Online First
Online First, the immediate online pre-published of all accepted papers. Articles in Online First are these have been initially reviewed, initially accepted and initially typeset. But they haven’t being peer-viewed and proofreaded, also, the final date of publication hasn’t been scheduled. Individual articles and its content may differ from the final version of publication, subject to the final version.
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Open AccessArticles
Article ID: 532
Progress in Lipases, Its Immobilization and Application in Biodiesel Preparation with Emphasis on Our Practiceby YJ Yan
Progress in Energy & Fuels, Vol.0, No.0, 2024; 229 Views, 4 PDF Downloads
Biodiesel is one of the most ideal renewable energies. Among its preparation technologies, biological technology exhibits the most promising prospect. However, high operation cost of lipase and easy inactivation are the main obstacles for large scale industrialization of enzymatic catalyzed biodiesel production. To solve these bottlenecks, such strategies have been employed as producing the cheapest and most tolerable lipases, developing better catalysis techniques, and further bio-refining byproduct glycerin of biodiesel into high-valued products. Eventually, enzymatic catalyzed technology has been succeeded in industrializing with good commercial efficiency. This article reviews a decade endeavor on research and practice of these strategies.
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Open Access
Articles
Article ID: 697
Studies on ‘Brine mining of strategic trace metals’ for developing Secondary sources of nuclear fuelby PRASAD L T
Progress in Energy & Fuels, Vol.0, No.0, 2024; 246 Views, 6 PDF Downloads
Thermal and membrane based desalination plants are being operated all over the world to address the demand of fresh water required by industries and large cities in water scarce coastal areas. The desalination and energy are very much interlinked, as plants are energy intensive. The energy consumption of desalination plants varies from 5 to 15 kWh m-3 of product water depending on the technology. In addition, the percentage of reject seawater/brine exiting the plants varies from 60% to 80% depending on the desalination technique. The concentrated reject brine is a source of valuable trace elements/metals, which is an untapped source that is wasted. With advances in Desalination technologies, it has been established that recovery of critical metals and elements and their selective recovery from reject brine of desalination plants gives an added advantage of energy credits to desalination plants as well as reduce cost of desalinated water [1, 2]. Research and technological developments are required for brine mining from desalination plants, i.e., by the recovery of nuclear fuel and other valuable materials (e.g. U, Li, Rb), from reject brine streams. This is being achieved by adsorption of these elements/ions onto a selective sorbent that is dipped either in reject brine/inlet seawater or in the open sea [1]. The major factor determining the practical utilization of the technology and lifetime of the adsorbent is fouling of the adsorbent by suspended particles or due to biological growth. The paper presents the status review on a recovery of important trace metals and other alkali metals from seawater and highlights the potential of Indian desalination plants for the recovery of trace metals. The adsorption studies carried out using radiation grafted polymeric adsorbents along with fouling studies are discussed in this paper. The studies involve determination fouling tendency of the adsorbents in a different environment, and recovery of uranium and vanadium from the reject brine. The paper also gives the schematic diagram and major unit operations involved in process flow scheme.
