Catalytic production of hydrogen by steam reforming of methanol is an attractive option for use in decentralised production of clean electrical energy from fuel cells. Methanol fuelled solid polymer fuel cell systems are promising candidates for stationary and mobile applications such as passenger cars. Present methanol reformers are usually of the packed bed type which suffer from problems suc...

Lewis acidic zeolites are used to synthesize unsaturated dicarboxylic acid esters via aldol condensation of keto esters. Hafnium-containing BEA (Hf-BEA) zeolites catalyze the condensation of ethyl pyruvate into diethyl 2methyl-4-oxopent-2-enedioate and diethyl 2-methylene-4oxopentanedioate (an itaconic acid ester analogue) with a selectivity of ca. 80% at ca. 60% conversion in a packed-bed reac...

As a reference platform for in vitro synthetic biology, we have developed a prototype flow microreactor for enzymatic biosynthesis. We report the design, implementation, and computer-aided optimisation of a three-step model pathway within a microfluidic reactor. A packed bed format was shown to be optimal for enzyme compartmentalisation after experimental evaluation of several approaches. The s...

We performed the biotransformation of ferulic acid to vanillin using Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) in the stirring packed-bed reactors filled with carbon fiber textiles (CFT). Scanning electron microscope (SEM), HPLC, qRT-PCR and ATP assay indicated that vanillin biotransformation is tightly related to cell growth, cellar activity and the extent of biofilm formation. The biotransformation was...

14 This study investigates the mesophilic biohydrogen production from glucose using a strictly 15 anaerobic strain, Clostridium butyricum CWBI1009, immobilized in a trickling bed sequenced 16 batch reactor (TBSBR) packed with a Lantec HD Q-PAC ® packing material (132 ft2/ft3 specific 17 surface). The reactor was operated for 62 days. The main parameters measured here were 18 hydrogen compositio...

This work is aimed to produce endoglucanase through solid state fermentation in a packed bed bioreactor with the use of the fungus Myceliophtora sp. I-1D3b using a mixture of wheat bran (WB) and sugar cane bagasse (SCB) as culture medium. Preliminary tests were performed in polypropylene plastic bags, controlling the variables temperature (40, 45, and 50°C), initial moisture content (75, 80, an...