Alternative to Water Based Fabric Cleaner in Textile and Detergent Processes

Three different detergent formulations, (1) ethyl-hydro-oxides (EHOs, using ethanol + H2O2 + KOH + water, without pH adjustment, at 60°C for 1 h), (2) modified EHOs (using ethanol + H2O2 + KOH + water, with pH adjustment, at 40°C for 1 h), and (3) water based detergent (WBD, using commercial detergent T + water, at 40°C for 1 h), were analyzed for cleaning of dried biodiesel soaked cotton cloth (DBSCC) samples. The effects of detergent formulations were analyzed based on cloth sample weights (residual and intact) and visual (through photographic images) examinations. With EHOs formulations, the increasing concentration of KOH and H2O2 had a significant effect on increasing both brightness and residual content of DBSCC samples. On the contrary, the controlled pH environments (as with modified EHOs formulations) had a significant effect in decreasing residual content and increasing brightness of DBSCC samples. The implications of EHOs formulations (with and without modification) are discussed with respect to current water based textile and detergent industries practices

Pretreatment Development of Lignocellulosic Feedstocks for the Production of Bioproducts

Three different lignocellulosic feedstocks – switchgrass, sweet sorghum bagasse and pine wood chips, were analyzed for the production of bioproducts (sugars and enzymes). High sugar content of these feedstocks could be utilized either in the production of enzymes, biofuel and paper/pulp. Utilization of lignocellulosic feedstock in any production processes require preprocessing to remove phenolic compounds (lignin). Lignin acts as a barrier and protects the structure of polysaccharides from oxidation. Removal of lignin (delignification) leads to maximum utilization of lignocellulosic polysaccharides, mainly glucan and xylan in bioproducts production. The effect of pretreatment on ground switchgrass were evaluated through enzyme production and sugar production (through enzyme hydrolysis). A concentration of 4.5 wt% NH4OH (SAA-pretreatment) was applied. SAA-treated and untreated switchgrass (0.5-1.0 mm) were utilized for cellulase production using T. reesei Rut C-30. Enzyme activities of 1.34 FPU/mL and 0.37 FPU/mL were observed for SAA-treated and untreated switchgrass particles, respectively. A significant difference was observed between SAA-treated to untreated switchgrass particles. Temperature and pH controlled enzyme fermentation resulted in 1.80 FPU/mL of enzyme activity. The generated fermented cellulase broth was utilized for enzyme hydrolysis using SAA-treated switchgrass. The total enzymatic digestibility test resulted in 46 wt% and 54 wt% sugar recovery with 4.5 FPU of cellulase per g-biomass enzyme loading without externally added β-glucosidase and with externally added β-glucosidase (0.3 mL, enzyme activity=900 pNPG U), respectively. A separate enzyme hydrolysis study was performed on SAA-treated switchgrass using Accellerase® 1500 at four different enzyme loadings. The total conversion of SAA-treated biomass was observed at 44 wt%. These experiments suggested the importance of pretreatment in both cellulase production and enzyme hydrolysis. In the continuation, sweet sorghum bagasse was analyzed at 3 different pretreatment conditions: - 3.75 wt% NH4OH, 7.5 wt % NH4OH and 15 wt% NH4OH. All pretreatments were performed at 60oC for 15 hours. SAA-treated solids were hydrolyzed at enzyme loadings of 20 FPU per g of biomass, 40 FPU per g of biomass and 80 FPU per g of biomass. The enzyme hydrolysis resulted in 71 wt% / 55 wt% of glucan conversion/ total polysaccharide conversion, respectively, at 15 wt% NH4OH pretreatment and 80 FPU per g biomass. In addition, the biomass residue decreases to 50 wt% after the enzyme hydrolysis for 15 wt% NH4OH-treated bagasse at enzyme loading of 80 FPU per g biomass. Ground loblolly pine wood chips were evaluated using AHP-pretreatment and EHOs-pretreatment at 78 oC for 24 h. Enzyme hydrolysis of EHOs-treated and AHP-treated solids resulted in 91/41 wt% and 75/28 wt% of total cellulose / total hemicellulose conversion at 72 hours, respectively. The combined effects of ethanol concentration, potassium hydroxide (KOH) concentration, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration and temperature were found through enzymatic hydrolysis of pine wood chips. In 95% confidence interval, the maximum total polysaccharide conversion was predicted for 33.0 vol% ethanol + 3.8 wt% H2O2 + 3.5 wt% KOH, temperature = 67.4°C, pretreatment time = 24 h with. 69.1 wt%

Antibacterial activity of rice bran oil

Edible oils are widely used. These edible oils have unimaginable medicinal and Pharmaceuticals properties. The oils possessing antimicrobial activity can be employed against human pathogens. Investigations into the antimicrobial activities, mode of action and potential uses of oils have regained momentum. There appears to be a revival in the use of traditional approaches for protecting livestock and food substances from pathogens, pest and spoilage in developing countries. The aim of the present investigation is to assess the anti-bacterial activity of the rice bran oil, so that the intake of rice bran oil might promote human health by preventing bacterial pathogenesis. The bacterial cultures are supplied with rice bran oil (commercially available in the market) and culture conditions are maintained as the normal protocol. The studies reveal antibacterial effect. And inhibition is of permanent nature as petridishes are not found to be infected with any other colony for 5 continuous days

Artificial intelligence (AI): multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research and practice

As far back as the industrial revolution, great leaps in technical innovation succeeded in transforming numerous manual tasks and processes that had been in existence for decades where humans had reached the limits of physical capacity. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers this same transformative potential for the augmentation and potential replacement of human tasks and activities within a wide range of industrial, intellectual and social applications. The pace of change for this new AI technological age is staggering, with new breakthroughs in algorithmic machine learning and autonomous decision making engendering new opportunities for continued innovation. The impact of AI is significant, with industries ranging from: finance, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics all set to be disrupted by the onset of AI technologies. The study brings together the collective insight from a number of leading expert contributors to highlight the significant opportunities, challenges and potential research agenda posed by the rapid emergence of AI within a number of domains: technological, business and management, science and technology, government and public sector. The research offers significant and timely insight to AI technology and its impact on the future of industry and society in general

Stability analysis of thermo-bioconvection flow of Jeffrey fluid containing gravitactic microorganism into an anisotropic porous medium

This paper presents a novel study on the stability of thermo-bioconvection due to gravitactic microorganisms into an anisotropic porous fluid layer saturated with Jeffrey liquid. A Jeffrey-Darcy model along with Boussinesq approximations is utilized. The field equations are treated with non-dimensionalization, linear stability analysis, and the normal mode technique to formulate a set of ordinary differential equations. These equations along with Robin boundary conditions are then analytically solved by employing the weighted residual Galerkin method utilizing the trigonometric trial functions. The traditional thermal Rayleigh-Darcy number Ra,c is obtained as a well-compiled function of the mechanical anisotropy parameter ξ, Jeffrey parameter γ, the thermal anisotropy parameter η, bioconvection Rayleigh-Darcy number Rb, and Péclet number Q, while it is independent from bioconvection Lewis number Lb. It is observed that mounting ξ and γ in between 0 to 1 hasten the formulation of bioconvection patterns and also enlarges the size of convective cells. The results demonstrate that increasing bioconvection Péclet number and microorganism concentration constitute an unstable system. η ranged between 0 to 1 has shown dual effect which is dominated by the concentration of gravitactic microorganism. For small microorganism concentration, augmenting thermal anisotropy strength stabilizes the system and increases the size of the convective cells. Mathematically, the stabilizing nature of η is bounded by the feasibility of the inequality (π2+δc2ξ)(1+γ)ξ>2Rbδc2(eQ−1)π2Q2(π2+δc2)(π2+Q2)(4π2+Q2). This study may find relevance in applications related to pharmaceutical, bio-mechanics, and in microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR). The experimental Ra,c value of measure 4π2 at critical wave number value δc=π is also regained as a limiting case from this study