Process Development for the Detoxification of Fermentation Inhibitors from Acid Pretreated Microalgae Hydrolysate

The aim of this study was to remove 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) and furfural, known as fermentation inhibitors, in acid pretreated hydrolysates (APH) obtained from Scenedesmus obliquus using activated carbon. Microwave-assisted pretreatment was used to produce APH containing glucose, xylose, and fermentation inhibitors (5-HMF, furfural). The response surface methodology was applied to optimize key detoxification variables such as temperature (16.5–58.5 °C), time (0.5–5.5 h), and solid–liquid (S-L) ratio of activated carbon (0.6–7.4 w/v%). Three variables showed significant effects on the removal of fermentation inhibitors. The optimum detoxification conditions with the maximum removal of fermentation inhibitors and the minimum loss of sugars (glucose and xylose) were as follows: temperature of 36.6 °C, extraction time of 3.86 h, and S-L ratio of 3.3 w/v%. Under these conditions, removal of 5-HMF, furfural, and sugars were 71.6, 83.1, and 2.44%, respectively, which agreed closely with the predicted values. When the APH and detoxified APH were used for ethanol fermentation by S. cerevisiae, the ethanol produced was 38.5% and 84.5% of the theoretical yields, respectively, which confirmed that detoxification using activated carbon was effective in removing fermentation inhibitors and increasing fermentation yield without significant removal of fermentable sugars.     

Photometric, colorimetric, and acid-base characteristics of nitroso-R-salt

Optical and colorimetric characteristics of 1-nitroso-2-naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid (nitroso-R-salt) are studied in aqueous solutions at pH 4–10. Equations of calibration plots are obtained as the colorimetric functions of the concentration, and the molar coefficients of the colorimetric functions are calculated. The dissociation constants of nitroso-R-salt are determined by colorimetry at an ionic strength of 0.1–0.5, reduced to zero ionic strength, and compared with the literature data. Advantages of colorimetry over spectrophotometry in the determination of the dissociation constants of colored reagents are demonstrated.     

A robust variant of the method of contracting compacta

There is presented a modified method of contracting compacta that gives an estimate of the error of approximate solutions of certain ill-posed problems in the case when all initial data are measured with a preassigned exactness.Translated from Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 43, No. 12, pp. 1693–1696, December, 1991.