A study of fatty acid production by Clostridium butyricum.

This thesis investigates the fatty acid production from carbohydrates using C. butyricum. In nature a common route for the anaerobic degradation of carbohydrate in the environment is via methanogenesis. At the heart of these processes however, is the metabolism of a diversity of carbohydrate materials that produce a few fatty acids (acetate and butyrate) which are then slowly converted to methane. In this context, fatty acids can be considered as a common end- product/intermediate from carbohydrate degradation that could be used to produce chemicals. Already, acetic and butyric acid are important feedstock chemicals in the pharmaceutical, food and industrial sectors and there is potential to expand this further. As a first step to investigate the conversion of waste carbohydrate to fatty acids for chemical production, C. butyricum, a strictly anaerobic bacterium, was investigated as a model system for the potential production of acetic and butyric acid. The production efficiency of C. butyricum relies on the type of substrate, production methodology, the strain and environmental conditions. Pure cultures of C. butyricum were investigated for fatty acid production from carbohydrates. Initial studies involved medium optimization in test tube culture for high growth rate and maximum biomass production (ODmax)- In this medium, glucose was selected as the main substrate together with yeast extract, KH2PO4 and NH4(SO)4. The studies were carried out in three types of pH controlled reactors; batch stirred tank (SRT), continuously stirred tank (CSTR) and membrane bioreactor (MBR) A comparison the fatty acid production kinetics and productivity in each reactor was undertaken and the effect of glucose concentration and where appropriate, glucose feed rates, were also investigated. The results show that fatty acid production could be carried out in all three fermentation systems. A common observation in these systems was that fatty acid production was influenced by the glucose concentration in that at low glucose concentration the ratio of acetate to butyrate was about 30:1 while at higher concentrations the ratio was reduced to about 3:1 on a molar basis. The detailed kinetic studies generated unique data for this organism and shows that the maintenance coefficient (ms) increase with increasing glucose concentration (0.02 to 1.1 g substrate/g cell/h), due to mainly to end product inhibition and the true yield (Yx/s was around 0.2 for all glucose concentrations tested. Meanwhile substrate saturation (KJ decreased with increasing glucose concentrations (2.06-6.41 g/L). This observation was atypical to that observed in other anaerobic fermentations by previous workers. A comparison of fatty acid productivities using a l0g/1 glucose feed in the 3 reactors for acetic acid were 0.95 g/l/h for STR. 4.41 g/l/h for CSTR and 37.88 g/l/h for MBR and for butyric acid 0.15 g/l/h for STR, 1.27 g/l/h for CSTR and 14.34 g/l/h MBR. Although, previous work in this area is limited the data obtained in this study was also compared with other published work and this suggests that the production of fatty acid, especially acetic and butyric acid in the MBR system is by far the most productive yet reported. The results are discussed in the context of the waste treatment process for fatty acid production and its application to waste conversion and its further development

Extraction of Volatile Fatty Acids from Leachate via Liquid-liquid Extraction and Adsorption Method

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are used in wide range of commercially-important chemicals. Treatment of leachate at landfills by fermentation process will produce VFAs (butyric acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, isovaleric acid and isobutyric acid) can be considered as a replacement for petroleum-based VFA due to their degradability, renewability and sustainability. Therefore, separation of VFAs residue after the leachate treatment is important and essential from the point of view of pollution control and recovery of useful material. The aim of this study is to compare the percentage of VFAs extracted between liquid-liquid extraction and adsorption method. The VFAs extracted in this study were acetic and butyric acids produced from the fermentation of leachate using Clostridium butyricum. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used using central composite design (CCD) to optimize the parameters that affect the extraction of acetic and butyric acids. Liquid-liquid extraction using petroleum ether (69/80) with optimum parameters (temperature: 35 oC, pH: 4.8, agitation: 175.4 rpm, incubation time: 16.8 h and volume of treated leachate: 14.1 %) showed that the acetic acid and butyric acid extracted were 28.1% and 88.8% respectively. On the other hand, adsorption method using activated carbon showed the highest extraction percentage of acetic acid, 87.4% and butyric acid 94.1% with the optimum parameters of pH 3.0, 19.8 % activated carbon weight, 40 oC, 9.5 h incubation time and 179.9 rpm agitation speed

A Chemical and Morphological Study of Cassava Peel: A Potential Waste as Coagulant Aid

This study investigates the chemical and morphological characteristics of cassava peel (CP) biomass as a potential coagulant aid for turbidity, heavy metals and microbial removal. FE-SEM micrograph shown the surface of the CP samples was covered with smooth and globular in shaped of bound starch granules. FTIR spectra demonstrated that carboxyl and hydroxyl groups were present in abundance. Whereas analysis by XRF spectrometry indicated the CP samples contain Fe2O3 and Al2O3 which might contribute to its coagulation ability. The features of CP obtained from this study promotes the feasibility of CP to be further developed and studied to produce effective coagulant aid as sustainable alternative to reduce the usage of chemical coagulants

Performance assessment of cassava peel starch and alum as dual coagulant for turbidity removal in dam water

The agricultural and food processing industries generate a significant portion of residues, refuse and waste. Conversion of these wastes into useful end product would be beneficial not only to the economy but also the environment as it reducing the solid waste disposal problem. The present study was aimed to investigate the performance of cassava peel starch (CPS) extracted from cassava peel waste in combination with alum to act as dual coagulant for turbidity removal in raw water from Sembrong dam. Comparative studies by employing both alum and CPS as primary coagulant using several series of Jar test were also conducted. Results showed that the usage of alum-CPS as dual coagulant not only enhanced the turbidity removal with maximum achievement up to 91.47%, but also significantly improve the coagulation process by reducing both alum dosage and settling time up to 50% which indicates broad prospects to be further developed as emerging green coagulant

Optimization of Batch Conditions for COD and Ammonia Nitrogen Removal Using cockle shells Through Response Surface Methodology

The optimal conditions for the reduction of COD and NH3-N using cockle shells (CS) from a stabilised landfill effluent were analyzed. The influence of two variables (adsorbent dosage and pH) were analysed through the application of response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite design (CCD). Quadratic models were developed for the removals of COD and NH3-N parameters. The optimum conditions for removal of 65.6% and 53.6% for COD and NH3-N respectively was achieved at pH 6.34, adsorbent dosage of 20.21 g having 0.888 desirability value. The model F-value obtained for NH3-N removal Prob. > F value of 0.0001 with F-value of 104.21 was obtained. Similarly the Prob. > F value of < 0.0001 for COD with F-value of 82.74 was obtained, these P-values confirmed the significance of the model. The predicted response versus the experimental response depicted that the experimental data were relatively close to the predicted data. Thus, the generated models significantly enclosed the correlation between the process variables and the response.   GMT Detect languageAfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSesothoSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduUzbekVietnameseWelshYiddishYorubaZulu AfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSesothoSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduUzbekVietnameseWelshYiddishYorubaZulu         Text-to-speech function is limited to 200 characters  Options : History : Feedback : DonateClos

Chitosan ultilization in biocomposite adsorbent in Iron (Fe) removal from landfill leachate

: Leachate are very high strength wastewaters that contain a variety of pollutants that pose a serious threat to the environment if appropriate control measure is ignored. Composite adsorbent is an emerging, interesting and attractive alternative to conventional adsorbents and having the ability to act as catalysts due to their high reactivity and excellent selectivity towards specific pollutant compounds. This study investigated the potential of biocomposite adsorbent made from a combination of chitosan, feldspar and zeolite (CFZ) for the treatment of Iron (Fe) from leachate wastewater. Leachate characterization and batch adsorption experiments was conducted to determine the optimum conditions for pH, dosage and contact time parameter in the removal of Fe. The result shows that the concentration of Fe was 15.82 which exceeded the recommended limit. The optimum conditions also occurred at pH 5 with 6 gram of biocomposite dosage and at 180 minutes contact time. The corresponding removal efficiency for Fe is 90% with 0.0127 mg/g uptake capacit

Microbial-induced CaCO3 filled seaweed-based film for green plasticulture application

This work aimed to develop green biodegradable film using red seaweed (Kappaphycus alvarezii) as a base matrix and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as a filler to enhance the properties of the red seaweed material for plasticulture purpose. CaCO3 which was produced by microbially induced precipitation (MB-CaCO3) using Bacillus sphaericus, was characterized and compared with the commercial CaCO3 (CCaCO3). FESEM image revealed that the size of MB-CaCO3 was smaller and more uniform compared to CCaCO3. FTIR and XRD analyses confirmed the existence of crystalline polymorph of calcite in MB-CaCO3, which contained a higher percentage of calcite than CCaCO3. However, the crystallinity and thermal stability of MB-CaCO3 was lower than CCaCO3. From the results of physical, mechanical and thermal properties of composite films filled with CCaCO3 and MB-CaCO3 fillers, the optimum loading of CCaCO3 and MB-CaCO3 was found at 0.1% and 0.15%, respectively. Composite films filled with MB-CaCO3 promote brighter film, better water barrier, hydrophobicity and biodegradability compared to CCaCO3. Since the effect of MB-CaCO3 on film functional properties was comparable to CCaCO3, it can be used as an alternative to CCaCO3 as inorganic filler for composite films in agriculture applications

Metabolism of municipal solid waste (msw) leachate for acetic and butyric acid conversion by C.Butyricum.

Leachate is a contaminated liquid generated from landfill, imposing a devastating effect to the environment. This study focuses on bioconversion of treated lenchate to acetic and butyric acid by Clostridium butyricum NCIMB 7423 which aims to solve the leachate treatment problem and at the same time produce value added product from the treatment

Extraction of volatile fatty acids from leachate via liquid-liquid extraction and adsorption method

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are used in wide range of commercially-important chemicals. Treatment of leachate at landfills by fermentation process will produce VFAs (butyric acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, isovaleric acid and isobutyric acid) can be considered as a replacement for petroleum-based VFA due to their degradability, renewability and sustainability. Therefore, separation of VFAs residue after the leachate treatment is important and essential from the point of view of pollution control and recovery of useful material. The aim of this study is to compare the percentage of VFAs extracted between liquid-liquid extraction and adsorption method. The VFAs extracted in this study were acetic and butyric acids produced from the fermentation of leachate using Clostridium butyricum. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used using central composite design (CCD) to optimize the parameters that affect the extraction of acetic and butyric acids. Liquid-liquid extraction using petroleum ether (69/80) with optimum parameters (temperature: 35 oC, pH: 4.8, agitation: 175.4 rpm, incubation time: 16.8 h and volume of treated leachate: 14.1 %) showed that the acetic acid and butyric acid extracted were 28.1% and 88.8% respectively. On the other hand, adsorption method using activated carbon showed the highest extraction percentage of acetic acid, 87.4% and butyric acid 94.1% with the optimum parameters of pH 3.0, 19.8 % activated carbon weight, 40 oC, 9.5 h incubation time and 179.9 rpm agitation spee

Lignocellulolytic Enzymes in Biotechnological and Industrial Processes: A Review

Tons of anthropological activities contribute daily to the massive amount of lignocellulosic wastes produced annually. Unfortunately, their full potential usually is underutilized, and most of the biomass ends up in landfills. Lignocellulolytic enzymes are vital and central to developing an economical, environmentally friendly, and sustainable biological method for pre-treatment and degradation of lignocellulosic biomass which can lead to the release of essential end products such as enzymes, organic acids, chemicals, feed, and biofuel. Sustainable degradation of lignocellulosic biomass via hydrolysis is achievable by lignocellulolytic enzymes, which can be used in various applications, including but not limited to biofuel production, the textile industry, waste treatment, the food and drink industry, personal care industry, health and pharmaceutical industries. Nevertheless, for this to materialize, feasible steps to overcome the high cost of pre-treatment and lower operational costs such as handling, storage, and transportation of lignocellulose waste need to be deployed. Insight on lignocellulolytic enzymes and how they can be exploited industrially will help develop novel processes that will reduce cost and improve the adoption of biomass, which is more advantageous. This review focuses on lignocellulases, their use in the sustainable conversion of waste biomass to produce valued-end products, and challenges impeding their adoption