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A new approach in the field of renewable energy is- the microbial fuel cells (MFCs). It is a technique to produce bioelectricity from available organic waste. It is helpful to fulfill the lighting requirements of rural areas. The aim of our research work is to construct twocompartment system and to study various parameters like performance of the different combination of electrodes, optimization of pH and temperature. In this study, using bacteria as biocatalyst, the naturally found cow dung was used to generate an open circuit voltage of 0.84 ± 0.010 V and a current of 3.51 ± 0.620 mA. Optimization of various parameters shows that among different temperature range, 37°C temperature gives the highest voltage production of 0.84 ± 0.091 V and current of 3.08 ± 0.512 mA. In case of pH there are not any significant changes were found when pH range is changed. Although, pH 4.0 is found to be more efficient as it produces voltage of 0.90 ± 0.045 V and current of 4.85 ± 0.587 mA. Furthermore, three electrogenic bacterial strains were isolated and studied for their electrogenic properties individually and among them CDB-3 was found best in their performance.

The objective of this paper is to discuss some scientific challenges related to the production and use of biomass for transport, heat and electricity.

Specific attention is paid to the environmental assessment of liquid bio‐fuels for transport and to the discussion of causes of uncertainties in the assessment. Three main topics are taken as examples, in order to illustrate the complexity of environmental assessment of bio‐fuels and the difficulty in reducing uncertainties: agro‐environmental impact of bio‐ethanol (from sugar cane) in Brazil and bio‐diesel (from palm oil) in Malaysia. These two tropical countries were selected because of their role as leaders at world level and their strong export potential to the European Union), N₂O (Nitrous Oxide) emissions related to crop cultivation for bio‐fuels and land use change; and GHG emissions and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of bio‐diesel from palm oil in Malaysia. These three topics are discussed and complemented by considerations about biomass conversion issues.

The quantification of the degree of the sustainability of the production and use of bio‐fuels for transport is to a large extent related to the choice of farming practices during the feedstock production and their corresponding environmental impact.

Recommendations are formulated so as to reduce scientific uncertainty, for example through the development of internationally‐agreed sustainability certification systems with corresponding verification measures, or further research on emissions and indirect land‐use change.

The value of the paper on bio‐energy research challenges is related to the combined analysis of European and tropical constraints in the field of biomass.

Environmental decision making involving multiple stakeholders can benefit from the use of a formal process to structure stakeholder interactions, leading to more successful outcomes than traditional discursive decision processes. There are many tools available to handle complex decision making. Here we illustrate the use of a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) outranking tool (PROMETHEE) to facilitate decision making at the watershed scale, involving multiple stakeholders, multiple criteria, and multiple objectives. We compare various MCDA methods and their theoretical underpinnings, examining methods that most realistically model complex decision problems in ways that are understandable and transparent to stakeholders.