The combustion of waste, industrial glycerol in a fluidised bed

Large quantities of glycerol are produced as a somewhat useless, industrial by-product, when producing biodiesel. Thus, the combustion of this waste (containing glycerol, less volatile, non-glyceride oils, ash and water) in a fluidised bed has been investigated. The fuel entered the bottom of the bed (on its axis) as bubbles of vapour, which rose up the bed, surrounded by bubbles of fluidising air. While more difficult to burn than medicinal glycerol, continuous burning of the waste was sustained for a total of ∼ 4 h in a bed of silica sand (500 – 710 μm) at 750°C, fluidised by air. However, after ∼ 4 h, fluidisation ceased, because the silica sand agglomerated into globules a few mm wide, probably cemented by a eutectic of K2SO4 and KOH; this industrial glycerol did originally contain potassium and sulphate ions, from its manufacture. Under similar conditions, when burning the waste in a bed of fluidised alumina (Al2O3) particles (355 – 425 μm), the bed de-fluidised after almost ½ h, and then sintered into a cake, again possibly cemented by the potassium salts K2SO4 and KOH. As for combustion, there was evidence that waste glycerol can be burned in a fluidised bed of SiO2 particles autonomously, without supplying heat. In such a fluidised bed, it appeared that glycerol vapour, inside a bubble, first decomposes thermally, yielding CO and H2. The less volatile oils were slower to evaporate and decompose. Combustion of the waste fuel with air occurred in a bed of SiO2 particles only to a limited extent in rising bubbles, depending on the bed’s depth. Otherwise, burning occurred above the fluidised particles, just as a mixture of methane or propane in air burns, when fluidising a hot bed of silica particles. The role of the particles is to inhibit combustion by scavenging radicals

Bacterial Cell Enlargement Requires Control of Cell Wall Stiffness Mediated by Peptidoglycan Hydrolases.

Most bacterial cells are enclosed in a single macromolecule of the cell wall polymer, peptidoglycan, which is required for shape determination and maintenance of viability, while peptidoglycan biosynthesis is an important antibiotic target. It is hypothesized that cellular enlargement requires regional expansion of the cell wall through coordinated insertion and hydrolysis of peptidoglycan. Here, a group of (apparent glucosaminidase) peptidoglycan hydrolases are identified that are together required for cell enlargement and correct cellular morphology of Staphylococcus aureus, demonstrating the overall importance of this enzyme activity. These are Atl, SagA, ScaH, and SagB. The major advance here is the explanation of the observed morphological defects in terms of the mechanical and biochemical properties of peptidoglycan. It was shown that cells lacking groups of these hydrolases have increased surface stiffness and, in the absence of SagB, substantially increased glycan chain length. This indicates that, beyond their established roles (for example in cell separation), some hydrolases enable cellular enlargement by making peptidoglycan easier to stretch, providing the first direct evidence demonstrating that cellular enlargement occurs via modulation of the mechanical properties of peptidoglycan. IMPORTANCE: Understanding bacterial growth and division is a fundamental problem, and knowledge in this area underlies the treatment of many infectious diseases. Almost all bacteria are surrounded by a macromolecule of peptidoglycan that encloses the cell and maintains shape, and bacterial cells must increase the size of this molecule in order to enlarge themselves. This requires not only the insertion of new peptidoglycan monomers, a process targeted by antibiotics, including penicillin, but also breakage of existing bonds, a potentially hazardous activity for the cell. Using Staphylococcus aureus, we have identified a set of enzymes that are critical for cellular enlargement. We show that these enzymes are required for normal growth and define the mechanism through which cellular enlargement is accomplished, i.e., by breaking bonds in the peptidoglycan, which reduces the stiffness of the cell wall, enabling it to stretch and expand, a process that is likely to be fundamental to many bacteria