduce resource consumption. This paper assesses the cradle-to-gate life cycle energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of a new road safety barrier product to be installed around guardrails’ poles. To analyze the potential life cycle benefit of incorporating recycled materials, a base case product A, produced with conventional virgin synthetic rubber and polypropylene (PP), was compared with two equivalent alternatives under study: B (using recycled end-of-life tire rubber granulate (TRG) and PP), and C (using TRG and recycled polypropylene). The results show that the incorporation of recycled TRG has a positive effect in primary energy and carbon emissions. Product B presents less 38% CO2 emissions and 47% non-renewable primary energy than product A. The combination of TRG and recycled polypropylene (C), presents even more benefits: less 69% CO2 and 86% nonrenewable primary energy than A. Supply chain processes and material production have much higher impacts than the product manufacturing (e.g. product molding only represents 5% of the primary energy of product A). To conclude, recycled materials incorporation should be strongly encouraged since it has a great potential to reduce current carbon emissions and primary energy of products.This research was funded by: European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement “No. 810764”; FEDER, through the Portugal-2020 program (PT2020) by the Regional Operational Program of Lisbon (LISBOA-01-0247-FEDER-038326) - project n◦ 038326 – “Safety4Road – Application of hybrid ecological materials to improve road safety”; project Base Funding – UIDB/04730/2020 of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology – CIETI, Portugal; LA/P/0045/2020 (ALiCE) and UIDB/00511/2020 - UIDP/00511/2020 (LEPABE) funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Life cycle energy of vehicles on lightweighting and alternative powertrain strategies—A review

To improve vehicles environmental performance, different strategies have been explored namely to reduce the use stage energy. In order to avoid problem shifting, a life cycle perspective should be used to compare alternative solutions. This paper aims to compare existing studies focused on life cycle energy (LCE) of vehicles to analyze the impacts and benefits regarding two trending improvement strategies: lightweight materials and alternative powertrain selection. A Literature review was performed to systematize quantitatively the LCE results of different studies (e.g. presented among figures, tables, and literature text). The LCE results were compiled and normalized for the same driving distance, 200 000 km, per life cycle stage. Moreover, the study discusses research findings on the application of the two strategies to improve overall vehicles’ LCE. As lightweight materials have generally higher embodied energy, the material selection is highly influenced by end-of-life scenarios. It was observed that carbon/glass fiber composites generally have the highest embodied energy, being a preferable option for vehicles that last longer driving distances. Innovative powertrains sourced by renewable energy sources, electric mixes, can significantly reduce vehicles’ LCE use stage, counteracting the benefit of lightweight design. Thus, the benefit of both strategies should be studied together.This research was funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement “No. 810764”, and by the regional European and development fund through the grant POCI-01- 0247-FEDER-046095. This work was supported by project Base Funding – UIDB/04730/2020 of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Industrial Technology – CIETI; LA/P/0045/2020 (ALiCE) and UIDB/00511/2020 - UIDP/00511/2020 (LEPABE) funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Editorial: Biomass, Bioenergy and Biofuels for Circular Bioeconomy

The huge demand for energy and products, mostly based on fossil fuels, have caused severe environmental impacts, that are based on pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and finally of climate changes. While energy can be supplied from different renewable sources, such as solar, wind or hydro energy, they are intrinsically impossible or hard to control, or dependent on climatic conditions that are becoming more and more unpredictable. In this context, biomass has come, once more, as one of the potential solutions to add to the renewable energy mix.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biofuel production from phytoremediation derived sunflower biomass

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biofuel production from phytoremediation derived sunflower biomass

There are presently more than 3 million contaminated sites all over EU, according to the EEA (report 25186 EN). Heavy metal contamination is of particular concern, as metals are not degradable. Phytoremediation is gaining attention from the public and is an attractive low cost alternative for soil requalification, by establishing a vegetation cover which will stabilize the site, avoiding dispersion of contamination and simultaneously removingpollutants. Although the fate of harvested biomass is a common obstacle for its implementation, it may represent an opportunity for producing energy. This work presents a novel integrated strategy comprising the utilization of all plant parts for the generation of biodiesel. Combinations of sunflower and plant growth promoting microbiota were assessed growing in agricultural and metal contaminated soils.Harvested plant tissues were analysed and it was possible to observe that accumulation of Zn and Cd was made mainly in the roots, followed by the stems and the flowers, with the values registered for plants grown in contaminated soils being higher than the reported phytotoxic levels described in literature. Also, plants grown in the agricultural soil presented higher biomass rates. Sunflower seeds were then used for oil extraction and it was possible to observe efficiencies of up to 20 ml oil/m2, with only the oil from plants grown in industrial soil presenting levels of 1.8 mg Zn/l. Plant stems were used for bioethanol fermentation with yields of up to 280 and 162 ml/m2 for plants growing respectively in agricultural and industrial soils. Once again only plants grown in the industrial soil presented detectable levels of 1.1 mg Zn/l (and no Cd). Biodiesel was then produced via transterification of the extracted oil with the produced ethanol, allowing the complete production of a biofuel from this phytoremediation derived biomass. Reference parameters and heavy metal levels were determined and compared for both the biodiesel derived from plants grown in industrial and agricultural soils.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio