Photobiological hydrogen production from live cells of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 encapsulated in silica gel was investigated. Hydrogen is a dense energy carrier with potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, provided a renewable and sustainable means of production can be achieved. Under certain conditions, Synechocystis sp. PCC...
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process in which organic matter is decomposed by a community of microbes in the absence of oxygen. The end product of anaerobic digestion is biogas, composed of methane and carbon dioxide, which is often recovered and used to generate energy. Commonly, biogas is not produced...
Photobiological hydrogen production -- the use of photosynthesis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen -- presents an opportunity for efficient and large-scale solar biofuel development. One of the major challenges in this area is competition for reductant between the hydrogen-evolving hydrogenase enzyme and other metabolic pathways. In this work...
This work focuses on solute mass transport in a highly heterogeneous two-region porous medium consisting of spherical low-hydraulic conductivity inclusions, embedded in a high-hydraulic conductivity matrix. The transport processes occuring in the system are described by three distinct time scales. The first time scale reflects the characteristic time for convective...
Microalgae has been under careful consideration as a sustainable feedstock for renewable fuel recently due to its year round production with high energy yields per unit area, reduced need for arable land, water treatment benefits with nutrient cycling, and minimal competition with the food industry. Despite of all these advantages,...
Malolactic fermentation (MLF) is an important step in the production of wines and is commonly performed in red or cool climate wines to reduce acidity. In this study the impact of MLF on red wine color and the ability of Oenococcus oeni to degrade compounds important to the development of...
Further enhancement of energy generation is desired for practical application of anaerobic microbial systems such as microbial fuel cells (MFC) and anaerobic digesters (AD). A possible approach is to enhance the ability of microbial communities to transfer electron extracellularly in the form of electrical current. Critical to perform direct extracellular...
Microbial electrolysis provides a new approach for hydrogen generation from renewable biomass. At current stage, the most likely limiting factors for successful scale up of this technology are the large internal resistance and high fabrication cost. This dissertation presents an attempt to overcome these limitations by investigating novel microbial electrolysis...
Food allergies are an important health problem and affect up to 2% of the adult population and 8% of children worldwide. Under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA) of 2004, foods that contain or derive from the "Big 8" allergens (milk, egg, finfish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts,...
Optimization of preparative nonlinear chromatography was carried out for
the first time for a biomolecule mixture. Conventional wisdom on optimization,
which roots from analytical chromatography, dictates optimizing resolution in an
analytical column and obtaining similar separation in a large column for isolation.
Such a method of optimization significantly under uses...