Sustainable Co‐Synthesis of Glycolic Acid,Formamides and Formates from 1,3‐Dihydroxyacetone by a Cu/Al2O3 Catalyst with a Single Active Sites

Glycolic acid (GA), as important building block of biodegradable polymers, has been synthesized for the first time in excellent yields at room temperature by selective oxidation of 1,3‐dihyroxyacetone (DHA) using a cheap supported Cu/Al₂O₃ catalyst with single active Cu^II species. By combining EPR spin‐trapping and operando ATR‐IR experiments, different mechanisms for the co‐synthesis of GA, formates, and formamides have been derived, in which ^.OH radicals formed from H₂O₂ by a Fenton‐like reaction play a key role.     

Valorization of Food and Agricultural Waste: A Step towards Greener Future

With the progress in technology and population, an enormous amount of agricultural and food waste is being generated throughout the world. In the past, food and agro‐wastes were either burnt off or allowed to rot in fields, but this can be potentially hazardous to the environment. Therefore, approaches with respect to their utilization, reuse, and processing need to be developed to enable the sustainable utilization of feedstock and reduce pollution. Agricultural wastes mainly comprise of cellulosic fibres possessing high fixed carbon content and multifunctional groups. Agricultural waste shows considerable applicability due to its high strength, environmentally benign nature, low cost, and ease of availability and reusability. All these characteristics have been researched upon in the past, in the sector of waste water management for the removal of heavy metals and dyes. Similarly, a variety of food and agro‐waste has been adopted as sources for new drug leads or important phytochemicals with different therapeutic benefits. Agro‐waste can also be employed for enzyme immobilization after proper modification. Apart from this waste cooking oil comes under the category of food waste and can be processed to prepare alternate energy source such as biodiesel. This personal account summarizes the development, processing, and application of food and agro‐waste in the production of biodiesel, environmental remediation, curative medicine, and in the development of biocatalysts, by researchers in our laboratory.     

生物质表面活性剂研究进展

生物质表面活性剂因其原料来源广泛、可再生、无污染等优点,已成为替代石油基表面活性剂的最优选择。目前,生物质类表面活性剂主要以天然脂类、糖类、蛋白质和生物质酚类等物质为原料制备而成,因其特殊的"两亲性"结构,使其具有良好的分散、乳化、增稠、絮凝以及独特的生理等性能,在食品、医疗、日用化学品等行业有较大的应用优势。本文以表面活性剂的发展方向为出发点,综述了以生物质为基础制备表面活性剂的研究进展,展望了生物质表面活性剂的发展方向。     

以制浆造纸产业为平台的生物炼制新模式

本文通过分析木质生物质炼制与制浆造纸工业之间的关系,提出以制浆造纸产业为平台的生物炼制模式。在蒸煮制浆前,增加对原料预抽提处理,提取半纤维素等成分用于生产乙醇燃料和（或）其他化工化学品,抽提残渣则采用传统化学法、高得率法或有机溶剂法制浆,实现植物纤维原料多组分分离综合利用。该模式给制浆造纸产业提供一条可持续发展的新思路。     

Decolorization of ranocid fast blue dye by bacterial consortium SV5

Synthetic dyes are not uniformly susceptible to degradation in conventional wastewater treatment processes. A number of biotechnological processes have been suggested as of potential interest in combating these pollutants in an ecofriendly manner. We determined the optimal parameters necessary for the bacterial consortium SV5 to decolorize Ranocid Fast Blue dye. The best results were obtained with a 0.1% (w/v) concentration of both starch and yeast extract supplemented in Bushnell Hass Medium under static conditions at a temperature of 37°C in less than 24 h with an initial dye concentration of 100 ppm.     

生物质能源开发——甘蔗渣制燃料酒精

应用两步水解法对甘蔗渣进行糖化。考察了FeCl_3,Fe_2(SO_4)_3,MgCl_2,HCl,H_2SO_4等不同水解催化剂对甘蔗渣水解产糖率的影响。发现不论在常压和加压下,FeCl_3和HCl的混合液对甘蔗渣均具有良好的催化作用。实验考察了一步水解和二步水解的最佳工艺条件,表明两步水解后可将甘蔗渣中87.87%的可水解物转化为原糖。本文还研究了影响水解液发酵的因素,发现用水解液培养后的酵母的发酵能力明显高于未经培养的。发酵的最佳pH值是3.6,酵母用量为水解液的1.33%。此时酒精产率最高,可达理论值的64.86%,即可将29%的可水解物转化为酒精。     

纤维素、木质素对生物质与煤混烧特性的影响

利用热重红外分析仪着重分析了生物质中纤维素和木质素含量对混合热解及混烧特性的影响.生物质与煤的混合热解相比于纯煤的单一热解失重明显较大较快,并且纤维素含量越高,混合燃料失重越大;木质素含量较高,则混合燃料失重较慢.当燃烧温度为300～400℃之间时,混合燃料中纤维素含量越高,质量下降幅度越大;当燃烧温度为500～700℃之间时,混合燃料中则是木质素含量越高,质量下降幅度越大.     

Fuzzy modelling of a moving grate biomass furnace for simulation and control purposes

Takagi–Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models are developed for a moving grate biomass furnace for the purpose of simulating and predicting the main process output variables, which are heat output, oxygen concentration of flue gas, and temperature of flue gas. Numerous approaches to modelling biomass furnaces have been proposed in the literature. Usually their objective is to simulate the furnace as accurately as possible. Hence, very complex model architectures are utilized which are not suited for applications like model predictive control. TS fuzzy models are able to approximate the global non-linear behaviour of a moving grate biomass furnace by interpolating between local linear, time-invariant models. The fuzzy partitions of the individual TS fuzzy models are constructed by an axis-orthogonal, incremental partitioning scheme. Validation results with measured process data demonstrate the excellent performance of the developed fuzzy models.