The combined effect of pore size and pore volume on the equilibrium adsorption capacity and the adsorption kinetics for a series of normal alkanes is determined. The selected adsorbents, activated carbon fibers (ACFs) and air activated phenolic fibers (AAPFs), possess a range of micropore sizes and have been thoroughly characterized in past work. For the normal alkane series, the lower surface ...

We describe how pathway engineering can be used to convert a single intermediate derived from lipid biosynthesis, fatty aldehydes, into a variety of biofuel precursors including alkanes, free fatty acids and wax esters. In cyanobacteria, long-chain acyl-ACPs can be reduced to fatty aldehydes, and then decarbonylated to alkanes. We discovered a cyanobacteria class-3 aldehyde-dehydrogenase, AldE,...

The selectivity of ammonia monooxygenase from Nitrosomonas europaea (AMO-Ne) for the oxidation of C4-C8n-alkanes to the corresponding alcohol isomers was examined to show the ability of AMO-Ne to recognize the n-alkane orientation within the catalytic site. AMO-Ne in whole cells produces 1- and 2-alcohols from C4-C8n-alkanes, and the regioselectivity is dependent on the length of the carbon cha...

A novel sample-pretreatment method for time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) was developed using supercritical fluid extraction (SFE). In SFE, the extraction efficiency of a certain organic matter is controlled by the pressure and temperature of supercritical CO2. Two-step SFE (1st step at 10 Mpa, 40 degrees C; 2nd step at 30 MPa, 120 degrees C) was applied to diesel exhaust...

A clean stream of alkanes from renewable biomass resources is obtained through aqueous-phase reforming in a single reactor. Alkanes are produced from biomass-derived sorbitol through a bifunctional pathway (see scheme) that involves the dehydration of sorbitol on acid sites (SiO2/Al2O3) and hydrogenation of intermediates on a metal catalyst under a H2 atmosphere. Hydrogen is produced from sorbi...

The incorporation of plant biomass into soil usually leads to long-chain n-alkanes with a relative predominance of odd carbon numbered homologues. Contrastingly, an increase in short-chain even carbon numbered n-alkanes was found in charred biomass with progressing temperatures. We applied lipid analysis to buried ancient topsoils that contained charred organic matter and to corresponding contr...

Leaf-wax n-alkanes (2)H/(1)H ratios are widely used as a proxy in climate reconstruction. Although the broad nature of the relationship between n-alkanes δ(2)H values and climate is appreciated, the quantitative details of the proxy remain elusive. To examine these details under natural environmental conditions, we studied a riparian broadleaf angiosperm species, Populus angustifolia, growing o...

Tapetosomes are abundant organelles in tapetum cells during the active stage of pollen maturation in Brassicaceae species. They possess endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-derived vesicles and oleosin-coated lipid droplets, but their overall composition and function have not been established. In situ localization analyses of developing Brassica napus anthers revealed flavonoids present exclusively in ta...

The traditional approach for analysis of aerosol organics is to extract aerosol materials collected on filter substrates with organic solvents followed by solvent evaporation and analytical separation and detection. This approach has the weaknesses of being labor intensive and being prone to contamination from the extracting solvents. We describe here an alternative approach for the analysis of...

Recent developments in Configurational-Bias Monte Carlo (CBMC) techniques allow the accurate calculation of the sorption isotherms for alkanes, and their mixtures, in various zeolites. The CBMC simulations give new insights into subtle entropy effects affecting mixture adsorption. Three types of entropy effects can be distinguished. (1) Size entropy effects favour the component with the smaller...