Cellulase-Producing Bacteria from Thai Higher Termites, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Microcerotermes</Emphasis> sp.: Enzymatic Activities and Ionic Liquid Tolerance

The three highest hydrolysis-capacity-value isolates of Bacillus subtilis (A 002, M 015, and F 018) obtained from Thai higher termites, Microcerotermes sp., under different isolation conditions (aerobic, anaerobic, and anaerobic/aerobic) were tested for cellulase activities—FPase, endoglucanase, and β-glucosidase—at 37 °C and pH 7.2 for 24 h. Their tolerance to an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM]Cl), was also investigated. The results showed that the isolate M 015 provided the highest endoglucanase activity whereas the highest FPase and β-glucosidase activities were observed for the isolate F 018. The isolate F 018 also showed the highest tolerance to [BMIM]Cl in the range of 0.1–1.0 vol.%. In contrast, the isolate A 002 exhibited growth retardation in the presence of 0.5–1.0 vol.% [BMIM]Cl.     

Ethylene Epoxidation over Alumina-Supported Silver Catalysts in Low-Temperature AC Corona Discharge

In this paper, the epoxidation of ethylene over different catalysts—namely Ag/(low-surface-area, LSA)α-Al₂O₃, Ag/(high-surface-area, HSA)γ-Al₂O₃, and Au–Ag/(HSA)γ-Al₂O₃—in a low-temperature corona discharge system was investigated. In a comparison among the studied catalysts, the Ag/(LSA)α-Al₂O₃ catalyst was found to offer the highest selectivity for ethylene oxide, as well as the lowest selectivity for carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The selectivity for ethylene oxide increased with increasing applied voltage, while the selectivity for ethylene oxide remained unchanged when the frequency was varied in the range of 300–500 Hz. Nevertheless, the selectivity for ethylene oxide decreased with increasing frequency beyond 500 Hz. The optimum Ag loading on (LSA)α-Al₂O₃ was found to be 12.5 wt.%, at which a maximum ethylene oxide selectivity of 12.9% was obtained at the optimum applied voltage and input frequency of 15 kV and 500 Hz, respectively. Under these optimum conditions, the power consumption was found to be 12.6 × 10^?16 W s/molecule of ethylene oxide produced. In addition, a low oxygen-to-ethylene molar ratio and a low feed flow rate were also experimentally found to be beneficial for the ethylene epoxidation.     

Reforming of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-Containing Natural Gas Using an AC Gliding Arc System: Effect of Gas Components in Natural Gas

The objective of the present work was to study the reforming of simulated natural gas via the nonthermal plasma process with the focus on the production of hydrogen and higher hydrocarbons. The reforming of simulated natural gas was conducted in an alternating current (AC) gliding arc reactor under ambient conditions. The feed composition of the simulated natural gas contained a CH₄:C₂H₆:C₃H₈:CO₂ molar ratio of 70:5:5:20. To investigate the effects of all gaseous hydrocarbons and CO₂ present in the natural gas, the plasma reactor was operated with different feed compositions: pure CH₄, CH₄/He, CH₄/C₂H₆/He, CH₄/C₂H₆/C₃H₈/He and CH₄/C₂H₆/C₃H₈/CO₂. The results showed that the addition of gas components to the feed strongly influenced the reaction performance and the plasma stability. In comparisons among all the studied feed systems, both hydrogen and C₂ hydrocarbon yields were found to depend on the feed gas composition in the following order: CH₄/C₂H₆/C₃H₈/CO₂ > CH₄/C₂H₆/C₃H₈/He > CH₄/C₂H₆/He > CH₄/He > CH₄. The maximum yields of hydrogen and C₂ products of approximately 35% and 42%, respectively, were achieved in the CH₄/C₂H₆/C₃H₈/CO₂ feed system. In terms of energy consumption for producing hydrogen, the feed system of the CH₄/C₂H₆/C₃H₈/CO₂ mixture required the lowest input energy, in the range of 3.58 × 10⁻¹⁸–4.14 × 10⁻¹⁸ W s (22.35–25.82 eV) per molecule of produced hydrogen.     

Reforming of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-Containing Natural Gas Using an AC Gliding Arc System: Effects of Operational Parameters and Oxygen Addition in Feed

In this research, the reforming of simulated natural gas containing a high CO₂ content under AC non-thermal gliding arc discharge with partial oxidation was conducted at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure, with specific regards to the concept of the direct utilization of natural gas. This work aimed at investigating the effects of applied voltage and input frequency, as well as the effect of adding oxygen on the reaction performance and discharge stability in the reforming of the simulated natural gas having a CH₄:C₂H₆:C₃H₈:CO₂ molar ratio of 70:5:5:20. The results showed marked increases in both CH₄ conversion and product yield with increasing applied voltage and decreasing input frequency. The selectivities for H₂, C₂H₆, C₂H₄, C₄H₁₀, and CO were observed to be enhanced at a higher applied voltage and at a lower frequency, whereas the selectivity for C₂H₂ showed an opposite trend. The use of oxygen was found to provide a great enhancement of the plasma reforming of the simulated natural gas. For the combined plasma and partial oxidation in the reforming of CO₂-containing natural gas, air was found to be superior to pure oxygen in terms of reactant conversions, product selectivities, and specific energy consumption. The optimum conditions were found to be a hydrocarbons-to-oxygen feed molar ratio of 2/1 using air as an oxygen source, an applied voltage of 17.5 kV, and a frequency of 300 Hz, in providing the highest CH₄ conversion and synthesis gas selectivity, as well as extremely low specific energy consumption. The energy consumption was as low as 2.73 × 10⁻¹⁸ W s (17.02 eV) per molecule of converted reactant and 2.49 × 10⁻¹⁸ W s (16.60 eV) per molecule of produced hydrogen.     

Combined Reforming and Partial Oxidation of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-Containing Natural Gas Using an AC Multistage Gliding Arc Discharge System: Effect of Stage Number of Plasma Reactors

The effect of stage number of multistage AC gliding arc discharge reactors on the process performance of the combined reforming and partial oxidation of simulated CO₂-containing natural gas having a CH₄:C₂H₆:C₃H₈:CO₂ molar ratio of 70:5:5:20 was investigated. For the experiments with partial oxidation, either pure oxygen or air was used as the oxygen source with a fixed hydrocarbon-to-oxygen molar ratio of 2/1. Without partial oxidation at a constant feed flow rate, all conversions of hydrocarbons, except CO₂, greatly increased with increasing number of stages from 1 to 3; but beyond 3 stages, the reactant conversions remained almost unchanged. However, for a constant residence time, only C₃H₈ conversion gradually increased, whereas the conversions of the other reactants remained almost unchanged. The addition of oxygen was found to significantly enhance the process performance of natural gas reforming. The utilization of air as an oxygen source showed a superior process performance to pure oxygen in terms of reactant conversion and desired product selectivity. The optimum energy consumption of 12.05 × 10²⁴ eV per mole of reactants converted and 9.65 × 10²⁴ eV per mole of hydrogen produced was obtained using air as an oxygen source and 3 stages of plasma reactors at a constant residence time of 4.38 s.     

Silver Loading on DBD Plasma-Modified Woven PET Surface for Antimicrobial Property Improvement

In this work, the hydrophilic improvement of a woven PET surface was accomplished by a plasma technique. The woven PET surface was plasma-treated by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) under various operating conditions (electrode gap distance, plasma treatment time, input voltage, and input frequency) and various gaseous environments (air, O₂, N₂, and Ar) in order to improve its hydrophilicity. It was experimentally found that a decrease in electrode gap distance and an increase in input voltage increased the electric field strength, leading to higher hydrophilicity of the PET surface characterized by wickability and contact angle measurements. In comparisons among the studied environmental gases, air gave the highest hydrophilicity, being comparable to O₂, while Ar and N₂ gave lower hydrophilicity of the woven PET surface. The optimum conditions for a maximum hydrophilicity of the PET surface were an electrode gap distance of 4 mm, a plasma treatment time of 10 s, an output voltage of 15 kV, and a frequency of 350 Hz under air environment. After the plasma treatment under the obtained optimum conditions, the woven PET was loaded with Ag particles using a AgNO₃ aqueous solution in order to obtain the antimicrobial property. The plasma-treated woven PET loaded with Ag particles exhibited good antimicrobial activity against both E. coli (gram-negative bacteria) and S. aureus (gram-positive bacteria).     

A simple route utilizing surfactant-assisted templating sol-gel process for synthesis of mesoporous Dy2O3 nanocrystal

A simple route of combined sol-gel process with surfactant-assisted templating technique was successfully employed for the first time to synthesize nanocrystalline mesoporous Dy(2)O(3) with narrow monomodal pore size distribution under mild conditions. The nanocrystalline Dy(2)O(3) with monomodal mesoporous characteristic was ultimately achieved by controlling the hydrolysis and condensation steps of dysprosium n-butoxide modified with acetylacetone in the presence of laurylamine hydrochloride surfactant aqueous solution. The synthesized material was methodically characterized by thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), N(2) adsorption-desorption, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis, and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) pore size distribution analysis. The particle size of the synthesized Dy(2)O(3) in nanosized range obtained from the SEM and HRTEM micrographs was in good accordance with the crystallite size estimated from the XRD result. The N(2) adsorption-desorption result exhibited hysteresis pattern with single loop, indicating the existence of monomodal mesopore. The extremely narrow pore size distribution with mean pore diameter in the mesopore region of the synthesized Dy(2)O(3) was also confirmed by the BJH result.     

Surface Characterization and Antimicrobial Activity of Chitosan-Deposited DBD Plasma-Modified Woven PET Surface

In this work, a woven PET with an antimicrobial activity was prepared by depositing chitosan on its surface. Firstly, the hydrophilic property of the PET surface was achieved by a plasma treatment using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The hydrophilic property of the PET surface was characterized by wickability and contact angle measurements. The XPS analysis revealed an increment of oxygen-containing polar groups, such as C–O and O–C=O, on the PET surface after the plasma treatment, resulting in an enhanced hydrophilic property. The plasma-treated PET specimen was further deposited with chitosan by immersing in a chitosan acetate aqueous solution. The effects of temperature, chitosan concentration, and number of rinses on the amount of deposited chitosan on the PET surface were investigated. The disappearance of the above-mentioned polar groups from the PET surface was clearly observed after the chitosan deposition, indicating the involvement of these functional groups in interacting with the chitosan. The chitosan-deposited plasma-treated woven PET possessed an exceptionally high antimicrobial activity against both E. coli (gram-negative bacteria) and S. aureus (gram-positive bacteria).     

Ethylene Epoxidation in Low-Temperature AC Dielectric Barrier Discharge: Effect of Electrode Geometry

In this work, the epoxidation of ethylene under a cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor and a parallel DBD reactor was comparatively studied. The effects of important operating parameters—feed O₂/C₂H₄ molar ratio, applied voltage, input frequency, and residence time—were investigated on the reaction performance in terms of reactant conversions, product selectivities, product yields, and power consumptions per molecule of ethylene converted and per molecule of ethylene oxide produced. The optimum conditions obtained from the operating parameter investigation were used for a comparative performance evaluation of both DBD reactor systems. It was found that under the optimum conditions of each system, the cylindrical DBD system exhibited superior epoxidation performance for ethylene oxide production compared to the parallel DBD system, indicating that the electrode geometry (electrode edge length-to-electrode surface area ratio) plays a significant role in the ethylene epoxidation.