Proceedings

EPJ D Highlight - How well electron transport works in furfural biogas

Schematic representation of the cis-isomer structure of furfural

A new study offers scientists a tool for assessing the energy efficiency of biomass-derived fuel

Furfural is a promising candidate in the quest for alternative biofuels. The combustion industries are very interested in what could become a potential new type of fuel derived from atmospheric-plasma treatment of biomass. But before the gas can be considered for use on a large scale, it is essential to understand its energy characteristics. Now, a Spanish team has published its findings on the gas's energy efficiency in EPJ D. Ana Lozano from the Institute of Fundamental Physics in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues studied an electron beam entering a cell filled with furfural gas molecules to study its scattering characteristics, providing the first accurate experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of the interaction between electron and gas particles—via electron scattering cross-section measurements— for selected electron beam impact energies.

The authors applied a magnetic field along the direction of the electron beam entering a cell filled with furfural gas. They observed that the magnetic field converts any potential deflection due to scattering between the electrons and furfural gas molecules into an energy loss in the forward direction of the magnetic field.

Further, the team used a device called a retarding field analyser to effectively discriminate between scattered and unscattered electrons, which allowed them to accurately measure the energy of transmitted electrons as a function of the furfural gas pressure in the scattering chamber. They then used these experimental results as input parameters to create a simulation of the transport of 10 million electrons with an initial energy of 10 eV through gaseous furfural.

This led to the establishment of a benchmark evaluation of the total low-energy electron scattering cross-sections from furfural and energy loss estimates for selected energies (7, 10 and 20 eV).

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

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