Identification and cultivation of hydrogenotrophic methanogens from palm oil mill effluent for high methane production

By means of biorefinery, biogas production through anaerobic digestion is one of the most common treatments of wastewater in the palm oil industry. After biogas production, the treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) is generally discharged into the environment. However, certain level of hazardous compounds still exists in the treated wastewater, which can lead to the pollution of water bodies. In this study, we have investigated the dynamics of volatile organic acids dwelling in consecutive POME treatment lagoons as well as identified, and categorized, microbial species responsible for the treatment process. Bacteria and methanogens, both hydrogenotrophic and acetoclastic, related to methane production were identified using mcrA and 16S rRNA genes specific primers. Two hydrogenotrophic methanogens, Methanoculleus marisnigri and Methanoculleus chikugoensis, were found abundant in accordance with high formate concentration throughout the process of anaerobic digestion. This study has also isolated eight consortia of microbes that yielded different methane productions by utilizing formate as the substrate in the synthetic medium. The consortia of a group, containing M. marisnigri, M. chikugoensis, uncultured bacteria, Aminobacterium sp., and Ruminobacillus xylanolyticum, produced the highest methane yield of 259 mL/g COD after 25 days of incubation in the laboratory. The findings from this study are contributing to optimize and increase biogas production in POME, which will allow higher efficiency in palm oil mill wastewater treatment.     

Improving physicochemical characteristics and anaerobic digestion performance of rice straw via ammonia pretreatment at varying concentrations and moisture levels

Rice straw physicochemical characteristics and anaerobic digestion(AD) performance via ammonia pretreatment at varying ammonia concentrations(2%, 4%, and 6%) and moisture contents(30%, 50%, 70%, and 90%)under a mild condition were investigated. The results showed that the ammonia pretreatment effectively damaged the rice straw structure, increased the soluble organic concentration, and improved rice straw hydrolysis and AD performance. After pretreatment, the ester bond and ether bond were ruptured in lignocellulose and the volatile fatty acids(VFAs) were within the range of 1457.81–1823.67 mg·L~(-1). In addition, ammonia pretreatment had high selectivity on lignin removal, resulting in a maximum lignin removal rate of 50.80%. The highest methane yield of rice straw was 250.34 ml·(g VS)~(-1) at a 4% ammonia concentration coupled with a 70% moisture content, which was 28.55% higher than that of the control. The result showed that ammonia pretreatment of rice straw is technically suitable to enhance AD performance for further application.     

微波消解-ICP-MS法测定舒尼铂原料药中银的残留量

采用微波消解法进行样品前处理，以电感耦合等离子体质谱法(ICP-MS)测定了舒尼铂原料药中的银残留量。结果表明，银质量浓度在0.1~150 μg/L的范围内，与银信号强度和内标铟信号强度的比值呈良好的线性关系，重复性试验的RSD为2.32%，加标回收率为95.89%~104.81%，检出限为0.0109 μg/g，定量限为0.0365 μg/g；3批样品测定结果分别为2.42、1.54和1.96 μg/g。方法可满足舒尼铂原料药中银残留量测定的要求。     

GutSelf: Interindividual Variability in the Processing of Dietary Compounds by the Human Gastrointestinal Tract

Nutritional research is currently entering the field of personalized nutrition, to a large extent driven by major technological breakthroughs in analytical sciences and biocomputing. An efficient launching of the personalized approach depends on the ability of researchers to comprehensively monitor and characterize interindividual variability in the activity of the human gastrointestinal tract. This information is currently not available in such a form. This review therefore aims at identifying and discussing published data, providing evidence on interindividual variability in the processing of the major nutrients, i.e., protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, along the gastrointestinal tract, including oral processing, intestinal digestion, and absorption. Although interindividual variability is not a primary endpoint of most studies identified, a significant number of publications provides a wealth of information on this topic for each category of nutrients. This knowledge remains fragmented, however, and understanding the clinical relevance of most of the interindividual responses to food ingestion described in this review remains unclear. In that regard, this review has identified a gap and sets the base for future research addressing the issue of the interindividual variability in the response of the human organism to the ingestion of foods.     

Biohythane production in two-stage anaerobic digestion system

Hydrogen (H₂) and methane (CH₄) are the potential alternative energy carriers with autonomous extensive and viable importance. These fuels could complement the advantages, and discard the disadvantages of each other, if produced simultaneously. Considering their complementary properties, co-production of a mixture of H₂ and CH₄ in the form of biohythane in two-stage anaerobic digestion (AD) process is gaining more interest than their individual production. Biohythane is a better transportation fuel than compressed natural gas (CNG) in terms of high range of flammability, reduced ignition temperature as well as time, without nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions, improved engine performance without specific modification, etc. Other than production of biohythane, performing two-stage AD is advantageous over one-stage AD due to short HRT, high energy recovery, high COD removal, higher H₂ and CH₄ yields, and reduced carbon dioxide (CO₂) in biogas. For improved biohythane production, various aspects of two-stage AD need to be emphasized. Keeping the facts in mind, the process of two-stage AD along with microbial diversity in comparison to one-stage AD has been discussed in the previous sections of this review. For large scale commercial production, and utilization of biohythane in automobile sector, its execution needs evaluation of process parameters, and problems associated with two-stage AD. Hence, the later part of this review describes the production process of biohythane, concerned microbial diversity, operational process parameters, major challenges and their solutions, applications, and economic evaluation for enhanced production of biohythane.     

Strategies of valorization of sludge from wastewater treatment

Sludge is regarded as a potential source to achieve valorization via strategies such as resource recovery, sludge based adsorbents preparation, bioflucculants production, sludge manufacturing construction materials preparation, sludge composting and thermal valorization, which are currently common and effective strategies. Appropriate treatment strategies of sludge are of great importance worldwide for the fast growing population and rapidly increasing waste. This mini review summarized some widely used and effective strategies to achieve sludge valorization based on whether the strategy would utilize or reuse the potential of sludge to obtain valuable product and eliminate secondary pollution. Anaerobic digestion of sludge is perceived as a potentially cost‐effective method to achieve sludge reduction and resource recovery including carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus resource recovery coupled with other technologies. Utilizing sludge as raw material for preparation of valuable products including sludge based adsorbents, bioflocculants and construction materials is another aspect to achieve sludge valorization. Sludge composting and thermal valorization are also introduced in the mini review since the two strategies could also achieve sludge valorization. In addition, the strategies mentioned were discussed and analyzed in the mini review from environmental and economic aspects. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry     

微波程序消解—加标浓度直读法测定芝麻、花生、核桃中的钙

为建立一种快速简便、准确测定食品中钙的新方法,选用坚果为样品,微波程序消解后,采用离子选择性电极加标浓度直读法测定钙含量。结果表明:钙电极的转换系数为98.61%,相对标准偏差均小于4%。该法测定简便快速、读数直观、成本低廉、样品用量少,为食品中钙的测定提供了一种全新的分析技术,有较强的创新性和推广应用价值。     

Application of nano-scale transition metal carbides as accelerants in anaerobic digestion

Four types of nano-scale transition metal carbides (HfC, SiC, TiC, and WC), used as accelerants in anaerobic digestion (AD) with cattle manure, were investigated through batch experiments under mesophilic conditions (37 ± 1 °C). The AD system with four carbide accelerants showed a higher biogas yield (463–499 mL/g TS), chemical oxygen demand (COD) degradation rate (58.62–78.90%) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) concentrations (905.0–1077.0 mg/L) as compared with control check (CK, 294 mL/g TS, 46.99%, 290 mg/L). All of the digestate samples from the AD systems using four carbide accelerants showed not only higher degradation of organic compounds during thermal analysis, but also stronger fertilizer values. The use of transition metal compounds (TMCs) as accelerants in AD can efficiently improve the conversion of waste resources into biogas and fertilizers, which can potentially open new avenues for the use of TMCs in upcoming research on biomass energy.