Synthesis, structure and properties of polyhydroxyalkanoates: biological polyesters

Enzyme biocatalysis plays a very relevant role in the development of many chemical industries, e.g., energy, food or fine chemistry. To achieve this goal, enzyme immobilization is a usual pre-requisite as a solution to get reusable biocatalysts and thus decrease the price of this relatively expensive compound. However, a proper immobilization technique may permit far more than to get a reusable enzyme; it may be used to improve enzyme performance by improving some enzyme limitations: enzyme purity, stability (including the possibility of enzyme reactivation), activity, specificity, selectivity, or inhibitions. Among the diverse immobilization techniques, the use of pre-existing supports to immobilize enzymes (via covalent or physical coupling) and the immobilization without supports [enzyme crosslinked aggregates (CLEAs) or crystals (CLECs)] are the most used or promising ones. This paper intends to give the advantages and disadvantages of the different existing immobilization strategies to solve the different aforementioned enzyme limitations. Moreover, the use of nanoparticles as immobilization supports is achieving an increasing importance, as the nanoparticles versatility increases and becomes more accessible to the researchers. We will also discuss here some of the advantages and drawbacks of these non porous supports compared to conventional porous supports. Although there are no universal optimal solutions for all cases, we will try to give some advice to select the optimal strategy for each particular enzyme and process, considering the enzyme properties, nature of the process and of the substrate. In some occasions the selection will be compulsory, for example due to the nature of the substrate. In other cases the optimal biocatalyst may depend on the company requirements (e.g., volumetric activity, enzyme stability, etc).

Potential of Different Enzyme Immobilization Strategies to Improve Enzyme Performance

A review on pyrolysis of plastic wastes

Pretreatment methods to improve sludge anaerobic degradability: a review.

There has been an enormous amount of research in recent years in the area of thermo-chemical conversion of biomass into bio-fuels (bio-oil, bio-char and bio-gas) through pyrolysis technology due to its several socio-economic advantages as well as the fact it is an efficient conversion method compared to other thermo-chemical conversion technologies. However, this technology is not yet fully developed with respect to its commercial applications. In this study, more than two hundred publications are reviewed, discussed and summarized, with the emphasis being placed on the current status of pyrolysis technology and its potential for commercial applications for bio-fuel production. Aspects of pyrolysis technology such as pyrolysis principles, biomass sources and characteristics, types of pyrolysis, pyrolysis reactor design, pyrolysis products and their characteristics and economics of bio-fuel production are presented. It is found from this study that conversion of biomass to bio-fuel has to overcome challenges such as understanding the trade-off between the size of the pyrolysis plant and feedstock, improvement of the reliability of pyrolysis reactors and processes to become viable for commercial applications. Further study is required to achieve a better understanding of the economics of biomass pyrolysis for bio-fuel production, as well as resolving issues related to the capabilities of this technology in practical application.

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1011788.pdf

Biofuels production through biomass pyrolysis - a technological review.

Prediction of the performance of preparative affinity chromatography.

Purification of proteins by adsorption chromatography in expanded beds

This paper presents an extensive review of the scientific literature associated with various microwave pyrolysis applications in waste to energy engineering. It was established that microwave-heated pyrolysis processes offer a number of advantages over other processes that use traditional thermal heat sources. In particular, microwave-heated processes show a distinct advantage in providing rapid and energy-efficient heating compared to conventional technologies, and thus facilitating increased production rates. It can also be established that the pyrolysis process offers an exciting way to recover both the energetic and chemical value of the waste materials by generating potentially useful pyrolysis products suitable for future reuse. Furthermore, this review has revealed good performance of the microwave pyrolysis process when compared to other more conventional methods of operation, indicating that it shows exceptional promise as a means for energy recovery from waste materials. Nonetheless, it was revealed that many important characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis process have yet to be raised or fully investigated. In addition, limited information is available concerning the characteristics of the microwave pyrolysis of waste materials. It was thus concluded that more work is needed to extend existing understanding of these aspects in order to develop improvements to the process to transform it into a commercially viable route to recover energy from waste materials in an environmentally sustainable manner.

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/5/10/4209/pdf

A Review on Waste to Energy Processes Using Microwave Pyrolysis

The authors acknowledges the financial support by Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation Malaysia (MOSTI), Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE), and Universiti Malaysia Terengganu for the conduct of the research under the E-Science fund (UMT/RMC/SF/13/52072(5), Vot no.: 52072), the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (Project no.: FRGS/1/2013/TK05/UMT/02/2, Vot no.: 59296), and the Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (Project no.: RAGS/2012/UMT/TK07/3, Vot no.: 57085).

/pdf/progress-in-waste-oil-to-sustainable-energy-with-emphasis-on-5bn1ashzlk.pdf

Howard A. Chase

Papers

Prediction of the performance of preparative affinity chromatography.

Purification of proteins by adsorption chromatography in expanded beds

A Review on Waste to Energy Processes Using Microwave Pyrolysis

Progress in waste oil to sustainable energy, with emphasis on pyrolysis techniques

Reducing production of excess biomass during wastewater treatment