Alteration of Wax Ester Content and Composition in Euglena gracilis with Gene Silencing of 3‐ketoacyl‐CoA Thiolase Isozymes

Euglena gracilis produces wax ester under hypoxic and anaerobic culture conditions with a net synthesis of ATP. In wax ester fermentation, fatty acids are synthesized by reversing beta‐oxidation in mitochondria. A major species of wax ester produced by E. gracilis is myristyl myristate (14:0‐14:0Alc). Because of its shorter carbon chain length with saturated compounds, biodiesel produced from E. gracilis wax ester may have good cold flow properties with high oxidative stability. We reasoned that a slight metabolic modification would enable E. gracilis to produce a biofuel of ideal composition. In order to produce wax ester with shorter acyl chain length, we focused on isozymes of the enzyme 3‐ketoacyl‐CoA thiolase (KAT), a condensing enzyme of the mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis pathway in E. gracilis. We performed a gene silencing study of KAT isozymes in E. gracilis. Six KAT isozymes were identified in the E. gracilis EST database, and silencing any three of them (EgKAT1‐3) altered the wax ester amount and composition. In particular, silencing EgKAT1 induced a significant compositional shift to shorter carbon chain lengths in wax ester. A model fuel mixture inferred from the composition of wax ester in EgKAT1‐silenced cells showed a significant decrease in melting point compared to that of the control cells.     

Palladium on Carbon‐Catalyzed Aqueous Transformation of Primary Alcohols to Carboxylic Acids Based on Dehydrogenation under Mildly Reduced Pressure

The catalytic dehydrogenation of alcohols to carbonyl products is a green sustainable oxidation with no production of waste except for hydrogen, which can be an energy source. Additionally, a reusable heterogeneous catalyst is valuable from the viewpoint of process chemistry and water is a green solvent. We have accomplished the palladium on carbon (Pd/C)‐catalyzed dehydrogenation of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids in water under a mildly reduced pressure (800 hPa). The reduced pressure can be easily controlled by the vacuum controller of the rotary evaporator to remove the excess of generated hydrogen, which causes the reduction (reverse reaction) of aldehydes to alcohols (starting materials) and other undesirable side reactions. The present method is applicable to the reaction of various aliphatic and benzylic alcohols to the corresponding carboxylic acids, and the Pd/C could be reused at least 5 times.

     

Influence of the pre-reformer in steam reforming of dodecane using a Pd alloy membrane reactor

Dodecane, one of the main components in kerosene, was used as a model material to investigate reactions in a palladium membrane reactor for steam reforming of kerosene. The influence of pre-reforming on the performance of the membrane reactor was investigated. A decrease in hydrogen yield caused by coke formation was suppressed through pre-reforming by lowering the concentration of olefins, aromatics and unreacted dodecane in the feed to the membrane reactor. In addition, the proportion of total hydrogen production that permeated the membrane was clearly higher with pre-reforming compared with that without pre-reforming. Pre-reforming prevented deactivation of both the catalyst and the membrane, resulting in efficient separation of hydrogen from the reaction field and therefore achieving a higher hydrogen yield.     

Electronically tunable current-mode active-only biquadratic filter

This paper presents a realization of current-mode active-only filter. The proposed filter is constructed employing operational amplifiers and operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs). The circuit can realize biquadratic transfer function, and the circuit characteristics can be electronically tuned through adjusting the transconductance gains of the OTAs. An example is given together with simulated result by PSPICE. The circuit configuration is very suitable for implementation in both bipolar or CMOS technologies.     

Acceleration of hydrogen forced ventilation after leakage ceases in a partially open space

This paper treats the real-time sensing-based risk-mitigation control of hydrogen dispersion and accumulation in a partially open space with low-height openings by forced ventilation. A hunting-preventive control scheme that we previously proposed (Matsuura et al., Int J Hydrogen Energy, 2012;37(2):1972–84) has parameters such as the monitoring period of hydrogen sensors T_p, a unit increment in the exhaust flow rate per area from a roof vent α, and a threshold ε for the change in the exhaust flow rate. Through parametric simulations of the hydrogen exhaust after leakage ceases, we clarify the effects of the parameters on the rate of exhaust flow from the roof vent and the amount of hydrogen accumulating near the roof, which are critical for ventilation performance. With a selected combination of (T_p, α, ε) for which the ventilation system has a quick response and reasonable original performance, we first introduce two acceleration methods separately to the original hunting-preventive scheme to improve the ventilation performance after hydrogen leakage ceases. Ventilation performance employing the two methods is compared with that employing the original scheme. From the results, a hybrid method is finally proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is computationally validated for leak flow rates of 9.44 × 10⁻⁴, 4.72 × 10⁻⁴ and 2.36 × 10⁻⁴ m³/s.     

Production of tetraketide lactones by mutated Antirrhinum majus chalcone synthases (AmCHS1)

Chalcone synthase (CHS) is a key enzyme of flavonoid biosynthesis in higher plants, catalyzing the stepwise decarboxylative condensation of three acetate units from malonyl-CoA with p-coumaroyl-CoA to yield 2′,4,4′,6′-tetrahydroxychalcone (THC). Reaction (at pH 7.5) of a mutant (V196M/T197A) of Antirrhinum majus CHS (AmCHS1) with p-coumaroyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA yielded a significant amount of a non-chalcone product, along with a small amount of THC. The non-chalcone product was identified as p-coumaroyltriacetic acid lactone (CTAL), a tetraketide lactone produced due to derailment from the canonical THC-producing reaction pathway. In vitro, the wild-type AmCHS1 showed low CTAL-producing activity at pH 7.5, but an appreciable level at pH 10. Each of the amino acid substitutions, V196M, T197A and V196M/T197A, caused a shift toward neutrality of the optimum pH for CTAL-producing activity. The V196M substitution resulted in a loss of THC-producing activity, as well as a 12.6-fold enhancement of CTAL-producing activity (at pH 7.5); hence, AmCHS1 was converted to a p-coumaroyltriacetic acid synthase by this single amino acid substitution. The THC-producing activity of the V196M mutant appeared to be restored by additional T197A substitution, although a single T197A substitution caused no substantial enhancement of the CTAL-producing activity of the wild-type enzyme. The enhancement of the tetraketide producing activity upon V196M and V196M/T197A substitutions was most markedly observed when p-coumaroyl-CoA was used as the starter substrate, and only slightly with benzoyl-, caffeoyl- and hexanoyl-CoAs. These results show the importance of the two contiguous amino acids at positions 196 and 197 for product specificity of an AmCHS1-catalyzed reaction.     

Neural network‐based PID gain tuning of chemical plant controller

Plant control systems are now highly automated and are used in many industries. The control performance changes with the passage of time because of deterioration of plant facilities. For this reason, human experts tune the control system to improve overall plant performance. In this study, a PID control system for the oil refining chemical plant process is discussed. In oil refining, thousands of control loops are used in plants in order to keep the product quality at the desired value and to assure the safety of plant operation. Due to the ambiguity of the interference between control loops, it is difficult to estimate the plant dynamical model accurately. Using a neuro emulator and a recurrent neural networks model (RNN model) for emulation and tuning of parameters, a PID gain tuning system for a chemical plant controller is constructed. Numerical experiments using actual plant data demonstrate the effect of the proposed method. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 171(4): 28–36, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20973     

PID controller optimization for H∞ control by linear programming

The constraints on the PID gains, which are derived from the H_∞ norm performance index by discretization of the frequency, are convex or concave depending on frequencies. This problem is a non‐convex problem, and a new method of approximating these constraints as adequate linear inequalities is proposed. Then, the optimal solution can be efficiently and successfully searched for by applying linear programming iteratively. This method is compared with methods based on barrier function and linear matrix inequality. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Confocal Scanning Laser Microscope Image of Gradient Structure Formed in an Acrylate Copolymer/Fluoro-copolymer Blend

Thin films of poly(2-ethylhexyl acrylate-co-acrylic acid-co-vinyl acetate)/poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoro acetone) [P(2EHA-AA-VAc)/P(VDF-HFA)] of 30/70 (by weight) blends without and with addition of 2 wt% fine silica gel were prepared on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) from 20 wt% THF solution. Gradient domain morphology formed in the 30/70 blend was observed with a confocal scanning laser microscope (CSLM). Separate domains composed of P(2EHA-AA-VAc) phase were found in P(VDF-HFA) matrix at various levels of increasing depth with increasing domain size. Thus, CSLM is quite effective in morphological observation of the gradient structure formed in polymer blends, provided the blends are transparent.