Ethanol: Science and Engineering

Ethanol: Science and Engineering reviews the most significant research findings in both ethanol production and utilization. The book's contents are divided into four parts, beginning with an explanation of the chemical reactions involved during the conversion of ethanol to more complex molecules. Other sections focus on various processes and their potential use, the modelling of various chemical processes, and finally, their economic and environmental impact. The book includes the most advanced production processes, new technologies, applications, and the economic role ethanol plays today. The book will be great for researchers and engineers in both academic and industry.

The idea of using ethanol as a fuel is one of the most promising options in the arena of alternative fuels because of it versatile use as an intermediate for producing hydrogen via reforming reactions, direct fuel cells feed and/or its production from biomass, which is also considered a sustainable feedstock.

Angelo Basile, a Chemical Engineer, is a senior Researcher at the ITM-CNR where is responsible of the research related to both the ultra-pure hydrogen production and CO2 capture using Pd-based Membrane Reactors. Basile is also Editor associate of the Int. J. Hydrogen Energy and Editor-in-chief of the Int. J. Membrane Science & Technol. and Editor-in-chief of Membrane Processes (Applications), a section of the international journal Membranes: Basile also prepared 42 special issues on membrane science and technology for many international journals (IJHE, Chem Eng. J., Cat. Today, etc.). He participated to and was/is responsible of many national and international projects on membrane reactors and membrane science. Basile served as Director of the ITM-CNR during the period Dec. 2008 – May 2009. In the last years, he was tutor of 30 Thesis for master and Ph.D. students at the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Calabria (Italy). From 2014, Basile is Full Professor of Chemical Engineering Processes.

Adolfo Iulianelli, Degree in Chemical Engineering in 2002 at University of Calabria (Italy), obtained his PhD Degree in Chemical and Materials Engineering in 2006 at University of Calabria (Italy). Nowadays, he is working at the Institute on Membrane Technology of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-ITM). He is author or co-author of more than 50 international articles (ISI), 1 patent, more than 50 contributes as oral and poster presentations in national and international conferences, more than 20 book chapters. Furthermore, he is Reviewer of more than 20 international ICI journals, Invited Speaker in more than 5 international conferences, training school, etc. Subject Editor of the Scientific World Journal, Guest Editor for the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (ICI) and Journal of Membrane Science and Technology and Associate Editor of International Journal of Membrane Science and Technology. His research interests are membrane reactors, fuel cells, gas separation, hydrogen production from reforming reactions of renewable sources through inorganic membrane reactors and membrane operations. His h-index is 22 (source: www.scoupus.com).

Francesco Dalena is a European Ph.D. (Doctor Europaeus) at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Calabria (Rende, Italy). He is an expert in "Chemistry of advanced materials" and his research activity focuses on the bioenergy sector. He is co-editor of various books, such as Bioenergy: Systems for the Future, Woodhead Publishing, and Methanol: Science and Engineering, and Ethanol: Science and Engineering, both published by Elsevier.

Dr. Veziroglu, a native of Turkey, graduated from the City and Guilds College, the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, with degrees in Mechanical Engineering (A.C.G.I., B.Sc.), Advanced Studies in Engineering (D.I.C.) and Heat Transfer (Ph.D.).

In 1962 – after doing his military service in the Ordnance Section, serving in some Turkish government agencies and heading a private company – Dr. Veziroglu joined the University of Miami Engineering Faculty. In 1965, he became the Director of Graduate Studies and initiated the first Ph.D. Program in the School of Engineering and Architecture. He served as Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering 1971 through 1975, in 1973 established the Clean Energy Research Institute, and was the Associate Dean for Research 1975 through 1979. He took a three years Leave of Absence (2004 through 2007) and founded UNIDO-ICHET (United Nations Industrial Development Organization – International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies) in Istanbul, Turkey. On 15 May 2009, he attained the status of Professor Emeritus at the University of Miami.

Dr. Veziroglu organized the first major conference on Hydrogen Energy: The Hydrogen Economy Miami Energy (THEME) Conference, Miami Beach, 18-20 March 1974. At the opening of this conference, Dr. Veziroglu proposed the Hydrogen Energy System as a permanent solution for the depletion of the fossil fuels and the environmental problems caused by their utilization. Soon after, the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) was established, and Dr. Veziroglu was elected president. As President of IAHE, in 1976 he initiated the biennial World Hydrogen Energy Conferences (WHECs), and in 2005 the biennial World Hydrogen Technologies Conventions (WHTCs).

In 1976, Dr. Veziroglu started publication of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (IJHE) as its Founding Editor-in-Chief, in order to publish and disseminate Hydrogen Energy related research and development results from around the world. IJHE has continuously grew; now it publishes twenty-four issues a year. He has published some 350 papers and scientific reports, edited 160 volumes of books and proceedings, and has co-authored the book “Solar Hydrogen Energy: The Power to Save the Earth”.

Dr. Veziroglu has memberships in eighteen scientific organizations, has been elected to the Grade of Fellow in the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is the Founding President of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.

Dr. Veziroglu has been the recipient of several international awards. He was presented the Turkish Presidential Science Award in 1974, made an Honorary Professor in Xian Jiaotong University of China in 1981, awarded the I. V. Kurchatov Medal by the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy of U.S.S.R. in 1982, the Energy for Mankind Award by the Global Energy Society in 1986, and elected to the Argentinean Academy of Sciences in 1988. In 2000, he was nominated for Nobel Prize in Economics, for conceiving the Hydrogen Economy and striving towards its establishment.