Facile isolation of purple membrane from Halobacterium salinarum via aqueous-two-phase system.

Purple membrane (PM) is a part of cytoplasmic membrane in certain extreme halophilic microorganisms belonging to Domain Archaea. It transduces light energy to generate proton gradient for ATP synthesis in the microorganisms. Bacteriorhodopsin (BR) is the only protein in PM responsible for the generation of proton gradient.

Biodiesel production from rice bran by a two-step in-situ process.

The production of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) by a two-step in-situ transesterification from two kinds of rice bran was investigated in this study. The method included an in-situ acid-catalyzed esterification followed by an in-situ base-catalyzed transesterification. Free fatty acids (FFAs) level was reduced to less than 1% for both rice bran A (initial FFAs content=3%) and rice bran B (initial FFAs content=30%) in the first step under the following conditions: 10 g rice bran, methanol to rice bran ratio 15 mL/g, H(2)SO(4) to rice bran mass ratio 0.