Design of Auto Mix Single Stage Anaerobic Digester and Aspen Plus Simulation for Biogas Production

Bio fuels have been considered to be the viable alternatives and the supportive sources for the depleting fossil fuels under the objective of satisfying the energy demand. The work explored the possibility of biogas production in various operational scales. The present work can be categorized into two parts. In the first part, the work has surveyed various digester designs under operation and focused on the mixing and intermittent aeration that are not under light in the regular practice. The digester gas collector configuration that could promote the mixing and intermittent aeration was designed. The setup was run on 20 L scale with an objective of observing the gas production phenomenon. The recommended operational solutions were modified and implemented in the form of a 50 L digester setup to observe the performance improvements in attaining self-buffering capacity and sensitivity to the acidic feed stocks. Further suggested modifications lead to the final design that could promote intermittent aeration and mix the digester constituents without the use of impeller and with minimal or no power consumption depending on the amount of gas produced. An advanced design called compartmental digester design was next presented for the medium to large scale applications which was run on 200 L scale in a semi continuous mode using cow dung as substrate and was tested for the feasibility. The second part of our work focused on simulation of a two stage anaerobic digester configuration for studying the kinetics of hydrolysis, acidogenesis and acetogenesis and methanogenesis in three different reactors. In this study, kitchen waste stream were analysed for biogas production which was compared with the results of NISARGRUNA biogas plant (BARC) for the validation of the model and the model with same kinetics was then used to analyse the gas production from poultry manur

NANOPARTICULATE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS: PROMISING APPROACHES FOR DRUG DELIVERY

Advanced drug delivery technologies can increase safety and efficacy, extend patent lives and provide competitive differentiation for biopharmaceuticals by helping drug manufacturers in differentiating new therapeutics from existing products that enable novel treatments. It provides improved therapy through increased efficacy and duration of drug activity, decreased dosing frequency, convenient routes of administration and improved targeting of drug to specific sites reducing unwanted side effects. The role of advanced drug delivery based on Nanoparticles is discussed herein. The growing range of nanoparticle based drug delivery methods is assured of changing the formulation characteristics of new compounds and extending the lifecycle of existing compounds. In order to achieve this, article deals with the fundamental understanding of their properties, types, manufacturing, characterization, challenges and emerging trends in the field of drug delivery. Keywords: Nanoparticles, Biopharmaceuticals, Nanoparticulate drug delivery

Drug Delivery through Liposomes

Several efforts have been focused on targeted drug delivery systems for delivering a drug to a particular region of the body for better control of systemic as well as local action. Liposomes have proven their efficiency as a choice of carrier for targeting the drugs to the site of action. The main reason for continuous research on liposomes drug delivery is they largely attributed to the fact that they can mimic biological cells. This also means that liposomes are highly biocompatible, making them an ideal candidate for a drug delivery system. The uses found for liposomes have been wide-spread and even include drug delivery systems for cosmetics. Several reports have shown the applicability of liposomal drug delivery systems for their safe and effective administration of different classes of drugs like anti tubercular, anti cancer, antifungal, antiviral, antimicrobial, antisense, lung therapeutics, skin care, vaccines and gene therapy. Liposomes are proven to be effective in active or passive targeting. Modification of the bilayer further found to increase the circulation time, improve elasticity, Trigger sensitive release such as pH, ultrasound, heat or light with appropriate lipid compositions. The present chapter focuses on the fundamental aspects of liposomes, their structural components, preparation, characterization and applications