Biofuels are the only carbon based renewable substitutes for the fossil fuels that can offer considerable environmental and sustainability benefits, when sourced and processed in a sustainable way. While the first generation of biofuels has attracted significant criticism due to competition with food, the emerging second (lignocellulosic biomass), third (algae) and beyond the third generation of biofuels are now gaining interests due to their attractive properties. Biomass utilisation for energy production has zero net CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere and with that can offset the atmospheric carbon emissions from energy production. Biomass is lower in sulphur and ash than the fossil fuels which can result in lower atmospheric emissions of pollutants. Additionally, biomass can be sourced from many industries as unwanted by-products or can be cultivated deliberately as energy crops. This presentation discusses the opportunities for sustainable production of biofuels using the system engineering approach. The presentation will review each of the existing commercial and emerging technologies for production of gaseous and liquid biofuels. The presentation will also discuss production of biochar, which has applications to substitute for fertilizers in agricultural activities and, with that, sequester carbon in the soils.

Prof. Vladimir Strezov
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia

Vladimir Strezov completed his Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University Sts Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia in 1995 and a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Newcastle in Australia in 2000. From 1996 to 2002 he worked as a researcher at the Department of Chemical Engineering, the University of Newcastle and BHP Research Laboratories in Newcastle where he was a member of the pyrometallurgy research team. In 2003 Vladimir Strezov took a lecturing position at the Graduate School of the Environment, Macquarie University in Sydney. Currently he is Associate Professor at the Department of Environment and Geography at Macquarie University, where he coordinates the postgraduate program in Environmental Science and is the Departmental Director of Higher Degree Research. A/Prof Strezov’s research interests are in sustainable energy, specifically biomass technology, biofuel production and waste to energy technology. He is also working in the research area of industrial ecology, the industrial sustainable development, energy efficiency and emission reductions of industrial activities.

Industrial sites and residential areas consume large amounts of energy and water. As an unwanted side product they release emissions and effluents. A considerable number of studies are performed for improving the efficiency of production processes, of energy supply and utilisation, while reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds and other pollutants.

Usually reducing resource consumption in any processes – industrial or residential, is achieved by increasing the internal recycling and re-use of energy and material streams. There are several approaches to achieving such improvements, which include Mathematical Optimisation, Process Intensification and, most notably, Process Integration. The latter is a family of methodologies for combining several parts of processes or whole processes to reduce consumption of resources or harmful emissions. It started mainly as Heat Integration (HI) stimulated by the energy crises of the 1970's.

This contribution reviews the main achievements of Process Integration to date and the future challenges stemming from these developments. The concepts discussed start with the integration strategy for saving energy – heat and power, achieved prominence as Heat and Power Integration, as well as Total Site Integration, The discussion also includes Water Integration, other Mass Integration as well as Process Integration for Supply Chain Optimisation – mainly in the context of utilisation of renewable resources.

The paper concludes with a highlight of the challenges to be tackled and a suggested vision for a strategy for future research and development. These include bringing more coherence to the concepts and tools used, potentially leading to open standards for Process Integration knowledge management.

Dr. Petar Varbanov
Brno University of Technology
Brno, Czech Republic

Dr Varbanov worked for the Institute of Chemical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where he still acts as a Consultant. After a spell in the industry in Bulgaria he got a scholarship at a prestigious British University – UMIST, Manchester. He got PhD in Process Integration from UMIST with distinction and won another prestigious EC Marie Curie grant for 2-year research at Technische Universität Berlin, followed by another EC grant for coming to the University of Pannonia - Hungary, where he is a Deputy Head of the Centre for Process Integration and Intensification CPI2.

His experience covers energy saving, water and waste water minimization, optimization of energy supply networks, Systems Modelling, Process Synthesis and Process Operation. His research has been successfully implemented in collaboration with industrial partners: BP-Coryton, BP-Grangemouth, MOL Százhalombatta. Presently he has been contributing to 7 EC co-funded research projects. He has published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is a co-author of two books and several chapters in books. Dr Varbanov acts as a scientific secretary of the PRES series of conferences and editor of the related Special Issues in respected journals such as Applied Thermal Engineering, Journal of Cleaner Production, Cleaner Technologies and Environmental Policy, Theoretical Foundations of Chemical Engineering. Dr Varbanov is Subject Editor for ENERGY, for the topic of Energy Planning Tools.

For the last two centuries fossil resources have shaped the face of industry. They have been responsible for unparalleled if uneven economic growth, a major re-balancing of political power as well as social structure and, in the later part of their period of dominance, a quantum leap in the influence of mankind on its environment. Demand for these existential resources for industrial development as we know it now has driven exploitation of oil and gas to ever remoter and environmentally fragile regions, using ever more complex, costly and environmentally questionable technologies. Although it is still not warranted to speak about the end of the fossil age, we certainly witness a trend towards renewable sources for energy and material, which also manifests itself in various political agendas on the national and international level.

Properties of bio-resources however differ vastly from fossil as well as other renewable resources. They are storable, mainly de-central in their provision, have usually weak logistic properties and face severe competition from various sectors, in particular from the vital food sector. A stronger reliance on bio-resources to support the European energy system as well as to provide raw materials for conversion to material products therefore raises technical, societal and environmental issues that have to be resolved if a bio-economy is to become a viable development pathway.

The European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance has therefore started a European discourse on the rational utilisation of bio-resources. The contribution will discuss first results from this still on-going process and provide ideas for rational use of bio-resources in the framework of sustainable development. 

Prof. Michael Narodoslawsky
TU Graz
Graz, Austria

Prof. Michael Narodoslawsky is a professor at Graz University of Technology in Austria, at the Institute of Process and Particle Engineering. Author and co-author of many research and review papers, and since 2011 he is editor-in-chief of Energy, Sustainability and Society scientific journal. He is an active lecturer and invited speaker on conferences and events both at Graz University of Technology as foreign universities and institutes.