Because of their wide abundance, their renewable and environmentally benign nature, and their outstanding mechanical properties, a great deal of attention has been paid recently to cellulosic nanofibrillar structures as components in nanocomposites. A first major challenge has been to find efficient ways to liberate cellulosic fibrils from different source materials, including wood, agricultura...

A simple method was invented to achieve a high yield of cellulosic biomass-derived alkyl levulinates, which have the potential to be alternative fuel additives. Alkyl levulinates, such as butyl-, pentyl-, and hexyl levulinates, were produced using single-step acid-catalyzed solvolysis of cellulosic biomass without the use of elevated pressure. Reactions were performed by refluxing alcohols such...

BACKGROUND Thermochemical pretreatment of lignocellulose is crucial to bioconversion in the fields of biorefinery and biofuels. However, the enzyme inhibitors in pretreatment hydrolysate make solid substrate washing and hydrolysate detoxification indispensable prior to enzymatic hydrolysis. Sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocelluloses (SPORL) is a relatively new process, bu...

Bioabatement is a potential method to remove inhibitory compounds from lignocellulose hydrolysates that could be incorporated into a scheme for fermentation of ethanol from cellulose. Coniochaeta ligniaria NRRL30616, an Ascomycete that metabolizes furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, is a unique strain that may be useful for detoxifying biomass sugars. NRRL30616 and 23 related fungal strains w...

A halotolerant, exopolysaccharide-producing bacterium isolated from the Salar de Uyuni salt flat in Bolivia was identified as Bacillus atrophaeus using next-generation sequencing. Comparisons indicate that genome most likely (p-value: 0.0024) belongs to a subspecies previously not represented database. The growth of bacterial strain and its ability produce exopolysaccharides (EPS) synthetic med...

A centrifugal method has been modified and applied to the assessment of water retention value (WRV) in cellulosic materials. Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), small particles/fibrils isolated from MCC using highpressure homogenizer, and pulp fibers saturated in water were centrifuged at different speeds and times with filter paper and/or a membrane acting as the filter in the WRV measurement se...

Cellulose is one of the most abundant non-degradable organic compound on earth. Near about half of the municipal and agricultural solid wastes contain cellulose or their derivatives. Saccharification or enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic wastes liberates glucose. In the present work, cellulase from Cellulomonas uda was extracted, partially purified by dialysis and immobilized on an organic supp...

The physical and chemical properties of composite starch-based films containing cellulosic fiber, chitosan, and gelatin were investigated. Films containing both cellulosic fibers and chitosan demonstrated tremendous enhancements in film strength and gas permeation. The water absorbency of composite films could be greatly reduced in film composites containing cellulosic fibers and gelatin, but t...

Nentwich I . , Szépfalusi Zs. , Kunz C. , Spuergin P. , Urbanek R.: Antigenicity for Humans of Cow Milk Caseins, Casein Hydrolysate and Casein Hydrolysate Fractions. Acta Vet. Brno 2004, 73: 291-298. Cow milk casein consists of several fractions each of which have different structure and differing antigenicity. The aim of the study was to investigate the capacity of cow milk casein, casein frac...