International Conference on Renewable Energy and Resources July 24-25, 2017 Vancouver, Canada

Professor Jo, Chul Hee has finished his Mater degree at Stevens Institute of Technology, USA in 1985 and Ph.D in Ocean Engineering at Texas A&M University in 1991. After working for Intec Engineering, Houston USA and Hyundai Heavy Industries, Korea from 1992 to 1997, he has joined to Inha University in Korea. His main research area is tidal current energy and he has been involved in many government advisory bodies and committees in ocean energy policy, development planning and research since 1998. Being the first author in ocean energy text book written in Korea, he has published more than 200 journal and conference papers with more than 80 patents registered and pending in tidal current energy field. Prof. Jo has been conducted numerous government and industry projects developing tidal current generation system. He is currently the director of the Ocean Energy and Environmental Research Center and the vice president for KSNRE (Korean Society for New and Renewable Energy) and the Executive committee member for AWTEC (Asian Wave and Tidal Energy Conference). focusing.

A focus on renewable energy has been increased as the global warming problem rises. The tidal current power, one of ocean energy resources is acknowledged to have a great potential due to its high energy density with continuous and predictable advantages. Tidal energy technologies can be applied effectively in areas having regular current distribution such as in the ocean with tides and also in rivers with current. To extract energy in a large scale farm, a large number of devices are to be installed for feasible commercial operation. Studies have been conducted throughout the world to find the interaction effect for multi arrayed tidal current devices. The total power production rate of a farm is affected by the turbine arrangement and it interaction. To maximize the power production in the tidal farm equipped with horizontal axis tidal turbines, it is important to understand the wake behavior and its range of influence to downstream. The related papers have been introduced by many researchers with CFD and experimental approaches together with limited experiments. However, the results are quite different from each other. These are due to various boundary and initial conditions with various design factors applied. Also the experiment results vary from each other. In this research, published papers relating to interference effects for multi array of tidal turbines are compared and evaluated. From the analysis, the reasonable velocity recovery rate with axial gaps considering the wake effect downstream is suggested.

Tianhao Li is currently a student of Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University. He is concerning about environmental protection and energy development. He uses his spare time to investigate and survey wind power and photovoltaic corporation; understanding how macroeconomic environment, technology and market factors affect corporations.

Utilizing renewable energy is an important approach to conserve resources, reduce pollutant emission and improve air quality. Wind energy and solar energy are important components of renewable energy. In this presentation, the author put forth his opinion on the development of wind and solar energy in China. The government supports the development of renewable energy, having enacted related laws, launched a series of policies and worked out long-term planning; the scale of wind power and photovoltaic power is in a rapid growth; wind power and photovoltaic industry play an important role in reducing the consumption of coal, restraining pollutant discharging, such as carbon dioxide and at the same time contribute to comprehensive resource utilization. Power enterprises' main cost of investment is electric equipments, which is in a downward trend in recent years. Power enterprises sometimes cannot take full advantage of capacity and result in wind and solar curtailment. Government offers subsidy of on-grid power tariff, but on-grid power tariff is declining, lowering the earnings of investors. The market competitions of photovoltaic and wind power industry are intense as well. The unit cost of renewable energy industry, especially photovoltaic and wind power is reducing and technical progress increases the efficiency of electricity generation at the same time. Although subsidy of on-grid power tariff is declining and market competition is fierce, wind farm and photovoltaic enterprises are still making profit. Renewable energy only accounts for a very small percentage of whole energy consumption but it has great potential in China, able to reduce pollutant emission and realize comprehensive utilization of resources. National policies have great influences on industry development, thus the government should guide and support the development of renewable energy.

Rania Mona Zeid Alqaralleh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her doctoral work investigates the thermophilic and hyper-thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion of thickened waste activated sludge and fat oil and grease (FOG), liquid portion of FOG (L-FOG) and organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Her research aims to improve the biogas production from solid organic waste using different waste combinations, pretreatment methods and thermal enhanced treatment.

In the light of climate change, environmental challenges and raising demand on energy, the quest toward developing renewable energy has become an urgent necessity. Renewable energy industries, investments, and related policies have been developed incredibly fast in the recent years [1]. A potential renewable energy source is biogas harvested from different types of organic wastes. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the leading methods applied for generating biogas from organic waste. However, the biogas utilization in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is still limited; for example, in the US less than 10% of the WWTPs produce biogas for beneficial use such as heat and power generation [2]. The WWTPs industry is facing real challenges in deploying the biogas production and utilization, such as; the slow biogas generation rate during the AD process, the low energy content (methane%) of the biogas, and the costs to upgrade the biogas [2,3]. In this study the anaerobic co-digestion of thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) and the suitable organic wastes will be used to overcome some of the significant economic challenges by improving the AD process, increasing the biogas production with higher methane content, and reducing the final volume of waste. The feasibility of using hyper-thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion of TWAS, organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), and fat, oil and grease (FOG) in producing biogas from solid waste will be established. The hyper-thermophilic co-digestion at high temperature (70áµ’C) has the potential to improve the anaerobic degradation of the organic waste mixture [4]. Whereas the use of OFMSW and FOG with the right concentrations will not only improve the C: N ratios in the digestion mixture leading to a significant increase in biogas production, but it also helps in converting these organic waste streams from landfills and that means increasing the lifespan of existing landfills and improving the sustainable development by improving waste to energy conversion.

Juan S Chirivi-Salomon is a Chemical Engineer and Microbiologist, who has acquired expertise in basic Mycology throughout his careers. His work on entomopathogenic fungi, in collaboration with Dr. Tatiana Sanjuan, revealed two new species of Cordyceps with notorious potential in pharmaceutical and biofuel industries. In his Master of Science project, he has acquired huge knowledge about metabolomics of fungi, focusing his work in the industrial potential of fungal metabolites. He is researching on the effect of Cordyceps metabolites in the laccase production for lignocellulosic biomass treatment. In collaboration with Dr. Rocio Sierra, he is exploring new opportunities in the application of fungi and their metabolites in bioenergy industry. His work hope is to link different academic institutions and social foundations.

Used tires are emerging as a serious environmental problem around the world, which is increasing due to vehicles industry demand. Although tires remain substantially intact for a long period of time, disposal lands are not enough for them and some of their components can break down and leach in to the environment. Catalytic pyrolysis is a promising method for waste treatment and energy production. In this research, we prepared a diagnostic study about used tires management in Bogota, Colombia. We also aimed to evaluate the liquid-fuel production yield of a fluidized reactor for catalytic pyrolysis. We explored the effect of zeolite-type catalysts, the feedstock, and temperature in this process. We used zeolites obtained from pozzolana and a zeolite type ZSM-5. The experiments were performed by feeding waste tire rubber (WTR) and a mix of biomass and CLU as feedstock. We identified several environmental impacts about inappropriate disposal of used tires in Fontibon, Bogota. High harmful gas emissions, pollution of land and water, effecting the landscape, and health problems were also identified. As a result, pyrolytic oil was obtained with similar properties to a derivate fuel obtained from petroleum. The process is carried out under a heating rate less than 10°/min and a constant flow of nitrogen, assuring bed fluidization and an oxidizing-free atmosphere. A maximum yield of 61%wt was achieved at a temperature of 500°C and using the pozzolana-type catalyst. The characterization of the liquid product was performed by distillation curve analysis and TGA. High degradation rates and low time of ignition were related with distillation products with low molecular weight and boiling point. The fuels obtained have promising use as carburant into a diesel engine, according to characterization performed. This is a huge opportunity to reduce the environmental impact that is generated from Colombian industries and consumers by the application of new recycle technology.

Juan S Chirivi-Salomon is a Chemical Engineer and Microbiologist, who has acquired expertise in basic Mycology throughout his careers. His work on entomopathogenic fungi, in collaboration with Dr. Tatiana Sanjuan, revealed two new species of Cordyceps with notorious potential in pharmaceutical and biofuel industries. In his Master of Science project, he has acquired huge knowledge about metabolomics of fungi, focusing his work in the industrial potential of fungal metabolites. He is researching on the effect of Cordyceps metabolites in the laccase production for lignocellulosic biomass treatment. In collaboration with Dr. Rocio Sierra, he is exploring new opportunities in the application of fungi and their metabolites in bioenergy industry. His work hope is to link different academic institutions and social foundations.

Pleurotus ostreatus is a white-rot fungus able to produce a lignin-degrading enzymatic complex system. This fungus can be used in the biological pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass for biofuel production. We previously defined a semisolid in- vitro system using rice husk as substrate and given its difficulty of recycle in Colombian agricultural wastes. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the scaling-up of this system by increasing 5-times the mass used as substrate, and subsequently the volume of the whole system was increased. The inoculum size was also evaluated. The fungal biomass weight, the 2, 2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazolin-6-sulfonic acid) oxidation, the extracellular glucose-content, and delignification degree were measured to compare both systems. The maximum laccase activity obtained was 44,095 U L-1 at day 19 of cultivation in the studied system. The scaling-up was not significantly affected by the inoculum size, but a direct-proportion tendency was observed. In the other hand, the glucose concentration in the react medium decreased from 500 mg dL-1 to 71.13 mg dL-1, in the same system which indicates rapid consumption by the fungus through the time. In addition, we observed that our system maximizes the laccase activity in comparison with previous scale levels. We suggested that phase separation could be strongly related with this result. Nevertheless, the oxygenation conditions could enhance the system, so is widely recommended to be performed in future for a complete experimental design testing different oxygenation systems by bubbles and simple-agitation. This is the first study where a semi-solid culture system for lignin degradation using fungi is applied.