Site-Specific PEGylation of Therapeutic Proteins

The use of proteins as therapeutics has a long history and is becoming ever more common in modern medicine. While the number of protein-based drugs is growing every year, significant problems still remain with their use. Among these problems are rapid degradation and excretion from patients, thus requiring frequent dosing, which in turn increases the chances for an immunological response as well as increasing the cost of therapy. One of the main strategies to alleviate these problems is to link a polyethylene glycol (PEG) group to the protein of interest. This process, called PEGylation, has grown dramatically in recent years resulting in several approved drugs. Installing a single PEG chain at a defined site in a protein is challenging. Recently, there is has been considerable research into various methods for the site-specific PEGylation of proteins. This review seeks to summarize that work and provide background and context for how site-specific PEGylation is performed. After introducing the topic of site-specific PEGylation, recent developments using chemical methods are described. That is followed by a more extensive discussion of bioorthogonal reactions and enzymatic labeling.     

Study of MW-scale biogas-fed SOFC-WGS-TSA-PEMFC hybrid power technology as distributed energy system: Thermodynamic,exergetic and thermo-economic evaluation

Advanced biogas power generation technology has been attracting attentions, which contributes to the waste disposal and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. This work proposes and models a novel biogas-fed hybrid power generation system consisting of solid oxide fuel cell, water gas shift reaction, thermal swing adsorption and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (SOFC-WGS-TSA-PEMFC). The thermodynamic, exergetic, and thermo-economic analyses of this hybrid system for power generation were conducted to comprehensively evaluate its performance. It was found that the novel biogas-fed hybrid system has a gross energy conversion efficiency of 68.63% and exergy efficiency of 65.36%, indicating high efficiency for this kind of hybrid power technology. The market sensitivity analysis showed that the hybrid system also has a low sensitivity to market price fluctuation. Under the current subsidy level for the distributed biogas power plant, the levelized cost of energy can be lowered to 0.02942 $/kWh for a 1 MW scale system. Accordingly, the payback period and annual return on investment can reach 1.4 year and about 20%, respectively. These results reveal that the proposed hybrid system is promising and economically feasible as a distributed power plant, especially for the small power scale (no more than 2 MW).     

Tailoring the electron-blocking layer by addition of YSZ to Ba-containing anode for improvement of ceria-based solid oxide fuel cell

The in-situ fabrication of an electron-blocking layer between the Ba-containing anode and the ceria-based electrolyte is an effective approach in suppressing the internal electronic leakage in ceria-based solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). To improve the thickness of the electron-blocking layer and to research the effect of the layer thickness on the improvement of SOFC, a Ba-containing compound (0.6NiO-0.4BaZr_0.1Ce_0.7Y_0.2O_3-δ) modified by Y stabilized zirconia (YSZ) was employed as a composite anode in this research. SEM analyses demonstrated that the thickness of the interlayer can be simply controlled by regulating the proportion of YSZ at anode. The in-situ formed interlayer in the cell with the anode modified by 20?mol% YSZ possesses a thickness of 0.9?µm which is more suitable for the cell achieving an enhanced performance.     

A distributed energy system integrating SOFC-MGT with mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemical hydrogen fuel production

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production with energy level upgraded from solar thermal to chemical energy shows great potential. By integrating mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry and solid oxide fuel cells, in this paper, a new distributed energy system combining power, cooling, and heating is proposed and analyzed from thermodynamic, energy and exergy viewpoints. Different from the high temperature solar thermochemistry (above 1073.15 K), the mid-and-low temperature solar thermochemistry utilizes concentrated solar thermal (473.15–573.15 K) to drive methanol decomposition reaction, reducing irreversible heat collection loss. The produced hydrogen-rich fuel is converted into power through solid oxide fuel cells and micro gas turbines successively, realizing the cascaded utilization of fuel and solar energy. Numerical simulation is conducted to investigate the system thermodynamic performances under design and off-design conditions. Promising results reveal that solar-to-hydrogen and net solar-to-electricity efficiencies reach 66.26% and 40.93%, respectively. With the solar thermochemical conversion and hydrogen-rich fuel cascade utilization, the system exergy and overall energy efficiencies reach 59.76% and 80.74%, respectively. This research may provide a pathway for efficient hydrogen-rich fuel production and power generation.     

Effect of microbial hydrogen consumption on the hydrogen permeation behaviour of AISI 4135 steel under cathodic protection

The feasibility of microbial hydrogen consumption to mitigate the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) under different cathodic potentials was evaluated using the Devanathan-Stachurski electrochemical test and the hydrogen permeation efficiency η. The hydrogen permeation efficiency η in the presence of strain GA-1 was lower than that in sterile medium. The cathodic potential inhibited the adherence of strain GA-1 to AISI 4135 steel surface, thereby reducing the hydrogen consumption of strain GA-1. The adherent GA-1 cells were capable of consuming ‘cathodic hydrogen’ and reducing the proportions of absorbed hydrogen, indicating that it is theoretically possible to control HE by hydrogen-consuming microbes.     

Single chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells selective electrodes: A real chance with brownmillerite-based nanocomposites

In this contribution brownmillerite-based nanocomposite cathode for Single-Chamber Solid Oxide Fuel Cells is developed. These cells can be very attractive especially for small and cheap devices because of the absence of seals. The efficiency of SC-SOFCs is strictly connected to the selectivity of anode and cathode, the bottleneck for this technology. The development of a cathode inert in fuel oxidation is particularly challenging. Our strategy is to start from a catalytically un-active support (CFA = Ca₂FeAl_0.95Mg_0.05O₅) and induce the formation of iron oxide based nanoparticles, expected to activate oxygen. Symmetric (CFA + FeO_x/CGO/CFA + FeO_x) and complete cells (CFA + FeO_x/CGO/Ni-CGO) are studied in air and methane/oxygen 2:1 mixture. The Area Specific Resistance of CFA + FeO_x is less than 1/3 that of CFA. The high selectivity allows to reach an efficiency of 25%; power still needs to be increased but we demonstrated the possibility to develop selective low cost electrodes. The effect of air, methane/oxygen exposure and the heat treatments were carefully investigated.     

Mechanism of methanol decomposition on the Pd/WC(0001) surface unveiled by first-principles calculations

In this study, the decomposition of methanol into the CO and H species on the Pd/tungsten carbide (WC)(0001) surface is systematically investigated using periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The possible reaction pathways and intermediates are determined. The results reveal that saturated molecules, i.e., methanol and formaldehyde, adsorb weakly on the Pd/ WC(0001) surface. Both CO and H prefer three-fold sites, with adsorption energies of −1.51 and −2.67 eV, respectively. On the other hand, CH₃O stably binds at three-fold and bridge sites, with an adsorption energy of −2.58 eV. However, most of the other intermediates tend to adsorb to the surface with the carbon and oxygen atoms in their sp³ and hydroxyl-like configurations, respectively. Hence, the C atom of CH₂OH preferentially attaches to the top sites, CHOH and CH₂O adsorb at the bridge sites, while COH and CHO occupy the three-fold sites. The DFT calculations indicate that the rupture of the initial C–H bond promotes the decomposition of CH₃OH and CH₂OH, whereas in the case of CHOH, O–H bond scission is favored over the C–H bond rupture. Thus, the most probable methanol decomposition pathway on the Pd/WC(0001) surface is CH₃OH → CH₂OH → trans-CHOH → CHO → CO. The present study demonstrates that the synergistic effect of WC (as carrier) and Pd (as catalyst) alters the CH₃OH decomposition pathway and reduces the noble metal utilization.     

Stability and thermophysical properties of fly ash nanofluid for heat transfer applications

Improving the performance of heat transfer fluids is altogether significant. The best approach for improving the thermal conductivity is the addition of nanoparticles to the base fluid. In the present study, specific heat, dynamic viscosity, and thermal conductivity of water-based Indian coal fly ash stable nanofluid for 0.1% to 0.5% volume concentration in the temperature range of 30 to 60°C has been investigated. To evaluate an average particle diameter of 11.5 nm, the fly ash nanoparticles were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. Using zeta potential, the stability of nanofluid in the presence of surfactant Triton X-100 was tested. Thermal conductivity and viscosity of fly ash nanofluid increased, while specific heat decreased as volume concentration increased. The effect of temperature on the fly ash nanofluid was directly proportional to its thermal conductivity and specific heat and inversely proportional to viscosity.     

红外光谱法用于快速测定车用柴油酸度等性质的研究

针对车用柴油酸度等性质测定过程繁琐，采用衰减全反射样品池测定车用柴油的红外光谱，用偏最小二乘法（PLS）建立红外光谱测定车用柴油酸度、密度、闪点和凝点的4个校正模型，验证标准误差分别为0.46 mg/(100 mL),0.77kg/m3,2.60 ℃,2.77 ℃，该方法符合标准方法再现性要求。与标准方法相比，该方法具有无需预处理、操作简单、测量快速、重复性好等优点。