ARABINOXYLAN PREBIOTICS CO-PRODUCTION WITHIN INTEGRATED BIOREFINERIES

In cereal-based biorefineries, Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) is the main by-product, which is used in relatively low value animal feed formulations. A major component of DDGS is arabinoxylan (AX), which is a potential food ingredient and source of novel prebiotics. The production of AX uses large amounts of ethanol, which gives scope for feasible integration of AX extraction within a biorefinery. Meanwhile, enzymatic production of prebiotic arabinoxylan oligosaccharides (AXOS) and xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) is of interest to animal feed formulators, as these prebiotics enhance feed conversion significantly. The integration scenario would be implemented on the in-process streams, the Distillers Wet Grain (DWG) and the Solubles before they are combined. However, these are not readily available to study, as biorefineries are closed processes that do not allow in-process sampling of these streams. Therefore, this project used the GUNTCE-640 bioethanol unit to produce wet by-products representative of commercial DWG. Fermentation often batches of 6kg of wheat yielded on average 1275g (db) of DWG with 16% AX content and 800g of dry Solubles with 11.4% AX content. Enzymatic treatment of the DWG with commercial endoxylanase yielded less than 3%w/w of the prebiotic oligosaccharides. AX polysaccharides were extracted by alkaline oxidation, with and without further enzymatic purification, to give AX contents of 44% and 19%, respectively. Enzymatic treatment converted only 6% of the AX into AXOS/XOS, with significant production of undesired monosaccharides. Limitations in the analytical methods used prompted the development of a new HPAEC-PAD method for the simultaneous measurement of mono-and oligosaccharides and uronic acids. The new method was used to quantify the profiles of XOSin commercial materials and following enzyme treatment of biomass materials and oligosaccharide standards up to DP6, the latter to reveal the xylanase mode of action. The commercial xylanase investigated showed a preference for larger XOS molecules and was incapable of acting on branched (AXOS) molecules. Two types of AX with different branching patterns were produced; highly branched AX was extracted chemically from DWG with further purification to give 51% w/w purity, and less branched AX was produced from the Solubles fraction by ultrafiltration to give 74% purity. Enzyme treatment converted 46% of the Solubles AX into oligosaccharides, showing this to be a promising feedstock for XOS production

Extraction of soluble fibre food ingredients within integrated biorefineries

Integrated biorefineries, in which several co-products are produced in ways that exploit interaction opportunities for enhancing efficiency and reviving economics, are necessary in order to make bioethanol commercially viable, while offering the opportunity to create new product markets. Arabinoxylans (AX) are potentially a novel class of food ingredients that could be extracted from cereal bran; production of AX involves precipitation with ethanol, hence the extraction could be integrated within bioethanol biorefineries. Having established this as a viable proposition in principle, now greater understanding of the functional properties of arabinoxylans is required, as these properties vary according to feedstock and extraction techniques. In order to investigate functional properties in food systems, significant quantities of AX extracts are necessary. Thus, the objective of the current research is to screen a range of pre-treatments approaches and extraction conditions for the purpose of facilitating the scale-up of AX from two biomass sources, wheat bran and sugarcane bagasse. AX was extracted at lab-scale from wheat bran (WB) and sugar cane bagasse (SCB) via several extraction methods: alkaline extraction (pH 11.5, 60°C, 4 Hours), alkaline oxidative extraction (pH 11.5, H2O2 2%, 60°C for 4 hours) and enzymatic extraction utilizing three xylanases (β-xylanase, 1,4-β-D-xylanase, and Endo-1,4-β-xylanase) and feruloyl esterase. Several pre-treatment techniques were examined including cellulase treatment for 24 hours, milling and autoclaving. Purification of the extracts was investigated via two methods: firstly, washing the bran (water, 60°C for 20 minutes) prior to the extraction; and secondly, applying amylase and protease during the extraction. The samples were concentrated by ultrafiltration using a 10 kDa membrane, prior to ethanol precipitation, to reduce the ethanol requirement. Crude yields and total protein content were measured for all extracts. Preliminary results demonstrated that the enzymatic extraction yield was the lowest, ranging between 4.6-9.3% for WB and 7.0-8.2% for SCB, while the alkaline extraction yielded 17.6 and 13.8% for WB and SCB, respectively, and the alkaline oxidative extraction yielded 33.7% for WB and 16.3% for SCB. Autoclaving wasn’t successful in improving the yields, while milling increased the yield from WB and SCB to 39.79% and 18.2%, respectively. Higher yields were obtained by using cellulase pretreatment, reaching 40.12% and 23.8% for WB and SCB, respectively. The protein content in SCB samples was relatively low (0.6-0.8%) and much higher in WB samples (12.7-14.2%). Protease treatment reduced the protein content in the WB extracts to 8.2%. Preliminary monosaccharide analysis utilising HPEAC-PAD was undertaken. Unfortunately, these analyses were not sufficiently reliable, perhaps due to incomplete hydrolysis of samples. Nevertheless, significant progress was made towards understanding the basis for enhancing AX extraction yields from these feedstocks

Schiff Base [(Z)-2-((2-Aminoethyl)Imino)-1,2-Diphenylethanol)] and Their Metal Complexes: Synthesis and Characterization

The condensation of aliphatic diamine [ethylene diamine] with benzoin under specified conditions yielded a new Schiff base ligand.  The complexes of Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Zn(II) and Fe(II) with schiff base compound has been synthesized by the reacting between copper bromide, hydrate nickel chloride, hydrate cobalt chloride, zinc chloride, and iron bromide and schiff base  in 1:2 mole ratio. The free ligands and their metal complexes have been isolated in the solid state. The spectroscopic data of the complexes suggest their 1:2 complexes structures which are investigated by elemental analysis, FT-IR, 1H NMR  spectroscopy.  The spectroscopic studies suggested the octahedral structure for the all complexes and the results are reported and discussed below.

A review of emerging technologies enabling improved solid oral dosage form manufacturing and processing

Tablets are the most widely utilized solid oral dosage forms because of the advantages of self-administration, stability, ease of handling, transportation, and good patient compliance. Over time, extensive advances have been made in tableting technology. This review aims to provide an insight about the advances in tablet excipients, manufacturing, analytical techniques and deployment of Quality by Design (QbD). Various excipients offering novel functionalities such as solubility enhancement, super-disintegration, taste masking and drug release modifications have been developed. Furthermore, co-processed multifunctional ready-to-use excipients, particularly for tablet dosage forms, have benefitted manufacturing with shorter processing times. Advances in granulation methods, including moist, thermal adhesion, steam, melt, freeze, foam, reverse wet and pneumatic dry granulation, have been proposed to improve product and process performance. Furthermore, methods for particle engineering including hot melt extrusion, extrusion-spheronization, injection molding, spray drying / congealing, co-precipitation and nanotechnology-based approaches have been employed to produce robust tablet formulations. A wide range of tableting technologies including rapidly disintegrating, matrix, tablet-in-tablet, tablet-in-capsule, multilayer tablets and multiparticulate systems have been developed to achieve customized formulation performance. In addition to conventional invasive characterization methods, novel techniques based on laser, tomography, fluorescence, spectroscopy and acoustic approaches have been developed to assess the physical-mechanical attributes of tablet formulations in a non- or minimally invasive manner. Conventional UV-Visible spectroscopy method has been improved (e.g., fiber-optic probes and UV imaging-based approaches) to efficiently record the dissolution profile of tablet formulations. Numerous modifications in tableting presses have also been made to aid machine product changeover, cleaning, and enhance efficiency and productivity. Various process analytical technologies have been employed to track the formulation properties and critical process parameters. These advances will contribute to a strategy for robust tablet dosage forms with excellent performance attributes

Integrated processing of sugarcane bagasse : arabinoxylan extraction integrated with ethanol production.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding for “Project POC02_NOV 14 Campbell” from the Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Network (LBNet), funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).A proof-of-concept project compared extraction of arabinoxylans (AX) from sugarcane bagasse and wheat bran via alkaline hydrogen peroxide followed by enzyme-assisted extraction with combinations of feruloyl esterases and a xylanase. Bagasse contains comparable amounts of AX to wheat bran, but with a much lower arabinoxylan substitution on the xylan backbone (A:X ratio of around 0.2 compared with 0.6 for wheat bran), hence offering AX products with distinctive functionality and potential end uses. In the current work, bagasse released its AX more readily than wheat bran, and released a wider range of molecular weights. Use of feruloyl esterase and xylanase enzymes on their own or following alkaline peroxide extraction did not enhance AX release substantially; however, the xylanase appeared to be effective at reducing the size of AX molecules, and there is scope to optimise the effects of enzymes to produce specific AX product fractions. As bagasse frequently arises within the context of bioethanol production, integration of AX extraction with ethanol production could allow economic production of a portfolio of AX products, as has been demonstrated in principle for AX co-production in a wheat ethanol plant.PostprintPeer reviewe

Synergies in the co-location of food manufacturing and biorefining

In food and drink manufacturing, costs must be relentlessly minimised because margins for most products are low. At the same time, the business case for biorefining of lignocellulosic feedstocks has been positive in only a small number of cases. Since the two industries use similar feedstocks and processing equipment, there should be potential for significant sharing of resources for economic and environmental gain, particularly with regard to energy, if they were co-located. This paper reviews the nature, issues and opportunities for this sort of resource sharing between food industries and biorefineries. It then illustrates the opportunity by modelling a food product (coffee bean roasting) co-located with lignocellulosic biorefining of its downstream by-product (spent coffee grounds) where biofuels are not the target output, identifying and evaluating the resource efficiencies and economics involved. The analysis shows that there can be significant benefits, but that the exact nature of the food and biorefinery products and the biorefining pathways are the key dependencies. Further research should produce a comprehensive league table of co-location opportunities for the benefit of both industries to enhance both their economics and their sustainability metrics through well-targeted synergies

The influence of heat production relative to drill wear during osteotomy preparation by different implant drill systems: A comparison study between ceramic and conventional implant drill systems

Repeated use of implant drills progressively increases their wear and decreases their efficiency, thus producing more frictional heat. Multiple factors have been linked to heat production during surgery including drill sharpness. The purpose of this research is to focus on the heat generated by an implant drill and how the wear factor and the material of the drill effect the heat generated by that drill when drilling through bone.;Two implant drill Systems were evaluated in vitro using bovine back rib bones. Two implant drill system were used. System A was stainless steel surgical drills sizes 2.3, 2.8 and 3.4 mmD (Tapered Screw-Vent surgical drills by Zimmer Dental). System B was alumina-toughened zirconia ceramic surgical drills Sizes were 2.0, 2.8 and 3.5mmD (Thommen Medical). Transverse sections of the bovine bone were obtained. Using a template, one canal 10mm long was drilled for the thermocouple. Two marks using a sharp pencil were made next to the thermocouple canal and 0.5 mm away from the largest final size drill at each site. Sterilization before the first use and after each osteotomy was preformed. Sequential drilling was performed at speed of 1500 Rpm and external irrigation 40ml saline per min was used. The maximum temperatures were recorded for all the three drills used for the system A and B while maintaining a constant weight of 2.4 kg applied to the hand piece while drilling. After each trial the drills were sterilized and the preparation repeated twenty five times for each system. All the ostetomies were performed by the same clinician to simulate a real clinical setting situation. Both implant drills system were scanned using Scanning Electron Microscopy before the first and after the last use to evaluate visual wear.;The study showed no significant difference between the two systems from material stand point. Both systems A and B showed an increase in temperature as the drill wear out. It was also found that significant wear occurred to both systems after twenty five usages. The maximum temperature for system A was 31.3°C and for system B was 31.2°C. SEM taking before start and at the end of the study showed significant wear to both systems. Chips and cracking at the drills edges explained the increase in temperature as the drills wears. From this limited in-vitro study, it appears that Implant multiuse drills can be used for a maximum of 25 times without resulting in bone temperature that is harmful