The world is confronted with the twin crises of fossil fuel depletion and environmental degradation. The indiscriminate extraction and consumption of fossil fuels have led to a reduction in petroleum reserves. Petroleum based fuels are obtained from limited reserves. These finite reserves are highly concentrated in certain region of the world. Therefore, those countries not having these resources are facing a foreign exchange crisis, mainly due to the import of crude petroleum oil. Hence it is necessary to look for alternative fuels, which can be produced from materials available within the country. Although vegetative oils can be fuel for diesel engines, but their high viscosities, low volatilities and poor cold flow properties have led to the investigation of its various derivatives. Among the different possible sources, fatty acid methyl esters, known as Biodiesel fuel derived from triglycerides (vegetable oil and animal fates) by transesterification with methanol, present the promising alternative substitute to diesel fuels and have received the most attention now a day. The main advantages of using Biodiesel are its renewability, better quality exhaust gas emission, its biodegradability and the organic carbon present in it is photosynthetic in origin. It does not contribute to a rise in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and consequently to the green house effect. This paper reviews the source of production and characterization of vegetable oils and their methyl ester as the substitute of the petroleum fuel and future possibilities of Biodiesel production.

Biodiesel production through the use of different sources and characterization of oils and their esters as the substitute of diesel: A review

A variety of synthetic dyestuffs released by the textile industry pose a threat to environmental safety. Azo dyes account for the majority of all dyestuffs, produced because they are extensively used in the textile, paper, food, leather, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Existing effluent treatment procedures are unable to remove recalcitrant azo dyes completely from effluents because of their color fastness, stability and resistance to degradation. Bacterial decolorization and degradation of azo dyes under certain environmental conditions has gained momentum as a method of treatment, as these are inexpensive, eco-friendly and can be applied to wide range of such dyes. This review mainly focuses on the different mechanisms of decolorization and discusses the effect of various physicochemical parameters on the dye removal efficiency of different bacteria. The enzymatic mechanisms involved in the bacterial degradation of azo dyes, the identification of metabolites by using various analytical techniques, and the nature of their toxicity has been investigated. This review provides an overview of bacterial decolorization/degradation of azo dyes and emphasizes the application of these processes for the treatment of azo dye-containing wastewaters.

Bacterial decolorization and degradation of azo dyes: a review.

Progress in biodiesel processing

Biodiesel, defined as the mono-alkyl esters of vegetable oils or animal fats, is an environmentally attractive alternative to conventional petroleum diesel fuel (petrodiesel). Produced by transesterification with a monohydric alcohol, usually methanol, biodiesel has many important technical advantages over petrodiesel, such as inherent lubricity, low toxicity, derivation from a renewable and domestic feedstock, superior flash point and biodegradability, negligible sulfur content, and lower exhaust emissions. Important disadvantages of biodiesel include high feedstock cost, inferior storage and oxidative stability, lower volumetric energy content, inferior low-temperature operability, and in some cases, higher NO
 x
 exhaust emissions. This review covers the process by which biodiesel is prepared, the types of catalysts that may be used for the production of biodiesel, the influence of free fatty acids on biodiesel production, the use of different monohydric alcohols in the preparation of biodiesel, the influence of biodiesel composition on fuel properties, the influence of blending biodiesel with other fuels on fuel properties, alternative uses for biodiesel, and value-added uses of glycerol, a co-product of biodiesel production. A particular emphasis is placed on alternative feedstocks for biodiesel production. Lastly, future challenges and outlook for biodiesel are discussed.

https://www.biofuelscoproducts.umn.edu/sites/biodieselfeeds.cfans.umn.edu/files/2009-moser-biodiesel_production.pdf

Biodiesel production, properties, and feedstocks

Discovered a little over two decades ago, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs with important roles in gene regulation. They have recently been investigated as novel classes of therapeutic agents for the treatment of a wide range of disorders including cancers and infections. Clinical trials of siRNA- and miRNA-based drugs have already been initiated. siRNAs and miRNAs share many similarities, both are short duplex RNA molecules that exert gene silencing effects at the post-transcriptional level by targeting messenger RNA (mRNA), yet their mechanisms of action and clinical applications are distinct. The major difference between siRNAs and miRNAs is that the former are highly specific with only one mRNA target, whereas the latter have multiple targets. The therapeutic approaches of siRNAs and miRNAs are therefore very different. Hence, this review provides a comparison between therapeutic siRNAs and miRNAs in terms of their mechanisms of action, physicochemical properties, delivery, and clinical applications. Moreover, the challenges in developing both classes of RNA as therapeutics are also discussed.

/pdf/sirna-versus-mirna-as-therapeutics-for-gene-silencing-qbhofq9n7y.pdf

siRNA Versus miRNA as Therapeutics for Gene Silencing

Biodiesel development from rice bran oil: Transesterification process optimization and fuel characterization

Isolation, identification and application of novel bacterial consortium TJ-1 for the decolourization of structurally different azo dyes

Alkali transesterification of linseed oil for biodiesel production

A multiobjective optimization technique has been developed for free radical bulk 

polymerization reactors using genetic algorithm. The polymerization of methyl methacrylate in a batch 

reactor has been studied as an example. The two objective functions which are minimized are the total 

reaction time and the polydispersity index of the polymer product. Simultaneously, end-point 

constraints are incorporated to attain desired values of the monomer conversion (x m ) and 

the number average chain length (μ n ). A nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA) 

has been adapted to obtain the optimal control variable (temperature) history. It has been shown that 

the optimal solution converges to a unique point and no Pareto set is obtained. It has been observed 

that the optimal solution obtained using the NSGA for multiobjective function optimization compares 

very well with the solution obtained using the simple genetic algorithm (SGA) for a single objective 

function optimization problem, in which only the total reaction time is minimized and the two 

end-point constraints on x m and μ n are satisfied.

Sanjeev Garg

Papers

Biodiesel development from rice bran oil: Transesterification process optimization and fuel characterization

Isolation, identification and application of novel bacterial consortium TJ-1 for the decolourization of structurally different azo dyes

Alkali transesterification of linseed oil for biodiesel production

Multiobjective optimization of a free radical bulk polymerization reactor using genetic algorithm

Application of a novel bacterial consortium for mineralization of sulphonated aromatic amines