• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2010

The demand of biodiesel that is a renewable, alternative fuel for fossil-based petrodiesel seems to keep increasing. Exploiting lipids of microalgae as a raw material for biodiesel is already technically feasible. To realize economical production of microalgal biodiesel, several factors or strategies should be addressed and improved. Especially, researches on improvement of lipid synthesis by genetic or metabolic engineering are now in early stage, and prospects of this field are bright, requiring concerns and interests of many researchers to put practical use of microalgal biodiesel forward.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.376-380
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• 2018

Microalgae produce not only lipids for biodiesel production but also valuable biochemicals which are often accumulated under cellular stress mediated by certain chemicals. While the microcarriers for the application of drug delivery systems for animal cells are widely studied, their applications into microalgal research or biorefinery are rarely investigated. Here we develope dual-functional magnetic microcapsules which work not only as flocculants for microalgal harvesting but also potentially as microcarriers for the controlled release of target chemicals stimulating microalgae to enhance the accumulation of valuable chemicals. Magnetic microcapsules are synthesized by layer-by-layer(LbL) coating of PSS-PDDA on $Fe_3O_4$ nanoparticle-embedded $CaCO_3$ microparticles followed by removing $CaCO_3$ sacrificial templates. The positively charged magnetic microcapsules flocculate microalgae by electrostatic interaction which are sequentially collected by the magnetophoretic separation. The microcapsules with a polycationic outer layer provide efficient binding sites for negatively charged microalgae and by that means are further utilized as a chemical-delivery and flocculation system for microalgal research and biorefineries.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2016

The hydrolysis of biomass to fermentable sugar (saccharification) and to oligosaccharide is an essential process in biotechnology including biorefinery and biofood. Various macroalgae are commercially cultivated in several Asian countries as a useful resource for food and agar production. Agar is a major component of the cell walls of red algae that can be hydrolyzed by agarase. Agarases are classified into ${\alpha}$-agarase (E.C. 3.2.1.158) and ${\beta}$-agarase (E.C. 3.2.1.81) according to the cleavage pattern and grouped in the glycoside hydrolase (GH) family (GH-16, GH-58, GH-86, GH-96, and GH-118) based on the amino acid sequences of the proteins. Agarases have been isolated from various bacteria found in seawater and marine sediments. To increase productivity of the enzyme, a research on recombinant enzymes has been done. The application of recombinant agarase can be possible in the various filed such as energy, food, cosmetics, medical and so on. This paper reviews the source, biochemical characteristics and production system of recombinant agarases for further study.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2413-2420
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• 2018

Sida acuta, a common type of weed in Thailand, contains relatively high cellulose (42.7%) content. We pretreated NaOH to improve glucose recovery from S. acuta. The effect of pretreatment temperature and NaOH concentration was fundamentally investigated based on hydrolysis efficiency with recovery of solid fraction. The pretreatment condition was determined to be 3% NaOH at $60^{\circ}C$ for 9 h, which showed the highest glucose recovery. The hydrolysates obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of S. acuta were applied to the fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae K35, and a theoretical yield of 97.6% was achieved at 18 h. This indicated that the hydrolysates medium without detoxification had no negative effects on the fermentation. The production of biomass into bioethanol was evaluated based on the material balance of 1,000 g basis. Following this estimation, approximately 28 g and 110 g bioethanol could be produced by untreated and pretreated S. acuta, respectively, and this production was improved about 3.9-fold by NaOH pretreatment. These results again show the importance of pretreatment in biorefinery process.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.442-450
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• 2019

Despite its potential as a renewable source for fuels and chemicals, lignin valorization still faces technical challenges in many aspects. Overcoming such challenges associated with the chemical recalcitrance of lignin can provide many opportunities to innovate existing and emerging biorefineries. In this work, we leveraged a biomass genetic engineering technology to produce phenolic aldehyde-rich lignin structure via downregulation of cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD). The structurally altered lignin obtained from the Arabidopsis thaliana CAD mutant was pyrolyzed to understand the effect of structural alteration on thermal behavior of lignin. The pyrolysis was conducted at 400 and $500^{\circ}C$ using an analytical pyrolyzer connected with GC/MS and the products were systematically analyzed. The results indicate that aldehyde-rich lignin undergoes fragmentation reaction during pyrolysis forming a considerable amount of C6 units. Also, it was speculated that highly reactive phenolic aldehydes facilitate secondary repolymerization reaction as described by the lower yield of overall phenolic compounds compared to wild type (WT) lignin. Quantum mechanical calculation clearly shows the higher electrophilicity of transgenic lignin than that of WT, which could promote both fragmentation and recondensation reactions. This work provides mechanistic insights toward biomass genetic engineering and its application to the pyrolysis allowing to establish sustainable biorefinery in the future.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.1479-1484
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• 2022

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is gaining attention as a carbon-neutral alternative to plant cellulose, and as a means to prevent deforestation and achieve a carbon-neutral society. However, the high cost of fermentation media for BC production is a barrier to its industrialization. In this study, chestnut shell (CS) hydrolysates were used as a carbon source for the BC-producing bacteria strain, Gluconacetobacter xylinus ATCC 53524. To evaluate the suitability of the CS hydrolysates, major inhibitors in the hydrolysates were analyzed, and BC production was profiled during fermentation. CS hydrolysates (40 g glucose/l) contained 1.9 g/l acetic acid when applied directly to the main medium. As a result, the BC concentration at 96 h using the control group and CS hydrolysates was 12.5 g/l and 16.7 g/l, respectively (1.3-fold improved). In addition, the surface morphology of BC derived from CS hydrolysates revealed more densely packed nanofibrils than the control group. In the microbial BC production using CS, the hydrolysate had no inhibitory effect during fermentation, suggesting it is a suitable feedstock for a sustainable and eco-friendly biorefinery. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to valorize CS by utilizing it in BC production.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2007

This paper describes the preparation and characterization of two kinds of fluorinated polybenzimidazole (PBI)s which can be potentially used for phosphoric acid-doped, high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Two kinds of perfluorocyclobutane (PFCB)-containing monomers were prepared via following synthetic steps; after fluoroalkylation of methyl 3-(hydroxy) benzoate and methyl 4-(hydroxy) benzoate with 1,2-dibromotetrafluoroethane and subsequent Zn-mediated dehalogenation, these compounds were cyclodimerized at $200^{\circ}C$ affording the ester-terminated monomers containing PFCB ether groups. The synthesized intermediates and monomers were characterized using FT-IR, $^1H-NMR,\;^{19}F-NMR$, and mass spectroscopy. The fluorinated PBIs were then successfully prepared through the solution polycondensation of the monomers and 3,3'-diaminobenzidine in polyphosphoric acid. Compared with traditional PBI, the glass transition temperatures of the fluorinated PBIs were obtained at $262^{\circ}C\;and\;269^{\circ}C$ which are lower than that of PBI and their initial degradation temperatures were still high over $400^{\circ}C$ under nitrogen. The fluorinated PBIs showed higher d-spacing values and improved solubility in several organic solvents as well as phosphoric acid, which confirmed they could be good candidates for the high temperature fuel cell membranes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.184-190
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• 2007

This study reports on the pervaporation separation of a volatile organic compound(VOC), dichloromethane(DCM) from water using fluorinated copolysiloxaneimide membranes. The copolysiloxaneimide membranes were prepared from 4,4'-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride(6FDA) and two diamines(polysiloxane diamine(SIDA), 2-(perfluorohexyl)ethyl-3,5-diaminobenzene(PFDAB)). By varying the ratio of flexible polysiloxane diamine(SIDA)/rigid fluorinated aromatic diamine(PFDAB) from 0/100 to 100/0 mol%, five copolysiloxaneimide membranes were prepared success- fully. The pervaporation properties of DCM/water were examined in terms of two diamine monomer ratio at room temperature and the feed composition of 0.05 wt% in water. It was found that the increase in SIDA content led to high permeation flux and pervaporation selectivity towards DCM by the enhanced sorption/sorption selectivity and diffusion coefficient/diffusion selectivity due to the increased hydrophobicity and fractional free volume.

• BMB Reports
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.59-70
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• 2012

Carbon catabolite repression (CCR) is a key regulatory system found in most microorganisms that ensures preferential utilization of energy-efficient carbon sources. CCR helps microorganisms obtain a proper balance between their metabolic capacity and the maximum sugar uptake capability. It also constrains the deregulated utilization of a preferred cognate substrate, enabling microorganisms to survive and dominate in natural environments. On the other side of the same coin lies the tenacious bottleneck in microbial production of bioproducts that employs a combination of carbon sources in varied proportion, such as lignocellulose-derived sugar mixtures. Preferential sugar uptake combined with the transcriptional and/or enzymatic exclusion of less preferred sugars turns out one of the major barriers in increasing the yield and productivity of fermentation process. Accumulation of the unused substrate also complicates the downstream processes used to extract the desired product. To overcome this difficulty and to develop tailor-made strains for specific metabolic engineering goals, quantitative and systemic understanding of the molecular interaction map behind CCR is a prerequisite. Here we comparatively review the universal and strain-specific features of CCR circuitry and discuss the recent efforts in developing synthetic cell factories devoid of CCR particularly for lignocellulose-based biorefinery.