• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.550-556
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• 2022

The performance of enzymatic fuel cells that convert chemical energy contained in various organic molecules such as sugar, alcohol, organic acids, and amino acids into electrical energy is greatly affected by the cathode as well as the anode. This study aimed to develop a laccase-based cathode with high performance. An enzyme composite composed of an laccase, redox mediator, and carbon nanotubes was immobilized on the surface of electrode in multiple layers, and the effect of the number of layers and the presence or absence of carbon nanotubes on electrode performance was investigated. As the number of layers of the enzyme-mediator (Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl)) on the electrode surface increased, the amount of reduction current generated at the electrode increased. The enzyme-carbon nanotube-mediator composite electrode (Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl)) generated a current 1.7 times greater than that of the Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl). It was found that the largest amount of current (10.1±0.1 µA) was generated in the electrode composed of two layers of Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl) and two layers of Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl) in the evaluation of electrodes with different ratio of Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl) and Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl). The maximum power density of the cell using the cathode composed of a single layer of Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl) and the cell using the optimized cathode were 0.46±0.05 and 1.23±0.04 µW/cm², respectively. In this study, it was demonstrated that the performance of cathode and the enzymatic fuel cell using the same can be improved by optimizing the layers of composites composed of laccase, redox mediator, and carbon nanotubes on the electrode surface.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.373-378
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• 2021

The study aimed to develop a high-power enzymatic electrode for a wearable fuel cell that generates electricity utilizing lactate present in a sweat as fuel. Anode was fabricated by immobilizing lactate oxidase (LOx) on flexible carbon paper. As the lactate concentration in the electrolyte solution increased, the amount of current generated by catalysis of lactate oxidase increased. The immobilized LOx generated 1.5-times greater oxidation current density in the presence of gold nanoparticles than carbon paper only. Bilirubin oxidase (BOD)-immobilized cathode generated a larger amount of reduction current in the electrolyte saturated with oxygen than purged with nitrogen. A fuel cell composed of two electrodes was fabricated and cell voltage was measured under different discharge current. At the discharge current density of 66.7 ㎂/cm², the cell voltage was 0.5±0.0 V leading to maximum cell power density of 33.8±2.5 ㎼/cm².

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.85-93
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• 1976

Since cellulose is the only organic material that is annually replenishable in very large quantities, we must explore ways to utilize it as a source of energy, food and chemicals. For the utilization of this resource, it is first enzymatic hydrolyzed to glucose, then the glucose can be used as a food, converted single cell protein by microorganism, fermented to clean burning fuel and other chemicals. Cellulolytic enzyme, cellulase, consists of two or three major components, $C_1-cellulase$, $C_x-cellulase$ and ${\beta}-glucosidase$. $C_x-cellulase$ are fairly common but $C_1-cellulase$ are quite rare. Trichoderma viride is the best source of active cellulose, especially $C_1-enzyme$. Saccharification rate of cellulose in greatly influenced by the degree of crystallinity and extent of lignification. But by the pretreatment the substrate with cellulose swelling agent, delignifying reagent and physical treatment, the degree of saccharification is enhanced. Thus, glucose syrups of 2 to 10% concentration are realized from milled newspaper. The enzymatic hydrolysis of such energy rich material, such as cellulose, to glucose is technically feasible and practically achievable on a very large scale.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.459-463
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• 2015

This study evaluated the microbial conversion of coconut oil waste, a major agro-residue in tropical countries, into single cell oil (SCO) feedstock for biodiesel production. Copra cake was used as a low-cost renewable substrate without any prior chemical or enzymatic pretreatment for submerged growth of an oleaginous tropical mangrove fungus, Aspergillus terreus IBB M1. The SCO extracted from fermented biomass was converted into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) by transesterification and evaluated on the basis of fatty acid profiles and key fuel properties for biodiesel. The fungus produced a biomass (8.2 g/l) yielding 257 mg/g copra cake SCO with ~98% FAMEs. The FAMEs were mainly composed of saturated methyl esters (61.2%) of medium-chain fatty acids (C12-C18) with methyl oleate (C18:1; 16.57%) and methyl linoleate (C18:2; 19.97%) making up the unsaturated content. A higher content of both saturated FAMEs and methyl oleate along with the absence of polyunsaturated FAMEs with ≥4 double bonds is expected to impart good fuel quality. This was evident from the predicted and experimentally determined key fuel properties of FAMEs (density, kinematic viscosity, iodine value, acid number, cetane number), which were in accordance with the international (ASTM D6751, EN 14214) and national (IS 15607) biodiesel standards, suggesting their suitability as a biodiesel fuel. The low cost, renewable nature, and easy availability of copra cake, its conversion into SCO without any thermochemical pretreatment, and pelleted fungal growth facilitating easier downstream processing by simple filtration make this process cost effective and environmentally favorable.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.281-286
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• 2005

We created a new graphite-Cu(II) electrode and found that the electrode could catalyze FADH$_2$ oxidation and FAD reduction coupled to electricity production and consumption, respectively. In a fuel cell with graphite-Cu(II) anode and graphite-Fe(III) cathode, the electricity was produced by coupling to the spontaneous oxidation of FADH$_2$ Fumarate and xylose were not produced from the enzymatic oxidation of succinate and xylitol without FAD, respectively, but produced with FAD. The production of fumarate and xylose in the reactor with FAD electrochemically regenerated was maximally 2- 5 times higher than that in the reactor with FAD. By using this new electrode with catalytic function, a bioelectrocatalysts can be engineered; namely, oxidoreductase (e.g., lactate dehydrogenase) and FAD can function for biotransformation without an electron mediator and second oxidoreductase for cofactors recycling.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

Secondary walls have recently drawn research interest as a primary source of sugars for liquid biofuel production. Secondary walls are composed of a complex mixture of the structural polymers cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. A matrix of hemicellulose and lignin surrounds the cellulose component of the plant's cell wall in order to protect the cell from enzymatic attacks. Such resistance, along with the variability seen in the proportions of the major components of the mixture, presents process design and operating challenges to the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fuel. Expanding bioenergy production to the commercial scale will require a significant improvement in the growth of feedstock as well as in its quality. Plant biotechnology offers an efficient means to create "targeted" changes in the chemical and physical properties of the resulting biomass through pathway-specific manipulation of metabolisms. The successful use of the genetic engineering approach largely depends on the development of two enabling tools: (1) the discovery of regulatory genes involved in key pathways that determine the quantity and quality of the biomass, and (2) utility promoters that can drive the expression of the introduced genes in a highly controlled manner spatially and/or temporally. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the transcriptional regulatory network that controls secondary wall biosynthesis and discuss experimental approaches to developing-xylem-specific utility promoters.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.278-288
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• 2021

The development of bioenergy through biomass has gained importance due to the increasing rates of fossil fuel depletion. Biomass is important to increase the productivity of bioethanol, and production of biomass with high biomass productivity, low lignin content, and high cellulose content is also important in this regard. Inorganic salts are important in the cultivation of biomass crops for the production of biomass with desirable characteristics. In this study, the roles of various inorganic salts in biomass and bioethanol production were investigated using an in vitro tobacco culture system. The inorganic salts evaluated in this study showed dramatic effects on tobacco plant growth. For example, H₂PO₄ substantially improved plant growth and the root/shoot (R/S) ratio. The chemical compositions of tobacco plants grown in media after removal of various inorganic salts also showed significant differences; for example, lignin content was high after Mg²⁺ removal treatment and low after K⁺ treatment and H₂PO₄ removal treatment. On the other hand, NO₃^- and H₂PO₄ treatments yielded the highest cellulose content, while enzymatic hydrolysis yielded the highest glucose concentration ratio 24 h after NH₄⁺ removal treatment. The ethanol productivity after H₂PO₄ removal treatment was 3.95% (w/v) 24 h after fermentation and 3.75% (w/v) after 36 h. These results can be used as the basis for producing high-quality biomass for future bioethanol production.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2019

In this study, an anthracene cross-linker is introduced to enhance the catalytic activity of glucose oxidase (GOx) based catalysts and to increase the amount of enzyme loading. The crosslinked GOx is bonded with the CNT/PEI support using the electrostatic interaction (AC[CNT/PEI/GOx]). Electrochemical evaluations are done to evaluate the performance of this catalyst and the performance of CNT/PEI/GOx catalyst is also measured as a control. According to the measurements, it is confirmed that the amount of loaded GOx increases, while $K_m$ value calculated by Lineweaver-Burk plot shows that AC[CNT/PEI/GOx] ($K_m$ : 0.73 mM) is superior to CNT/PEI/GOx ($K_m$ : 1.71 mM) without cross-linking reaction. Based on these effects, it is demonstrated that the maximum power density of the enzymatic biofuel cell using AC[CNT/PEI/GOx] increases from $21.2{\mu}W/cm^2$ to $57.4{\mu}W/cm^2$.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.304-316
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• 1995

For fuel alcohol production, enzymatic liquefaction and saccharification of tapioca starch by ${\alpha}$-amylase and glucoamylase were studied. The thermophilic ${\alpha}$-amylase Termamyl produced from Bacillus licheniformis gave a better liquefaction than the relalively low temperature enzyme BAN from B. subtilis. Oplimal temperature and pH with Termamyl were $90∼95^{\circ}C$ and 5.8, respectively. Minimal amount of Termamyl 240uc for a satisfactory liquefaction for a two-hour reaction was about 0.0125% (v/w) with respect to the mass of tapioca used. For saccharification experiments two enzymes, Novo AMG and Do-I1 enzymes were compared. The enzymatic activity of each enzyme was a little different depending on the substrate used and the latter was found to have a significant amount of ${\alpha}$-amylase activity. With Novo AMG optimal temperature was about $58^{\circ}C$ The pH optimum was 4.3 with maltose, however, with tapioca, no difference was observed between pH 4.3 and 5.7 which is a natural, unadjusted pH of liquefied tapioca. For 85% of completion of saccharification, it was necessary to use 0.0625% (v/w) of Novo AMG 400L for tapioca and to run the reaction for more than 10 hr, Packed volume of solid particles in tapioca slurry remained at around 30% during liquefaction and saccharification. This indicates that the removal of the solid particle before fermentation is not economically feasible at all, even though the solid particles make it very difficult to operate the bioreactor in a continuous mode with cell-recycle.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2013

This paper describes the electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of small biomolecules on the surface of Pt-Ru nanoparticles supported by $TiO_2$-hollow sphere prepared for use in sensor applications or fuel cells. The $TiO_2$-hollow sphere supports were first prepared by sol-gel reaction of titanium tetraisopropoxide with poly(styrene-co-vinylphenylboronic acid), PSB used as a template. Pt-Ru nanoparticles were then deposited by chemical reduction of the $Pt^{4+}$ and $Ru^{3+}$ ions onto $TiO_2$-hollow sphere ($Pt-Ru@TiO_2-H$). The prepared $Pt-Ru@TiO_2-H$ nanocomposites were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and elemental analysis. The electrocatalytic efficiency of Pt-Ru nanoparticles was evaluated via ethanol, methanol, dopamine, ascorbic acid, formalin, and glucose oxidation. The cyclic voltammograms (CV) obtained during the oxidation studies revealed that the $Pt-Ru@TiO_2-H$ nanocomposites showed high electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of biomolecules. As a result, the prepared Pt-Ru catalysts doped onto $TiO_2$-H sphere nanocomposites supports can be used for non-enzymatic biosensor or fuel cell anode electrode.