Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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Construction of Large-Area Uniform Graphdiyne Film for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries
No full text3D hierarchical porous structured carbon nanotube aerogel-supported Sn spheroidal particles: an efficient and selective catalyst for electrochemical reduction of CO2 to formate
No full textFracsis: Ion fractionation and metathesis by a NF-ED integrated system to improve water recovery
No full textDesalination of brackish and wastewater is a challenging task in case the water contains sparingly bivalent ions. To avoid membrane scaling and obtain a high water recovery, an integrated membrane process is proposed in this investigation: ion fractionation and metathesis by a nanofiltration (NF) - electrodialysis (ED) integrated system (namely "Fracsis"). In the first step, this system makes use of the advantage of NF which can fractionate the bivalent ions from the monovalent ions. Results show that the tested NF membrane has a satisfying selectivity for this application, with a retention of Na+ 38-49%, Cl- 20-38%, and Ca2+ > 98%, SO42- > 85%. Afterwards, both NF permeate (monovalent stream) and retentate (divalent stream) were sent to the ED for metathesis. By ED metathesis, salts with high solubility (CaCl2 and Na2SO4) were synthesized in two separate streams and hence a high water recovery was achieved. The water recovery rate may reach 98.5% in case a continuous mode is used. Finally, the operational cost was calculated on this bench scale Fracsis system. Results indicate that although the energy consumption is higher than that of a RO system, Fracsis has its advantages in a higher water recovery, lower cost on chemical consumption and sludge treatment expenditures. To a broader context, this technology may possibly be used for chemical purification and synthesis in various industries in case mixed inorganic/organic salt streams are concerned
Parallel-META 3: Comprehensive taxonomical and functional analysis platform for efficient comparison of microbial communities
No full textThe number of metagenomes is increasing rapidly. However, current methods for metagenomic analysis are limited by their capability for in-depth data mining among a large number of microbiome each of which carries a complex community structure. Moreover, the complexity of configuring and operating computational pipeline also hinders efficient data processing for the end users. In this work we introduce Parallel-META 3, a comprehensive and fully automatic computational toolkit for rapid data mining among metagenomic datasets, with advanced features including 16S rRNA extraction for shotgun sequences, 16S rRNA copy number calibration, 16S rRNA based functional prediction, diversity statistics, bio-marker selection, interaction network construction, vector-graph-based visualization and parallel computing. Application of Parallel-META 3 on 5,337 samples with 1,117,555,208 sequences from diverse studies and platforms showed it could produce similar results as QIIME and PICRUSt with much faster speed and lower memory usage, which demonstrates its ability to unravel the taxonomical and functional dynamics patterns across large datasets and elucidate ecological links between microbiome and the environment. Parallel-META 3 is implemented in C/C++ and R, and integrated into an executive package for rapid installation and easy access under Linux and Mac OS X. Both binary and source code packages are available at http://bioinfo.single-cell.cn/parallel-meta.html
Variation in the Gut Microbiota of Termites (Tsaitermes ampliceps) Against Different Diets
No full textTermites are well recognized for their thriving on recalcitrant lignocellulosic diets through nutritional symbioses with gut-dwelling microbiota; however, the effects of diet changes on termite gut microbiota are poorly understood, especially for the lower termites. In this study, we employed high-throughput 454 pyrosequencing of 16S V1-V3 amplicons to compare gut microbiotas of Tsaitermes ampliceps fed with lignin-rich and lignin-poor cellulose diets after a 2-week-feeding period. As a result, the majority of bacterial taxa were shared across the treatments with different diets, but their relative abundances were modified. In particular, the relative abundance was reduced for Spirochaetes and it was increased for Proteobacteria and Bacteroides by feeding the lignin-poor diet. The evenness of gut microbiota exhibited a significant difference in response to the diet type (filter paper diets < corn stover diets < wood diets), while their richness was constant, which may be related to the lower recalcitrance of this biomass to degradation. These results have important implications for sampling and analysis strategies to probe the lignocellulose degradation features of termite gut microbiota and suggest that the dietary lignocellulose composition could cause shifting rapidly in the termite gut microbiota
Calcium Supplementation Abates the Inhibition Effects of Acetic Acid on Saccharomyces cerevisiae
No full textThe toxic level of acetic acid could be released during the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, and an economical method was reported to minimize the acidic stress on the fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by cation supplementation. A dose-dependent protection of Ca2+ was monitored, and the optimal concentration of Ca2+ was 8 mM under 4.5 g/L acetic acid stress. The activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase of yeast cells supplemented with optimal Ca2+ increased by 18.6 and 27.3 %, respectively, coupling with an obvious decrease of reactive oxygen species content. Cell viability also performed a significant increase from 52.4 % (without Ca2+ addition) to 73.56 % (with 8 mM Ca2+ addition). No significant improvements were found in the bioethanol yields by Ca2+ supplementation; however, the fermentation time was shortened by about 8 h obviously. Our results illustrated that the Ca2+ supplementation could be an economical method to make the bioethanol production more efficient and cost-effective
Novel Fe-W-Ce Mixed Oxide for the Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx with NH3 at Low Temperatures
No full textA set of novel iron doped cerium-tungsten catalysts were prepared by sol-gel method with a view to their application for low temperature selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx with NH3 in power plants. With a molar ratio Fe/W/Ce of 0.5:1:1, a NOx reduction of >90% at 200 degrees C was achieved. In Fe-W-Ce catalysts with low iron oxide content, it was found that the iron compounds were highly dispersed and formed a solid solution within the cerium oxide lattice, which promoted the SCR activity. Large amounts of iron in the catalysts might form a layer of Fe2O3 on the catalyst surface, which induced the synergistic inhibition effect among Fe, Ce and W species. Moreover, the Fe-W-Ce catalysts possessed a high resistance to changed operation parameters as well as to deactivation by SO2 and/or H2O. The novel catalyst showed to be competitive among recently developed low-temperature SCR catalysts
Enhanced poly(3-hydroxypropionate) production via beta-alanine pathway in recombinant Escherichia coli
No full textPoly(3-hydroxypropionate) (P3HP) is a thermoplastic with great compostability and biocompatibility, and can be produced through several biosynthetic pathways, in which the glycerol pathway achieved the highest P3HP production. However, exogenous supply of vitamin B-12 was required to maintain the activity of glycerol dehydratase, resulting in high production cost. To avoid the addition of VB12, we have previously constructed a P3HP biosynthetic route with beta-alanine as intermediate, and the present study aimed to improve the P3HP production of this pathway. L-aspartate decarboxylase PanD was found to be the rate-limiting enzyme in the beta-alanine pathway firstly. To improve the pathway efficiency, PanD was screened from four different sources (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Corynebacterium glutamicum). And PanD from C. glutamicum was found to have the highest activity, the P3HP production was improved in flask cultivation with this enzyme. To further improve the production, the host strain was screened and the culture condition was optimized. Under optimal conditions, production and content of P3HP reached to 10.2 g/L and 39.1% (wt/wt [cell dry weight]) in an aerobic fed-batch fermentation. To date, this is the highest P3HP production without VB12
Improving photovoltaic properties of the linear A-Ar-A type small molecules with rhodanine by extending arylene core
No full textIn order to efficiently tune photovoltaic performance, a series of linear A-Ar-A type small molecules (SMs) of (DRCN3T)(2)Ar were designed and synthesized, which contain the same terminal of 2-(1,1-dicyanomethylene) rhodanine (DRCN) and pi-bridged space of 5-vinyl-trithiophene (3T), but different central arylene (Ar) unit, respectively. Significantly extending film absorption and increasing hole mobility were obtained in these SMs with enlarging Ar units from phenylene (Ph), naphthylene (Nap) to anthrylene (Ant). As a result, photovoltaic properties were remarkably improved in these SM/PC71BM based solution-processing organic solar cells (OSCs) by enlarging Ar units in (DRCN3T)(2)Ar. The highest power conversion efficiency of 5.15% with a short-circuit current density of 11.34 mA cm(-2) was obtained in the (DRCN3T)(2)Ant based device, which is three times of that in the (DRCN3T)(2)Ph-based device. Our work further indicates that properly extending Ar core could be beneficial to improve photovoltaic properties for the A-Ar-A type SMs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Strong Enhancement of Photoelectric Conversion Efficiency of Co-hybridized Polymer Solar Cell by Silver Nanoplates and Core-Shell Nanoparticles
No full textA new way was meticulously designed to utilize the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect and the light scattering effect of silver nanoplate (Ag-nPl) and core-shell Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles (Ag@SiO2-NPs) to enhance the photovoltaic performances of polymer solar cells (PSCs). To prevent direct contact between silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) and photoactive materials which will cause electrons quenching, bare Ag-nPl were spin-coated on indium tin oxide and silica capsulated Ag-NPs were incorporated to a PBDTTT-C-T:PC71BM active layer. As a result, the devices incorporated with Ag-nPl and Ag@SiO2-NPs showed great enhancements. With the dual effects of Ag-nPl and Ag@SiO2-NPs in devices, all wavelength sensitization in the visible range was realized; therefore, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs showed a great enhancement of 14.0% to 8.46%, with an increased short-circuit current density of 17.23 mA.cm(-2). The improved photovoltaic performances of the devices were ascribed to the LSPR effect and the light scattering effect of metallic nanoparticles. Apart from optical effects, the charge collection efficiency of PSCs was improved after the incorporation of Ag-nPl