Agro-industrial wastes such as sugarcane bagasse, wheat bran, rice bran, corn cob and wheat straw are cheapest and abundantly available natural carbon sources. The present study was aimed to production of amylase and xylanase simultaneously using agro-industrial waste as the sole carbon source. Seven thermophilic strains of actinomycete were isolated from the mushroom compost. Among of these, s...

suspended solids % mixed juice levels encountered at diffuser A cane diffuser is a fairly efficient filter, retaining within the bagasse bed much of the suspended material that would otherwise pass into the draft juice. It was decided to investigate the possibility of utilising this filtration capability further by recycling the mud (underflow) from the juice clarification station to the diffus...

Medium density fiberboard (MDF) is an engineered wood product formed by breaking down selected lignin-cellulosic material residuals into fibers, combining it with wax and a resin binder, and then forming panels by applying high temperature and pressure. Because the raw material in the industrial process is ever-changing, the panel industry requires methods for monitoring the composition of thei...

Biochar is the carbonaceous solid product of biomass pyrolysis which can be used as chemical feedstock for various purposes such as energy production, and adsorption of pollutants. In particular, application of biochar to the soil is gaining greater interests, which can reduce fertilizer consumption, increase crop yields, and sequestrate carbon. This study compares the characteristics of biocha...

During the pretreatment of cellulosic biomass for subsequent microbial or enzymatic processing, the fiber reactivity typically increases with increasing severity but so does sugar degradation. Experimental results with sugarcane bagasse show that this tradeoff can be mitigated substantially by pretreatment in a flow-through (FT) mode. A model that incorporates both kinetics and mass transfer wa...

The production and characterization of cellulase from thermophilic strain Bacillus sp. C1AC5507 was studied. For enzyme production, sugarcane bagasse was used as carbon source. The produced carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) had a molecular weight around 55 kDa and its activity varied between 0.14 and 0.37 IU mL in conditions predicted by Response Surface Methodology. The optimum temperature and ...

Composites based on recycled high density polyethylene (RHDPE) and natural fibers were made through melt blending and compression molding. The effects of the fibers (wood and bagasse) and coupling agent type/concentration on the composite properties were studied. The use of maleated polyethylene (MAPE), carboxylated polyethylene (CAPE), and titanium-derived mixture (TDM) improved the compatibil...

To examine biofilter response with varying loading rate, a laboratory-based biofilter, packed with mixture of compost, sugar cane bagasse and granulated active carbon (GAC), was used for treating benzene. At influent benzene loadings (< 40 g m h), nearly 100% removal could be achieved. Maximum elimination capacity of biofilter was 83.65 g m h at inlet benzene load of 69 g m h. Using Wani’s meth...

The genus Arthrospira comprises a group of filamentous multicellular cyanobacteria and can be used for animal feed and human food. Solid state fermentation or cultivation (SSF) involves the use of a culture medium composed of solid material with given moisture content. No studies have been published about the cultivation of microalgae or cyanobacteria on solid medium. Furthermore, although suga...

In Brazil, the production of ethanol from sugarcane produces large amounts of lignocellulosic residues (bagasse and straw), which have been driving research and development for the production of second generation ethanol. In the present work, a recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain expressing the βglucosidase gene from Humicola grisea was used for ethanol production from three different c...