Bioprocessing strategies for biobutanol production from agricultural wastes

Interest in producing renewable biofuel such as biobutanol to replace demand on non-renewable petrol fuel showed an increasing trend in recent years. Many researchers are investigating numerous approaches in order to produce biobutanol at a low cost. Such efforts are by considering suitable feedstock materials and bioprocessing technologies. Renewable materials such as starch, lignocellulosic, and algal biomass are some of the common feedstocks utilized for biobutanol production, and each of them has their own advantages, yet possess several disadvantages that need improvement. Low sugar concentration generated from hydrolysis of biomass, inefficient microorganism and unsuitability of conventional batch fermentation have been noted as the main reasons for a low biobutanol yield and productivity. Therefore, several fermentation operations and integrated bioprocessing technologies have been developed to improve the biobutanol production efficiency. The challenges and the appropriateness of the technologies on different types of agricultural wastes are being presented in this talk

Predicting storage life of sapodilla (Manilkara zapota L.) by non-destructive technique

Non-destructive technique using Kiwifirm device was useful in detecting the maturity stage of sapodilla fruit, predicting the quality at ripening stage and also days of the fruits to ripen. The power line (Y = 0.02x3.6026) which was derived from the relationship of score resultant from the impact response of Kiwifirm device and duration for the fruit to ripen at 12 °C can be used as a chart to predict and separate the fruit according to the predicted storage duration. Thus the technique could be used to group the fruit into either storage-marketing and utilization purposes, or only suitable group for certain market. This strategy can be used to promote sapodilla fruit for distance market or export. Post-harvest losses, which occurred during storage and transportation can be minimized

Oral communication apprehension in English among Jordanian postgraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia

This research investigated oral communication apprehension among the Jordanian postgraduate students studying in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). It was directed by two main objectives: (1) to investigate the levels of Communication Apprehension among the Jordanian postgraduate students when communicating in English in UUM and (2) to investigate the relationship between programme, age and socioeconomic status and Communication Apprehension. The sampling of this study consisted of seventy Jordanian postgraduate students in UUM. The researcher used McCroskey‟s (1981) questionnaire, Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) to measure communication apprehension levels in four different situations (groups, meetings, dyads and public speaking). The results of this study showed that the Jordanian postgraduate students had high levels of communication apprehension and there was a positive relationship between communication apprehension and age, programme, and socio-economic status

Dielectric based sensing system for banana ripeness assessment

Banana is an extremely perishable fruit thus post-harvest quality process changes quickly. Conventional banana ripeness assessment include sorting and grading based on human visual evaluation, ethylene hormone treatment, firmness check by penetrometer and soluble solid content measurement using refractometer are not effective to give uniform and quick result. Dielectric spectroscopy has been applied in agricultural materials as it offers relatively inexpensive assessment, nondestructive, fast and easy to operate system. In ripeness assessment, the magnitude phase of impedance value will increase with ripening stages over certain frequency. This study showed that impedance measurement was able to differentiate the unripe, ripe and overripe banana over the frequency of 20.1kHz to 30.1kHz. Soluble solid content (SSC) of banana was determined by developed model at the frequency of 21.1kHz

Biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass for volatile fatty acid production

Volatile fatty acid (VFA) platform has been suggested as a potential alternative to sugar platform for the production of biofuels and fine chemicals. Biomass-derived VFA is one of the potential alternatives for VFA production that required only a mild pretreatment process to open up the lignocellulosic biomass structure for anaerobic digestion (AD), whereas some of the biomass like food waste, manure, sludge, or any biodegradable biomass do not require any pretreatments. Lignocellulosic biomass such as hardwood (forestry and agricultural biomass) does require pretreatments to remove lignin or to alter the lignocellulosic compositions. Besides, VFA also can be produced from all types of organic polymers (carbohydrates, protein, and lipid) that will increase the VFA yield as compared with sugar platform, which can be produced from carbohydrate polymers only. Biological pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass offers an advantage for the production of VFA. This chapter will focus on suitable pretreatment strategies for VFA production especially on the biological pretreatments

A look at grit: a study about Malaysian technical instructors’ performance retention

The improvement of instructors' professionalism and quality should be prioritised to achieve Malaysia's Education Blueprint 2013-2025 goals. Most previous studies suggest that teacher effectiveness and performance retention could be measured by the impact of instructors on student achievement, but none of the studies measure instructors’ effectiveness and performance retention through grit, which can be an important factor in explaining achievement and persistence in maintaining expected quality of instructors’ performance. This study investigates Malaysian Technical Instructors and the grit needed to stay in the field, especially in purifying state aspirations. The purpose of this study is to describe the grittiness of technical instructors and determine if grit is associated with job performance retention based on age, education level and years of services. The data for this research was obtained through a structured questionnaire adapted from Grit-S survey and involved 88 technical instructors from the Malaysia Technical Institute under the Rural Development Ministry of Malaysia. The study findings identified the grit as the power of passion and perseverance not associated with long lasting job performance retention amongst Malaysian Technical Instructors. More broadly, this study provides a qualitative and dimensional understanding of the phenomena of grit as related to job performance retention

Feasibility study on the extraction methods of essential oil from pineapple peels

The pineapple industry produces a substantial amount of solid waste like peels, cores, stems, crowns and pulp. Pineapple waste disposal can cause to microbial spoilage and environmental problems due to the waste material containing high moisture and sugar content. Utilization of pineapple waste, focusing on the peels, to produce a high value added product of essential oil is a good option. However, up to date, there are only a very limited studies specifically aimed on the extraction methods of essential oil from pineapple peels. Therefore, the aim of this study was to demonstrate a feasible method for extraction of essential oil from pineapple peels. Three methods used in the study were (1) hydro- distillation (HD), (2) hydro-distillation with enzyme-assisted pretreatment (HDEA) and (3) supercritical fluid extraction (SFE). Among the methods used, only SFE method resulted in the formation of essential oil with 0.17% (w/w) yield, whereas HD and HDEA methods only produced the hydrosol. The microscopic observation using scanning electron microscope of the sample’s cell wall substantiated that only SFE method resulted in the rupture the essential oil gland after the extraction. The GC-MS analysis showed that volatile compounds mainly identified in the essential oil produced through SFE method were propanoic acid ethyl ester (40.25%), lactic acid ethyl ester (19.35%), 2-Heptanol (15.02%), 3-Hexanone (2.60%) and butanoic acid ethyl ester (1.58%). The analysis results show that pineapple peels contained of important volatile compounds, thus indicating its’ potential to be used as substrate for the aromatic essence production

Biobutanol production from sago hampas through simultaneous saccharification and fermentation by Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824

The mounting prices of the current gasoline have driven the attention of researchers towards the utilization of various biomass residue for the production of biobutanol as it has a superior fuel characteristic. Sago hampas contains starchy and lignocellulosic materials that is usually discharged to the nearby river without a proper treatment. It is composed of 54.6% starch and 31.7% of cellulose and hemicellulose with only 3.3% of lignin. High carbohydrate contents with low percentage of lignin and no pretreatment process is required, make the sago hampas as a promising feedstock for biobutanol production. Simultaneous saccharification and acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation approach which is the conjoint addition of glucoamylase and cellulase together with microorganism and biomass in a single vessel system is carried out in order to reduce step, cost and time in biobutanol production. In this study, the saccharification of sago hampas is done using Dextrozyme amylase and Acremonium cellulase. The simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of sago hampas conducted at the conditions needed for ABE fermentation by Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 produced 3.81 g/L biobutanol concentration and yield of 0.11 g/gsugar. In this study, it suggested that sago hampas possess great potential to be implemented for biobutanol production using the simultaneous system integrated two different processes of saccharification and fermentation

Fluorescence spectroscopy for analysing deterioration of palm olein in batch deep-fat frying

Palm olein has been commercially used as frying medium in batch deep-fat frying. During frying, the oil usually deteriorates due to the exposure to high temperature. In this study, a fluorescence spectroscopy technique was applied to monitor the deterioration of refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein (RBDPO) in batch deep-fat frying. 22.5 kg of French fries were used as the frying material. In 30 batches, the french fries were intermittently fried at 185 ± 5°C for eight hours a day over five consecutive days capturing 40 hours. The fluorescence intensity of the RBDPO was recorded with excitation at 390 nm and resulting emission of 465 nm. The fluorescence intensity of the RBDPO over five days of frying decreased considering the wavelength range of emission 430-640 nm and excitation 360-430 nm. The decreased in intensity of fluorescence emission and excitation spectra were inversely correlated with the FFA content of the oil samples. This study demonstrates the potential of fluorescence spectroscopy in monitoring the deterioration of RBDPO during batch deep-fat frying