Manufacture of an environmental-safe biolubricant from fusel oil by enzymatic esterification in solvent-free system

Biolubricant was prepared in integrated system by an esterification reaction of fusel oil and oleic acid, where immobilised Novozym 435 lipase enzyme was used as a biocatalyst. Firstly shaken flasks experiments were carried out, and the effects of water content, temperature, substrate concentration and the molar ratio of oleic acid and alcohols on the ester yield were investigated in solvent-free system. To eliminate the negative effect of the water produced in the reaction, integrated system was constructed, and pervaporation was used for water removal. The method was suitable to achieve 99.8% conversion under optimal conditions. The oleochemical ester produced doesn't have aquatic toxicity and the determined tribologycal, physico-chemical properties of the lubricant proved that it is an environmental friendly product

Application of gas separation to recover biohydrogen produced by Thiocapsa roseopersicina

Biological production of hydrogen -one of the most promising alternative energy fuels- was planned torealize in an integrated system, where hydrogen is separated by a membrane technique. In this project poly-ethersulfone-polyimide hollow fiber membrane was applied in a specially constructed gas separation apparatusand the process was studied using model gas mixtures

The Effect of Different Pretreatment Methods and Operational Conditions on the Biohydrogen Production Potential of Aged Anaerobic Culture

In this study, the preconditioning of anaerobic culture by aging was carried out followed by testing various pretreatments (heat shock and alkali) to improve H2 production. It has turned out that aging could enhance the hydrogen generation meanwhile heat- and alkali curing led to comparable H2 formation activity with a slight advantage of the former one. Subsequently, the heat treated microflora was applied under different pHs and Gas to Liquid phase ratios and according to the statistical analysis both were significant factors since they affected not only the hydrogen productivity but also the developing H2 partial pressures in the system. Furthermore, an indirect relationship between hydrogen productivity and hydrogen partial pressure was found, which means that higher H2 turnouts were associated with lower H2 partial pressure conditions. The PCR-DGGE analysis of the microbial community after heat- and alkali pretreatments showed the dominancy of Clostridium species

Calorimetric analysis of three hydroxyacids as markers for quality and safety in food

A new analytical methodology to quantify three hydroxy acids (orotic, ascorbic, L-malic acids), by isothermal solution microcalorimetry, was outlined and applied to different foods. Three specific enzymatic reactions were used to ensure the correctness of the results. The considered acids can be considered as markers in food quality for their biochemical peculiarities. The enzymatic microcalorimetric method is very reliable and linearity is satisfied in the concentration ranges useful for food analyses. The analytical results of the underlined method are very accurate, precise, sensitive and in good agreement with the values obtained with other common methods