Biomass wastes are considered as cost-effective and sustainable precursors to prepare activated carbons for CO2 capture. In this study, two biomass-derived activated carbons were prepared using peanut shell and sunflower seed shell, and the optimal activated carbons were obtained at low KOH/carbon ratio of about 1. The peanut shell derived activated carbon (P-973-1.00) and sunflower seed shell ...

The effects of various additives, such as an inorganic alkali and metal catalyst, on the hydrothermal process were examined to recover hydrogen from biomass with high efficiency and selectivity at relatively low temperatures around 400°C. At first, a cellulose sample as a model biomass was subjected to the hydrothermal process at 400°C under 25 MPa in the presence of an alkali, sodium carbonate...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Sunflower cultivars exhibit a wide range of oil content in the mature achene, but the relationship between this and the dynamics of oil deposition in the achene during grain filling is not known. Information on the progress, during the whole achene growth period, of the formation of oil bodies in the components of the achene and its relationship with variations in final oil ...

High water use efficiency (WUE) can be achieved by coordination of biomass accumulation and water consumption. WUE is physiologically and genetically linked to carbon isotope discrimination (CID) in leaves of plants. A population of 148 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of sunflower derived from a cross between XRQ and PSC8 lines was studied to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling W...

Perennial herbaceous crops can become the main basis for renewable energy production in agricultural ecosystems in future. To determine the plant species that are the most suitable for biomass production, their biological peculiarities and productivity, biochemical composition and thermophysical properties, social and ecological impact must be investigated thoroughly. The local varieties of per...

Biogas production is of major importance for the sustainable use of agrarian biomass as renewable energy source. Economic biogas production depends on high biogas yields. The project aimed at optimising anaerobic digestion of energy crops. The following aspects were investigated: suitability of different crop species and varieties, optimum time of harvesting, specific methane yield and methane ...

Campesterol is an important precursor for many sterol drugs, e.g. progesterone and hydrocortisone. In order to produce campesterol in Yarrowia lipolytica, C-22 desaturase encoding gene ERG5 was disrupted and the heterologous 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR7) encoding gene was constitutively expressed. The codon-optimized DHCR7 from Rallus norvegicus, Oryza saliva and Xenapus laevis were ex...