BACKGROUND Enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass (mainly plant cell walls) is a critical process for biofuel production. This process is greatly hindered by the natural complexity of plant cell walls and limited accessibility of surface cellulose by enzymes. Little is known about the plant cell wall structural and molecular level component changes after pretreatments, especially on th...

An experiment was carried out to determine net microbial protein supply to ruminants from 15 tropical feeds. The study was done at Lyamungo research institute, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania in 1993. Twenty Bos Taurus Bos Indicus bulls were used in three periods in a completely randomised design. The initial 19 days of each period were for adaptation by the bulls to their new enviro...

Information on the dynamic evolution of humic acid (HA) from anaerobic digestate and potential HA serving as an effective agent for remedying heavy metals is rather scarce. This study monitored structure functional groups metal-binding abilities during chicken manure corn stover digestion (AD) processes. Higher increases in aromatic (41–66%) oxygen-containing (37–45%) were observed AD stover, r...

Background Lignocellulosic biomass is an important resource for renewable production of biofuels and bioproducts. Enzymes that deconstruct this biomass are critical for the viability of biomass-based biofuel production processes. Current commercial enzyme mixtures have limited thermotolerance. Thermophilic fungi may provide enzyme mixtures with greater thermal stability leading to more robust p...

We have discovered that the spectrum of the well-known dwarf nova EM Cyg is contaminated by light from a K2–5V star (in addition to the K-type mass donor star). The K2–5V star contributes approximately 16 per cent of the light from the system and if not taken into account has a considerable effect upon radial velocity measurements of the mass donor star. We obtain a new radial velocity amplitud...

The use of cellulose-containing agricultural by-products modified with the cross-linking reagent dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea (DMDHEU) and the quaternary amine, choline chloride, as anion exchange resins, has not been reported. The objective of the present study was to convert the readily available by-products, soybean hulls, sugarcane bagasse and corn stover to functional anion exchange re...

The effects of feedstock type and biomass conversion conditions on the speciation of sulfur in biochars are not well-known. In this study, the sulfur content and speciation in biochars generated from pyrolysis and gasification of oak and corn stover were determined. We found the primary determinant of the total sulfur content of biomass to be the feedstock from which the biochar is generated, w...

As an immerging lignocellulose pretreatment strategy, cellulose solventbased pretreatment can break down interand intra-molecular hydrogen bonds and disrupt the rigid structure of cellulose. Two cellulose solvent pretreatments were examined and compared in this study: NaOH/urea and concentrated phosphoric acid. Pretreated corn stover substrates were characterized by optical microscopy, confocal...

The use of plant biomass is a sustainable alternative to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. Agricultural residues are interesting bioenergy feedstocks because they do not compete with food and add extra value to the crop, which might help to manage these residues in many regions. Breeding crops for dual production of food and bioenergy has been reported previously, but the ideal plant features are...

A biorefinery using the process of hemicellulose pre-extraction and subsequent pulping provides a promising way for the utilization of straw biomass and resolution of problems related to silicon. In this work, hemicellulose was extracted from depithed corn stover with sodium hydroxide solution before soda-AQ pulping. Components of the extracts were quantified by ion chromatography. The paramete...