A gasteroid bolete collected recently in Sarawak on the island of Borneo is described as the new species Spongiforma squarepantsii. A comprehensive description, illustrations, phylogenetic placement and a comparison with a closely allied species are provided.
The combustion characteristics of Karanj fruit hulls char (KFH-char) was investigated with thermogravimetry analysis (TGA). The TGA outlined the char combustion thermographs at a different heating rate and isoconversional methods expressed the combustion kinetics. The Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) methods authenticated the char average activation energy at 62.13 and 68.53kJ/mol respectively, enough to derive the char to burnout. However, the Coats-Redfern method verified the char combustion via complex multi-step mechanism; the second stage mechanism has 135kJ/mol average activation energy. The TGA thermographs and kinetic parameters revealed the adequacy of the KFH-char as fuel substrate than its precursor, Karanj fruit hulls (KFH).
This study examined the combustion profile and kinetics of hydrochar produced from hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) of Karanj fruit hulls (KFH). The HTC-KFH hydrochar combustion kinetics was investigated at 5, 10, and 20°C/min by thermogravimetric analysis. The kinetics model, Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose revealed the combustion kinetics parameters for the extent of conversion from 0.1 to 0.8; the activation energy varies from 114 to 67 kJ/mol respectively. The hydrochar combustion followed multi-steps kinetics; the Coats-Redfern models predicted the activation energies and pre-exponential constants for the hydrochar combustion zones. The diffusion models are the effective mechanism in the second and third zone.
The pyrolysis of oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF) was catalyzed with a steel slag-derived zeolite (FAU-SL) in a slow-heating fixed-bed reactor at 450 °C, 550 °C, and 600 °C. The catalytic pyrolysis of OPMF produced a maximum yield of 47 wt% bio-oil at 550 °C, and the crude pyrolysis vapor (CPV) of this process yielded crude pyrolysis oil with broad distribution of bulky oxygenated organic compounds. The bio-oil composition produced at 550 °C contained mainly light and stable acid-rich carbonyls at a relative abundance of 48.02% peak area and phenolic compounds at 12.03% peak area. The FAU-SL high mesoporosity and strong surface acidity caused the conversion of the bulky CPV molecules into mostly light acid-rich carbonyls and aromatics through secondary reactions. The secondary reactions mechanisms facilitated by FAU-SL reduced the distribution of the organic compounds in the bio-oil to mostly acid-rich carbonyls and aromatic in contrast to other common zeolite.
Oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF) and palm frond (PF) were respectively devolatilized by pyrolysis to OPMF-oil and PF-oil bio-oils and biochars, OPMF-char and PF-char in a slow-heating fixed-bed reactor. In particular, the OPMF-oil and PF-oil were produced to a maximum yield of 48wt% and 47wt% bio-oils at 550°C and 600°C, respectively. The high heating values (HHVs) of OPMF-oil and PF-oil were respectively found to be 23MJ/kg and 21MJ/kg, whereas 24.84MJ/kg and 24.15MJ/kg were for the corresponding biochar. The HHVs of the bio-oils and biochars are associated with low O/C ratios to be higher than those of the corresponding biomass. The Fourier transform infrared spectra and peak area ratios highlighted the effect of pyrolysis temperatures on the bio-oil compositions. The bio-oils are pervaded with numerous oxygenated carbonyl and aromatic compounds as suitable feedstocks for renewable fuels and chemicals.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) produce contrasting plant-soil feedbacks, but how these feedbacks are constrained by lithology is poorly understood. We investigated the hypothesis that lithological drivers of soil fertility filter plant resource economic strategies in ways that influence the relative fitness of trees with AMF or EMF symbioses in a Bornean rain forest containing species with both mycorrhizal strategies. Using forest inventory data on 1245 tree species, we found that although AMF-hosting trees had greater relative dominance on all soil types, with declining lithological soil fertility EMF-hosting trees became more dominant. Data on 13 leaf traits and wood density for a total of 150 species showed that variation was almost always associated with soil type, whereas for six leaf traits (structural properties; carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus ratios, nitrogen isotopes), variation was also associated with mycorrhizal strategy. EMF-hosting species had slower leaf economics than AMF-hosts, demonstrating the central role of mycorrhizal symbiosis in plant resource economies. At the global scale, climate has been shown to shape forest mycorrhizal composition, but here we show that in communities it depends on soil lithology, suggesting scale-dependent abiotic factors influence feedbacks underlying the relative fitness of different mycorrhizal strategies.