Lipid accumulation by Rhodococcus rhodochrous grown on glucose.

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel made from costly vegetable oil feedstocks. Some microorganisms can accumulate lipids when nutrients are limited and carbon is in excess. Rhodococcus rhodochrous is a gram-positive bacterium most often used in bioremediation or acrylamide production.

Inhibitors removal from bio-oil aqueous fraction for increased ethanol production.

Utilization of 1,6-anhydro-β-d-glucopyranose (levoglucosan) present (11% w/v) in the water fraction of bio-oil for ethanol production will facilitate improvement in comprehensive utilization of total carbon in biomass. One of the major challenges for conversion of anhydrous sugars from the bio-oil water fraction to bio-ethanol is the presence of inhibitory compounds that slow or impede the microbial fermentation process. Removal of inhibitory compounds was first approached by n-butanol extraction.

Optimization of hot-compressed water pretreatment of bagasse and characterization of extracted hemicelluloses.

Developing optimum treatment and separation procedures for hemicellulose components of lignocellulosic biomass could be useful in ethanol fermentation processes and obtaining pure hemicelluloses as biopolymers. Sugarcane bagasse analyses indicate that xylose is the major hemicellulose component constituting 17.7% of dry bagasse weight.