Industrial Biotechnology

Mineral acids have been used effectively for the pretreatment of cellulosic biomass to improve sugar recovery and promote its conversion to ethanol; however, substantial capital investment is required to enable separation of the acid, and corrosion-resistant materials are necessary. Disposal and...

Farmers have long been respected for their self-sufficiency, acting as primary producers for society. Yet as time progresses, productivity demands drive farmers to require increasing levels of technology in terms of seed strains, fertilizers and pesticides in order to remain competitive. In turn...

Production of biodiesel by esterification or transesterification of long-chain fatty acids is a well known process, but the fuel product has characteristics making it not fully compatible with petroleum diesel engines. A better option is to convert fatty acid molecules to hydrocarbons by removing...

I will describe my participation over the past few years in an effort to find fundamental mathematical laws in biology. I will discuss a theory for understanding the emergence of multi-scale, hierarchical structure in biology. I will describe how modular structure in proteins, genetics, and...

Accidental fires in wood pellets silos happen frequently in the last five years. Experiments were carried out in this work at temperature range of 100 o C to 200 o C to study wood pellets chemical oxidation process. A self-heating model was developed to simulate the self-heating process using the...

Lignocellulosic biorefineries require an efficient system of biomass storage between harvesting and processing. This study reports the effect of storage method and duration on the composition and processing performance of sweet sorghum bagasse. Sorghum bagasse was harvested at 85% moisture content...

Since biochar properties can vary widely depending on feedstock and processing conditions, making meaningful comparisons between biochar produced by different processes (pyrolysis, gasification, kiln carbonization) and at different locations can be difficult. Biochar characterization methods can...

Biomass lignocellulose can be used as feedstock for bioethanol production, and a pretreatment is necessary for achieving high ethanol yield and economical feasibility. As a method to increase enzyme digestibility of biomass by selective delignification, alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) pretreatment...

Concerns about dwindling fossil fuel reserves and climate change, energy independence, and depletion of ecosystem goods and services have driven the development of alternative technologies such as biomass-based fuels (biofuels). Although biofuels may be a step towards alleviating the aforementioned...

In the current ecological climate there is a strong push to find a renewable energy resource to reduce the usage of fossil fuels which are depleting and are causing greenhouse gas emissions. Biorenewable materials, particularly lignocellulosic biomass, have received increased attention recently as...