Staff publications (SWEE)

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Browsing Staff publications (SWEE) by Subject "12 Responsible Consumption and Production"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Advancements in sorption-enhanced steam reforming for clean hydrogen production: a comprehensive review
    (Elsevier, 2025-03-01) Farooqi, Ahmad Salam; Allam, Abdelwahab N.; Shahid, Muhammad Zubair; Aqil, Anas; Fajri, Kevin; Park, Sunhwa; Abdelaziz, Omar Y.; Abdelnaby, Mahmoud M.; Hossain, Mohammad Mozahar; Habib, Mohamed A.; Hasnain, Syed Muhammad Wajahat ul; Nabavi, Ali; Zhu, Mingming; Manovic, Vasilije; Nemitallah, Medhat A.
    The sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming (SE-SMR) process, which integrates methane steam reforming with in situ CO2 capture, represents a breakthrough technology for clean hydrogen production. This comprehensive review thoroughly explores the SE-SMR process, highlighting its ability to efficiently combine carbon capture with hydrogen generation. The review evaluates the mechanisms of SE-SMR and evaluates a range of innovative sorbent materials, such as CaO-based, alkali-ceramic, hydrotalcite, and waste-derived sorbents. The role of catalysts in enhancing hydrogen production within SE-SMR processes is also discussed, with a focus on bi-functional materials. In addition to examining reaction kinetics and advanced process configurations, this review touches on the techno-economic aspects of SE-SMR. While the analysis does not provide an in-depth economic evaluation, key factors such as potential capital costs (CAPEX), operational expenses (OPEX), and scalability are considered. The review outlines the potential of SE-SMR to offer more efficient hydrogen production, with the added benefit of in situ carbon capture simplifying the process design. Although a detailed economic comparison with other hydrogen production technologies was not the focus, this review emphasizes SE-SMR's promise as a scalable and flexible solution for clean energy. With its integrated design, SE-SMR offers pathways to industrial-scale hydrogen production. This review serves as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and industry experts committed to advancing sustainable and efficient hydrogen production technologies.
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    Biological factors and production challenges drive significant UK fruit and vegetable loss
    (Wiley, 2025-03-15) Gage, Ewan; Terry, Leon A.; Falagán, Natalia
    BACKGROUND Food loss and waste estimates are highly inconsistent as a result of methodological and systemic differences. Additionally, the absence of in‐depth evidence surrounding the biological drivers of food loss and waste precludes targeted mitigation action. To address this challenge, we undertook a metanalysis utilising a systematic literature review combined with industry stakeholder surveys to examine the incidence of food loss and waste in the UK fruit and vegetable supply chain between primary production and retail. RESULTS We estimated that 37% of fruit and vegetables, equivalent to 2.4 Mt of produce, is lost between production and sale. In the UK, primary production is the main stage responsible for these losses (58%), and is dominated by four crops (apple, onion, carrot and potato), which contribute 71% of total food loss and waste. Quality and supply/demand mismatch are the core drivers, combined with limited ability to control postharvest quality decline as a result of technical or economic barriers. CONCLUSIONS Innate biological mechanisms contribute to, and detract from, marketable quality generating food loss risks where these cannot be adequately modified or controlled. Through climate change effects, reduced pesticide availability, changing consumer behaviour and increased pressure to reduce resource/energy inputs during pre‐ and postharvest handling, food loss and waste risk is likely to increase in the short term unless targeted, coordinated action is taken to actively promote its mitigation.
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    Comparative life cycle assessment of glycerol valorization routes to 1,2- and 1,3-propanediol based on process modeling
    (American Chemical Society , 2024-10-07) Vanapalli, Kumar Raja; Nongdren, Lourembam; Maity, Sunil K.; Kumar, Vinod
    Crude glycerol, a high-volume byproduct of the biodiesel industry, has seen a significant surplus due to the industry’s rapid growth. It can be a promising feedstock for a range of high-value products via chemical and biochemical routes. This study thus elucidates the relative environmental performance of two prominent glycerol valorization technologies, i.e., catalytic hydrogenolysis to 1,2-propanediol and microbial fermentation (batch and fed-batch) to 1,3-propanediol, using a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). The LCA was performed using an experimental data-driven comprehensive process model to represent an industrial-scale biorefinery, handling 20 833 kg/h of glycerol. The LCA results identified cooling water (18-35.5%) and steam (15.2-33.7%) consumption in the distillation and glycerol sourcing (33.3-68.1%) as the critical environmental hotspots, which should be focused on while designing the process. The fed-batch fermentation process was environmentally more benign, with significantly lower environmental impacts than hydrogenolysis (by 35.2%) and batch fermentation (by 48.2%). Integrating effective process heat recovery using pinch technology reduced the overall environmental impacts by 4.9-11.2%. The environmental performance of the overall processes varied substantially (2.4-62.1%) with changes in glycerol sourcing and production methods. Therefore, energy and material recycling with sustainable water and glycerol sourcing can improve the sustainability of the overall process.
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    A comparative techno-economic feasibility of hydrogen production from sugarcane bagasse and bread waste
    (Elsevier, 2025-05-15) Hafyan, Rendra Hakim; Sadhukhan, Jhuma; Kumar, Vinod; Maity, Sunil K.; Gadkari, Siddharth
    An increase in the emphasis on sustainable energy solutions underscores a vital need for hydrogen as a clean, decarbonizing, and efficient energy carrier. This necessity is driving extensive research into alternative feedstocks for hydrogen production. Promising resources like sugarcane bagasse and bread waste, valued for their abundance and high sugar content, can be a promising feedstock for hydrogen. Processes, such as steam reforming of ethanol and aqueous-phase reforming of xylitol, effectively utilize sugarcane bagasse and bread waste to produce hydrogen, supporting a circular bioeconomy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels. This study aims to investigate the process design and techno-economic feasibility of hydrogen production from sugarcane bagasse and bread waste. Results show that sugarcane bagasse-based feedstock requires higher capital investment and annual operational costs, at 68.3 M$ and 24.3 M$ per year compared to bread waste-based feedstock, which involves 49.8 M$ and 18.74 M$ per year, respectively. Profitability analysis indicated that bread waste-based hydrogen production was more economically viable, with a higher net present value of 36.45 M$ and a higher internal rate of return of 17 %, along with a payback period of 11 years. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the selling price of hydrogen and fixed capital investment were the most influential parameters affecting the net present value. These findings highlight the economic advantages of utilizing bread waste over sugarcane bagasse, suggesting that bread waste is a more cost-effective and sustainable option for hydrogen production. By prioritizing bread waste as a feedstock, it is possible to achieve significant economic benefits, making it a strategic choice for future hydrogen production initiatives and advancing renewable energy technologies.
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    Comprehensive techno-economic and environmental assessment for 2,3-butanediol production from bread waste
    (Elsevier, 2024-11-15) Tiwari, Bikash R.; Maity, Sunil K.; Brar, Satinder K.; Chew, Kit Wayne; Kumar, Gopalakrishnan; Kumar, Vinod
    Bread waste (BW) is a common food waste in Europe and North America and has enormous potential as a biorefinery substrate for the sustainable synthesis of various platform chemicals. Our previous work made use of BW for the fermentative production of 2,3–butanediol (BDO). The present work evaluated the economic prospects and environmental consequences associated with the overall processes, handling 100 metric tons BW per day. The comprehensive process design using Aspen Plus and integrated techno-economic and environmental assessment was carried out for two different BW hydrolysis scenarios: acid and enzyme hydrolysis, followed by fermentation and extraction-based downstream BDO separation. The optimal heat exchanger network was designed using pinch analysis, which improved the energy efficiency of the processes significantly, with about 10 % savings of BDO production costs. Despite this improvement, the BDO derived from BW was exorbitant (4.2–6.9 $/kg) compared to the market price (3.23 $/kg) due to relatively higher capital investment for the current plant capacity. Further, the process inventory was modelled in SimaPro v9.1.0 to estimate the environmental consequences of these production processes for various impact categories, such as global warming (2.63 – 3.19 kg CO2 eq.), marine eutrophication (3.55 × 10-4 – 4.01 × 10-4 kg N eq.), terrestrial ecotoxicity (6.44 – 7.88 kg 1,4 − DCB), etc. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses were also conducted to establish the reliability of the results. It was found that the enzyme hydrolysis was associated with lower environmental impacts than acid hydrolysis. This comprehensive study can be used as a guideline for developing sustainable BW-based biorefinery in the future.
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    Decision support system for sustainable hydrogen production: case study of Saudi Arabia
    (Elsevier, 2025-02-01) Kaheel, Sultan; Fallatah, Gasem; Luk, Patrick; Ibrahim, Khalifa Aliyu; Luo, Zhenhua
    The global energy sector is undergoing a transition towards sustainable sources, with hydrogen emerging as a promising alternative due to its high energy content and clean-burning properties. The integration of hydrogen into the energy landscape represents a significant advancement towards a cleaner, greener future. This paper introduces an innovative decision support system (DSS) that combines multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) and decision tree methodologies to optimize hydrogen production decisions in emerging economies, using Saudi Arabia as a case study. The proposed DSS, developed using MATLAB Web App Designer tools, evaluates various scenarios related to demand and supply, cost and profit margins, policy implications, and environmental impacts, with the goal of balancing economic viability and ecological responsibility. The study's findings highlight the potential of this DSS to guide policymakers and industry stakeholders in making informed, scalable, and flexible hydrogen production decisions that align with sustainable development goals. The novel DSS framework integrates two key influencing factors technical and logistical by considering components such as data management, modeling, analysis, and decision-making. The analysis component employs statistical and economic methods to model and assess the costs and benefits of eleven strategic scenarios, while the decision-making component uses these results to determine the most effective strategies for implementing hydrogen production to minimize risks and uncertainties.
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    Mechanism-based thermodynamic analysis for one-step and two-step ethanol-to-1,3-butadiene conversion processes
    (American Chemical Society, 2024-11-27) Rahman, Md Ziyaur; Varma, Abhishek R.; Gadkari, Siddharth; Tawai, Atthasit; Sriariyanun, Malinee; Kumar, Vinod; Maity, Sunil K.
    Renewable 1,3-butadiene (BD) is essential for sustainability of the synthetic rubber sector. This work presents a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis for one- and two-step ethanol-to-BD conversion processes. The two-step process comprises ethanol dehydrogenation, followed by the condensation of acetaldehyde with another ethanol molecule into BD. The process involves a complex reaction network with a wide range of byproducts depending on the nature of the catalysts and operating conditions, lacking unique consensus on the C-C bond-forming mechanism. This study elucidates the temperature regime for the spontaneity of the reactions proposed in various mechanisms and side reactions based on the standard Gibbs free energy change. The equilibrium conversion and product selectivity were further calculated under a wide temperature and pressure range. The overall reaction in the one-step process is thermodynamically spontaneous above 417 K, while the first and second steps of the two-step process are spontaneous above 550 and 285 K, respectively. Excepting Prins condensation, other mechanisms lack the spontaneity of all reaction steps. The equilibrium BD selectivity is favorable at elevated temperatures and low pressures. The addition of acetaldehyde in the two-step process has a favorable impact with higher BD selectivity, the maximum being at a 1:1 molar ratio of ethanol/acetaldehyde. This study elucidates thermodynamic insights into existing mechanisms and drives the evolution of a feasible mechanism. This effort will eventually help design novel catalysts and optimized processes for sustainable biobased BD production using ethanol derived from renewable feedstocks, aligning with the global commitment to greener and resource-friendly chemical manufacturing.
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    New opportunities for biologically and chemically mediated adsorption and precipitation of phosphorus from wastewater
    (Elsevier, 2025-04-01) Pratt, Chris; Soares, Ana
    Biologically mediated adsorption and precipitation of phosphorus (P) from waste streams can restrict environmental P discharges. Here, we appraise progress in this field over the past decade. The research discipline has grown considerably in recent years. Industry ‘wastes’, including steel slags, continue to show promise as adsorbents with exceptionally high P retention capacities (>500 mg P g−1). Hydrotalcite, a nanomineral, offers prospects as a P removal technology with imbedded climate change mitigation capacity. Biomineral struvite formation, driven by microbial processes, offers an exciting P removal and recovery approach that can be applied to diverse wastewater types due to its feedstock-independent mechanisms, emerging immobilisation techniques and adaptability to mixed cultures. All of these factors facilitate efficient nutrient recycling and scalable application to the wastewater industry. Adsorbed and precipitated P can be applied to cropland to offset dependence on conventional fertiliser inputs. Therefore, in addition to water treatment, these biologically mediated processes also offer opportunities to support food production. Moreover, as many of the input materials covered in this review are industry byproducts and common organic materials, the removal of P from waste streams by adsorption and precipitation offers strong circularity potential that aligns with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. We call for future work to focus on long-term full-scale trials involving community, government and industry partners.
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    Phosphorus removal in surface flow treatment wetlands for domestic wastewater treatment: Global experiences, opportunities, and challenges
    (Elsevier, 2024-10-01) Lyu, Tao; Headley, Tom; Kadlec, Robert H.; Jefferson, Bruce; Dotro, Gabriela
    Treatment Wetlands (TWs) are widely used for the treatment of domestic wastewater, with an increasing emphasis on provision of multiple co-benefits. However, concerns remain regarding achieving stringent phosphorus (P) discharge limits, system robustness and resilience, and associated guidance on system design and operation. Typically, where P removal is intended with a passive TW, surface flow (SF) systems are the chosen design type. This study analysed long-term monitoring datasets (2–30 years) from 85 full-scale SF TWs (25 m2 to 487 ha) treating domestic sewage with the influent load ranging from 2.17 to 54,779 m3/d, including secondary treatment, tertiary treatment, and combined sewer overflows treatment. The results showed median percentage removals of total P (TP) and orthophosphate (Ortho P) of 28% and 31%, respectively. Additionally, median areal mass removal rates were 5.13 and 2.87 gP/m2/yr, respectively. For tertiary SF TWs without targeted upstream P removal, 80% of the 44 systems achieved ≤3 mg/L annual average effluent total P. Tertiary SF TWs with targeted upstream P removal demonstrated high robustness, delivering stable effluent TP < 0.35 mg/L. Seasonality in removal achieved was absent from 85% of sites, with 95% of all systems demonstrating stable annual average effluent TP concentrations for up to a 30-year period. Only two out of 32 systems showed a significant increase in effluent TP concentration after the initial year and remained stable thereafter. The impact of different liner types on water infiltration, cost, and carbon footprint were analysed to quantify the impact of these commonly cited barriers to implementation of SF TW for P removal. The use of PVC enclosed between geotextile gave the lowest additional cost and carbon footprint associated with lining SF TWs. Whilst the P-k-C* model is considered the best practice for sizing SF TWs to achieve design pollutant reductions, it should be used with caution with further studies needed to more comprehensively understand the key design parameters and relationships that determine P removal performance in order to reliably predict effluent quality.