Displaying all 11 publications

Abstract:
Sort:
  1. Harun S, Balan V, Takriff MS, Hassan O, Jahim J, Dale BE
    PMID: 23514037 DOI: 10.1186/1754-6834-6-40
    It is widely believed that reducing the lignocellulosic biomass particle size would improve the biomass digestibility by increasing the total surface area and eliminating mass and heat transfer limitation during hydrolysis reactions. However, past studies demonstrate that particle size influences biomass digestibility to a limited extent. Thus, this paper studies the effect of particle size (milled: 2 mm, 5 mm, cut: 2 cm and 5 cm) on rice straw conversion. Two different Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) pretreament conditions, AFEX C1 (low severity) and AFEX C2 (high severity) are used to pretreat the rice straw (named as AC1RS and AC2RS substrates respectively) at different particle size.
  2. Pua FL, Fang Z, Zakaria S, Guo F, Chia CH
    PMID: 22145867 DOI: 10.1186/1754-6834-4-56
    Solid acid catalyst was prepared from Kraft lignin by chemical activation with phosphoric acid, pyrolysis and sulfuric acid. This catalyst had high acid density as characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDX) and Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller (BET) method analyses. It was further used to catalyze the esterification of oleic acid and one-step conversion of non-pretreated Jatropha oil to biodiesel. The effects of catalyst loading, reaction temperature and oil-to-methanol molar ratio, on the catalytic activity of the esterification were investigated.
  3. Radzun KA, Wolf J, Jakob G, Zhang E, Stephens E, Ross I, et al.
    PMID: 25984234 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-015-0238-7
    BACKGROUND: Microalgae provide an excellent platform for the production of high-value-products and are increasingly being recognised as a promising production system for biomass, animal feeds and renewable fuels.

    RESULTS: Here, we describe an automated screen, to enable high-throughput optimisation of 12 nutrients for microalgae production. Its miniaturised 1,728 multiwell format allows multiple microalgae strains to be simultaneously screened using a two-step process. Step 1 optimises the primary elements nitrogen and phosphorous. Step 2 uses Box-Behnken analysis to define the highest growth rates within the large multidimensional space tested (Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Se, V, Si) at three levels (-1, 0, 1). The highest specific growth rates and maximum OD750 values provide a measure for continuous and batch culture.

    CONCLUSION: The screen identified the main nutrient effects on growth, pairwise nutrient interactions (for example, Ca-Mg) and the best production conditions of the sampled statistical space providing the basis for a targeted full factorial screen to assist with optimisation of algae production.

  4. Phwan CK, Chew KW, Sebayang AH, Ong HC, Ling TC, Malek MA, et al.
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2019;12:191.
    PMID: 31384298 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-019-1533-5
    Background: Microalgae are one of the promising feedstock that consists of high carbohydrate content which can be converted into bioethanol. Pre-treatment is one of the critical steps required to release fermentable sugars to be used in the microbial fermentation process. In this study, the reducing sugar concentration of Chlorella species was investigated by pre-treating the biomass with dilute sulfuric acid and acetic acid at different concentrations 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, and 9% (v/v).

    Results: 3,5-Dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method, FTIR, and GC-FID were employed to evaluate the reducing sugar concentration, functional groups of alcohol bonds and concentration of bioethanol, respectively. The two-way ANOVA results (p 

  5. Leong HY, Chang CK, Khoo KS, Chew KW, Chia SR, Lim JW, et al.
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2021 Apr 07;14(1):87.
    PMID: 33827663 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-021-01939-5
    Global issues such as environmental problems and food security are currently of concern to all of us. Circular bioeconomy is a promising approach towards resolving these global issues. The production of bioenergy and biomaterials can sustain the energy-environment nexus as well as substitute the devoid of petroleum as the production feedstock, thereby contributing to a cleaner and low carbon environment. In addition, assimilation of waste into bioprocesses for the production of useful products and metabolites lead towards a sustainable circular bioeconomy. This review aims to highlight the waste biorefinery as a sustainable bio-based circular economy, and, therefore, promoting a greener environment. Several case studies on the bioprocesses utilising waste for biopolymers and bio-lipids production as well as bioprocesses incorporated with wastewater treatment are well discussed. The strategy of waste biorefinery integrated with circular bioeconomy in the perspectives of unravelling the global issues can help to tackle carbon management and greenhouse gas emissions. A waste biorefinery-circular bioeconomy strategy represents a low carbon economy by reducing greenhouse gases footprint, and holds great prospects for a sustainable and greener world.
  6. Yew GY, Chew KW, Malek MA, Ho YC, Chen WH, Ling TC, et al.
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2019;12:252.
    PMID: 31666807 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-019-1591-8
    Background: The extraction of lipids from microalgae requires a pretreatment process to break the cell wall and subsequent extraction processes to obtain the lipids for biofuels production. The multistep operation tends to incur high costs and are energy intensive due to longer process operations. This research work applies the combination of radicals from hydrogen peroxide with an organic solvent as a chemical pretreatment method for disrupting the cell wall of microalgae and simultaneously extracting lipids from the biomass in a one-step biphasic solution.

    Result: Several parameters which can affect the biphasic system were analyzed: contact time, volume of solvent, volume ratio, type of organic solvent, biomass amount and concentration of solvents, to extract the highest amount of lipids from microalgae. The results were optimized and up to 83.5% of lipid recovery yield and 94.6% of enhancement was successfully achieved. The results obtain from GC-FID were similar to the analysis of triglyceride lipid standard.

    Conclusion: The profound hybrid biphasic system shows great potential to radically disrupt the cell wall of microalgae and instantaneously extract lipids in a single-step approach. The lipids extracted were tested to for its comparability to biodiesel performance.

  7. Hossain N, Mahlia TMI, Saidur R
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2019;12:125.
    PMID: 31139255 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-019-1465-0
    Background: Microalgae have been experimented as a potential feedstock for biofuel generation in current era owing to its' rich energy content, inflated growth rate, inexpensive culture approaches, the notable capacity of CO2 fixation, and O2 addition to the environment. Currently, research is ongoing towards the advancement of microalgal-biofuel technologies. The nano-additive application has been appeared as a prominent innovation to meet this phenomenon.

    Main text: The main objective of this study was to delineate the synergistic impact of microalgal biofuel integrated with nano-additive applications. Numerous nano-additives such as nano-fibres, nano-particles, nano-tubes, nano-sheets, nano-droplets, and other nano-structures' applications have been reviewed in this study to facilitate microalgae growth to biofuel utilization. The present paper was intended to comprehensively review the nano-particles preparing techniques for microalgae cultivation and harvesting, biofuel extraction, and application of microalgae-biofuel nano-particles blends. Prospects of solid nano-additives and nano-fluid applications in the future on microalgae production, microalgae biomass conversion to biofuels as well as enhancement of biofuel combustion for revolutionary advancement in biofuel technology have been demonstrated elaborately by this review. This study also highlighted the potential biofuels from microalgae, numerous technologies, and conversion processes. Along with that, the study recounted suitability of potential microalgae candidates with an integrated design generating value-added co-products besides biofuel production.

    Conclusions: Nano-additive applications at different stages from microalgae culture to end-product utilization presented strong possibility in mercantile approach as well as positive impact on the environment along with valuable co-products generation into the near future.

  8. Taheripour F, Tyner WE
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2020;13:11.
    PMID: 31988663 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-020-1650-1
    Background: It has been argued that the US biofuel policy is responsible for the land use changes in Malaysia and Indonesia (M&I). In this paper, following a short literature review that highlights the relevant topics and issues, we develop analytical and numerical analyses to evaluate the extent to which production of biofuels in the US alters land use in M&I. The analytical analyses make it clear that market-mediated responses may generate some land use change in M&I due to biofuel production in the US. These analyses highlight the role of substitution among vegetable oils in linking these economies in markets for vegetable oils. To numerically quantify these effects, we modified and used a well-known Computable General Equilibrium model (CGE), GTAP-BIO. We conducted some sensitivity tests as well.

    Results: According to the simulation results obtained from two base case scenarios for corn ethanol and soy biodiesel, we find that producing 15 BGs of corn ethanol and 2 BGs gallons of soy biodiesel together could potentially increase area of cropland in M&I by 59.6 thousand hectares. That is less than 0.5% of the cropland expansion in M&I for the time period of 2000-2016, when biofuel production increased in the US. The original GTAP-BIO model parameters including the regional substitution rates among vegetable oils were used for the base case scenarios. The estimated induced land use change (ILUC) emissions values for corn ethanol and soy biodiesel are about 12.3 g CO2e MJ-1, 17.5 g CO2e MJ-1 for the base case scenarios. The share of M&I in the estimated ILUC emissions value for corn ethanol is 10.9%. The corresponding figure for soy biodiesel is much higher, 78%. The estimated ILUC emissions value for soy biodiesel is sensitive with respect to the changes in the regional rates of substitution elasticity among vegetable oils. That is not the case for corn ethanol. When we replaced the original substitution elasticities of the base case, which are very large (i.e., 5 or 10) for many regions, with a small and uniform rate of substitution (i.e., 0.5) across the world, the ILUC emissions value for soy biodiesel drops from 17.5 g CO2e MJ-1 to 10.16 g CO2e MJ-1. When we applied larger substitution elasticities among vegetable oils, the estimated ILUC emissions value for soy biodiesel converged towards the base case results. This suggests that, other factors being equal, the base case substitution elasticities provide the largest possible ILUC emissions value for soy biodiesel. Finally, our analyses clearly indicate that those analyses that limit their modeling framework to only palm and soy oil and ignore other types of vegetable oils and fats provide misleading information and exaggerate about the land use implications of the US biofuels for M&I.

    Conclusion: (1) Production of biofuels in the US generates some land use effects in M&I due to market-mediated responses, in particular through the links between markets for vegetable oils. These effects are minor compared to the magnitude of land use change in M&I. However, because of the high carbon intensity of the peatland the emissions fraction of M&I is larger, in particular for soy biodiesel. (2) The GTAP-BIO model implemented a set of regional substitution elasticities among vegetable oils that, other factors being equal, provides the largest possible ILUC emissions value for soy biodiesel. (3) With a larger substitution elasticity among all types of vegetable oils and animal fats in the US, less land use changes occur in M&I. That is due to the fact that a larger substitution elasticity among vegetable oils in the US, diverts a larger portion of the additional demand for soy oil to non-palm vegetable oils and animal fats that are produced either in the US or regions other than M&I. (4) Those analyses that limit their modeling framework to only palm and soy oils and ignore other types of vegetable oils and fats provide misleading information and exaggerate about the land use implications of the US biofuels for M&I.

  9. Amin L, Hashim H, Mahadi Z, Ibrahim M, Ismail K
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2017;10:219.
    PMID: 28932261 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-017-0908-8
    BACKGROUND: Concern about the inevitable depletion of global energy resources is rising and many countries are shifting their focus to renewable energy. Biodiesel is one promising energy source that has garnered much public attention in recent years. Many believe that this alternative source of energy will be able to sustain the need for increased energy security while at the same time being friendly to the environment. Public opinion, as well as proactive measures by key players in industry, may play a decisive role in steering the direction of biodiesel development throughout the world. Past studies have suggested that public acceptance of biofuels could be shaped by critical consideration of the risk-benefit perceptions of the product, in addition to the impact on the economy and environment.

    RESULTS: The purpose of this study was to identify the relevant factors influencing stakeholders' attitudes towards biodiesel derived from crops such as palm oil for vehicle use, as well as to analyse the interrelationships of these factors in an attitude model. A survey of 509 respondents, consisting of various stakeholder groups in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia, was undertaken. The results of the study have substantiated the premise that the most important direct predictor of attitude to biodiesel is the perceived benefits (β = 0.80, p 

  10. Chan CS, Sin LL, Chan KG, Shamsir MS, Manan FA, Sani RK, et al.
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2016;9(1):174.
    PMID: 27555880 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-016-0587-x
    In general, biofuel production involves biomass pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification, followed by the subsequent sugar conversion to biofuel via fermentation. The crucial step in the production of biofuel from biomass is the enzymatic saccharification. Many of the commercial cellulase enzyme cocktails, such as Spezyme(®) CP (Genencor), Acellerase™ 1000 (Genencor), and Celluclast(®) 1.5L (Novozymes), are ineffectively to release free glucose from the pretreated biomass without additional β-glucosidase.
  11. Ang TN, Ngoh GC, Chua AS, Lee MG
    Biotechnol Biofuels, 2012 Sep 07;5(1):67.
    PMID: 22958710 DOI: 10.1186/1754-6834-5-67
    BACKGROUND: In the present study, three ionic liquids, namely 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM]OAc), and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium diethyl phosphate ([EMIM]DEP), were used to partially dissolve rice husk, after which the cellulose were regenerated by the addition of water. The aim of the investigation is to examine the implications of the ionic liquid pretreatments on rice husk composition and structure.

    RESULTS: From the attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform-infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results, the regenerated cellulose were more amorphous, less crystalline, and possessed higher structural disruption compared with untreated rice husk. The major component of regenerated cellulose from [BMIM]Cl and [EMIM]DEP pretreatments was cellulose-rich material, while cellulose regenerated from [EMIM]OAc was a matrix of cellulose and lignin. Cellulose regenerated from ionic pretreatments could be saccharified via enzymatic hydrolysis, and resulted in relatively high reducing sugars yields, whereas enzymatic hydrolysis of untreated rice husk did not yield reducing sugars. Rice husk residues generated from the ionic liquid pretreatments had similar chemical composition and amorphousity to that of untreated rice husk, but with varying extent of surface disruption and swelling.

    CONCLUSIONS: The structural architecture of the regenerated cellulose and rice husk residues showed that they could be used for subsequent fermentation or derivation of cellulosic compounds. Therefore, ionic liquid pretreatment is an alternative in the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass in addition to the conventional chemical pretreatments.

Related Terms
Filters
Contact Us

Please provide feedback to Administrator (afdal@afpm.org.my)

External Links