In 2007 Thailand Ministry of Energy boldly announced a 15-year Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP) to boost the share of renewable energy (RE) from 6.4% to 14.1% of total energy consumption by 2022. In Nov. 2011, the said AEDP was replaced by a bolder 10-year Plan (2012-2021), in which the former target for bioethanol production was kept at 9.0 dam³/d (9.00 ML/d) while that for biodiesel was revised upwards to 5.97 dam³/d by 2021. On top of that, a brand new target for second-generation biodiesel is set at 25.0 dam³/d in 2021, starting from essentially nil. The major differences are that the former share of alternative energy (AE) is to rise from 9.4% of total energy consumption in 2008 to 20% in 2022, whereas revised share is to rise to 25% by 2021. This article will give a brief overview of Thailand’s audacious 10-year AEDP and introduce selected advanced production technologies necessary for nonfood biofuels, especially cellulosic bioethanol. Since accelerated development of these advanced technologies will present a grand challenge to Thailand, the author would like to propose an effective win-win development strategy for biofuel R&D through the establishment of an international open innovation center (IOIRC) in biomass in Thailand.

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In city planning, it is important to consider the future growth of renewable energy systems in the built environment. Wind speed analysis in the built environment is very important for analysing the wind turbine performance installed in the built environment. In this work, building topologies / layouts in Tsu city are considered for investing the wind speed distributions and directions. Wind speed profile in the built environment are developed by using CFD-ACE+. This work focusses on the analysis of the wind speed directions and distribution characteristics for finding out the proper location of the wind turbines in the built environment. The wind speed profiles and their directions and wind turbine characteristics are always changing; therefore a model has to put forward for estimation of the wind turbine power outputs. This work is useful for designing the building layouts in such a way to make the nozzle of the wind by using wind directions and then finding out the proper location of the wind turbine in the built environment. In this work, building layouts like nozzle is proposed and investigated to obtain the contracted flow by blowing wind through the buildings.

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Hollow nickel-silica spheres were synthesized by sol-gel method followed by in-situ activation in aqueous sodium borohydride (NaBH₄) /ammonia borane (NH₃BH₃) solutions. The evolution of 38, 58, and 41 mL hydrogen was finished in about 125, 90, and 30 min from aqueous NaBH₄/NH₃BH₃ solution in the presence of nickel-silica spheres precursor activated with the amount of NaBH₄ = 5, 10, and 20 mg, respectively. Morphology of in-situ synthesized samples depends on the amount of NaBH₄, and the hollow spheres were obtained with the medium amount of NaBH₄. Particle size and wall thickness of the hollow spheres were controlled by adjusting ratio of ethyl alcohol to water, and the particle size and wall thickness decrease with increase of the ratio. The evolution of 44, 49, and 58 mL hydrogen from aqueous NaBH₄/NH₃BH₃ solution was finished in about 45, 35, and 90 min in the presence of the in-situ synthesized hollow spheres obtained from the precursors prepared with ratio of ethyl alcohol to water = 3.3, 10, and 20, respectively. The results indicate that the amount of hydrogen evolution increases with increase of ratio of ethyl alcohol to water. Otherwise, the amount of hydrogen evolution was related with reducibility of the precursors.

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Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have engaged much attention in recent years, especially due to their use as environmentally friendly alternatives to typical organic solvents. Their negligible vapor pressures incentivize their use as green solvent alternatives relative to the typical volatile organic solvents. However, it is necessary to consider the entire life cycle of the RTIL; for example, the potential hazardous properties associated with its hydrolysis by-products (tetrafluoroborate hydrolysis) merit consideration. Using ¹⁹F and ¹¹B NMR analyses, we present the observation of hydrolysis behavior of the aliphatic quaternary ammonium-based ionic liquid, N,N-diethyl-N-methyl-N-(2-methoxyethyl) ammonium tetrafluoroborate (denoted as [DEME][BF₄]). It has been observed that the hydrolysis of [DEME][BF₄] rapidly proceeds when the water concentration exceeds x › 80 (mol % H₂O).

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Eco-point program was one of the key programs intended for improvement in energy efficiency in residential sector in Japan. This paper estimated energy saving and CO₂ emission reduction effects of the program considering its impacts on changes in sales demand of appliances together with the expected energy efficiency improvements after the program. The estimated total effect of CO₂ reduction through the Eco-point program for air conditioners, refrigerators and televisions was 0.94 Mt-CO₂. The effect was much smaller than that estimated by the Japanese government. For the key aspect in the program for TVs, sensitivity analysis was also performed.

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The effect of storage time of cloud ear fungus (Auricularia polytricha) spent culture media (SCM) made of three kinds of tropical hardwood species (Falcataria moluccana, Tectona grandis, and Shorea sp.) was investigated on their saccharification efficiency as a potential pretreatment of reducing sugar production. When SCM was stored at 25°C for 2 months (SCM-2), the chemical component analysis showed that lignin content was decreased (26.3 - 49.4%) by storage process compared with unstored SCM. The glucose yield by enzymatic saccharification increased from 7.3 - 9.0% to 10.1 - 12.8%. The highest reducing sugar yield (189.2 mg/g dry spent medium) with the highest hydrolysis weight decrease (24.2%) was obtained in the SCM-2 from Shorea sp. Therefore, the optimal storage time is different for each SCM, and storage of SCM is a very useful pretreatment for reducing sugar production.

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Plastics recycling can be classified into mechanical and chemical recycling. In this study, assumptions were made based on the 3 models for the recycling of waste plastics, and the CO₂ emissions were calculated. In these models, the 4 tonnes of bailed waste plastics collected from Kasugai homes was transported from Kasugai city to Toyama city (mechanical recycling) and Tokai city (cokes oven pre-treatment process). In the case of incineration, the waste plastics were incinerated directly in Kasugai city. From the calculation results, the value of the CO₂ emissions for incineration was more than the two other processes; however the value of CO₂ emission for cokes oven pre-treatment process was low compared to the mechanical recycling. This is because of short transportation distance after bailing, and a simple sorting and pelletizing system. Therefore, in mechanical recycling, the bailed plastics should be taken to a much closer location for example Gifu city and the crusher and sink float separation tank should be simplified. A new tank for sink float separation of wastes plastics was designed, the flow of water in the tank was observed and an experiment was conducted with waste plastics; thereafter the recovery rate and the energy reduction consumption was taken into account. It is therefore concluded that there was a reduction in CO₂ emission for the new sink float tank for mechanical recycling.

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