Actions for Bioenergy and Biofuels: A Sustainable Shift

The topic of bioenergy is a multidisciplinary one, where the use of resources and skills can be optimized for the development of sustainable models. It is a time for green strategies, but also for action. It is, therefore, necessary to implement projects that address virtuous examples of the circular bioeconomy. All politicians are called on to contribute, because this global goal can only be achieved if a contribution is made by all countries

Additive Manufacturing of Bio and Synthetic Polymers

Additive manufacturing technology offers the ability to produce personalized products with lower development costs, shorter lead times, less energy consumed during manufacturing and less material waste. It can be used to manufacture complex parts and enables manufacturers to reduce their inventory, make products on-demand, create smaller and localized manufacturing environments, and even reduce supply chains. Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as fabricating three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D) components, refers to processes that allow for the direct fabrication of physical products from computer-aided design (CAD) models through the repetitious deposition of material layers. Compared with traditional manufacturing processes, AM allows the production of customized parts from bio- and synthetic polymers without the need for molds or machining typical for conventional formative and subtractive fabrication.In this Special Issue, we aimed to capture the cutting-edge state-of-the-art research pertaining to advancing the additive manufacturing of polymeric materials. The topic themes include advanced polymeric material development, processing parameter optimization, characterization techniques, structure–property relationships, process modelling, etc., specifically for AM

Advances in Applied Biotechnology

Biotechnology is the scientific field of studying and applying the most efficient methods and techniques to get useful end-products for the human society by using viable micro-organisms, cells, and tissues of plants or animals, or even certain functional components of their organisms, that are grown in fully controlled conditions to maximize their specific metabolism inside fully automatic bioreactors. It is very important to make the specific difference between biotechnology as a distinct science of getting valuable products from molecules, cells or tissues of viable organisms, and any other applications of bioprocesses that are based on using the whole living plants or animals in different fields of human activities such as bioremediation, environmental protection, organic agriculture, or industrial exploitation of natural resources. The volume Advances in Applied Biotechnology is a scientific book containing recent advances of selected research works that are ongoing in certain biotechnological applications. Fourteen chapters divided in four sections related to the newest biotechnological achievements in environmental protection, medicine and health care, biopharmaceutical producing, molecular genetics, and tissue engineering are presented

Planet Earth 2011

The failure of the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009 to effectively reach a global agreement on emission reduction targets, led many within the developing world to view this as a reversal of the Kyoto Protocol and an attempt by the developed nations to shirk out of their responsibility for climate change. The issue of global warming has been at the top of the political agenda for a number of years and has become even more pressing with the rapid industrialization taking place in China and India. This book looks at the effects of climate change throughout different regions of the world and discusses to what extent cleantech and environmental initiatives such as the destruction of fluorinated greenhouse gases, biofuels, and the role of plant breeding and biotechnology. The book concludes with an insight into the socio-religious impact that global warming has, citing Christianity and Islam

Applications and Experiences of Quality Control

The rich palette of topics set out in this book provides a sufficiently broad overview of the developments in the field of quality control. By providing detailed information on various aspects of quality control, this book can serve as a basis for starting interdisciplinary cooperation, which has increasingly become an integral part of scientific and applied research

Advances in Postharvest Process Systems

This Special Issue presents a range of recent technologies and innovations to help the agricultural and food industry to manage and minimize postharvest losses, enhance reliability and sustainability, and generate high-quality products that are both healthy and appealing to consumers. It focuses on three main topics of food storage and preservation technologies, food processing technologies, and the applications of advanced mathematical modelling and computer simulations. This presentation of the latest research and information is particularly useful for people who are working in or associated with the fields of agriculture, the agri-food chain and technology development and promotion

Characterisation of extracellular polysaccharides produced from a fungal pathogen of sugarcane.

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2016.Abstract available in PDF file

Direct analysis of solid samples by electrospray laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging: From plants to pharmaceuticals

This dissertation describes new applications for electrospray laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging (ELDI-MSI). While ELDI was introduced over a decade ago, relatively few technical advancements or applications have been published. ELDI combines laser ablation with an ultraviolet (UV) laser with electrospray ionization (ESI). A similar method using an infrared (IR) laser known as laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI) operates under the same general setup as ELDI. However, the inherent shorter wavelengths used allow for ELDI to achieve higher spatial resolutions when compared with LAESI. Thus, ELDI was used on various plant samples as a comparison to studies done with LAESI, but at greater spatial resolutions than reported in those studies. The results using ELDI were shown to be comparable to LAESI. A more extensive study on plant leaves was done to show the applicability of ELDI to study biological pathways and phenomena. Light exposure was altered across coleus leaves and the differences in concentrations of sugars, amino acids, and flavonoids were monitored over time. Using ELDI-MSI, a source-sink relationship between the two halves of each leaf was observed. Next, the uptake of isotopically labeled glucose media was observed in Arabidopsis plants over a two-week time period. This was done at high spatial resolution (50 õm) for an atmospheric pressure, matrix-free method. Plants grown in the isotopically labeled glucose solution were shown to have isotopically enriched amino acid signals in the mass spectra and corresponding MS-images. This showed that the glucose media directly participated in the biological pathways which make the amino acids. The localization of the glucose uptake was observed in the MS-images. LAESI utilizing an IR laser needs appreciable water content for an ablation event to occur. However, ELDI using a UV laser does not. Therefore, ELDI can analyze “dry” samples where traditional LAESI cannot. This led to the analysis of pharmaceutical tablets with ELDI and its capability to image tablets was demonstrated. The study was the first application of either LAESI or ELDI to image tablets, and the first MSI-method to diagnose agglomeration and crystallinity in pills. This is important to the pharmaceutical industry, as crystallinity alters the bioavailability of active pharmaceutical ingredients

SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZEOLITE BETA SUPPORTED Fe AND Ni CATALYSTS FOR STEAM GASIFICATION OF PALM KERNEL SHELL FOR HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

Production of hydrogen gas (H2) from biomass gasification usually comes with several problems such as the existence of unacceptable level of tars and also ineffectiveness of the catalysts’ performance due to coke deposition. In order to eliminate most of the inconvenience encountered, new types of catalysts have been developed. In this study, monometallic Fe and Ni supported on zeolite beta (BEA) have been prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method. Fe and Ni based bimetallic catalysts supported on BEA were also prepared using two different approach; sequential impregnation and co-impregnation method. The BEA support was impregnated with the solution containing the required amount of metal salts for 4 hours, dried at 120 oC for 16 hours and later calcined at temperatures between 500- 700 ºC for 16 hours. These catalysts were structurally characterized using BET, XRD, FESEM-EDX and TPR. A screening process was performed at temperatures between 600 – 900 oC in a fixed-bed quartz micro-reactor in the absence of a catalyst to determine the optimum temperature for the steam gasification of palm kernel shell (PKS) to H2. The gases produced were analyzed using two on-line gas chromatographs; to analyze sulphur compound in the product gases and to determine the composition of H2, CH4, CO and CO2. The catalysts were then tested for their ability to produce H2 in the steam gasification of PKS in a fixed-bed quartz microreactor with an on-line gas chromatograph at 700 ºC. BET analysis shows that the isotherms plots of the prepared catalysts are type IV which is mesoporous materials. Moreover, the Fe-Ni/BEA catalysts possess lower surface area, higher pore volume and larger pore diameter as compared to other prepared catalysts. Calcination temperature is found to contribute to the crystallization of the prepared catalysts where high crystallization of Fe and Ni was observed in Fe-Ni/BEA (700) catalyst with the formation of NiO and NiFe2O4 phase. The TPR profiles of the bimetallic catalysts show the combination of nickel and iron phases’ reduction which attributed to weak interaction with support (NiO and Fe2O3 phase) and strong interaction with the support (NiAl2O4 and FeAl2O4). From the screening process, the optimum viii temperature for steam gasification of PKS is 700 ºC. This is because maximum of H2 evolvement was achieved at 700 ºC without existence of H2S. The differences in the physicochemical properties of the catalysts affect the catalytic performance whereby it exhibit the PKS to undergo either steam reforming for higher in H2 evolvement or facilitates the oxidation of CO to produce more CO2. In terms of monometallic, both Ni/BEA (500) and Fe/BEA (600) catalysts show the highest concentration of H2 evolved where Ni/BEA (500) catalyst has higher reducibility and surface area while Fe/BEA (600) has larger pore diameter. For bimetallic catalysts, the highest concentration of H2 evolvement in the steam gasification of PKS achieved in the presence of FeNi/BEA (700) and NiFe/BEA (500). At a suitable calcination temperature, FeNi/BEA able to enhances the water gas shift reaction while NiFe/BEA facilitates the steam methane reforming. However, in co-impregnation catalyst, both Fe and Ni promote the active site of the catalyst to increase the crystallization of NiFe2O4 and exhibit the steam methane reforming as well as water gas shift reaction. Fe-Ni/BEA (700) shows the highest composition of H2 gas evolved with 76.32 vol% H2, 18.72 vol% CO2, 4.96 vol% CO and the absence of CH4. The outlet gas composition also shows that the steam gasification of PKS in the presence of Fe-Ni/BEA (700) has a potential to replace the commercial methane reforming for H2 production. Therefore, it can be concluded that various parameters in catalyst preparation resulted in deviation in the catalyst properties and interaction between the active metals with support as well as the catalytic activity

Sustainable Agriculture and Advances of Remote Sensing (Volume 1)

Agriculture, as the main source of alimentation and the most important economic activity globally, is being affected by the impacts of climate change. To maintain and increase our global food system production, to reduce biodiversity loss and preserve our natural ecosystem, new practices and technologies are required. This book focuses on the latest advances in remote sensing technology and agricultural engineering leading to the sustainable agriculture practices. Earth observation data, in situ and proxy-remote sensing data are the main source of information for monitoring and analyzing agriculture activities. Particular attention is given to earth observation satellites and the Internet of Things for data collection, to multispectral and hyperspectral data analysis using machine learning and deep learning, to WebGIS and the Internet of Things for sharing and publishing the results, among others