Life cycle assessment of bio-based sodium polyacrylate production from pulp mill side streams: Case study of thermo-mechanical and sulfite pulp mills

Sodium polyacrylate (Na-PA) is a super absorbent polymer, which is commonly used in diverse hygiene products. The polymer is currently produced from fossil feedstock and its production consequently leads to adverse environmental impacts. Na-PA production from sugars present in pulp mill side streams can potentially be a successful way to achieve a more sustainable production of this polymer. In order to guide the development of a novel biochemical process for producing Na-PA, a life cycle assessment was done in which Na-PA produced from side streams of thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) and sulfite pulp mills were compared. Furthermore, a comparison was made with Na-PA produced from fossil resources. The results show that the main determinant of the environmental impact of the bio-based Na-PA production is the free sugar content in the side streams. The lowest environmental impact is achieved by the least diluted side streams. More diluted side streams require larger amounts of energy for concentration, and, if the diluted streams are not concentrated, processes such as hydrolysis and detoxification, and fermentation are the environmental hotspots. Furthermore, the higher the yield of the fermentation process, the lower the environmental impact will be. Lastly, the production of bio-based Na-PA led to a lower global warming potential for some of the considered pulp mill side streams, but all of the other impacts considered were higher, when compared to fossil-based Na-PA production. Therefore, in parallel with efforts to develop a high-yield yeast for the fermentation process, technology developers should focus on low energy concentration processes for the side streams

Material metabolism of residential buildings in Sweden: Material intensity database, stocks and flows, and spatial analysis

Construction materials are used for the expansion and maintenance of the built environment. In the last century, construction material stock has increased globally 23-fold. Given the current situation, the accumulated stock can be viewed as a repository of anthropogenic resources, which at the end of life could be re-circulated through the economic system to minimize the inflow of raw materials and the outflow of waste. A major step toward increased material circularity is the development of the supporting knowledge infrastructure. For this reason, research has focused on developing methods intended for exposing the material metabolism, namely, estimating the stocks and flows and analyzing the spatial and temporal dynamics of stocks and flows. Residential buildings comprise a large share of the built environment. However, the material metabolism of these structures has remained unknown in many geographical contexts. Therefore, in this thesis, a bottom-up approach is employed to uncover the metabolism of residential buildings in Sweden. This goal is achieved through three methodological steps. First, a material intensity database is assembled based on architectural drawings of 46 residential buildings built within the period 1880–2010 in Sweden. Second, the stocks and flows are modeled with spatial and statistical inventory data and the developed material intensity database. Third, new spatial analysis approaches to the stocks and flows are conducted within urban and national boundaries. For the urban context, material stock indicators defined at the neighborhood level are clustered with well-known algorithms. At the national level, eight settlement types are considered to indicate the spatial dynamics. The developed database indicates historical trends in terms of the material intensity and composition for residential buildings in Sweden. Moreover, the results contribute to establishing a global database and, through an extended international cross-comparison, to the understanding of how the material intensity and composition of residential buildings differ geographically. Furthermore, the stocks and flows are estimated in million metric tons at different administrative boundary levels. Among the six categories considered, mineral-binding materials, such as concrete, comprise the largest share of the accumulated stock. Finally, spatial differences in material stock composition are depicted in urban geography and nationally, among the eight settlement types. At national level, densely built-up corridors are identified, which should be used for enhancing material circularity. This thesis contributes with data source exploration, methodological development, and critical analyses, relevant to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners interested in a more sustained metabolism of construction materials in the built environment

Exogenously supplied osmoprotectants confer enhanced salinity tolerance in rhizobacteria

The response of eight rhizobacterial isolates obtained from the rhizosphere of Salicornia brachiata to osmotic stress (salinity) in minimal medium M9 to evaluate their osmotolerance properties. These rhizobacteria could tolerate NaCl upto 0.714 M in M9 minimal medium. It was observed that all isolates demonstrated different response to salt stress in the presence of glycine, proline, betaine, glycerol and yeast extract in the growth medium. The maximum osmoprotective effect under salinity stress was registered by yeast extract followed by glycerol, proline, glycine and betaine. The present findings suggested that proline, glycine and betaine played a critical role in osmotic adaptation at high osmolarity. Among the rhizobacterial isolates, Zhihengliuella sp. and Brachybacterium sp. synthesized highest proline as osmoprotective substance under salinity stress

Excitation dynamics in disubstituted polyacetylene

Journal ArticleWe studied the excitation dynamics in films of disubstituted polyacetylene, a degenerate ground-state conjugated polymer, using psec transient and steady-state spectroscopies. The polymer is found to support charged and neutral topological soliton excitations concurrent with a strong intrinsic photoluminescence band with quantum efficiency, η ≈50%. This leads to stimulated emission in thin films and lasing in cylindrical µ cavities. The seeming contradiction of a degenerate ground-state polymer with high η is explained by the lowest excited-state ordering

Photophysics of pristine and C60-doped disubstituted polyacetylene

Journal ArticleUsing a variety of steady-state spectroscopies we studied the long-lived photoexcitations and electronic excited states of poly disubstituted acetylene (PDPA-nBu), the backbone structure of which is a disubstituted trans-polyacetylene, as well as PDPA-nBu/C60 blends. The cw spectroscopies include absorption, photoluminescence (PL), photoinduced absorption (PA), and PA-detected magnetic resonance (PADMR). Although Using a variety of steady-state spectroscopies we studied the long-lived photoexcitations and electronic excited states of poly disubstituted acetylene (PDPA-nBu), the backbone structure of which is a disubstituted trans-polyacetylene, as well as PDPA-nBu/C60 blends. The cw spectroscopies include absorption, photoluminescence (PL), photoinduced absorption ~PA!, and PA-detected magnetic resonance (PADMR). Although PDPA-nBu is a degenerate ground-state polymer, nevertheless, and in contrast to trans-polyacetylene, we found that it has a strong PL band with quantum efficiency larger than 60%. From polarized PL studies on stretched oriented films we conclude that the PL emission originates from intrachain excitons rather than the polymer side groups. This shows that the lowest-lying exciton in PDPA-nBu is a Bu state rather than an Ag state, in contrast to the order of the lowest-lying excitonic states in trans-polyacetylene. The polarized absorption in PDPA-nBu contains three distinctly different bands with different polarization properties, which are interpreted according to the model of Shukla and Mazumdar

Toxicity of Heavy Metals on Germination and Seedling Growth of Salicornia brachiata

Seed is a developmental stage that is highly protective against external stresses in the plant life cycle. In this study, we analyzed toxicity of heavy metals (Cd2+, Ni2+and As3+) on seed germination and seedling growth in a halophyte Salicornia brachiata. Germination percentage for Ni2+ is lower than Cd2+and As3+ metal at 200 µM concentration. Shoot length and root length decreased significantly upto 400 µM and 100 µM of Ni2+ and As3+ respectively While in case of Cd2+ seedlings could survive up to 300 µM concentration with a minor reduction in growth. Salicornia brachiata can serve as substantially important plant species for phytoremediation of heavy metals at lower concentrations in saline areas

Bioactive Natural Products from Plants and Biotechnological Approaches for their Production

Bioactive natural products are economically important as drugs, fragrances, pigments, food additives and pesticides. The biotechnological tools are important to select, multiply, improve and analyze medicinal plants for production of such products. The utilization of medicinal plant cells for the production of natural or recombinant compounds of commercial interest has gained increasing attention over the past decades. Plant tissue culture systems are possible source of valuable medicinal compounds, fragrances and colorants, which cannot be produced by microbial cells or chemical synthesis. In vitro production of bioactive natural products in plant cell suspension culture has been reported from various medicinal plants and bioreactors are the key step towards commercial production. Genetic transformation is a powerful tool for enhancing the productivity of novel products; especially by Agrobacterium tumefacians. Combinatorial biosynthesis is another approach in the generation of novel natural products and for the production of rare and expensive natural products. Recent advances in the molecular biology, enzymology and bioreactor technology of plant cell culture suggest that these systems may become a viable source of important secondary metabolites. Genetic fingerprinting could be a powerful tool in the field of medicinal plants to be used for correct germplasm identification. In addition, when linked to emerging tools such as metabolomics and proteomics, providing fingerprints of the plant's metabolites or protein composition, it gives data on phenotypic variation, caused by growth conditions or environmental factors, and also yield data on the genes involved in the biosynthesis. DNA profiling techniques like DNA microarrays serve as suitable high throughput tools for the simultaneous analysis of multiple genes and analysis of gene expression that becomes necessary for providing clues about regulatory mechanisms, biochemical pathways and broader cellular functions. New and powerful tools in functional genomics can be used in combination with metabolomics to elucidate biosynthetic pathways of natural products

Toxic reagents and expensive equipment: are they really necessary for the extraction of good quality fungal DNA?

The aim of this work was to evaluate a fungal DNA extraction procedure with the lowest inputs in terms of time as well as of expensive and toxic chemicals, but able to consistently produce genomic DNA of good quality for PCR purposes. Two types of fungal biological material were tested - mycelium and conidia - combined with two protocols for DNA extraction using Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate [SDS] and Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide [CTAB] as extraction buffers and glass beads for mechanical disruption of cell walls. Our results showed that conidia and SDS buffer was the combination that lead to the best DNA quality and yield, with the lowest variation between samples. This study clearly demonstrates that it is possible to obtain high yield and pure DNA from pigmented conidia without the use of strong cell disrupting procedures and of toxic reagents.This work was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and the European Social Fund through the grant SFRH/BD/28332/2006; by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and the Polytechnic Institute of Braganc a through the grant SFRH/PROTEC/49555/2009; and by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7,2007/2013), Research Infrastructures Action, Under Grant Agreement Fp7 228310 (Embarc Project). The authors are also grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Molecular Cloning of Phytase Gene from Bacillus subtilis NCIM-2712

Phytases are enzymes which hydrolyze phytate. Bacillus species are known to produce a thermostable phytase. The Bacillus subtilis strain NCIM-2712 was chosen for cloning of phy gene. Primers were designed for phy gene amplification using the phy gene sequence of B. subtilis (AF298179). A sequence of 1059 bp characteristic of phy gene was obtained on PCR amplification. This gene was cloned into InsT/A cloning vector and the positive clones were confirmed by colony PCR with gene specific primers and restriction digestion. Phytase is a promising candidate for feed applications. The cloned gene obtained in this study will have potential for producing recombinant enzyme, which would enhance the feed quality for poultry and piggery by supplementing it in their diets

Theory of nonlinear optical properties of phenyl-substituted polyacetylenes

In this paper we present a theoretical study of the third-order nonlinear optical properties of poly(diphenyl)polyacetylene (PDPA) pertaining to the third-harmonic-generation (THG) process. We study the aforesaid process in PDPA's using both the independent electron Hueckel model, as well as correlated-electron Pariser-Parr-Pople (P-P-P) model. The P-P-P model based calculations were performed using various configuration interaction (CI) methods such as the the multi-reference-singles-doubles CI (MRSDCI), and the quadruples-CI (QCI) methods, and the both longitudinal and the transverse components of third-order susceptibilities were computed. The Hueckel model calculations were performed on oligo-PDPA's containing up to fifty repeat units, while correlated calculations were performed for oligomers containing up to ten unit cells. At all levels of theory, the material exhibits highly anisotropic nonlinear optical response, in keeping with its structural anisotropy. We argue that the aforesaid anisotropy can be divided over two natural energy scales: (a) the low-energy response is predominantly longitudinal and is qualitatively similar to that of polyenes, while (b) the high-energy response is mainly transverse, and is qualitatively similar to that of trans-stilbene.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures (included), to appear in Physical Review B (April 15, 2004