A Comparison Between Lime and Alkaline Hydrogen Peroxide Pretreatments of Sugarcane Bagasse for Ethanol Production

Pretreatment procedures of sugarcane bagasse with lime (calcium hydroxide) or alkaline hydrogen peroxide were evaluated and compared. Analyses were performed using 2³ factorial designs, with pretreatment time, temperature, and lime loading and hydrogen peroxide concentration as factors. The responses evaluated were the yield of total reducing sugars (TRS) and glucose released from pretreated bagasse after enzymatic hydrolysis. Experiments were performed using the bagasse, as it comes from an alcohol/sugar factory and bagasse, in the size, range from 0.248 to 1.397 mm (12–60 mesh). The results show that, when hexoses and pentoses are of interest, lime should be the pretreatment agent chosen, as high TRS yields are obtained for non-screened bagasse using 0.40 g lime/g dry biomass at 70 °C for 36 h. When the product of interest is glucose, the best results were obtained with lime pretreatment of screened bagasse. However, the results for alkaline peroxide and lime pretreatments of non-screened bagasse are not very different.     

First principles based group additive values for the gas phase standard entropy and heat capacity of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon radicals

In this work a complete and consistent set of 95 Benson group additive values (GAVs) for standard entropies S(o) and heat capacities C(p)(o) of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon radicals is presented. These GAVs include 46 groups, among which 25 radical groups, which, to the best of our knowledge, have not been reported before. The GAVs have been determined from a set of B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) ideal gas statistical thermodynamics values for 265 species, consistently with previously reported GAVs for standard enthalpies of formation. One-dimensional hindered rotor corrections for all internal rotations are included. The computational methodology has been compared to experimental entropies (298 K) for 39 species, with a mean absolute deviation (MAD) between experiment and calculation of 1.2 J mol(-1) K(-1), and to 46 experimental heat capacities (298 K) with a resulting MAD = 1.8 J mol(-1) K(-1). The constructed database allowed evaluation of corrections on S(o) and C(p)(o) for non-nearest-neighbor effects, which have not been determined previously. The group additive model predicts the S(o) and C(p)(o) within approximately 5 J mol(-1) K(-1) of the ab initio values for 11 of the 14 molecules of the test set, corresponding to an acceptable maximal deviation of a factor of 1.6 on the equilibrium coefficient. The obtained GAVs can be applied for the prediction of S(o) and C(p)(o) for a wide range of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon radicals. The constructed database also allowed determination of a large set of hydrogen bond increments, which can be useful for the prediction of radical thermochemistry.     

Lime Pretreatment and Fermentation of Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Sugarcane Bagasse

Sugarcane bagasse was subjected to lime (calcium hydroxide) pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis for second-generation ethanol production. A central composite factorial design was performed to determine the best combination of pretreatment time, temperature, and lime loading, as well as to evaluate the influence of enzymatic loadings on hydrolysis conversion. The influence of increasing solids loading in the pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis stages was also determined. The hydrolysate was fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisiae in batch and continuous mode. In the continuous fermentation, the hydrolysates were concentrated with molasses. Lime pretreatment significantly increased the enzymatic digestibility of sugarcane bagasse without the need for prior particle size reduction. In the optimal pretreatment conditions (90 h, 90 °C, 0.47 g?lime/g bagasse) and industrially realistic conditions of hydrolysis (12.7 FPU/g of cellulase and 7.3 CBU/g of β-glucosidase), 139.6 kg?lignin/ton raw bagasse and 126.0 kg hemicellulose in the pretreatment liquor per ton raw bagasse were obtained. The hydrolysate from lime pretreated sugarcane bagasse presented low amounts of inhibitors, leading to ethanol yield of 164.1 kg?ethanol/ton raw bagasse.     

Energy transfer in chiral co-assemblies of triple hydrogen-bonded oligo(p-phenylene vinylene)s and porphyrin

Pi-pi stacking of hydrogen-bonded porphyrin and oligo(p-phenylene vinylene)s (OPVs) yields helical co-assemblies which exhibit energy transfer from OPV to porphyrin.     

Independent assessment of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) sample preparation quality: A novel statistical approach for quality scoring

Preparation of samples according to an optimized method is crucial for accurate determination of polymer sample characteristics by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) analysis. Sample preparation conditions such as matrix choice, cationization agent, deposition technique or even the deposition volume should be chosen to suit the sample of interest. Many sample preparation protocols have been developed and employed, yet finding the optimal sample preparation protocol remains a challenge. Because an objective comparison between the results of diverse protocols is not possible, “gut-feeling” or “good enough” is often decisive in the search for an optimum. This implies that sub-optimal protocols are used, leading to a loss of mass spectral information quality. To address this problem a novel analytical strategy based on MALDI imaging and statistical data processing was developed in which eight parameters were formulated to objectively quantify the quality of sample deposition and optimal MALDI matrix composition and finally sum up to an overall quality score of the sample deposition. These parameters can be established in a fully automated way using commercially available mass spectrometry imaging instruments without any hardware adjustments. With the newly developed analytical strategy the highest quality MALDI spots were selected, resulting in more reproducible and more valuable spectra for PEG in a variety of matrices. Moreover, our method enables an objective comparison of sample preparation protocols for any analyte and opens up new fields of investigation by presenting MALDI performance data in a clear and concise way.     

Comparison of stochastic and interval methods for uncertainty quantification of metal forming processes

Various sources of uncertainty can arise in metal forming processes, or their numerical simulation, or both, such as uncertainty in material behavior, process conditions, and geometry. Methods from the domain of uncertainty quantification can help assess the impact of such uncertainty on metal forming processes and their numerical simulation, and they can thus help improve robustness and predictive accuracy. In this paper, we compare stochastic methods and interval methods, two classes of methods receiving broad attention in the domain of uncertainty quantification, through their application to a numerical simulation of a sheet metal forming process.     

Synthesis of poly(2‐oxazoline)s with side chain methyl ester functionalities: Detailed understanding of living copolymerization behavior of methyl ester containing monomers with 2‐alkyl‐2‐oxazolines

Poly(2‐oxazoline)s with methyl ester functionalized side chains are interesting as they can undergo a direct amidation reaction or can be hydrolyzed to the carboxylic acid, making them versatile functional polymers for conjugation. In this work, detailed studies on the homo‐ and copolymerization kinetics of two methyl ester functionalized 2‐oxazoline monomers with 2‐methyl‐2‐oxazoline, 2‐ethyl‐2‐oxazoline, and 2‐n‐propyl‐2‐oxazoline are reported. The homopolymerization of the methyl ester functionalized monomers is found to be faster compared to the alkyl monomers, while copolymerization unexpectedly reveals that the methyl ester containing monomers significantly accelerate the polymerization. A computational study confirms that methyl ester groups increase the electrophilicity of the living chain end, even if they are not directly attached to the terminal residue. Moreover, the electrophilicity of the living chain end is found to be more important than the nucleophilicity of the monomer in determining the rate of propagation. However, the monomer nucleophilicity can be correlated with the different rates of incorporation when two monomers compete for the same chain end, that is, in copolymerizations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 2649–2661     

Relation between QCD parameters on the lattice and in the continuum

The relation between bare and renormalized coupling constants and quark masses in lattice and continuum QCD is investigated with special attention to numerical values. Within the four flavor staggered fermion formulation it appears that coupling values β = 6/g₀² 6.2 are required for a satisfactory incorporation of realistic quarks masses.