Investigation of a robust pretreatment technique based on ultrasound-assisted, cost-effective ionic liquid for enhancing saccharification and bioethanol production from wheat straw.

Application of cost-effective pretreatment of wheat straw is an important stage for massive bioethanol production. A new approach is aimed to enhance the pretreatment of wheat straw by using low-cost ionic liquid [TEA][HSO] coupled with ultrasound irradiation. The pretreatment was conducted both at room temperature and at 130 °C with a high biomass loading rate of 20% and 20% wt water assisted by ultrasound at 100 W-24 kHz for 15 and 30 min.

Simultaneous Investigation of Three Effective Parameters of Substrate, Microorganism Type and Reactor Design on Power Generation in a Dual-Chamber Microbial Fuel Cells.

Background: The use of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) has been expanded in recent years due to their ability in producing bioelectricity and treating wastewater simultaneously. However, there are still some obstacles to use MFC on an industrial scale. Regardless of the restriction of electrodes applied in the electron transferring process, there are also some other factors having strong roles in reducing the power density of MFCs.

Energy performance evaluation of ultrasonic pretreatment of organic solid waste in a pilot-scale digester.

It has been proven that ultrasonic pretreatment (UP) has positive effect on biogas generation from previous lab-scale studies. However, that is not always the case in larger scale processes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of UP to biogas generation in terms of anaerobic digestion process and energy efficiency.

Introducing an attractive method for total biomimetic creation of a synthetic biodegradable bioactive bone scaffold based on statistical experimental design.

A new total biomimetic technique based on both the water uptake and degradation processes is introduced in this study to provide an interesting procedure to fabricate a bioactive and biodegradable synthetic scaffold, which has a good mechanical and structural properties. The optimization of effective parameters to scaffold fabrication was done by response surface methodology/central composite design (CCD). With this method, a synthetic scaffold was fabricated which has a uniform and open-interconnected porous structure with the largest pore size of 100-200μm.

Nickel oxide/carbon nanotube/polyaniline nanocomposite as bifunctional anode catalyst for high-performance Shewanella-based dual-chamber microbial fuel cell.

A novel nickel oxide/carbon nanotube/polyaniline (NCP) nanocomposite has been prepared and used to modify the electrocatalytic properties of carbon cloth anode in fabricating dual-chamber MFC. The prepared nanocomposite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The carbon cloth coated with the NCP nanocomposite showed the enhanced electrochemical performance as compared to bare carbon cloth anode.

Variable optimization for biopulping of agricultural residues by Ceriporiopsis subvermispora.

Ceriporiopsis subvermispora was used for biochemical pulping of agricultural residues and the results were compared with chemical pulping. Independent variables were screened by Plackett-Burman and optimized by full factorial experimental designs. Biological treatment of rice, wheat and barley straw samples resulted in decrease of the kappa number of these straws by 34%, 21% and 19%, respectively, as compared with controlled samples.