Visionary architecture in Austria in the Sixties and Seventies : inspirations, influences, parallels /

Sensing the future - the archtiect as seismographArchitectuurfocu

Influence of separate collection on calorific power of urban solid wastes

Examines the modification of calorific power that can be expected to take place if organising separate collection of papers, glass and plastics in a semi-rural area of 112000 inhabitants around Wavre at the South outskirts of Brussel.Anglai

Biotechnology for Sustainability – An Interdisciplinary Synthesis

The accelerating awareness of the Earth’s finite resources, including its environmental quality, is becoming a powerful driver for industries and governments not only to fight the effects of pollution and global change but to minimize the anthropogenic accumulation of wastes and even prevent it at the source. Demands are mounting to replace conventional industrial processes by less- or non-polluting ones and to (re)use waste streams. During this more and more widespread shift the treatment chains of wastes from a host of human activities and from a long legacy of industrial history constitute a major technological challenge. As these treatments merge with environmentally benign industrial processes a truly sustainable economy will become an irreversible reality. In this emerging landscape there is an unmistakable trend towards a more extensive use of enzymes or whole-cell biocatalysts in industrial processes as these are inherently linked to a number of tangible benefits including lower consumption of energy and chemicals, i.e. features that make them "green" agents. Specific examples of such bioprocesses under investigation are highlighted in the first part of this talk, with emphasis on microorganisms and their oxidoreductive enzyme machinery that can be put to work in both biosynthetic/biotransformation processes (e.g. formation of bioactive intermediates) and in biodegradation applications (e.g. elimination of emerging micropollutants). The exploitation of novel biocatalysts needs to consider the scalability of the process and the application space can be mapped in terms of catalytic activity and stability by applying multivariate analysis and optimization methodologies. Multi-enzyme biocatalyst configurations in matrices and novel robust enzyme formulations by biomimetic methodologies are becoming possible by integrating principles from a range of disciplines including biocatalysis, chemical engineering fundamentals and nanotechnology. In addition, economics and management disciplines provide the conceptual armor to assess process/product profitability, discriminating between low-price high-volume applications (e.g. environment services) and high-price low-volume applications (e.g. chemoenzymatic synthesis of active pharmaceutical intermediates) for the same biocatalytic process. In the second part, the accent is placed on emerging areas with high potential to offer a paradigm shift in bioprocessing, such as phototroph biotechnology. Thanks to their sustainable capacity for solar energy conversion, photototrophic organisms like (micro/macro)algae and cyanobacteria represent almost one third of the total primary biomass generated on the scale of our entire planet, while at the same time being by far the most important carbon dioxide consumers. The future establishment of a sustainable microalgal industry necessitates not only efficient and robust phototroph strains but large-scale, inexpensive and dependable photobioreactor systems. In addition to gaining further basic understanding on these organisms’ metabolism, more technoeconomic interventions such as cutting down the construction and operational costs might emerge as the primary principle that should guide the development of future industrial photobioreactor systems. In parallel, an adaptation of the biorefinery concept to algae and other phototrophic microorganisms holds much promise for a future expansion of the bio-economy in an environmentally responsible and sustainable society

Techniques to evaluate the mass sensitivity of Love mode surface acoustic wave biosensors

We investigated the mass sensitivity of Love mode SAW biosensors by experimental and theoretical techniques. A first experimental approach is based on the analysis of the dispersion curve of the sensor. which helps to determine by derivation a value of the mass sensitivity. In order to obtain the dispersion curve, we have performed a chemical wet etching procedure which enables the continuous monitoring of the transfer function during the etching of the entire guiding layer. A second experimental approach is based on the addition and removal of layers in known quantities. The mass sensitivity is estimated in different cases: etching of a thin gold layer, copper electrodeposition, and surface adsorption of an ionic surfactant. The results obtained by these techniques are compared to a theoretical model. In the theoretical model, the layered structure of the acoustic sensor is described in terms of mechanical transmission lines and the model is used to determine the sensitivity of the acoustic device to density and viscosity variations of thin films and bulk materials. The attenuation and phase shifts are quantified and analyzed to identify the type of interaction between the adsorbed biomolecules layer and the sensor. We conclude that the Love mode SAW biosensor must be considered and optimized as a viscosity sensor and an independent layer thickness measurement is needed to apply adequately the theoretical model.Anglai