Biodiesel production from waste cooking palm oil using calcium oxide supported on activated carbon as catalyst in a fixed bed reactor

A reactor has been developed to produce high quality fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) from waste cooking palm oil (WCO). Continuous transesterification of free fatty acids (FFA) from acidified oil with methanol was carried out using a calcium oxide supported on activated carbon (CaO/AC) as a heterogeneous solid-base catalyst. CaO/AC was prepared according to the conventional incipient-wetness impregnation of aqueous solutions of calcium nitrate (Ca(NO₃)₂·4H₂O) precursors on an activated carbon support from palm shell in a fixed bed reactor with an external diameter of 60 mm and a height of 345 mm. Methanol/oil molar ratio, feed flow rate, catalyst bed height and reaction temperature were evaluated to obtain optimum reaction conditions. The results showed that the FFA conversion increased with increases in alcohol/oil molar ratio, catalyst bed height and temperature, whereas decreased with flow rate and initial water content in feedstock increase. The yield of FAME achieved 94% at the reaction temperature 60 °C, methanol/oil molar ratio of 25: 1 and residence time of 8 h. The physical and chemical properties of the produced methyl ester were determined and compared with the standard specifications. The characteristics of the product under the optimum condition were within the ASTM standard. High quality waste cooking palm oil methyl ester was produced by combination of heterogeneous alkali transesterification and separation processes in a fixed bed reactor. In sum, activated carbon shows potential for transesterification of FFA.     

Signaling Pathways Impact on Induction of Corneal Epithelial-like Cells Derived from Human Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Corneal epithelium, the outmost layer of the cornea, comprises corneal epithelial cells (CECs) that are continuously renewed by limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs). Loss or dysfunction of LESCs causes limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) which results in corneal epithelial integrity loss and visual impairment. To regenerate the ocular surface, transplantation of stem cell-derived CECs is necessary. Human Wharton’s jelly derived mesenchymal stem cells (WJ-MSCs) are a good candidate for cellular therapies in allogeneic transplantation. This study aimed to test the effects of treatments on three signaling pathways involved in CEC differentiation as well as examine the optimal protocol for inducing corneal epithelial differentiation of human WJ-MSCs. All-trans retinoic acid (RA, 5 or 10 µM) inhibited the Wnt signaling pathway via suppressing the translocation of β-catenin from the cytoplasm into the nucleus. SB505124 downregulated the TGF-β signaling pathway via reducing phosphorylation of Smad2. BMP4 did not increase phosphorylation of Smad1/5/8 that is involved in BMP signaling. The combination of RA, SB505124, BMP4, and EGF for the first 3 days of differentiation followed by supplementing hormonal epidermal medium for an additional 6 days could generate corneal epithelial-like cells that expressed a CEC specific marker CK12. This study reveals that WJ-MSCs have the potential to transdifferentiate into CECs which would be beneficial for further applications in LSCD treatment therapy.     

Effect of Freezing Rate and Starch Granular Morphology on Ice Formation and Non-Freezable Water Content of Flour and Starch Gels

Ice formation and non-freezable water (W_NFW) of rice flour and tapioca starch gels were studied at two different freezing rates (–10 and –100°C/min) using differential scanning calorimetry. Ice crystal growth was observed in the slow freezing but not in the fast one. Ice melting enthalpies, however, were similar since more ice formed in holding and reheating steps. Melting enthalpy of fully gelatinized systems with water contents ~ 0.50–0.66 was associated to starch composition and granule morphology. Highly swollen tapioca starch gave the lowest enthalpy and the highest W_NFW (0.40 g/g dry starch versus 0.32 and 0.38 g/g dry starch of normal and waxy rice flours, respectively). The further studies revealed that the W_NFW values were associated to swelling power, solubility, and granule morphology.     

Effect of modified tapioca starch and xanthan gum on low temperature texture stability and dough viscoelasticity of a starch-based food gel

This work investigated the effect of modified tapioca starch and xanthan gum on dough viscoelasticity and texture stability during storage at 4 °C of starch sheets for Chinese shrimp dumplings. Hydroxypropylated starch and hydroxypropylated-crosslinked starch were used to substitute for tapioca starch in the control formulation, and xanthan gum was added to adjust the formulation. During storage, texture of the control became firmer due to amylopectin retrogradation confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. Conversely, gel sheets containing modified starches showed less texture change. Dough viscoelasticity of the formulations substituted by hydroxypropylated starch were much softer and easier to deform than that of the control one. Dough with hydroxypropylated-crosslinked starch was, however, stiffer and more strain-resistant. Moreover, the formulation comprising the mixture of both types of modified starches and xanthan gum gave dough viscoelasticity similar to that of the control, and provided gel sheet the least texture change. Consequently, this modified formulation could be beneficial for the application of frozen/chilled dumpling wrappers.     

Solid-state C NMR investigation of the structure and dynamics of highly drawn polyethylene—detection of the oriented non-crystalline component

The structure and dynamics of highly drawn polyethylene samples were studied by solid-state ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. The analyses of the ¹³C spin-lattice relaxation time (T_1C) and the ¹³C spin-spin relaxation time (T_2C) have revealed that at least three components with different T_1C and T_2C values, which correspond to the crystalline, less mobile non-crystalline, and rubbery amorphous components, exist for these materials, as in the case of isothermally crystallized samples. However, another component with a mass fraction of 0.13-0.18 exists which has a ¹³C chemical shift very close to that of the orthorhombic crystalline phase but has an extremely small T_1C. Since this component is believed to have the all-trans conformation, it is termed fast all-trans. The chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) spectra for various samples that have small T_1C values have been recorded and resolved into those of the non-crystalline and fast all-trans components. As expected, the CSA spectra of the less mobile non-crystalline and rubbery amorphous components that have the smallest T_1C values display only a slight asymmetry. In contrast, the CSA spectrum of the fast all-trans component displays higher asymmetry. However, the spectrum is still much narrower than that of the normal orthorhombic crystalline phase, indicating a high degree of motional averaging. It is proposed that this component should be a highly oriented non-crystalline component, which may exist as taut tie-molecules traversing the non-crystalline region. To account for the narrow CSA, this component must undergo rapid fluctuation with large amplitudes at the torsional potential minimum in each C-C bond and possibly an additional random jump or diffusional rotation around the chain axis. Additional measurements obtained by aligning the draw axis of the sample parallel or perpendicular to the static magnetic field indicate that the fast all-trans component is oriented along the drawing direction and subjected to rapid motion around the chain axis.     

Unimodal and bimodal networks of physically crosslinked polyborodimethylsiloxane: viscoelastic and equibiaxial extension behaviors

Unimodal and bimodal networks of physically crosslinked polyborodimethylsiloxane (PBDMS) were prepared by end-linking hydroxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with boric acid. Their viscoelastic and equibiaxial extension behaviors were investigated. Three PDMS precursors with different number-average molecular weight ( M ¯ n $ {\overline{M}}_n $ ) were employed, of which the shortest chain had M ¯ n $ {\overline{M}}_n $ lower than the entanglement molecular weight. Bimodal networks were prepared from the mixture of the shortest and the longer PDMS chains. Linear viscoelastic behavior of unimodal network of the shortest chain gave the best fit to the Maxwell model with single relaxation time of 1.59 s, and equilibrium elastic modulus (G _e ) of the network was well-explained by phantom network model. The unimodal networks from the other two long chain precursors, however, showed multi-relaxation behavior with the longest relaxation times of 1.00–1.26 s. Moreover, their G _e was close to affine model and deviated from the phantom model with trapped entanglement factors of ~ 0.13. The bimodal networks with high mole percentage of short chains gave G _e values approximate to the predicted values of phantom model. Such bimodal networks showed an extremely large increase in modulus at high biaxial extension, attributed by the limited extensibilities of short chains and un-relaxed crosslinked junctions.