Chemistry and General Science

Biofuels production is one of the most extensively studied fields in the energy sector that can provide an alternative energy source and bring the energy industry closer to sustainability. Biomass-based fuel production, or renewable fuels, are becoming increasingly important as a potential solution for man-made climate change, depleted oil reserves, and the dangers involved with hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking"). The price of oil will always be volatile and changeable, and, so long as industry and private citizens around the world need energy, there will be a need for alternative energy sources. The area known as "biofuels and biofeedstocks" is one of the most important and quickly growing pieces of the "energy pie." Biofuels and biofeedstocks are constantly changing, and new processes are constantly being created, changed, and improved upon. The area is rapidly changing and always innovative.  It is important, therefore, that books like the volumes in this series are published and the information widely disseminated to keep the industry informed of the state-of-the-art. This third volume in the Advances in Biofeedstocks and Biofuels series focuses on the production of liquid biofuel, covering all of the major biofuels, such as biodiesel, biobutanol, bioethanol, and others.  This engaging text touches on all of the most important new processes and technologies, providing the most up-to-date coverage of the science available to industry. It is a must-have for any engineer or scientist working with biofuel technology.

It has long been recognized that science is the pursuit of knowledge, knowledge is power, and power is political. However, the fantasy of science being apolitical is a hallmark legacy of the enlightenment era, an era that romanticized pursuit of knowledge, disconnected from the baggage of power, politics, and dogmatic assertions. Yet, while the age of information has exponentially increased our access to knowledge, we can see, as clearly as ever, that scientific knowledge is neither apolitical nor dogma-free, and it certainly is not disconnected from power. It is hard to imagine another era when the separation between science and politics has been this blurred as it is today. At the same time, it is true that no other topic than climate change has been so politically charged,  with one side dominating the scientific narration and branding anyone opposing the mainstream as a "climate change denier," and the other standing in staunch defiance that climate change exists. In an age of political and scientific turmoil, how can we navigate out way to coming towards a more objective understanding of the scientific issues surrounding the climate change debate? This book presents the current debate of climate change as scientifically futile, on both sides of the scientific, and often, political, spectrum. The climate change debate has become like obesity, cancer, diabetes or opioid addiction, which is to say that the debate should not be if these maladies exist, but rather, what causes them. Instead of looking for the cause and making adjustments to remove those causes from our lifestyle, a combination of the capitalist drive towards mass production and a lack of identifying the roots of the problems, new solutions, or substitutes, have been proposed as "quick fixes" to the problems. This book identifies the root causes of climate change and shows that climate change is real and it is also preventable, but that it can be reversed only if we stop introducing pollutants in the ensuing greenhouse gases. The book brings back common sense and grounds scientists to the fundamentals of heat and mass transfer, while at the same time disconnecting politicking and hysteria from true scientific analysis of the phenomenon of global climate.

This groundbreaking book covers the recent advances in sustainable technologies and developments, and describes how green chemistry and engineering practices are being applied and integrated in various industrial sectors. Over the past decade, the population explosion, rise in global warming, depletion of fossil fuel resources and environmental pollution have been the major driving force for promoting and implementing the principles of green chemistry and sustainable engineering in all sectors ranging from chemical to environmental sciences. It plays a growing role in the chemical processing industries. Green chemistry and engineering are relatively new areas focused on minimizing generations of pollution by utilizing alternative feedstocks, developing, selecting, and using less environmentally harmful solvents, finding new synthesis pathways, improving selectivity in reactions, generating less waste, avoiding the use of highly toxic compounds, and much more. In an effort to advance the discussion of green chemistry and engineering, this book contains 19 chapters describing greener approaches to the design and development of processes and products. The contributors describe the production of third generation biofuels, sustainable and economic production of hydrogen by water splitting using solar energy, efficient energy harvesting, mechanisms involved in the conversion of biomass, green nanocomposites, bio-based polymers, ionic liquids as green solvents, sustainable nitrogen fixation, bioremediation, and much more. The book aims at motivating chemists and engineers, as well as postgraduate and PhD students and postdocs to pay attention to an acute need for the implementation of green chemistry principles in the field of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, agriculture, environmental engineering, chemical processing and material sciences.