| 1. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962
(författare)
-
Precaution and Ethics: Handling risks, uncertainties and knowledge gaps in the regulation of new biotechnologies
- 2017
-
Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This volume outlines and analyses ethical issues actualized by applying a precautionary approach to the regulation of new biotechnologies. It presents a novel way of categorizing and comparing biotechnologies from a precautionary standpoint. Based on this, it addresses underlying philosophical problems regarding the ethical assessment of decision-making under uncertainty and ignorance, and discusses how risks and possible benefits of such technologies should be balanced from an ethical standpoint. It argues on conceptual and ethical grounds for a technology neutral regulation as well as for a regulation that not only checks new technologies but also requires old, inferior ones to be phased out. It demonstrates how difficult ethical issues regarding the extent and ambition of precautionary policies need to be handled by such a regulation, and presents an overarching framework for doing so.
|
|
| 2. |
- Eivazihollagh, Alireza, et al.
(författare)
-
On chelating surfactants : Molecular perspectives and application prospects
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Liquids. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-7322 .- 1873-3166. ; 278, s. 688-705
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Chelating agents, molecules that very strongly coordinates certain metal ions, are used industrially as well as in consumer products to minimize disturbances and increase performance of reactions and applications. The widely used sequestering agents, nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) belong to this branch of readily water-soluble compounds. When these chemical structures also have hydrophobic parts, they are prone to adsorb at air-water interfaces and to self-assemble. Such bifunctional molecules can be called chelating surfactants and will have more extended utilization prospects than common chelating agents or ordinary ionic surfactants. The present review attempts to highlight the fundamental behavior of chelating surfactants in solution and at interfaces, and their very specific interactions with metal ions. Methods to recover chelating surfactants from metal chelates are also described. Moreover, utilization of chelating surfactants in applications for metal removal in environmental engineering and mineral processing, as well as for metal control in the fields of biology, chemistry and physics, is exemplified and discussed.
|
|
| 3. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962
(författare)
-
The Price of Precaution and the Ethics of Risk
- 2011
-
Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since a couple of decades, the notion of a precautionary principle plays a central and increasingly influential role in international as well as national policy and regulation regarding the environment and the use of technology. Urging society to take action in the face of potential risks of human activities in these areas, the recent focus on climate change has further sharpened the importance of this idea. However, the idea of a precautionary principle has also been problematised and criticised by scientists, scholars and policy activists, and been accused of almost every intellectual sin imaginable: unclarity, impracticality, arbitrariness and moral as well as political unsoundness. In that light, the very idea of precaution as an ideal for policy making rather comes out as a dead end. On the basis of these contrasting starting points, Christian Munthe undertakes an innovative, in-depth philosophical analysis of what the idea of a precautionary principle is and should be about. A novel theory of the ethics of imposing risks is developed and used as a foundation for defending the idea of precaution in environmental and technological policy making against its critics, while at the same time avoiding a number of identified flaws. The theory is shown to have far-reaching consequences for areas such as bio-, information- and nuclear technology, and global environmental policy in areas such as climate change. The author argues that, while the price we pay for precaution must not be too high, we have to be prepared to pay it in order to act ethically defensible. A number of practical suggestions for precautionary regulation and policy making are made on the basis of this, and some challenges to basic ethical theory as well as consumerist societies, the global political order and liberal democracy are identified
|
|
| 4. |
- Mayers, Joshua, 1988, et al.
(författare)
-
Integrating Microalgal Production with Industrial Outputs - Reducing Process Inputs and Quantifying the Benefits
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Industrial Biotechnology. - : Mary Ann Liebert Inc. - 1550-9087 .- 1931-8421. ; 12:4, s. 219-234
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The cultivation and processing of microalgal biomass is resource- and energy-intensive, negatively affecting the sustainability and profitability of producing bulk commodities, limiting this platform to the manufacture of relatively small quantities of high-value compounds. A biorefinery approach where all fractions of the biomass are valorized might improve the case for producing lower-value products. However, these systems are still likely to operate very close to thresholds of profitability and energy balance, with wide-ranging environmental and societal impacts. It thus remains critically important to reduce the use of costly and impactful inputs and energy-intensive processes involved in these scenarios. Integration with industrial infrastructure can provide a number of residual streams that can be readily used during microalgal cultivation and downstream processing. This review critically considers some of the main inputs required for microalgal biorefineries - such as nutrients, water, carbon dioxide, and heat - and appraises the benefits and possibilities for industrial integration on a more quantitative basis. Recent literature and demonstration studies will also be considered to best illustrate these benefits to both producers and industrial operators. Additionally, this review will highlight some inconsistencies in the data used in assessments of microalgal production scenarios, allowing more accurate evaluation of potential future biorefineries.
|
|
| 5. |
- Sepehri, Sobhan, 1986, et al.
(författare)
-
Volume-amplified magnetic bioassay integrated with microfluidic sample handling and high-Tc SQUID magnetic readout
- 2018
-
Ingår i: APL Bioengineering. - : AIP Publishing. - 2473-2877. ; 2:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A bioassay based on a high-Tc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) reading out functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (fMNPs) in a prototype microfluidic platform is presented. The target molecule recognition is based on volume amplification using padlock-probe-ligation followed by rolling circle amplification (RCA). The MNPs are functionalized with single-stranded oligonucleotides, which give a specific binding of the MNPs to the large RCA coil product, resulting in a large change in the amplitude of the imaginary part of the ac magnetic susceptibility. The RCA products from amplification of synthetic Vibrio cholera target DNA were investigated using our SQUID ac susceptibility system in microfluidic channel with an equivalent sample volume of 3 μl. From extrapolation of the linear dependence of the SQUID signal versus concentration of the RCA coils, it is found that the projected limit of detection for our system is about 1.0 e5 RCA coils (0.2e−18 mol), which is equivalent to 66 fM in the 3 μl sample volume. This ultra-high magnetic sensitivity and integration with microfluidic sample handling are critical steps towards magnetic bioassays for rapid detection of DNA and RNA targets at the point of care.
|
|
| 6. |
- Hong, Kuk-ki, 1976, et al.
(författare)
-
Metabolic Engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A Key Cell Factory Platform for Future Biorefineries
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1420-9071 .- 1420-682X. ; 69:16, s. 2671-2690
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Metabolic engineering is the enabling science of development of efficient cell factories for the production of fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food ingredients through microbial fermentations. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a key cell factory already used for the production of a wide range of industrial products, and here we review ongoing work, particularly in industry, on using this organism for the production of butanol, which can be used as biofuel, and isoprenoids, which can find a wide range of applications including as pharmaceuticals and as biodiesel. We also look into how engineering of yeast can lead to improved uptake of sugars that are present in biomass hydrolyzates, and hereby allow for utilization of biomass as feedstock in the production of fuels and chemicals employing S. cerevisiae. Finally, we discuss the perspectives of how technologies from systems biology and synthetic biology can be used to advance metabolic engineering of yeast.
|
|
| 7. |
- Skoog, Emma, 1983, et al.
(författare)
-
Biobased adipic acid – The challenge of developing the production host
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Biotechnology Advances. - : Elsevier BV. - 0734-9750. ; 36:8, s. 2248-2263
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Adipic acid is a platform chemical, and is the most important commercial dicarboxylic acid. It has been targeted for biochemical conversion as an alternative to present chemical production routes. From the perspective of bioeconomy, several kinds of raw material are of interest including the sugar platform (derived from starch, cellulose or hemicellulose), the lignin platform (aromatics) and the fatty acid platform (lipid derived). Two main biochemical-based production schemes may be employed: (i) direct fermentation to adipic acid, or (ii) fermentation to muconic or glucaric acid, followed by chemical hydrogenation (indirect fermentation). This review presents a comprehensive description of the metabolic pathways that could be constructed and analyzes their respective theoretical yields and metabolic constraints. The experimental yields and titers obtained so far are low, with the exception of processes based on palm oil and glycerol, which have been reported to yield up to 50 g and 68 g adipic acid/L, respectively. The challenges that remain to be addressed in order to achieve industrially relevant production levels include solving redox constraints, and identifying and/or engineering enzymes for parts of the metabolic pathways that have yet to be metabolically demonstrated. This review provides new insights into ways in which metabolic pathways can be constructed to achieve efficient adipic acid production. The production host provides the chassis to be engineered via an appropriate metabolic pathway, and should also have properties suitable for the industrial production of adipic acid. An acidic process pH is attractive to reduce the cost of downstream processing. The production host should exhibit high tolerance to complex raw material streams and high adipic acid concentrations at acidic pH.
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
- Andersson, Viktor, 1983
(författare)
-
Excess heat utilisation in oil refineries - CCS and algae-based biofuels
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main objective of this thesis is to investigate two different concepts for CO2 mitigation, from a system perspective, in relation to the oil refining industry: CO2 capture and storage; and algae-based biofuels. For all these processes, process integration with an oil refinery is assumed. The oil refinery sector is a major emitter of CO2 and is responsible for 9% of the industrial emissions of CO2 worldwide. Oil refineries have large amounts of unused excess heat, which can be used to satisfy the heat demands of a CO2 capture plant, a land-based algal cultivation facility, or an algae-based biofuel process. The use of this excess heat significantly reduces the cost for CO2 capture, while an economic evaluation for algae-based biofuels has not been made.Since the amount of heat available from the oil refinery´s processes increase with decreasing temperature in the stripper reboiler, it was investigated how much heat was available at different temperatures. It was also investigated how the decreased temperature would affect the heat demand of CO2 capture processes that use MEA or ammonia as the absorbent. The findings show that it is possible to capture more CO2 using excess heat when the temperature in the stripper reboiler is decreased. For the MEA process, the lower limit of the temperature interval investigated showed the maximum CO2 capture rate, while the ammonia process benefitted from a lower temperature than the standard temperature but showed maximal CO2 capture rate above the lower limit. These results are valid only when using excess heat to satisfy the entire heat demand. At the case study refinery, the available excess heat could satisfy between 28% and 50% of the heat demand of the MEA process when treating the flue gases from all chimneys, depending on the temperature in the stripper reboiler. This utilisation of excess heat represents a way to reduce significantly the costs for CCS in an oil refinery. Land-based cultivation of algae proved to be unsuitable for the utilisation of excess heat. Since the cultivation pond is exposed to wind, rain, and cold, the heat demand fluctuates strongly over the year, making the pond an unstable recipient of the excess heat.Three types of biofuel processes based on microalgae and macroalgae were investigated with respect to integration with the oil refinery. For the algae-based biofuel processes, heat integration and material integration combined to increase the efficiency of the system. When two different build margin technologies (with different CO2 emission factors) are employed for electricity production, macroalgae-based biofuel production appears to be the more robust process from the perspective of CO2 due to the lower electricity demands of the algal cultivation and harvesting phases.
|
|
| 10. |
- Enoksson, Peter, 1957, et al.
(författare)
-
Micro- and Nanosystems for Sensing in Medicine
- 2008
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of Medicinteknikdagarna 2008, 14-15 October, Göteborg, Sweden. ; , s. 117-
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
|
|
