In this work, Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains PE-2 and CAT-1, commonly used in the Brazilian fuel ethanol industry, were engineered for xylose fermentation, where the first fermented xylose faster than the latter, but also produced considerable amounts of xylitol. An engineered PE-2 strain (MEC1121) efficiently consumed xylose in presence of inhibitors both in synthetic and corn-cob hydrolysat...

BACKGROUND Microalgae are widely studied for biofuel production. Nevertheless, harvesting step of biomass is still a critical challenge. Bioflocculants have been applied in numerous applications including the low-cost harvest of microalgae. A major bottleneck for commercial application of bioflocculant is its high production cost. Lignocellulosic substrates are abundantly available. Hence, the ...

Key impediments to increased corn yield and quality in the southeastern US coastal plain region are damage by ear-feeding insects and aflatoxin contamination caused by infection of Aspergillus flavus. Key ear-feeding insects are corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea, fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, and brown stink bug, Euschistus servus. In 2006 and 2007, aflatox...

Large scale biofuel production will be possible only if significant quantities of biomass feedstock can be stored, transported, and processed in an economic and sustainable manner. Torrefaction has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of transportation, storage, and downstream processing through the improvement of physical and chemical characteristics of biomass. The main objective of...

Accurate trace-metal and strontium-isotope analyses of archaeological corn cobs require that metal contaminants be removed prior to chemical analysis. Archaeological cobs are often coated with construction debris, dust, or soilwhich containsmineral particles. In addition,most archaeological cobs are partially or completely burned and the burned parts incorporatemineral debris in their hardened ...

BACKGROUND Corn stover composition changes considerably throughout the growing season and also varies between the various fractions of the plant. These differences can impact optimal pretreatment conditions, enzymatic digestibility and maximum achievable sugar yields in the process of converting lignocellulosics to ethanol. The goal of this project was to determine which combination of corn sto...

Introduction Biomass energy has received much attention in recent years. We now use about one third of the U.S. corn crop for biofuels. More recently, attention has focused on cellulosic resources—dedicated energy crops like switchgrass, miscanthus, and corn stover. Now the question has been raised concerning the economics of collecting just the corn cobs for energy instead of the stover. This ...

Fungi of the genusAspergillus werea continuing problem on the newly developed eldana diet in multicell trays. Various control attempts are outlined. They include hygiene practises, adjustment of dietary pH, and incorporation of the fungicides benomyl, mancozeb, captab, methyl paraben and sodium propionate into the diet. Treatment of the corn cob grits used for larval inoculation was also invest...

Pleurotus pulmonarius (Fr) Quélet, produced laccase as the main ligninolytic enzyme when cultivated on solid-state cultures using corn cob as substrate. The addition of copper greatly increased the production of enzyme. The addition of 25.0 mM CuSO4 increased the level of laccase from 270 to 1,420 U.L-1 and the fungus showed high resistance to copper under the conditions used in this work.

In a new study, DNA from a 5,310-year-old corn cob found in the Tehuacán Valley in Mexico was sequenced and compared to modern maize and its wild progenitor grasses. The sample was found to be an intermediate between modern maize and its wild relatives, suggesting a gradual, protracted domestication process.