High value-added chemical production through anaerobic codigestion of corn straw with a microbial consortium, cow manure and cow digestion solution.

Objectives: This study investigated the codigestion of corn straw (CS) with cow manure (CM), cow digestion solution (CD), and a strain consortium (SC) for enhanced volatile fatty acid (VFA) production. The aims of this study were to develop a sustainable technique to increase VFA yields, examine how combining microbial reagents with CS affects VFA production by functional microorganisms, and assess the feasibility of improving microbial diversity through codigestion.

Methods: Batch experiments evaluated VFA production dynamics and microbial community changes with different combinations of CS substrates with CM, CD, and SC.

The enhancement of energy supply in syngas-fermenting microorganisms.

After the second industrial revolution, social productivity developed rapidly, and the use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas increased greatly in industrial production. The burning of these fossil fuels releases large amounts of greenhouse gases such as CO, which has caused greenhouse effects and global warming. This has endangered the planet's ecological balance and brought many species, including animals and plants, to the brink of extinction.

An integrated laboratory experiment for the determination of main components in different food samples.

An integrated laboratory experiment was designed for introducing biochemistry students to basic static biochemistry to deepen their understanding on the properties and analysis of biomolecules such as total carbohydrates, lipid, protein, and protein-constituent amino acids. Food represents a very important source of biomolecules of technological and functional interest; therefore, 15 types of food samples were selected to demonstrate the analysis of basic composition of these biomolecules. In this experiment, students learnt testing the total carbohydrates of all the food samples using 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method, while performing acid hydrolysis.

Functions of bacteria and archaea participating in the bioconversion of organic waste for methane production.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a widely applied technology for treating organic wastes to generate renewable energy in the form of biogas. The effectiveness of AD process depends on many factors, among which the most important is the presence of active and healthy microbial community in the anaerobic digesters, which needs to be explored. However, the deciphering of microbial populations and their functions during the AD process of different materials is still incomplete, which restricts the understanding of its long-term performance under different operational conditions.

Optimizing key factors for biomethane production from KOH-pretreated switchgrass by response surface methodology.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the best technologies for producing methane from biomass wastes with limited environmental impacts. Most AD plants need a continuous and stable supply of feedstock for their sustained operation for which lignocellulosic biomass can be effectively utilized. Switchgrass (SG), also known as Panicum virgatum, is a tall-growing grass which exists throughout the year in areas with warm climate and has the potential to produce biomethane.

Enhancement of methane production from Cotton Stalk using different pretreatment techniques.

China produces large amount of cotton stalk (CS) residues as agricultural biomass, which are incinerated on-site, causing air pollution. The high organic content of CS could be utilized for biogas production, but the direct digestion without pretreatment always leads to a low methane yield and biodegradability, due to the complicated structure of lignocellulose. In order to search best fitting pretreatment methods in effective anaerobic digestion (AD) of CS, effects of various pretreatments including KOH, NaOH, Ca(OH), alkali hydrogen peroxide (AHP), HSO, HPO and steam explosion (SE) were studied.

Employing response surface methodology (RSM) to improve methane production from cotton stalk.

China is the largest cotton producer with the cotton output accounting for 25% of the total world's cotton production. A large quantity of cotton stalk (CS) waste is generated which is burned and causes environmental and ecological problems. This study investigated the anaerobic digestibility of CS by focusing on improving the methane yield by applying central composite design of response surface methodology (RSM).

Pretreatment methods of lignocellulosic biomass for anaerobic digestion.

Agricultural residues, such as lignocellulosic materials (LM), are the most attractive renewable bioenergy sources and are abundantly found in nature. Anaerobic digestion has been extensively studied for the effective utilization of LM for biogas production. Experimental investigation of physiochemical changes that occur during pretreatment is needed for developing mechanistic and effective models that can be employed for the rational design of pretreatment processes.