• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.42-49
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• 2010

Increasing environmental concerns regarding the use of fossil fuels and global wanning have prompted researcher to investigate alternative fuels. The purpose of this study is to investigate the syngas production by biogas reforming using a compression spark ignition engine. The parametric screening studies were carried out according to the variations of oxygen enrichment rate, biogas $CO_2$ ratio, intake gas temperature, and engine revolution. When the oxygen enrichment rate and input gas temperature increased, hydrogen and carbon monoxide were increased. But the biogas $CO_2$ ratio and engine revolution increased, the syngas were reduced. For the reforming of methane 100% only, generation of hydrogen and carbon monoxide was 58% and 17%, respectively. However when the biogas $CO_2$ ratio was 40%, hydrogen and carbon monoxide concentration were about 20% each.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• 제34권2호
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• pp.95-101
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• 2007

The transport biofuel is emerging a promising option to realize the sustainable growth of our society. Two biofuels, bioethanol and biodiesel, are currently used in the transport sector. As the production of biofuels is getting activated, the stable supply of the feedstocks is becoming a critical issue. Active works have been carried out to secure the stable supply of the raw materials for the production of biofuels. One approach is the breeding of the energy crops to get higher productivity and / or the desirable fuel properties. The other approach is finding new energy crops which may not be used for edible purpose. First current aspects and challenging issues for the implementation of biofuels have been introduced. Finally the recent works and future prospects on the development of the energy crops are summarized.

• 공업화학
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.242-257
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• 2022

Microalgae is becoming a vital component for a circular economy and ultimately for sustainable development. Herein, recent developments in different outcomes of microalgae for wastewater treatment and biorefinery were reviewed. From its primary function as a third-generation resource of biofuel, the usage of microalgae has been diversified as an integral element for the CO₂ sequestration and production of economically valuable products (e.g., pharmaceuticals, animal feeds, biofertilizer, biochar, etc.). Principles and recent challenges for each microalgae application were presented to suggest a motivation for future research and the direction of development. The integration of microalgae within the concept of the circular economy was also discussed with various routes of microalgae-based biorefinery.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제21권11호
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• pp.1159-1165
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• 2011

Biodiesel is methyl and ethyl esters of long-chain fatty acids produced from vegetable oils or animal fats. Lipase enzymes have occasionally been used for the production of this biofuel. Recently, biodiesel production using immobilized lipase has received increased attention. Through enhanced stability and reusability, immobilized lipase can contribute to the reduction of the costs inherent to biodiesel production. In this study, methanol-tolerant lipase M37 from Photobacterium lipolyticum was immobilized using the cross-linked enzyme aggregate (CLEA) method. Lipase M37 has a high lysine content (9.7%) in its protein sequence. Most lysine residues are located evenly over the surface of the protein, except for the lid structure region, which makes the CLEA preparation yield quite high (~93%). CLEA M37 evidences an optimal temperature of $30^{\circ}C$, and an optimal pH of 9-10. It was stable up to $50^{\circ}C$ and in a pH range of 4.0-11.0. Both soluble M37 and CLEA M37 were stable in the presence of high concentrations of methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, and n-butanol. That is, their activities were maintained at solvent concentrations above 10% (v/v). CLEA M37 could produce biodiesel from olive oil and alcohols such as methanol and ethanol. Additionally, CLEA M37 generated biodiesel via both 2-step methanol feeding procedures. Considering its physical stability and reusability, CLEA M37 may potentially be used as a catalyst in organic synthesis, including the biodiesel production reaction.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권11호
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• pp.1357-1372
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• 2022

Heavy reliance on fossil fuels has been associated with increased climate disasters. As an alternative, microalgae have been proposed as an effective agent for biomass production. Several advantages of microalgae include faster growth, usage of non-arable land, recovery of nutrients from wastewater, efficient CO₂ capture, and high amount of biomolecules that are valuable for humans. Microalgae Chlorella spp. are a large group of eukaryotic, photosynthetic, unicellular microorganisms with high adaptability to environmental variations. Over the past decades, Chlorella has been used for the large-scale production of biomass. In addition, Chlorella has been actively used in various food industries for improving human health because of its antioxidant, antidiabetic, and immunomodulatory functions. However, the major restrictions in microalgal biofuel technology are the cost-consuming cultivation, processing, and lipid extraction processes. Therefore, various trials have been performed to enhance the biomass productivity and the lipid contents of Chlorella cells. This study provides a comprehensive review of lipid enhancement strategies mainly published in the last five years and aimed at regulating carbon sources, nutrients, stresses, and expression of exogenous genes to improve biomass production and lipid synthesis.

• 한국수산과학회지
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• 제50권1호
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• pp.32-40
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• 2017

The aim of this study was to evaluate a temperature-induced two-stage cultivation (TTC) strategy for the regulation of lipid and carbohydrate production by two microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris and Dunaliella salina, for biofuel production. The microalgae were grown under several temperature conditions (15, 25, 35, and $45^{\circ}C$) and optimal growth was observed at $25^{\circ}C$ for both microalgae. To test the TTC, aseptically cultured microalgae were incubated under optimal conditions ($25^{\circ}C$) for 20 days, and then divided into four aliquots that were incubated at 15, 25, 35, and $45^{\circ}C$ for 5 days. Similar but somewhat decreased growth rates were observed at the non-optimal temperatures (15, 35, and $45^{\circ}C$). In addition, while total lipid accumulation increased in a temperature-dependent manner in both microalgae, total carbohydrate increased with temperature in C. vulgaris but decreased in D. salina. However, for lipid and carbohydrate production, while the highest lipid productions of C. vulgaris and D. salina were observed at $25^{\circ}C$ and $35^{\circ}C$, respectively, the highest total carbohydrate productions of C. vulgaris and D. salina were obtained at $15^{\circ}C$ and $25^{\circ}C$, respectively. These results suggest that the TTC strategy may be easily and efficiently applied to bioprocessing for biofuel production.

• ALGAE
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.93-99
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• 2013

A freshwater cyanobacterium, Phormidium autumnale KNUA026, was isolated from puddles of icy water in Gyeongsan City, South Korea and its potential as a biofuel feedstock was investigated. Maximal growth was obtained when the culture was incubated at $25^{\circ}C$ and around pH 9.0. The total lipid content of the isolate was approximately 14.0% of dry weight and it was found that strain KNUA026 was able to autotrophically synthesize heptadecane ($C_{17}H_{36}$) which can be directly used as fuel without requiring a transesterification step. As this benthic cyanobacterium was capable of forming thick mats, it could be easily harvested by gravitational settling and this property may reduce the cost of production in commercial applications. Hence, P. autumnale KNUA026 appears to be a promising resource for use in the production of microalgae-based biofuels.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제27권6호
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• pp.1171-1179
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• 2017

Butanol is a promising alternative to ethanol and is desirable for use in transportation fuels and additives to gasoline and diesel fuels. Microbial production of butanol is challenging primarily because of its toxicity and low titer of production. Herein, we compared the transcriptome and phenome of wild-type Escherichia coli and its butanol-tolerant evolved strain to understand the global cellular physiology and metabolism responsible for butanol tolerance. When the ancestral butanol-sensitive E. coli was exposed to butanol, gene activities involved in respiratory mechanisms and oxidative stress were highly perturbed. Intriguingly, the evolved butanol-tolerant strain behaved similarly in both the absence and presence of butanol. Among the mutations occurring in the evolved strain, cis-regulatory mutations may be the cause of butanol tolerance. This study provides a foundation for the rational design of the metabolic and regulatory pathways for enhanced biofuel production.

• KSBB Journal
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.79-84
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• 2016

Biofuel has been considered as promising renewable energy to solve various problems that result from increasing usage of fossil fuels since the early 20th century. In terms of chemical and physical properties as fuel, biobutanol has more merits than bioethanol. It could replace gasoline for transportation and industrial demand is increasing significantly. Production of butanol can be achieved by chemical synthesis or by microbial fermentation. The water hyacinth, an aquatic macrophyte, originated from tropical South America but is currently distributed all over the world. Water hyacinth has excellent water purification capacity and it can be utilized as animal feed, organic fertilizer, and biomass feedstock. However, it can cause problems in the rivers and lakes due to its rapid growth and dense mats formation. In this study, the potential of water hyacinth was evaluated as a lignocellulosic biomass feedstock in biobutanol fermentation by using Clostridium beijerinckii. Water hyacinth was converted to water hyacinth hydrolysate medium through pretreatment and saccharification. It was found that productivity of water hyacinth hydrolysate medium on biobutanol production was comparable to general medium.