Industrial Biotechnology

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...

A carbon dioxide – water pretreatment process was developed for guayule biomass. The guayule biomass was mixed with water and then loaded to a reactor where it was exposed to a biphasic environment consisting of CO2 rich vapor phase and water rich liquid phase. Then, the biomass was enzymatically...

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...

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...

Effects of total inorganic carbon and nitrogen concentrations on lipid formation in Chlorella vulgaris Jinsoo Kim 1 , Joo-Youp Lee 1 , Kaniz F. Siddiqui 2 1 Chemical Engineering Program, University of Cincinnati, OH 45221-0012 2 The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati,...

The rule of thumb for reactor design and process condition for biodiesel production is introduced. The important aspect includes type of feedstock oil, catalyst selection, methanol/oil ratio, quality of the produced biodiesel. When low quality plant oil is used as the feedstock, its pre-treatment...

Several degradation products are formed or released during AFEX pretreatment process, which can be divided into five groups: 1) carbohydrates, 2) aliphatic acids, 3) nitrogenous compounds, 4) furans, 5) aromatic compounds. Some of these degradation products are expected to be inhibitory to...

Lab-scale pyrolysis experiments have been performed to gain insight in the mechanisms influencing the metal behavior during carbonization of chromated copper arsenate (CCA) treated wood chips. To this end a fixed bed low temperature pyrolysis reactor and a thermogravimetric (TG) analyser have been...

In this presentation I review important findings recorded in the archival literature concerning the thermodynamics, kinetics, mechanisms, and catalysis of biomass pyrolysis and gasification that serve as rules of thumb for reactor design.

Cellulose found in almost all plant cell wall, making it one of the most abundant renewable and sustainable natural resource on the Earth’s surface. Cellulosic ethanol is receiving increasing attention as a viable alternative to the commonly used fossil fuel, petrol. Cellulosic ethanol is a second-...