Solvent Influence on Cellulose 1,4‐β‐Glycosidic Bond Cleavage: A Molecular Dynamics and Metadynamics Study

We explore the influence of two solvents, namely water and the ionic liquid 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium acetate (EmimAc), on the conformations of two cellulose models (cellobiose and a chain of 40 glucose units) and the solvent impact on glycosidic bond cleavage by acid hydrolysis by using molecular dynamics and metadynamics simulations. We investigate the rotation around the glycosidic bond and ring puckering, as well as the anomeric effect and hydrogen bonds, in order to gauge the effect on the hydrolysis mechanism. We find that EmimAc eases hydrolysis through stronger solvent–cellulose interactions, which break structural and electronic barriers to hydrolysis. Our results indicate that hydrolysis in cellulose chains should start from the ends and not in the centre of the chain, which is less accessible to solvent.     

Design of an experimental procedure for energy evaluation from biomass

The rational and sustainable exploitation of nature resources is one of the priority objectives of our society. In this article a method is proposed to evaluate and exploit the energetic resources contained in different forest formations. This method is based on the use of a combustion bomb calorimeter to determine the calorific values of the different samples studied. These results were complemented with chemical analysis of the samples and with environmental and geomorphological studies of the zones were samples were taken. The results obtained during the last 3 years for the residual biomass originated from the forest formations existing in Galicia ensure the reliability and usefulness of the method that can be extended to any forest formation all over the world.     

A MICROFOUNDATION OF PREDATOR‐PREY DYNAMICS

ABSTRACT. Predator‐prey relationships account for an important part of all interactions betweenspecies. In this paper we provide a microfoundation for such predator‐prey relations in afood chain. Basic entities of our analysis are representative organisms of species modeled similar to economic households. With prices as indicators of scarcity, organisms are assumed to behave as if they maximize their net biomass subject to constraints which express the organisms' risk of being preyed upon during predation. Like consumers, organisms face a ‘budget constraint’ requiring their expenditure on prey biomass not to exceed their revenue from supplying own biomass. Short‐run ecosystem equilibria are defined and derived. The net biomass acquired by the representative organism in the short term determines the positive or negative population growth. Moving short‐run equilibria constitute the dynamics of the predator‐prey relations that are characterized in numerical analysis. The population dynamics derived here turn out to differ significantly from those assumed in the standard Lotka‐Volterra model.     

Inferring mixed-culture growth from total biomass data in a wavelet approach

It is shown that the presence of mixed-culture growth in batch fermentation processes can be very accurately inferred from total biomass data by means of the wavelet analysis for singularity detection. This is accomplished by considering simple phenomenological models for the mixed growth and the more complicated case of mixed growth on a mixture of substrates. The main quantity provided by the wavelet analysis is the Hölder exponent of the singularity that we determine for our illustrative examples. The numerical results point to the possibility that Hölder exponents can be used to characterize the nature of the mixed-culture growth in batch fermentation processes with potential industrial applications. Moreover, the analysis of the same data affected by the common additive Gaussian noise still lead to the wavelet detection of the singularities although the Hölder exponent is no longer a useful parameter.     

种内竞争对一年生植物高生长与生物量关系的影响

通过田间试验研究了两种一年生植物燕麦和箭She豌豆在高密度和低密度条件下表现出来的株高（H）与生物量（M）之间的异速生长关系，并用线性回归和非线性回归的方法对所得数据进行了分析，结果表明，植物在低密度条件下，个体间没有明显的竞争作用存在，株高与生物量之间表现为“简单的异速生长”关系，其异速生长表达式为y=a bx的形式；植物在高密度条件下，个体间存在着激烈的种内竞争，株高与生物量之间表现为“非线性的异速生长”关系，其异速生长表达式为y=ax^2 bx c的形式。     

添加有机肥和葡萄糖对铜毒害旱地红壤微生物生物量的影响

在预培红壤中加入定量的有机肥和葡萄糖及不同浓度的Cu,25℃培养14d，测定了土壤微生物生物量C（Cmic),N(Nmic)。结果表明，存在有机肥和葡萄糖时，土壤中Cmic和Nmic随着Cu浓度的增加而降低；Cmic/Nmic随着Cu浓度的增加而增大。施加有机肥和葡萄糖的土壤中，在所有Cu处理浓度下，土壤中Cmic和Nmic均比未加有机物质处理高，特别是有机肥处理中土壤Cmic和Nmic均比其它处理高得多，说明有机肥可明显减轻Cu对土壤微生物生物量的毒性，同时也说明有机肥可提供微生物N源。不含Cu时，加入有机肥和葡萄糖导致土壤中Cmic和Nmic增加，其中有机肥明显。     

丹麦生物质发电的现状和研究发展趋势

丹麦是世界上利用秸秆生物质燃烧发电技术开发、运行最好的国家，其经验值得中国借鉴。根据作者在丹麦对生物质燃烧发电的研究经历，系统地介绍了丹麦在秸秆生物质发电的经验、遇到的问题及相应的研究和今后的发展方向。     

循环流化床生物质气化炉内计算流体动力学模拟——鼓泡流化床内改进的颗粒床模型（英文）

采用改进颗粒床模型的CFD方法模拟了实验室规模冷模装置内鼓泡床的流体流动时空特性。模拟结果表明表观气速是影响气固动态特征和压力波动的主要因素之一：随表观气速的增大，气泡数目增加，气泡体积增大，压力波动增强；气速越高时均压降越大；在内循环鼓泡流化床内固体颗粒呈“单室”流型。上述与实验观察相吻合的模拟结果将有助于放大和设计商业化的内循环流化床生物质气化炉。     

生物质在流化床中的空气-水蒸气气化研究

以流化床为反应器，对生物质的空气-水蒸气气化特性进行了研究。考察了一些主要参变量，如温度 (700 ℃～900 ℃)、水蒸气/生物质比(0～4.04)、空气当量比(0.19～0.27)以及生物质粒度(0.2 mm～0.9 mm)等对气化结果的影响。在实验研究的条件范围内，生物质产气率在1.43 m3/kg～2.57 m3/kg范围内变化，产气的低热值在6 741 kJ/m3～9 143 kJ/m3范围内变化。实验结果表明：较高的气化温度有利于氢的产生；但气化温度过高会使气体热值下降；与常规的空气气化相比，水蒸气的加入使生物质气化产气率显著提高，但水蒸气加入量过多使气化温度下降，产气率和产气热值降低；生物质颗粒粒度的大小对产气组分的分布和产气率均有影响，较小颗粒的生物质会产生较多的CH4、CO和较少的CO2。     

Photobioreactor culture of photosynthetic soybean cells

Photosynthetic suspension cultures of higher plants offer an alternative approach to biomass production, potentially yielding cellulosic material and protein on a continuous year-round basis. A bench-top hybrid photobioreactor was developed to study photomixotrophic and photoautotrophic growth of Glycine max as a model system. Maximum biomass doubling times for photomixotrophic and photoautotrophic growth were 1.87 and 3.92 d, respectively. The presence of exogenous sugars resulted in photomixotrophic growth, reduced chlorophyll levels, and a reduction in photosynthetically-evolved oxygen. Depletion of carbohydrates from the medium coincided with the beginning of stationary phase and an increase in oxygen evolution by the cells. A second growth phase, prolonging cell viability, could be initiated by increasing the carbon dioxide from 2 to 5%, just before the onset of stationary phase. Biomass from bioreactor cultured cells proved resistant to enzymatic attack without pretreatment. Composition of the biomass was 7.8% lignin, 20.7% α-cellulose, 23% hemicellulose, 5.5% starch, 14.5% protein and 6.5% nucleic acids.