Feasibility assessment of a bioethanol plant in the northern Netherlands

Due to the exhaustion and increased pressure regarding the environmental and political aspects of fossil fuels, the industrial focus has switched towards renewable energy resources. Lignocellulosic biowaste can come from several sources, such as industrial waste, agricultural waste, forestry waste, and bioenergy crops and processed into bioethanol via a biochemical pathway. Although much research has been done on the ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass, the economic viability of a bioethanol plant in the Northern Netherlands is yet unknown, and therefore, examined. In this thesis, the feasibility study of a bioethanol plant treating sugar beet pulp, cow manure, and grass straw is conducted using the simulation software SuperPro Designer. Results show that it is not economically viable to treat the tested lignocellulosic biomass for the production of bioethanol, since all three original cases result in a negative net present value (NPV). An alternative would be to exclude the pretreatment step from the process. Although this results in a lower production of bioethanol per year, the plant treating sugar beet pulp (SBP) and grass straw (GS) becomes economically viable since the costs have significantly decreased

Feasibility Assessment of a Bioethanol Plant in the Northern Netherlands

Due to the exhaustion and increased pressure regarding the environmental and political aspects of fossil fuels, the industrial focus has switched towards renewable energy resources. Lignocellulosic biowaste can come from several sources, such as industrial waste, agricultural waste, forestry waste, and bioenergy crops and processed into bioethanol via a biochemical pathway. Although much research has been done on the ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass, the economic viability of a bioethanol plant in the Northern Netherlands is yet unknown, and therefore, examined. In this thesis, the feasibility study of a bioethanol plant treating sugar beet pulp, cow manure, and grass straw is conducted using the simulation software SuperPro Designer. Results show that it is not economically viable to treat the tested lignocellulosic biomass for the production of bioethanol, since all three original cases result in a negative net present value (NPV). An alternative would be to exclude the pretreatment step from the process. Although this results in a lower production of bioethanol per year, the plant treating sugar beet pulp (SBP) and grass straw (GS) becomes economically viable since the costs have significantly decreased

Rapid and robust transgenic high-grade glioma mouse models for therapy intervention studies.

Contains fulltext : 89506.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)PURPOSE: To develop a transgenic mouse model of glioma that can be conveniently used for testing therapy intervention strategies. High-grade glioma is a devastating and uniformly fatal disease for which better therapy is urgently needed. Typical for high-grade glioma is that glioma cells infiltrate extensively into surrounding pivotal brain structures, thereby rendering current treatments largely ineffective. Evaluation of novel therapies requires the availability of appropriate glioma mouse models. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: High-grade gliomas were induced by stereotactic intracranial injection of lentiviral GFAP-Cre or CMV-Cre vectors into compound LoxP-conditional mice, resulting in K-Ras(v12) expression and loss of p16(Ink4a)/p19(Arf) with or without concomitant loss of p53 or Pten. RESULTS: Tumors reproduced many of the features that are characteristic for human high-grade gliomas, including invasiveness and blood-brain barrier functionality. Especially, CMV-Cre injection into p53;Ink4a/Arf;K-Ras(v12) mice resulted in high-grade glioma with a short tumor latency (2-3 weeks) and full penetrance. Early detection and follow-up was accomplished by noninvasive bioluminescence imaging, and the practical utility for therapy intervention was shown in a study with temozolomide. CONCLUSION: We have developed a realistic high-grade glioma model that can be used with almost the same convenience as traditional xenograft models, thus allowing its implementation at the forefront of preclinical evaluation of new treatments