The replacement of fossil resources that currently provide more than 90% of our energy needs and feedstocks of the chemical industry in combination with reduced emission of carbon dioxide is one of the most pressing challenges of mankind. Biomass as a globally available resource has been proposed as an alternative feedstock for production of basic building blocks, which could partially or even fully replace the currently utilized fossil-based ones in well-established chemical processes. The destruction of lignocellulosic feed followed by oxygen removal from its cellulose and hemicellulose content by catalytic processes results in the formation of initial platform chemicals (IPCs). However, their sustainable production strongly depends on the availability of resources, their efficient or even industrially viable conversion processes, and replenishment time of feedstocks. Herein, we overview recent advances and developments in catalytic transformations of the carbohydrate content of lignocellulosic biomass ...

Catalytic Conversion of Carbohydrates to Initial Platform Chemicals: Chemistry and Sustainability

The primary intention of this review is to showcase and quantify the level of research interest and current research trends concerning UF membrane applications and processes within the past decade (2009–2018). Detected statistics revealed a resurgent interest in the UF technology on a yearly basis. "Journal of Membrane Science" and "Desalination and Water Treatment" were the primary journals dominating the size of the annual publication output among more than 120 journals, with 854 and 683 papers, respectively. Based on the ScienceDirect research platform, fouling (27 %), modelling (17 %) and wastewater (12 %) were the dominant research topics and accounted for more than half of the total scientific articles published (4547 articles) within the specified period of the research. Unsurprisingly, topics like UF membrane fabrication and modification, food processing, and hybrid membrane process have revealed a growing trend in terms of annual publications. The current review revealed the present-day significance of UF membranes along with their prospective opportunities for attaining sustainability in water industries and materializing the efforts of future researchers in the right direction.

https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53822/Download/53822__16871__c261762051704e6ca31daf8fee70c51b.pdf

Ultrafiltration membranes for wastewater and water process engineering: A comprehensive statistical review over the past decade

Gluconic acid: Properties, production methods and applications-An excellent opportunity for agro-industrial by-products and waste bio-valorization

Synergy of biofuel production with waste remediation along with value-added co-products recovery through microalgae cultivation: A review of membrane-integrated green approach.

Fungal glucose oxidase (GOD) is widely employed in the different sectors of food industries for use in baking products, dry egg powder, beverages, and gluconic acid production. GOD also has several other novel applications in chemical, pharmaceutical, textile and other biotechnological industries. The electrochemical suitability of GOD catalyzed reactions has enabled its successful use in bioelectronic devices, particularly biofuel cells, and biosensors. Other crucial aspects of GOD such as improved feeding efficiency in response to GOD supplemental diet, roles in antimicrobial activities and enhancing pathogen defense response, thereby providing induced resistance in plants have also been reported. Moreover, the medical science, another emerging branch where GOD was recently reported to induce several apoptosis characteristics as well as cellular senescence by downregulating Klotho gene expression. These widespread applications of GOD have led to increased demand for more extensive research to improve its production, characterization, and enhanced stability to enable long term usages. Currently, GOD is mainly produced and purified from Aspergillus niger and Penicillium species, but the yield is relatively low and the purification process is troublesome. It is practical to build an excellent GOD-producing strain. Therefore, the present review describes innovative methods of enhancing fungal GOD production by using genetic and non-genetic approaches in-depth along with purification techniques. The review also highlights current research progress in the cost effective production of GOD, including key advances, potential applications and limitations. Therefore, there is an extensive need to commercialize these processes by developing and optimizing novel strategies for cost effective GOD production.

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Improvement Strategies, Cost Effective Production, and Potential Applications of Fungal Glucose Oxidase (GOD): Current Updates.

In view of the huge application potential of gluconic acid and its derivatives, this manuscript critically reviews literature of the last thirty years on evolution of production processes of this important organic acid for the purpose of directing further research towards process intensification for innovative green processes. Fermentative process and catalytic oxidation are found to be the two basic approaches in production of gluconic acid. In both the approaches, downstream purification involves several steps such as centrifugation, carbon adsorption, evaporation, crystallization and ion-exchange. Cost-effective and eco-friendly production of high purity gluconic acid has remained a challenge, mainly due to involvement of multiple downstream processing units and their associated energy consumption and cost factors. In the recent years, possibility of integration of tailor-made and highly selective membranes and modules with fermenter in downstream purification of gluconic acid appears to have brightened the prospects of gluconic acid manufacture. This paper through a comprehensive review of the critical aspects of production of gluconic acid suggests ways towards development of green processes through process intensification leading to the prospects of sustainable business.

Manufacture of gluconic acid: A review towards process intensification for green production

Gluconic acid was produced through microbial conversion of hydrolyzed sugarcane juice by Gluconobacter oxydans in a multi-stage membrane-integrated hybrid reactor system. Provision of continuous production, withdrawal of product, separation and recycle of cells, separation and recycle of unconverted sugars to the fermentation unit in the system, resulted in high concentration (44.7 g/L), yield (0.94 g/g), productivity (6.5 g/L/h) and purity (∼97%) of the product in a very simple, eco-friendly, modular and compact membrane-based process. The product could be further concentrated up to 540 g/L using an additional nanofiltration step. Integration of downstream membrane separation with conventional fermenter culminated in a highly intensified green process. This work focuses on analysis of process intensification and eco-friendliness factors like space intensification, energy intensification, capacity flexibility, economic gain, E-factor and atom efficiency to assess business sustainability of the membrane-based process.

Fermentative production of gluconic acid in membrane-integrated hybrid reactor system: Analysis of process intensification

On integrating downstream membrane based separation modules with conventional fermentation unit, gluconic acid representing a class of industrially important organic acids could be produced from fermentation of sugar cane juice—a renewable cheap carbon source in an environmentally benign process. Using Gluconobacter oxydans as microbial agents in the bioconversion, the membrane-integrated hybrid fermentation system succeeded in producing 93 g/L gluconic acid of 98% purity with yield of 0.94 g/g and productivity of 6.7 g/L/h. The system performance parameters establish superiority of this novel technology over the existing ones. Against the overwhelmingly practiced batch or semi-batch processes involving multiple energy-intensive unit operations, this continuous production scheme ensures efficient bio-conversion without substrate–product inhibitions in a quite simplified plant characterized by high degree of process intensification.

Fermentative production of gluconic acid: A membrane-integrated Green process

A response surface method was used to optimize the purification and concentration of gluconic acid from fermentation broth using an integrated membrane system. Gluconobacter oxydans was used for the bioconversion of the glucose in sugarcane juice to gluconic acid (concentration 45 g∙L–1) with a yield of 0.9 g∙g–1. The optimum operating conditions, such as trans-membrane pressure (TMP), pH, cross-flow rate (CFR) and initial gluconic acid concentration, were determined using response surface methodology. Five different types of polyamide nanofiltration membranes were screened and the best performing one was then used for downstream purification of gluconic acid in a flat sheet cross-flow membrane module. Under the optimum conditions (TMP = 12 bar and CFR = 400 L∙h–1), this membrane retained more than 85% of the unconverted glucose from the fermentation broth and had a gluconic acid permeation rate of 88% with a flux of 161 L∙m–2∙h–1. Using response surface methods to optimize this green nanofiltration process is an effective way of controlling the production of gluconic acid so that an efficient separation with high flux is obtained.

Purification and concentration of gluconic acid from an integrated fermentation and membrane process using response surface optimized conditions

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI/MS/MS) for the concomitant quantification of active plant constituents, namely quercetin and piperine, in rat plasma was developed and validated to assess pharmacokinetics after a single oral administration. Liquid-liquid extraction technique with ethyl acetate and n-hexane (1 : 1) was used, and fisetin was added as an internal standard (IS). Effective chromatographic separation of quercetin, piperine and IS was executed on a Waters Acquity BEH C18 column (50.0 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) using formic acid both (0.1% w/v) in water (A) and acetonitrile (B) as the mobile phase in gradient mode. For detection purposes, positive electrospray ionization (ESI) mode was used with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode for estimation using [M + H]+ fragment ions m/z 303.04 → 152.9 for quercetin, 286.12 → 201.04 for piperine and 287.01 → 136.93 for IS. The method was linear over the calibration range of 0.1-200 ng mL-1. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of quercetin and piperine was obtained as 0.1 ng mL-1 in rat plasma, along with negligible matrix effect and acceptable stability. Furthermore, the bioanalytical method was successfully implemented to determine the pharmacokinetic profiles of quercetin-and piperine-enriched nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) in rat plasma after oral administration. The enhancement in the oral bioavailability of quercetin and piperine was 20.72 and 4.67 fold, respectively, compared to their native pristine dispersions. Future exploration of the concentrations of these active constituents in human plasma and organs is feasible using this sensitive, validated UPLC/ESI/MS/MS method.

A sensitive UPLC/ESI/MS/MS method for concomitant quantification of active plant constituent combinations in rat plasma after single oral administration.

Subhamay Banerjee

Papers

Manufacture of gluconic acid: A review towards process intensification for green production

Fermentative production of gluconic acid in membrane-integrated hybrid reactor system: Analysis of process intensification

Fermentative production of gluconic acid: A membrane-integrated Green process

Purification and concentration of gluconic acid from an integrated fermentation and membrane process using response surface optimized conditions

A sensitive UPLC/ESI/MS/MS method for concomitant quantification of active plant constituent combinations in rat plasma after single oral administration.