Applications of Ultrasound in Biofuels

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 created a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS1) in the U.S. that required 2.78 percent of gasoline consumed in the U.S. in 2006 to be renewable fuel. The EPA finalized this requirement for RFS1 in April of 2007. Congress expanded U.S. renewable fuel usage with the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. The Act included a provision for a new Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), which increased the required volumes of renewable fuel to 36 billion gallons by 2022 or about 7 percent of expected annual gasoline and diesel consumption above a business-as-usual scenario. By integrating processing methods with ultrasound irradiation into biofuels, the time-scale of many operations can be greatly reduced while the efficiency of the reactions can be remarkably increased so that process intensification can be achieved. This book provides current research advances and prospects in mechanistic principles of acoustic cavitation in sonochemistry, lipid extraction from algal biomass and direct conversion to biofuels, biodiesel and ethanol synthesis, pretreatment of biomass sources including lignocellulosic and starch materials.