MEE504 Biomass Processing for Energy Conversion

Instructor: TBA

The environmental and social impacts of technology implementation continue to increase in importance for industry and policy makers. Chemical processes effect the environment on local, regional, and global scales. However, there are currently no systematic and comprehensive methods to reconcile these impacts with economic considerations for technology assessment.

One of the most environmentally critical processes is energy generation. As worldwide energy consumption increases at a continually accelerated pace, the impacts of conventional energy sources, mostly fossil fuels, are becoming exacerbated. These impacts include environmental issues such as global warming, acid rain, smog, human toxicity, and resource depletion in addition to social issues such as national security.

Consequently, renewable energy is becoming an increasingly important topic from economic, environmental, and social perspectives. These renewable sources provide the possibility for alleviating some of the above impacts. One energy resource for which the United States has great potential is biomass. By utilizing agricultural land, forests, waste materials, etc., a significant amount of renewable energy can be generated while lowering carbon dioxide emissions.

The questions remain: Is “green really good?” Will the utilization of land for energy production from biomass actually be beneficial environmentally and socially while maintaining economic feasibility? If so, what is the best technology selection?

This ICE module will address these questions in regard to the use of biomass as an energy feedstock. Chemical engineering principles of kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport will be employed along with analysis tools such as process simulation, life cycle assessment, linear programming, and Monte Carlo analysis.