1. Course number and name
CHME 486. Biofuels
2. Credits and contact hours
3 credit hours = 45 contact hours per semester
3. Instructor’s or course coordinator’s name
4. Text book, title, author, and year
a. other supplemental materials
- Yebo Li and Samir Kumar Khanal, Bioenergy: Principles and Applications. Willey Blackwell, ISBN: 10-987-65-4321 (2016) (Recommended)
- Sunggyu Lee and Y.T. Shah, Biofuels and Bioenergy Processes and Technologies. CRC Press (2013) (Recommended)
- Sergio C. Capareda, Introduction to Biomass Energy Conversions, CRC Press, ISBN: 978-1-4665-1333-4 (2013) (Optional)
- Ayhan Demirbas, Biorefineries, Springer, ISBN 978-1-84882-721-9 (2010) (Optional)
- Caye Drapcho, John Nghiem and Terry Walker, “Biofuels Engineering Process Technology”, McGraw Hill, ISBN13: 978-0071487498 (2008) (Optional)
5. Specific course information
a. catalog description: Introduction to the fundamentals and applications of biofuels and bioenergy produced from biomass; renewable feedstocks, their production, availability and attributes for biofuel/bioenergy production; types of biomass-derived fuels and energy; thermochemical conversion of biomass to heat, power, and fuel; biochemical conversion of biomass to fuel; environmental impacts of biofuel production; economics and life- cycle analysis of biofuel; value-added processing of biofuel residues; term paper of selected topics relevant to biofuels.
b. prerequisites: CHME 201 co-requisites: none
c. required, elective, or selected elective (as per Table 5-1): elective
6. Specific goals for the course
a. The student will…
- understand basic concepts about biomass derived energy;
- identify potential biomass feedstocks including energy crops;
- understand the concept of 1st generation, 2nd generation and advance biofuels;
- understand terminologies related to biomass conversion and biofuel production;
- have an understanding of the existing and emerging biomass to energy technologies;
- understand and apply mass and energy balances in biomass conversion;
- apply engineering thermodynamics, organic chemistry, chemistry of plant materials;
- familiarize with characterization of biomass feedstocks;
- understand the unit processes/ unit operations involved in biofuel/bioenergy production;
- be able to do the basic engineering calculations related to biofuel production;
- understand the concept of a biorefinery system and be able to develop major unit operations of an integrated biorefinery;
- describe techno-economic analyses of biofuel conversion technologies;
- have an understanding of environmental implications; and
- apply biomass-derived energy in different applications.
b. Criterion 3 Student Outcomes specifically addressed by this course are found in a mapping of outcomes against all CHME courses in the curriculum.
7. Brief list of topics to be covered
- Fossil Energy Use and Implications
- Introduction to Renewable Energy
- Fundamentals Concepts: Energy Balances and Engineering Thermodynamics
- Biomass Chemistry: Plant Structure and chemistry of plant materials
- Types of Biomass and Available Sources
- Biomass Composition and Characterization
- Biorenewable Resources
- Biochemical Processing of Carbohydrate-Rich Biomass
- Pre-Processing and pretreatment
- Thermochemical Processing of biomass
- Processing of Oleaginous Feedstocks
- Processing of biomass into Natural Fibers
- Bio-based Refinery System
- Environmental Impacts of Bioeconomy
- Environmental Impact – Life Cycle Analysis Biofuel Economics, policies and future R&D Biofuel Economics, policies and future R&D
Common Syllabus Addendum
The NMSU Department of Chemical Engineering maintains a syllabus addendum containing course requirements common to all courses with the CH E prefix online. This document is accessible from the URL: http://chme.nmsu.edu/academics/syllabi/chme-common-syllabus-addendum/
