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Tiger nuts (Cyperus esculentus L.) have been widely cultivated as a bioenergy crop in northern China. The value of tubers is receiving special attention, but the lack of information on how organs of tiger nuts coordinate resources to adapt to arid environments has limited the potential tuber production and diverse use. To address this knowledge gap, we experimented in the Ulan Buh Desert, Inner Mongolia (106° 33′ 28″ E, 40° 27′ 32″ N). Three fertilizer treatments were applied: zero fertilizer (N:P = 0:0), traditional fertilizer (N:P = 15:15), and additional nitrogen fertilizer (N:P = 60:15). Investigations were conducted at seedling, rhizome production, tuber formation, and tuber maturation stages. The results showed that under zero fertilizer, tiger nuts allocated biomass predominantly to propagative organs, namely rhizomes and tubers. However, an increase in leaf area or root surface area would necessitate more investment in leaf or root dry mass, resulting in diminishing returns. For biomass allocation, tiger nut responded the same way to traditional fertilizer treatment and zero fertilizer treatment, but the tuber number and yield increase under traditional fertilizer application. Additional nitrogen fertilizer stimulated shoot production through accelerated rhizome production aided by leaf area increasing. Fertilizer application can significantly increase both the number of tiger nuts and tuber yield. Nitrogen addition positively influenced aboveground biomass and enhanced rhizome tillering. Strong adaptability of tiger nuts makes the plant a suitable pioneer crop for developing marginal lands. The robust aboveground growth after nitrogen application enhances suitability for pasture utilization. Core Ideas: Tiger nuts have been promoted as a bioenergy crop in Inner Mongolia, with potential uses yet to be explored.Tiger nuts demonstrate strong adaptability in arid areas, enabling them to thrive in nutrient‐deficient conditions.Tiger nuts with strong adaptability can fully exploit their production potential in marginal lands of Inner Mongolia.Nitrogen fertilizer application plays a major role in biomass partitioning in tiger nuts in an arid ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high‐value‐added chemicals hydroxyacetone (HA) and 1‐hydroxy‐2‐butanone (HB) were produced from agricultural waste over a Ni3Sn4‐SnOx catalyst. The Sn–Ni intermetallic compound and SnOx acted as the active sites for HA and HB production by selectively cleaving the target C−C and C−O bonds. Approximately 70 % of the total HA and HB yield was obtained by selective hydrogenolysis of cellulose. This strategy expands the application of cellulose towards renewable production of high‐value C3 and C4 keto‐alcohols from cellulosic biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrated 1000 tonne/a-scale bio-jet fuel-range hydrocarbon (C 8 -C 15 ) synthesis system via aqueous phase deconstruction and catalytic conversion process was analyzed for its techno-economics of biomass residue utilization. The operation characterization, mass flow and cost in the system were discussed. A two-step deconstruction of corncob, steam stripping and acidic hydrolysis, was designed for the production of the platform chemicals, furfural and levulinic acid from hemicellulose and cellulose respectively. The oxygenate intermediates with the increased carbon chain length was produced by alkali catalyzed aldol condensation from furfural and levulinic acid. The oxygenate intermediates were catalytically converted to jet fuel-range hydrocarbon (C 8 -C 15 ) by the tandem steps of low-temperature hydrogenation, high-temperature hydrodeoxygenation and upgrading over noble metal catalysts. The results indicated that bio-jet fuel yield is 139 kg/h or 8 tonne of dried corncob for 1 tonne fuel production. The operation cost of bio-jet fuel is about $1540/tonne and the cost on corncob, catalytic catalyst and H 2 contributed 23%, 19% and 16% respectively. The cost sensitivity analysis showed that the catalytic lifetime was one of the main factors that affected the economics of bio-jet fuel production, which could increase bio-jet fuel price to $1820/tonne when its lifetime was reduced to 0.5 year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-quality bio-jet fuel derived from biomass resources can directly replace commercial fossil fuels for aviation due to the similar composition and properties. However, conventional technologies on hydrodeoxygenation of plant oil can’t produce renewable aromatics, which is the key component in the jet fuel. In this paper, the bio-jet fuels were produced by aqueous-phase processing of plant sugar/polyol. Liquid fuel yield of 31.8% with sorbitol conversion of 98% was obtained under the conditions of 280 °C, WHSV of 1.25 h −1 , GHSV of 2500 h −1 and 4.0 MPa hydrogen pressure. The content of aromatics and napthenes was above 72 wt.% in the produced liquid fuels. This process uses a wide variety of both cellulosic and conventional plant sugars, providing an economic route to sustainable bio-based jet fuel production, which includes normal and iso-paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics required for aviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With the growing shortage of fossil energy and the increasing of concerns over global climate changes and environmental problems have driven the development of alternative energy sources. Recently, great interest has been oriented towards the development of sustainable resources, especially the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass, a renewable and the most abundant source of biomass originating from plant photosynthesis in nature. Catalytic conversion of renewable cellulosic biomass can produce a series of compounds such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) which are important platform compounds and ideal renewable alternative to fossil fuels. To obtain the renowned bio-based platform molecules, various catalysts and reaction systems have been used in the past decade years. To fully understand current biomass to HMF and DMF development, it is necessary to have an overview and comparison of different homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. The reaction systems also exhibit a remarkable impact on the yield and distribution of products with different catalysts. General trends and future research directions of using biomass for HMF, DMF production are also discussed systematically. Graphical abstract fx1 Highlights • Shifting from fossil resources to sustainable biomass for chemicals production is important in both academic and our society. • A comprehensive review about the catalytic conversion of biomass into HMF and DMF have been presented. • Catalysts, and reaction systems for the production of HMF and DMF developed in the last few years are discussed. • The scale-up conversion of biomass and the process economy analysis of HMF and DMF production are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial jet fuels usually contain about 40% aromatics and naphthene. However, conventional technologies on bio-jet fuels production by hydrodeoxygenation of plant oil and biomass gasification/Fischer–Tropsch synthesis can’t produce renewable aromatics. In this paper, the liquid fuels with high aromatics content were produced by aqueous phase catalytic conversion of biomass sugar/polyol over Ni@HZSM-5/MCM-41 catalysts. Liquid fuel yield of 32 wt% with aromatics content of 84.3% was obtained under the conditions of 300 °C, WHSV of 1.25 h −1 , GHSV of 2500 h −1 and 4.0 MPa of hydrogen pressure with mixed polyol (60% sorbitol + 40% xylitol) as feedstocks. The produced bio-aromatics are substituted benzenes, naphthalenes, and aromatic olefins, which is a wonderful crude oil to be used as jet fuels after it was hydrogenated to improve quality (deep deoxygenation/chemical bond saturation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]