Nanomaterial conjugated lignocellulosic waste: cost-effective production of sustainable bioenergy using enzymes.

The demand for novel and renewable sources of energy has increased as a result of rapid population growth, limited sources of bioenergy, and environmental pollution, caused by excessive use of fossil fuels. The need to meet future energy demands have motivated researchers to search for alternative and sustainable sources of energy. The bioconversion of lignocellulosic waste (agricultural and food waste) into biofuels shows competitive promises.

Development of a time of flight spectrometer based on position sensitive multi-wire proportional counters for fission fragment mass distribution studies.

Characteristics and performance of a time of flight (TOF) spectrometer developed for performing fission mass distribution studies are presented. The spectrometer contains two TOF arms based on multi-wire proportional counters (MWPCs). Each arm has two MWPCs to form a start-stop detection system for TOF measurements.

Molecular biology interventions for activity improvement and production of industrial enzymes.

Metagenomics and directed evolution technology have brought a revolution in search of novel enzymes from extreme environment and improvement of existing enzymes and tuning them towards certain desired properties. Using advanced tools of molecular biology i.e.

Carbohydrate and protein based biopolymeric nanoparticles: Current status and biotechnological applications.

Wide sustainability and reusability of biomacromolecules such as carbohydrates and proteins-based biopolymers pave the way for providing maximal importance in the field of generating biopolymeric nanoparticles. As compared to synthetic nanomaterials, carbohydrate and protein based biopolymeric nanomaterials offer unique advantages that include antibacterial, biocompatible, immunogenicity, and biodegradable properties. Additionally, they have the significant property of more size distribution.

Fabrication and characterization of carbon-backed thin Pb targets.

Thin carbon-backed isotopically enriched Pb targets were required for our experiment aimed to study the reaction dynamics for Ti + Pb system, populating the near super-heavy nucleus Rf, through mass-energy correlation of the fission fragments. Purity and thickness of the targets are of utmost importance in such studies as these factors have strong influence on the measurement accuracy of mass and energy distribution of fission fragments. Pb targets with thickness ranging from 60 μg/cm to 250 μg/cm have been fabricated in high vacuum environment using physical vapor deposition method.

Production of β-carotene from deproteinized waste whey filtrate using Mucor azygosporus MTCC 414 in submerged fermentation.

The cheese whey, a by-product of dairy industry proved to be an attractive substrate for production of β-carotene. The β-carotene production from Mucor azygosporus MTCC 414 by using deproteinized waste whey filtrate under submerged fermentation was investigated. Various fermentation variables, such as lactose content in whey, initial pH, production temperature, incubation time, and carbon and nitrogen sources played significant role on β-carotene production.