Integrated Biorefinery Design with Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Assessment Tools in Polyhydroxyalkanoates Processing

To support and move toward a sustainable bioeconomy, the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) using renewable biomass has acquired more attention. However, expensive biomass pretreatment and low yield of PHAs pose significant disadvantages in its large-scale production. To overcome such limitations, the most recent advances in metabolic engineering strategies used to develop high-performance strains that are leading to a new manufacturing concept converting biomass to PHAs with co-products such as amino acids, proteins, biohydrogen, biosurfactants, and various fine chemicals are critically summarized. This review article presents a comprehensive roadmap that highlights the integrated biorefinery strategies, lifecycle analysis, and techno-economic assessment for sustainable and economic PHAs production. Finally, current and future challenges that must be addressed to transfer this technology to real-world applications are reviewed.     

Impact of Temperature on Analog/RF Performance of Dielectric Pocket Gate-all-around (DPGAA) MOSFETs

Silicon - In the present paper, the dielectric pocket (DP) technology has been employed in the Gate-All-Around (GAA) MOSFETs to improve the scalability and performance of the device. The upgraded...     

Optimization Assisted Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna for UWB Communication: Optimal Parameter Tuning by Improved Grey Wolf Algorithm

Wireless Personal Communications - Recently, with the faster pace of development on the sophisticated detection and stealth technology, extensive attention is being paid to the reduction of Radar...     

High capacity reversible hydrogen storage in zirconium doped 2D-covalent triazine frameworks: Density Functional Theory investigations

Employing the state-of-the art Density Functional Theory (DFT) Simulations, we have investigated hydrogen storage capability in zirconium doped novel 2D heterostructures, Covalent Triazine Frameworks (CTFs), specifically CTF-1, rich in nitrogen functionalities. Zirconium atom is strongly bonded to the triazine framework with a -3.61 eV binding energy, and each Zr atom was found to adsorb 7 H₂ molecules reversibly with binding energy ?0.38 eV per H₂ on an average giving a gravimetric storage capacity of 7.1% which accomplishes the US D.o.E. targets for suitable hydrogen storage substrates. The system stability at ambient and higher temperatures as verified using ab initio Molecular Dynamics simulations as well as existence of sufficient diffusion energy barrier preventing metal-metal clustering certifies the practical viability of the system as a high capacity H₂ storage device. The mechanism of interaction of Zr on 2D CTF-1 and H₂ molecules on Zr+CTF-1 have been analyzed by partial density of states, charge density distribution plot and Bader Charge Analysis. Charge transfer from Zr 4d orbital to 2p orbital of triazine ring was observed, whereas bonding of H₂ is through Kubas interaction which involves the charge donation from the filled σ orbitals of hydrogen molecules to the vacant metal d orbitals, and the subsequent back donation of charge from the occupied metal d orbitals to the vacant σ1 orbital of hydrogen molecules. As the system is stable, can hold high H₂ wt% (7.1%) with suitable desorption temperature (442 K at ambient), we propose that Zr doped 2D CTF-1 can act as a potential H₂ storage device.     

Influence of extrusion cooking on phytochemical,physical and sorption isotherm properties of rice extrudate infused with microencapsulated anthocyanin

Food Science and Biotechnology - The effect of extrusion cooking on the quality of rice extrudate with infused microencapsulated anthocyanin was investigated. The moisture sorption isotherm of the...     

Characterization of Canadian biomass for alternative renewable biofuel

Biomass represents the renewable energy source and their use reduces the consumption of fossil fuels and limits the emission of CO₂, SO_x, NO_x and heavy metals. They are used in pyrolysis, gasification, combustion and co-combustion. Present study aims to highlight the common biomass available in Canada such as wheat straw, barley straw, flax straw, timothy grass and pinewood. The biomass samples were collected form Saskatoon, Canada and examined for their physical and chemical characteristics using static bomb calorimeter, XRD, TGA, ICP-MS, CHNSO, FT-IR and FT-NIR. The biomass samples were subjected to three-step extraction process, i.e. hexane, alcohol and water extraction separately, after extraction the raffinate biomass was acid hydrolyzed. The acid soluble fractions, which mainly contained degraded sugars, were analysed by HPLC and the lignin content was determined using acid insoluble fraction. The hexane extract (i.e. waxes), alcohol extract and lignin were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. Among all the biomass samples pinewood shows lower ash and lignin content, while shows higher calorific value, cellulose and hemicellulose content. The appreciable amount of hexane soluble in pinewood was due to the presence of terpene hydrocarbons. However among the agricultural biomass samples barley straw shows higher ash, wax and lignin content compared to wheat and flax straw. All these properties combined together have shown that pinewood, wheat and flax can act as the potential candidates for bio-energy production.