Advances in Bioenergy and Microfluidic Applications

Since fossil fuels suffer from dangerous side effects for the environment and their resources are limited, bioenergy attracted many attentions in various aspects as an alternative solution. Therefore, increasing number of researches are conducted every year and the processes updated frequently to make them more economic and industrially beneficial. Advances in Bioenergy and Microfluidic Applications reviews recent developments in this field and covers various advanced bio-applications, which rarely are reviewed elsewhere. The chapters are started from converting biomass to valuable products and continues with applications of biomass in water-treatment, novel sorbents and membranes, refineries, microfluidic devices and etc. The book covers various routes for gaining bioenergy from biomass. Their composition, carbon contents, heat production capacities and other important factors are reviewed in details in different chapters. Then, the processes for upgrading them directly and indirectly (using metabolic engineering and ultrasonic devices) to various fuels are explained. Each process is reviewed both technically and economically and the product analysis is given. Besides, the effect of various catalysts on increasing selectivity and productivity are taken into account. Biofuels are compared with fossil fuels and challenges in the way of bioenergy production are explained. Moreover, advanced bio-applications in membranes, adsorption, waste water treatment, microfluidic devices and etc. are introduced. This book provides a good insight about such bioprocesses and microfluidics devices for researchers, students, professors and related departments and industries that care about energy resources and curious about recent advances in related methods and technologies. Despite other books which review biomass chemistry and conversion, the current book emphasize on the application of biomass in the mentioned areas. Therefore, one can gain a better and more comprehensive insight by reading the book.

Mohammad Reza Rahimpour is a professor of chemical engineering at Shiraz University (Iran). He was a research associate at the University of Newcastle, Australia (2003–04) and at the University of California, Davis (2012–17). He leads a research group in fuel processing technology focused on the catalytic conversion of fossil fuels, and renewable fuels to valuable energy sources for investigating in-depth research in the various fields of chemical engineering, including carbon capture, chemical looping, membrane separation, storage and utilization technologies, novel technologies for natural gas conversion, and utilization in industries. Moreover, he has contributed to various scientific articles and book chapters and edited different books with famous publishers. Reza Kamali is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering Department at the Shiraz University; one of the most prestigious universities in Iran. He teaches graduate and under graduate courses and conduct researches in the area of microfluidics, nanofluidics, biofluidics, energy systems, drug delivery, and alternative energy sources. He has over 24 years of academic and industrial experience and served in several public and private boards and panels and he has supervised several undergraduate, masters and PhD students as well as publishing many papers in high ranked journals and conferences. He also has several international collaborations with other international research teams in universities such as Dublin City University, University of Calgary, University of Brighton, and University of Wyoming. Dr. Mohammad Amin Makarem is a research associate at Shiraz University where he received his PhD degree. His research interests are gas separation and purification, nanofluids, microfluidics, and green energy. In gas separation, his focus is on experimental and theoretical investigation and optimization of the pressure swing adsorption process, and in the gas purification field, he is working on novel technologies such as microchannels. Besides, he has collaborated in writing and editing various book chapters for famous publishers in different fields. Mohammad Karim Dehghan Manshadi is a research assistant at Shiraz University. His research has focused on microfluidics, nanofluidics, biofluidics, and drug delivery and he published several papers in high ranked journals. He also has various international collaborations with Dublin City University and University of Calgary.