| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Kabir, M. M., et al.
(author)
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Biogas production from lignocelluloses by N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) pretreatment: Effects of recovery and reuse of NMMO
- 2014
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In: Bioresource Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-8524 .- 1873-2976. ; 161, s. 446-450
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The effects of N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) pretreatment on barley straw and forest residues were investigated for biogas production. The pretreatments were performed at 90 degrees C with 85% NMMO for 3-30 h. The best pretreatment conditions resulted in 100% improvement in methane yield during the subsequent digestion compared to that of the untreated lignocelluloses. Methane yields of 0.23 and 0.15 Nm(3) CH4/kg VS were obtained from barley straw and forest residues, respectively, corresponding to 88% and 83% of the theoretical yields. In addition, the effects of the pretreatment with recovered and reused NMMO was also studied over the course of five cycles. Pretreatment with recycled NMMO showed the same performance as the fresh NMMO on barley straw. However, pretreatment of forest residues with recycled NMMO resulted in 55% reduction in methane yield.
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| 3. |
- Kashem, M A, et al.
(author)
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Performances of two commercially available Newcastle disease vaccines in Bangladesh : A case-control study
- 2011
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In: Bangladesh journal of microbiology. - 1011-9981. ; 28:2, s. 88-91
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The study was conducted to test the performances of two commercially available live vaccines named BCRDV1 (VG/GA strain) and BCRDV2 (F-strain). A total of 90 day-old broiler birds were divided into three different groups and the serum samples were collected at day 1, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 35; mean±SD of Haemgglutination Inhibition (HI) titres (log2) were found as 8±0.00, 7.2±0.89, 6.1±0.9, 7.1±0.75, 5.7±0.72, 4.1±0.68 and 8±0.00, 6.0±0.76, 4.8±0.81, 5.8±0.83, 4.9±0.86, 3.8±0.77 in group I and group II respectively, which was significant (P< 0.01). In control (group III) the mean±SD was found to be 8±0.00, 5.8±0.87, 4.9±0.69, 4.1±0.48, 3.0±0.56 and <2±0 respectively. The titres of control group infer that the maternal antibody usually had a tendency to decline and may pose a risk of infection. In protection test, 100% mortality were found in control group (III) but in group I and group II the mortality of birds were 6.67% and 10%, respectively. The analysis of HI titres with the target to determine the performance of two vaccines revealed that BCRDV1 vaccinated groups was able to maintain significantly higher HI titres than BCRDV2 vaccinated group. Key Words: BCRDV, HI test, Newcastle disease, Broiler birds
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| 4. |
- Kõljalg, Urmas, et al.
(author)
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Towards a unified paradigm for sequence-based identification of fungi.
- 2013
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In: Molecular ecology. - : Wiley. - 1365-294X .- 0962-1083. ; 22:21, s. 5271-7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is the formal fungal barcode and in most cases the marker of choice for the exploration of fungal diversity in environmental samples. Two problems are particularly acute in the pursuit of satisfactory taxonomic assignment of newly generated ITS sequences: (i) the lack of an inclusive, reliable public reference data set and (ii) the lack of means to refer to fungal species, for which no Latin name is available in a standardized stable way. Here, we report on progress in these regards through further development of the UNITE database (http://unite.ut.ee) for molecular identification of fungi. All fungal species represented by at least two ITS sequences in the international nucleotide sequence databases are now given a unique, stable name of the accession number type (e.g. Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus|GU586904|SH133781.05FU), and their taxonomic and ecological annotations were corrected as far as possible through a distributed, third-party annotation effort. We introduce the term 'species hypothesis' (SH) for the taxa discovered in clustering on different similarity thresholds (97-99%). An automatically or manually designated sequence is chosen to represent each such SH. These reference sequences are released (http://unite.ut.ee/repository.php) for use by the scientific community in, for example, local sequence similarity searches and in the QIIME pipeline. The system and the data will be updated automatically as the number of public fungal ITS sequences grows. We invite everybody in the position to improve the annotation or metadata associated with their particular fungal lineages of expertise to do so through the new Web-based sequence management system in UNITE.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Mirahmadi, K., et al.
(author)
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Alkaline Pretreatment of Spruce and Birch to Improve Bioethanol and Biogas Production
- 2010
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In: BioResources. - : Wiley. - 1930-2126 .- 1930-2126. ; 5:2, s. 928-938
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Alkaline pretreatment with NaOH under mild operating conditions was used to improve ethanol and biogas production from softwood spruce and hardwood birch. The pretreatments were carried out at different temperatures between minus 15 and 100 degrees C with 7.0% w/w NaOH solution for 2 h. The pretreated materials were then enzymatically hydrolyzed and subsequently fermented to ethanol or anaerobically digested to biogas. In general, the pretreatment was more successful for both ethanol and biogas production from the hardwood birch than the softwood spruce. The pretreatment resulted in significant reduction of hemicellulose and the crystallinity of cellulose, which might be responsible for improved enzymatic hydrolyses of birch from 6.9% to 82.3% and spruce from 14.1% to 35.7%. These results were obtained with pretreatment at 100 degrees C for birch and 5 degrees C for spruce. Subsequently, the best ethanol yield obtained was 0.08 g/g of the spruce while pretreated at 100 degrees C, and 0.17 g/g of the birch treated at 100 degrees C. On the other hand, digestion of untreated birch and spruce resulted in methane yields of 250 and 30 l/kg VS of the wood species, respectively. The pretreatment of the wood species at the best conditions for enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in 83% and 74% improvement in methane production from birch and spruce.
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| 8. |
- Rana, A. K. M. M., et al.
(author)
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Health education improves both arthritis-related illness and self-rated health : An intervention study among older people in rural Bangladesh
- 2010
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In: Public Health. - : Elsevier BV. - 0033-3506 .- 1476-5616. ; 124:12, s. 705-712
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objectives: To examine changes in self-reported arthritis-related illness and self-rated health as a result of a health education intervention, and the association between self-reported arthritis-related illness and self-rated health. Study design: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in eight randomly selected villages in rural Bangladesh (intervention = 4; control = 4). Methods: The intervention consisted of home-based physical activities, health advice and aspects of healthcare management over 15 months followed by a 3-month latent period. Data were collected before the intervention and after the latent period. Analyses included 839 participants (>= 60 years of age) who participated in both surveys. Participants in the intervention area were further categorized into two groups who self-reported compliance or non-compliance with recommended health advice. Self-rated health was assessed using a single global question. Self-reported arthritis-related illness was indicated by the presence of arthritis, back and joint pain, biting sensation, swelling and inflammation in the joints. Results: Hierarchical logistic regression analyses revealed that positive effects on episodes of arthritis-related illness [ odds ratio (OR) 1.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3-2.8] and self-rated health (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0-1.9) were more likely among the compliant group compared with the control group. Furthermore, positive self-rated health was more likely among participants reporting a positive change in their arthritis-related illness (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.5-3.2). The results also showed that literate and non-poor participants were more likely to report positive health, and participants with advancing age were less likely to report positive health. Conclusion: Community-based health education is effective in reducing the burden of arthritis-related illness and in enhancing general health in old age.
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| 9. |
- Arnegard, Matthew E., et al.
(author)
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Genetics of ecological divergence during speciation
- 2014
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 511:7509, s. 307-311
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ecological differences often evolve early in speciation as divergent natural selection drives adaptation to distinct ecological niches, leading ultimately to reproductive isolation. Although this process is a major generator of biodiversity, its genetic basis is still poorly understood. Here we investigate the genetic architecture of niche differentiation in a sympatric species pair of threespine stickleback fish by mapping the environment-dependent effects of phenotypic traits on hybrid feeding and performance under semi-natural conditions. We show that multiple, unlinked loci act largely additively to determine position along the major niche axis separating these recently diverged species. We also find that functional mismatch between phenotypic traits reduces the growth of some stickleback hybrids beyond that expected from an intermediate phenotype, suggesting a role for epistasis between the underlying genes. This functional mismatch might lead to hybrid incompatibilities that are analogous to those underlying intrinsic reproductive isolation but depend on the ecological context.
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| 10. |
- Berglund Odhner, Peter, et al.
(author)
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Biogas from lignocellulosic biomass
- 2012
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Grontmij AB has cooperated with the University of Borås to evaluate the technological and economical possibilities for biogas production from substrates containing lignocellulose, such as forest residues, straw and paper. The state of knowledge regarding biogas production from cellulosic biomass has been summarized. The research in the field has been described, especially focusing on pretreatment methods and their results on increased gas yields. An investigation concerning commercially available pretreatment methods and the cost of these technologies has been performed. An economic evaluation of biogas production from lignocellulosic materials has provided answers to questions regarding the profitability of these processes. Pretreatment with steam explosion was economically evaluated for three feedstocks – wood, straw and paper – and a combination of steam explosion and addition of NaOH for paper. The presented costs pertain to costs for the pretreatment step as it, in this study, was assumed that the pretreatment would be added to an existing plant and the lignocellulosic substrates would be part of a co-digestion process. The results of the investigation indicate that it is difficult to provide a positive net result when comparing the cost of pretreatment versus the gas yield (value) for two of the feedstocks – forest residues and straw. This is mainly due to the high cost of the raw material. For forest residues the steam pretreatment cost exceeded the gas yield by over 50 %, mainly due to the high cost of the raw material. For straw, the production cost was similar to the value of the gas. Paper showed the best economic result. The gas yield (value) for paper exceeded the pretreatment cost by 15 %, which makes it interesting to study paper further.
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| 11. |
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
- Kabir, Maryam M, et al.
(author)
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Effect of the N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) pretreatment on anaerobic digestion of forest residues
- 2013
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In: BioResources. - : North Carolina State University: College of Natural Resources. - 1930-2126. ; 8:4, s. 5409-5423
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Pretreatment of forest residues using N - methylmorpholine - N - oxide (NMMO or NMO) prior to anaer obic digestion was investigated , where the effects of particle size, NMMO concentration , and pretreatment time were the primary focus. The pretreatments were carried out on forest residues; with different particle size s of 2, 4 and 8 mm , at 120 °C for 3, 7 , and 15 h in two different modes of NMMO - treatment : dissolution by 85% NMMO and swelling without dissolution using 75% NMMO solution in water . The pretreatment process led to minor changes in the composition of the forest residues . The best improvement in methane yield of the forest residues was achieved by pretreatment using 85% NMMO for 15 h at 120 °C. This treatment resulted in 0.1 7 Nm 3 /kg VS methane yield , which corresponds to 83 % of the expected theoretical yield of carbohydrates present in the material. Additionally, the accumulated methane yield and the rate of the methane production were highly affected by the amounts of remaining NMMO when it was not well separated during the washing and filtration step s after the treatment. The p resence o f concentrations even as low as 0.008 % NMMO resulted in a decrease in the final methan e yield by 45% , while the presence of 1% of this solvent in the digester completely terminated the anaerobic digestion process.
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| 16. |
- Kabir, Maryam M., et al.
(author)
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Effect of the N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) pretreatment on anaerobic digestion of forest residues
- 2013
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In: BioResources. - : BioResources. - 1930-2126. ; 8:4, s. 5409-5423
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Pretreatment of forest residues using N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO or NMO) prior to anaerobic digestion was investigated, where the effects of particle size, NMMO concentration, and pretreatment time were the primary focus. The pretreatments were carried out on forest residues; with different particle sizes of 2, 4 and 8 mm, at 120 °C for 3, 7, and 15 h in two different modes of NMMO-treatment: dissolution by 85% NMMO and swelling without dissolution using 75% NMMO solution in water. The pretreatment process led to minor changes in the composition of the forest residues. The best improvement in methane yield of the forest residues was achieved by pretreatment using 85% NMMO for 15 h at 120 °C. This treatment resulted in 0.17 Nm3/kg VS methane yield, which corresponds to 83% of the expected theoretical yield of carbohydrates present in the material. Additionally, the accumulated methane yield and the rate of the methane production were highly affected by the amounts of remaining NMMO when it was not well separated during the washing and filtration steps after the treatment. The presence of concentrations even as low as 0.008% NMMO resulted in a decrease in the final methane yield by 45%, while the presence of 1% of this solvent in the digester completely terminated the anaerobic digestion process.
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
- Kabir, Maryam M., et al.
(author)
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Enhanced methane production from wool textile residues by thermal and enzymatic pretreatment
- 2013
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In: Process Biochemistry. - : Elsevier BV. - 1359-5113 .- 1873-3298. ; 48:4, s. 575-580
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Methane production from two types of wool textile wastes (TW1 and TW2) was investigated. To improve the digestibility of these textiles, different pretreatments were applied, and comprised thermal treatment (at 120 C for 10 min), enzymatic hydrolysis (using an alkaline endopeptidase at different levels of enzymatic loading, at 55 C for 0, 2, and 8 h), and a combination of these two treatments. Soluble protein concentration and sCOD (soluble chemical oxygen demand) were measured to evaluate the effectivity of the different pretreatment conditions to degrade wool keratin. The sCOD as well as the soluble protein content had increased in both textile samples in comparison to untreated samples, as a response to the different pretreatments indicating breakdown of the wool keratin structure.The combined treatments and the thermal treatments were further evaluated by anaerobic batch digestion assays at 55 C. Combined thermal and enzymatic treatment of TW1 and TW2 resulted in methane productions of 0.43 N m(3)/kg VS and 0.27 N m(3)/kg VS, i.e., 20 and 10 times higher yields, respectively, than that gained from untreated samples. The application of thermal treatment by itself was less effective and resulted in increasing the methane production by 10-fold for TW1 and showing no significant improvement for TW2.
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| 19. |
- Kabir, Maryam M., et al.
(author)
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Pretreatment of wool based textile wastes for enhanced biogas production
- 2012
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Two different wool based textile wastes (TW1 and TW2) have been subjected for biogas production. TW1 was composed of 70% wool and 30% polyamide (PA), while TW2 consisted of 70% wool, 18% PA and 12% kermel (protective polyamide-imide fibre). Two pre-treatments: thermal treatment, enzymatic treatment and combinations of these two were performed to enhance the methane yield. Determining the soluble protein concentrations in the treated samples showed that the additional thermal treatment and the enzyme concentration had significant positive effect on the degradation of wool. Samples treated with thermal and combination treatments were therefore selected for anaerobic batch digestion assays. The best results were obtained after combination treatments resulting in methane yields of 0.33-0.43 Nm3/kg VS, and 0.21-0.26 Nm3/kg VS, for TW1 and TW2, respectively, while only 0.21 and 0.05 Nm3/kg VS methane production was measured after the thermal treatment. The methane yields of untreated samples were close to zero.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
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| 22. |
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| 23. |
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| 24. |
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| 25. |
- Sárvári Horváth, Ilona, et al.
(author)
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Biogas från lignocellulosa Tekno : ekonomisk utvärdering av förbehandling med NMMO
- 2013
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Biogas has been identified as one of the most cost - effective renewable fuels. In order to increase biogas production, yields from traditionally substrates either need to be improved or other alternative substrates must be made available for anaerobic digestion. Cellulose and lignocellulose rich wastes are available in large amounts and have great potential to be utilized for biogas production. This project focused on the opti mization of the pretreatment conditions when using the organic solvent N - methylmorpholine - N - oxide (NMMO) to enhance the methane yield from forest residues and straw. It also focused on a techno - economic evaluation of this pre - treatment technology. NMMO has previously been shown to be effective in dissolving cellulose and, as a consequence, in increasing the methane yield during the subsequent digestion. The goal of this project was to develop a technology that increases energy production from domestic subst rates in a cost - effective and environmentally friendly way. The treatment works well at lower temperatures (90°C), which means that water from the district heating system can advantageously be used in the treatment. The results showed that treatment with NMMO at 90°C doubles the methane yield from forest residues and increases the methane yield from straw by 50 %. For the techno - economic evaluation, the base case was assumed to be a facility with a capacity of 100 000 tones forest residues/year. After a w ashing and filtration step, the treated material will be utilized in a co - digestion process where 33% of the incoming material consists of forest residues and the rest is source - sorted household waste. The scale - up, process design, simulation and calculati ons were made using the software tool Intelligen SuperPro Design ® . The total investment costs were calculated to be about 145 million €, when forest residues or straw are to be used as raw material. Costs for operation (i.e. raw materials, energy, waste ma nagement, maintenance and personnel costs) were set against the incomes from the products (i.e. methane, carbon dioxide and the lignin - rich digested residue) to see if the process was profitable. The internal return rate (IRR), a parameter that indicates w hether a process is profitable or not, indicated that evaluated processes with capacities over 50 000 tons forest residues/year are profitable. However, co - digestion of forest residues with sewage sludge instead of household waste was not profitable. Both the laboratory results and the energy and economic calculations showed that the washing and filtration step is critical for the proposed process. The energy balance calculation resulted in an EROI value of 0.5, which means that the produced methane from fo rest residues counted up only the half of the energy needed for the treatment as well as NMMO separation and recycling. It is important to separate the NMMO well after the treatment, since remaining NMMO at concentrations higher than 0.002% were found to i nhibit the subsequent digestion step. Also it was showed out to be important that the washing step operates with small amounts of water to save energy within the NMMO recovery. A rotary vacuum filtration is therefore recommended for the washing and filtrat ion step, and a mechanical vapor design is recommended for the evaporation, saving up to 70 - 90% energy compared to a conventional design. Treatment of straw with recycled instead of fresh NMMO has also been tested and equal amounts of methane were obtain ed. After a well - functioning washing and filtration step, NMMO could not be detected in the digestate residue.
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| 26. |
- Shafiei, Marzieh, et al.
(author)
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Techno-economical study of biogas production improved by steam explosion pretreatment
- 2013
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In: Bioresource Technology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-8524 .- 1873-2976. ; 148, s. 53-60
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Economic feasibility of steam explosion pretreatment for improvement of biogas production from wheat straw and paper tube residuals was investigated. The process was simulated by Aspen plus®, and the economical feasibility of five different plant capacities was studied by Aspen Process Economic Analyzer. Total project investment of a plant using paper tube residuals or wheat straw was 63.9 or 61.8 million Euros, respectively. The manufacturing cost of raw biogas for these two feedstocks was calculated to 0.36 or 0.48 €/m3 of methane, respectively. Applying steam explosion pretreatment resulted in 13% higher total capital investment while significantly improved the economy of the biogas plant and decreased the manufacturing cost of methane by 36%. The sensitivity analysis showed that 5% improvement in the methane yield and 20% decrease in the raw material price resulted in 5.5% and 8% decrease in the manufacturing cost of methane, respectively.
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| 27. |
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