• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.127-146
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• 2013

Torrefaction technologies convert assorted biomass feedstocks into energy-concentrated, carbon neutral fuel that is economically transported and easily ground for blending with fossil coals at numerous power plants around the world without needs to retrofit. Utilization of torrefied biomass in conventional electric generating units may be an increasingly attractive alternative for electricity generation as aging power plants in the world need to be upgraded or improved. This paper examines the economic feasibility of torrefaction in different scenarios by modeling torrefaction plants producing 136,078 t/year (150,000 ton/year) biocoal from wood and corn stover. The utilization of biocoal blends in existing coal-fired power plants is modeled to determine the demand for this fuel in the context of emerging policies regulating emissions from coal in the U.S. setting. Opportunities to co-locate torrefaction facilities adjacent to corn ethanol plants and coal-fired power plants are explored as means to improve economics for collaborating businesses. Life cycle analysis was conducted in parallel to this economic study and was used to determine environmental impacts of converting biomass to biocoal for blending in coal-fired power plants as well as the use of substantial flows of off-gasses produced in the torrefaction process. Sensitivity analysis of the financial rates of return of the different businesses has been performed to measure impacts of different factors, whether input prices, output prices, or policy measures that render costs or rewards for the businesses.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1944-1949
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• 2020

Mutant sugar transporter ScGAL2-N376F was overexpressed in Kluyveromyces marxianus for efficient utilization of xylose, which is one of the main components of cellulosic biomass. K. marxianus ScGal2_N376F, the ScGAL2-N376F-overexpressing strain, exhibited 47.04 g/l of xylose consumption and 26.55 g/l of xylitol production, as compared to the parental strain (24.68 g/l and 7.03 g/l, respectively) when xylose was used as the sole carbon source. When a mixture of glucose and xylose was used as the carbon source, xylose consumption and xylitol production rates were improved by 195% and 360%, respectively, by K. marxianus ScGal2_N376F. Moreover, the glucose consumption rate was improved by 27% as compared to that in the parental strain. Overexpression of both wild-type ScGAL2 and mutant ScGAL2-N376F showed 48% and 52% enhanced sugar consumption and ethanol production rates, respectively, when a mixture of glucose and galactose was used as the carbon source, which is the main component of marine biomass. As shown in this study, ScGAL2-N376F overexpression can be applied for the efficient production of biofuels or biochemicals from cellulosic or marine biomass.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.822-829
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• 2016

Our aim was to optimize the production of cellulase-free thermoactive xylanase by Aureobasidium pullulans CBS 135684 with statistical methodology based on experimental designs. Among eleven variables, the nutrient sources that had significant effect on xylanase production were corncob, $(NH_4)_2SO_4$, xylose, $KH_2PO_4$ and tween 80, identified by the initial screening method of Plackett-Burman. The optimum concentrations of these five components were subsequently investigated using response surface methodology. The optimal concentrations ($g{\cdot}l^{-1}$) for maximum production of xylanase were corncob, 39.0; $(NH_4)_2SO_4$, 3.0; xylose, 1.8; $KH_2PO_4$ 1.4; and tween 80, 1.4, respectively. An improved xylanase yield of $8.74{\pm}0.84U{\cdot}ml^{-1}$ was obtained with optimized medium which is 2.1-fold higher production than previously obtained results ($4.10{\pm}0.10U{\cdot}ml^{-1}$) after 48 h of cultivation. In addition, the xylanase production under optimal condition reached $10.09{\pm}0.27U{\cdot}ml^{-1}$ after 72 h of cultivation.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2015.12a
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• pp.285-285
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• 2015

Utilization of biomass as a substitute fuel for conventional energy systems have been grown larger everyday in the world. In particular, co-firing of biomass in a large coal power plant are common in Korea after the introduction of RPS since 2012, and the application of biomass-derived fuel is now spreading to district heating and power, industrial energy supply, and transportation sectors. For biomass to energy, appropriate conversion process is needed to satisfy the fuel requirements of a specific energy system. In this study, various kinds of thermochemical conversion technologies will be presented for renewable fuel productions from biomass.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2018

A xylanolytic and cellulolytic anaerobic bacterium strain CtC72 was isolated from cattle rumen liquor. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain CtC72 shared only 97.78% homology with its nearest phylogenetic affiliate Actinomyces ruminicola, showing its novelty. The strain could grow on medium containing xylan, carboxymethyl cellulose and avicel producing $CO_2$, acetate, and ethanol as major fermentation products. The whole genome analysis of the strain CtC72 exhibited a broad range of carbohydrate-active enzymes required for the breakdown and utilization of lignocellulosic biomass. Genes related to the production of ethanol and stress tolerance were also detected. Further there were several unique genes in CtC72 for chitin degradation, pectin utilization, sugar utilization, and stress response in comparison with Actinomyces ruminicola. The results show that the strain CtC72, a putative novel bacterium can be used for lignocellulosic biomass based biotechnological applications.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.76-83
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• 2017

In this paper, the carbon resources recycling of the overview of coffee waste generation in Vietnam. Since few years, there has been a significant research studies was done in the areas of coffee waste generation areas and also waste water generation from coffee production. The coffee residue (solid) and waste water (liquid) both are caused the underground water contamination and also soil contamination. These residues contain high organic matter and acid content leads to the severe threat to environment. In second stage of coffee production process, the major solid residue was generated. Various solid residues such as spent coffee grounds, defective coffee beans and coffee husks) pose several environmental concerns and specific problems associated with each type of residue. Due to the unlimited usage of coffee, the waste generation is high. At the same time, some researchers have been investigated the spent coffee wastes are the valuable sources for various valuable compounds. Biodiesel or biomass productions from coffee waste residues are the best available utilization method for preventing the landfill problems of coffee waste residues.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.6
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• pp.9-20
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• 2015

The demand of renewable energy is expected to grow in the long run in spite of current stable lower oil prices. Energy consumption for heating in horticulture greenhouse is large and affects the profits of the farms. This study analyzed the availability of biomass in rural area and proposed the strategies for utilizing the biomass for greenhouse heating. Data reveal the annual average fuel consumption in greenhouses is about 78 TOE/ha. Considering biomass resource in rural areas, agricultural residues are not sufficient to meet the biomass demand from greenhouses. Therefore it is recommended to secure further biomass including wild herbaceous biomass and woody biomass from forest. Based on the conditions of biomass gasification equipment investment and fuel prices, maximum allowable price of biomass turned out about 100,000 KRW/t to be competitive to kerosine. Biomass supply chain should be established for facilitating biomass trading between biomass consumers and biomass producers such as farmers who provide crop residues. An online trading system is an example of the system where consumers who utilize biomass make payments to suppliers and get the information about the biomass. Intermediate collection storages are required to store biomass from distributed sources. Operation of biomass heating systems in demonstration greenhouses is necessary to get information to refine and further develop commercial biomass heating systems. Relatively large greenhouses are desirable to have biomass heating systems for economic viability. The location of the greenhouse farms should be selected within the area where enough biomass resources are available for feeding the biomass facility.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.501-509
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• 2012

A 990 bp full-length gene (xynAHJ2) encoding a 329-residue polypeptide (XynAHJ2) with a calculated mass of 38.4 kDa was cloned from Bacillus sp. HJ2 harbored in a saline soil. XynAHJ2 showed no signal peptide, distinct amino acid stretches of glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 10 intracellular endoxylanases, and the highest amino acid sequence identity of 65.3% with the identified GH 10 intracellular mesophilic endoxylanase iM-KRICT PX1-Ps from Paenibacillus sp. HPL-001 (ACJ06666). The recombinant enzyme (rXynAHJ2) was expressed in Escherichia coli and displayed the typical characteristics of low-temperature-active enzyme (exhibiting optimum activity at $35^{\circ}C$, 62% at $20^{\circ}C$, and 38% at $10^{\circ}C$; thermolability at ${\geq}45^{\circ}C$). Compared with the reported GH 10 low-temperature-active endoxylanases, which are all extracellular, rXynAHJ2 showed low amino acid sequence identities (<45%), low homology (different phylogenetic cluster), and difference of structure (decreased amount of total accessible surface area and exposed nonpolar accessible surface area). Compared with the reported GH 10 intracellular endoxylanases, which are all mesophilic and thermophilic, rXynAHJ2 has decreased numbers of arginine residues and salt bridges, and showed resistance to $Ni^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$, or EDTA at 10 mM final concentration. The above mechanism of structural adaptation for low-temperature activity of intracellular endoxylanase rXynAHJ2 is different from that of GH 10 extracellular low-temperature-active endoxylanases. This is the first report of the molecular and biochemical characterizations of a novel intracellular low-temperature-active xylanase.

• Clean Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2012

Biomass has become a major feedstock for bioenergy and other bio-based products because of its renewability and environmental benefits. Various researches have been done in the prediction of crucial characteristics of biomass, including the active utilization of spectroscopy data. Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been widely used because of its attractive features: it's non-destructive and cost-effective producing fast and reliable analysis results. This work developed the multivariate statistical scheme for predicting weight loss profiles based on the utilization of NIR spectra data measured for six lignocellulosic biomass types. Wavelet analysis was used as a compression tool to suppress irrelevant noise and to select features or wavelengths that better explain NIR data. The developed scheme was demonstrated using real NIR data sets, in which different prediction models were evaluated in terms of prediction performance. In addition, the benefits of using right pretreatment of NIR spectra were also given. In our case, it turned out that compression of high-dimensional NIR spectra by wavelet and then PLS modeling yielded more reliable prediction results without handling full set of noisy data. This work showed that the developed scheme can be easily applied for rapid analysis of biomass.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 1999

The utilization methods of algae biomass have been studied constantly in whole world. These are $\circled1$the wastewater treatment if waste stabilization pond and oxidation ditch etc. and $\circled2$the biosorption of heavy metals and recovery of strategic' precious metals and $\circled3$the single-celled protein production and the production of chemicals like coloring agent and $\circled4$the production of electric energy through methane gasification. The culture system also has been developed constantly in relation with such utilization method developments. In the result of experimental operation under continuous and cyclic irradiation of light, using high rate algae biomass culture pond(HRABCP), which had been made so as to be an association system with the various items which had been managed to have high efficiency for algae culture, the algae production of the 12 hours-irradiance pond was 41.48 Chlorophyll-a ${\mu}g/L$ only in spite of having the more chance of $CO_2$ synthesis to algae cell than the 24 hours-irradiance pond. This means that the energy supply required for dark-reaction of photosynthesis is very important like this. The difference of algae production between continuous and cyclc irradiation explains that the dark-reaction of photosynthesis acts on algae production as the biggest primary factor. The continuous irradiance on HRABCP made the good algae-production($1403.97{\;}{\mu}g$ Chlorophyll-a/mg) and the good oxygen-production(5.8 mg $O_2/L$) and the good solid-liquid seperation. especially, DO concentration through the oxygen-production was enough to fishes' survival.