5^th World Bioenergy Congress and Expo June 29-30, 2017 Madrid, Spain

Shahbazi uses low value agricultural waste materials to produce value-added biofuels and bioproducts, including the production of ethanol through fermentation of various food processing wastes, and advanced biofuels from woody biomass. In the past four years he has been working on gasification of woody biomass funded by the NSF (CREST Center for bioenergy) that uses woody biomass and herbaceous grass to produce syngas and subsequently advance biofuels through catalytic reactions. He has authored/co-authored more than 60 peer reviewed research publications. He was the recipient of Senior Research award from NCA&T in 2006 and an interdisciplinary research award in 2014. He ass served as a convening board member for a legislature authorized Biofuel Center of NC in 2006-2008. He is now serving as a member of Technical Advisory Committee for Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI), Department of Energy

Syngas which is the product of biomass gasification is generally used in power production and in Fischer Tropsch (FT) synthesis process. The production of syngas is generally accompanied with several impurities. These impurities are mainly chlorine, sulfur, nitrogen and tar. For advanced applications such as FT synthesis, tar should be extensively removed to obtain a clean syngas for FT process. In power production application, the tar in the syngas will condense at low temperatures and cause blocking and fouling of engines. Tar removal can be done through condensation or catalytic cracking. Catalytic thermal cracking of toluene was achieved in this research. Different nickel and iron based catalysts were synthesized using the incipient impregnation method to obtain the desired catalysts. Several characterization techniques were used to investigate these catalysts. The measurement of total surface area and pore volume of the catalysts were conducted in a BET analyzer. The physiothermal behavior of the catalysts were investigated using TGA. The crystallographic analysis of the synthesized catalysts were carried out using XRD to characterize the metallic distribution on the support. The temperature programmed reduction analysis detected the reduction behavior of iron and nickel to be around 400 oC and 600 oC, respectively. The TGA results showed that the optimum synthesis conditions of these catalysts was around 450 oC. The catalytic activity of these catalysts was investigated in a fixed bed reactor. Results of these investigations showed that addition of iron to nickel increased the catalytic resistance to sintering, however the conversion rate of tar compounds was 60%. We also learned that the addition of magnesium as a promoter to bimetallic catalyst increased the conversion rate to 74%. These results showed that the above catalysts are able to convert toluene and ammonia to hydrogen, hence producing a high quality syngas for advanced FT applications.

Ibai Funcia has a Master Degree in Chemistry by the University of Navarre (Spain), a Course on Pedagogical Aptitude by the University of Navarre (Spain) and a Project Management Interuniversity Master's degree by the University of La Rioja (Spain). He is actually developing his PhD Thesis at the Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNa) on the Science and Industrial Technologies PhD Program. Since 2004 he has been working in CENER Biomass Department as a Biomass Researcher

Thermochemical modeling seems a promising tool in the biomass combustion field to avoid ash-related problems during combustion: slagging, fouling and corrosion. Several authors have used thermochemical software packages to understand and validate their experimental results in different biomass combustion studies, focusing directly on ash composition or ash streams composition. Besides, most of these studies are focused on operational issues, especially on those concerning de-fluidization phenomena, in pilot scale combustion plants. In this work, a thermochemical model was developed to predict inorganic elements’ release during combustion and the melting behavior and composition of the fly ash in the downstream, allowing to evaluate the effect of biofuel composition on the ash composition and behavior. With the aid of experimental data obtained by common techniques, previously used in other studies, such as chemical fractionation, and chemical analysis to understand elements distribution during combustion, the model could be validated by comparison with real data. The results obtained with the model presented in this work, reveal the importance of the S/Cl molar ratio to reduce ash deposition problems during gas cooling in the combustion of wheat straw using large scale vibrating grate technologies.

Yanet Rodriguez Herrero is a MSc. candidate at the University of Alberta. Her current research is focused on the conversion of bioresources to produce value-added chemicals using Green Chemistry. She worked for few years in analytical laboratories but her desire to expand her skills and knowledge, and her passion for the renewable resources inspired her to continue the chemistry studies. She always demonstrated high professionalism follow by outstanding results during her day-to day performance.

About 10-11% (w/w) crude glycerol is generated as the main by-product of the biodiesel and oleochemical industries. Pure glycerol is needed in industries like personal care, food, pharmaceutical, hygiene and others. However, this crude glycerol is expensive to purify and becomes economically unviable to be used in the food, pharmaceutical, or cosmetics industries. This stimulates industry and scientists to investigate for alternatives uses of glycerol and selective chemical conversions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the conversion of glycerol to allyl alcohol (AA) with the use of the microwaves and the further oxidation of the AA to acrylic acid. The conversion of glycerol to AA using formic acid (FA) was studied in a CEM Discover Microwave reactor using open and closed vessel conditions as well as conventional heating. Optimization of the reaction was carried out using statistical methods. The intermediate and final products were characterized using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), gas chromatography (GC) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). We observed rapid conversion of glycerol to AA under microwave irradiation in the presence of FA. Particularly, the addition of FA to preheated glycerol resulted in instant conversion into AA at lower temperature and shorter time with higher purity compared to conventional heating. These initial investigations highlight that glycerol can be rapidly converted to AA at lower temperatures using microwave irradiation. These findings are important both from academic and industrial point of view. The conversion of AA to acrylic acid is in progress.

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant and renewable organic compound in biosphere; comprising three major groups of polymers: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. It leads to a need for search for efficient fermentation of sugar monomers. However, the chemical and physical processes used in the pretreatment and hydrolysis of polymers result in the production of chemical compounds (weak acids, furans, phenols) that can have harmful effect on fermentative microorganisms. The purpose of this work is to study the use of liquid fraction from Paulownia wood autohydrolysis for bioethanol obtention by comparing two yeast: Pichia stipitis CECT-1922T and Saccharomyces cerevisiae MEC-1133 (which is a genetically modified yeast from PE-2). Liquor was produced from Paulownia by autohydrolysis (210ºC) and posthydrolysis (in presence of sulfuric acid) to break down xylooligosaccharydes into xylose. This two-stage process led to solids enriched in cellulose and lignin (suitable as a substrate for pulping) and liquors containing xylose as major component. The liquid phase from posthydrolysis also contained other sugars (glucose) and acetic acid. Liquor from posthydrolysis was evaporated, increasing the amount of xylose and removing acetic acid (about 60% was removed). Neutralized liquors were employed (directly or after detoxification by ion exchange and activated charcoal) as fermentation media for hemicellulosic bioethanol production as described above. Genetically modified S. cerevisiae was able to fermentate concentrated liquors, reaching to ethanol concentrations of 14.23 g/L (corresponding to 63.93% conversion) in the most concentrated liquor. For P. Stipitis was reached 14.16 g/L ethanol (corresponding to 60.65% conversion) in the detoxified liquor. In conclusion, genetically modified S. cerevisiae is more resistant to inhibitors than P. Stipitis, being able to ferment concentrated liquors without detoxification. However, with P. Stipitis higher concentrations of ethanol were reached in the liquors that have fewer inhibitors.

Global warming is an important problem nowadays. It is caused because of the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), produced by the combustion of fossil fuels. Additionally, the high-speed extraction rate from fossil fuels tanks, compared with the replenishment rate, is way faster. Due to this fact, it is known that it is a finite source of energy. Consequently, biomass (and most importantly lignocellulosic biomass) has become a determining source of renewable energy owing to its ubiquity, availability, cheapness and sustainability. Paulownia is a fast growing lignocellulosic biomass useful for second generation bioethanol production, by applying a suitable and environmentally friendly pretreatment like autohydrolysis. This treatment allows to release a high amount of oligosaccharides and increase the enzymatic susceptibility of the solid phase, optimal features for fermentation processes afterwards. In this work, two pretreatments (non-isothermal autohydrolysis and isothermal delignification) were employed, separately and jointly, in order to improve the susceptibility of the enzymatic hydrolysis and the bioethanol production. The fermentations of the solid phase resultant were carried out by Separated Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF), where the saccharification and fermentation processes take place sequentially. The results show that the solid, pretreated by the joined processes, is the most suitable for the bioethanol obtention, allowing to reach higher glucose to ethanol conversion.

Charlotte Loustau Cazalet obtained her Master of Science at the UBO (Universite de Bretagne Occidentale) in 2014. After graduation, she worked for one year at the INRA labs of Montpellier for biofuel production by dry fractionation of lignocellulosic biomass. Since 2015, she is a PhD student at IFP New energies and her thesis is co-supervised by INP Pagora Grenoble and the Laboratory of Industrial and Biological Chemistry at the University of Liege.

Bioethanol represents an important biomass-derived fuel, which is produced by the biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass. Currently, the steam explosion pretreatment is often defined as the best pretreatment at the economic and industrial level. Schematically this pretreatment can be decomposed in two stages. The first stage is an acid hydrolysis which mainly depolymerizes the hemicelluloses and the second stage is an explosive decompression which leads to mechanical disruption of biomass. The steam explosion pretreatment has been examined in many studies for maximizing the xylose yields and enhancing the enzymatic digestibility of the cellulose fractions. It has been stated that this pretreatment enables to decrease particle size, disrupte plant cells and make the biomass woollier, resulting in an increased surface area and a better accessibility of carbohydrates to enzymes. However, few authors have been independently studied the impact of the two stages on the substrate enzymatic reactivity. To our knowledge, only two articles studied the specific effect of the explosive decompression and their conclusions are opposing. Brownell et al. demonstrated that the decompression is unnecessary for the increase of cellulose accessibility of aspen wood and that the high level of digestibility is only performed by chemical autohydrolysis reactions. Unlike Pielhop at al. examined an improvement of cellulose digestibility for spruce wood with increase of pressure drop. For Pielhop at al., the positive effect may be due to the biomass species and/or to the less-hard acid-hydrolysis conditions. In this work, 20mm wheat straw is pretreated in various operating conditions. As a first step, the biomass is cooked in presence of 1wt% of sulfuric acid in a conventional autoclave at low severity conditions (diluted-acid cooking). Then, the pretreated substrate is washed thoroughly and introduced into a steam explosion batch reactor where several pressure drops are applied. After complete compositional analysis and enzymatic hydrolysis of the different pretreated wheat straws, we were able to see positive effect of explosive decompression on precooked substrates at low severity and the increase of enzymatic hydrolysis reactivity when the pressure drop increases.

Verónica Vela, a Colombian student with a bachelor degree in Applied Ecology has just finished a Master degree in environmental engineering with a specialization in wastewater treatment. Her master thesis based on natural systems in cold climate elucidates new, environmentally friendly, pathways for rural households where nutrients can be recycled and bioenergy produced. Her MSc thesis was entitled: Evaluation of a Willow System for wastewater treatment in Norwegian climate was conducted at Eidsalm, the energy farm, in Brandbu – Norway.

Wastewater treatment systems based on evapotranspiration such as willow systems have been studied for many years in Scandinavian and some European countries. The application of wastewater to energy crops is seen as an attractive alternative in the purification process of wastewaters because the irrigation permits not only to increase the biomass production, but also generate local environmental benefits such as increased soil fertility and reduced nutrient leaching, besides it permits to recycle some of the resources contained in the wastewater particularly the non-renewable resources like phosphorus. The aim of this study is to give an overview of the condition of the willow treatment system located at the energy farm of Eidsalm in Brandbu – Norway, which was built to serve a total of 12.7 PE, but since the beginning has been serving just 5 PE with an average flow of 25 m3 per month. In order to analyze the willow system performance, several investigations were carried out during seven months (January - August) concerning treatment efficiency, operation and maintenance. A willow system has essentially no outflow and the water is accumulated during the winter and evaporated during the growing season. The water in the system has a long retention time and equilibrates with the soil and plant uptake. Thus, the results from the analyzed water samples indicate high removal efficiencies of nitrogen and phosphorus, 79% and 98% respectively and a removal efficiency for COD of 92 %, leading to the conclusion that the system does not represent a sanitary risk, even if outflow should occur. Soil samples showed that the substrate meets the requirements of the Sludge Directive 86/278/EEC and can be spread in agricultural fields as a fertilizer. The willows are harvested, chipped and used for heating purposes. The amount of energy harvested per year is estimated to 7000 Wh. Recommendations to improve the willow system performance in a norwegian climate are given.

Ji Young Jung, Ph. D. candidate in Gyeongsang National University (South Korea), works on the area of bioethanol production, especially in the evaluation of chemical pre-treatment of lignocellulosic material with steam explosion as a step previous to the hydrolysis of cellulose. Additionally, her research interests are in biorefinery processes and optimization for bioethanol production

One way to increase the supply of woody biomass is short rotation coppice, where fast-growing wood species such as poplar and willow are planted on agricultural land and harvested for bioenergy or material use after a short rotation period. Moreover, wood chips from short rotation coppice have better fuel properties than other renewable raw materials such as miscanthus or straw. Fast-growing woods such as Populus nigra × Populus maxiwiczii, Populus euramericana, Populus alba × Populus glandulosa, Salix alba, and Liriodendron tulipifera are widely distributed in South Korea; however, their utilization for biofuel production is limited and further development is required. In this study, we evaluated the potential of fast growing woods (P. nigra × P. maxiwiczii, P. euramericana, P. alba × P. glandulosa, S. alba, and L. tulipifera) as a biomass resource for bioethanol production for different growth time periods. Poplar wood (P. nigra × P.maxiwiczii, P. euramericana, and P. alba × P. glandulosa) generally has a higher content of cellulose than glucose compared to other wood samples (S. alba, and L. tulipifera). We found that bioethanol production by enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose was higher in immature (3 years) than in mature (12 years) fast-growing woods. The highest reducing sugar yield reached after 72 h of enzymatic hydrolysis was 3.63 g/L and 3.91 g/L for P. nigra × P. maxiwiczii (3 years), and S. alba (3 years), respectively. Similarly, immature L. tulipifera woods (3 years) produced the highest amount of ethanol. These results suggest that immature fast-growing woods are a potential biomass resource for bioethanol production as an alternative energy source. Furthermore, optimizing the harvest age to take advantage of the rapid growth of fast-growing woods may be one strategy for obtaining a more suitable fast-growing wood material for bioethanol production.

Si Young, Ha is student and PhD. candidate of Gyeongsang National University in South Korea. She has her expertise in produce in growing media used wood biomass and evaluation in improving the growing media for plant growth. She had retained a keen interest in applied in various fields of wood biomass. She also has experience poster presentation in the Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals.

Considerable research on the use of other organic materials (e.g., bark, manure and sludge) as growing media has been conducted. The use of wood chip substrates as primary materials for growing media preparation has recently increased. Unfortunately, wood chips can contain phytotoxic compounds such as phenols, which are toxins that affect plant germination. This study aimed to evaluate the potential for using ground wood chips (Quercus mongolica) as growing media after steam pretreatment. The pretreatment conditions included grinding after steaming (10min, 20min, and 30min intervals) with pressures of the order of 1.5kg/cm2, and changes in physical (porosity and water holding capacity) and chemical (pH, organic matter and phenolic content) properties were subsequently compared to those of untreated samples to evaluate the suitability of treated samples for use as growing media. The germination rates of plants grown on common growing media (peat and perlite) were then compared to those grown on pretreated wood chips (1:1:1,w/w/w). The results indicated that when used as growing media, pretreated wood chips exhibited better physical and chemical properties than untreated wood chips. The 30min pretreatment regimen resulted in high water retention capacity, high organic matter contents, and suitable C/N ratios compared to other pretreatment conditions and untreated samples. The 30min pretreatment resulted in the lowest observed phytotoxicity and phenolic contents compared to other pretreatment conditions and untreated samples. Moreover, the use of growing media containing pretreated wood chips resulted in similar germination rates as those observed on common growing media and media containing wood chips that were pretreated for 30min. Therefore, wood chips that undergo the 30min pretreatment regime represent a suitable growing media substitute, and this outcome is likely associated with the alterations in the physical and chemical properties that occur during the steaming process. However, issues linked to pretreatment-associated expenses need to be resolved.

Jai Hyun Park, a Master candidate in Gyeongsang National University (South Korea). He studies in growth media for growing various plants. He is interested in biomass and bio-ethanol production

In Korea, many researchers are studying methods to transition from cultivating plants in soil to growing them in growth media. Peat, the most widely used component of growth media, is obtained from wetland, which are being rapidly depleted; this has caused environmental concern, leading many countries to limit the permissible extent of peat mining, and peat prices are rising as a result. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of using steam-exploded oak wood chips (SEOW) and a Bacillus subtillis mixture (BSM) as component of growth media. The soilless growth medium was composed of peat, SEOW and BSM (3 : 3 : 4, w/w/w). Herbaceous (Festuca arundinacea) and woody (Lespedeza cyrtobotrya Miq.) plants were planted in soil and in the soilless growth medium. Using natural soil as the control, we increased the proportion of the soilless growth medium to 25%, 50%, and 75%, and then to 100% of the growth substrate. Physical and chemical properties of the soilless growth medium were determined, and experiments were conducted to measure growth parameters such as seed germination, root length and stem length. We determined that, overall the soilless growth medium led to higher porosity and water-holding capacity and lower bulk density, pH, EC and inorganic compound content than those of the control soil. Seed germination and root length were highest in 100% soilless growth medium condition. In contrast, stem length was similar when using control soil and in all of the soilless growth medium conditions. In conclusion, soilless growth medium led to better seed germination and root length than did control soil. Therefore, SEOW and BSM appear to be feasible as alternatives to peat in growth medium. Furthermore, future research should be conducted to determine the optimum use of soilless growth medium for a variety of plants.

Rajiv Chandra Rajak, currently pursuing PhD under the guidance of Prof. Rintu Banerjee from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Mr. Rajak is working in the area of Biomass Deconstruction using biological catalsyt and its role in reducing sugar production.

Biological processes are becoming more competitive and gaining increased attention worldwide due to sustainability and eco-friendly nature.1 Biocatalyst, such as enzymes produced from microorganisms act as an effective green catalyst for biomass deconstruction. The selective degradation of lignin without altering the structure of other carbohydrates is currently a major biotechnological challenge facing by physical, chemical and physic-chemical biomass deconstruction modes during second generation bioethanol production process.2 Laccase (oxidoreductase, EC 1.10.3.2) is a multicopper phenol oxidase enzyme that oxidizes electron-rich phenolic and non-phenolic substrates.3 Lignocellulosics such as Saccharum spontaneum (Kans grass), contains huge amount of carbohydrates in its cell wall and to make this enormous amount more accessible for hydrolysis and to be used further in fermentation, degradation of lignin through appropriate pretreatment process is an essential prerequisite of the complete biofuel production process.4 In the present work, laccase obtained from Lentinus sp. has been used for biomass deconstruction. The process was optimized through Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on Central Composite Design (CCD) to investigate the effects of the different process parameters on biomass pretreatment. The maximum delignification obtained was 81.67% at 6 h of incubation time upon monitoring the initial lignin content of 17.46 % similar to the ultrasound-laccase mediated treatment of Napier grass.5 Highest reducing sugar yield from enzyme-pretreated Kans grass was 500.30 mg g−1 substrate after 5.30 h of incubation time at a low cellulase loading. SEM analysis indicated changes in the surface characteristics, whereas FT-IR shows that the pretreatment condition does not pose any major changes in the chemical nature of cellulose and hemicelluloses. . This work contributes towards the emergence of greener biomass pretreatment and utilization strategy.

Gujjala Lohit Kumar Srinivas is a Ph.D Scholar working under the supervision of Prof. Rintu Banerjee. Area of research is biodiesel production utilizing oleaginous microbes.

Depletion in the fossil fuel reserves and rapid urbanization are the major reasons behind adoption of renewable energy. In addition, the utilization of fossil fuels leads to a myriad of environmental complications like increased concentration of unburned hydrocarbons, CO and NOx in the ambient air above the threshold level contributing to global warming. These issues have forced the international community to research on biofuels which are sustainable and carbon neutral. In this context, biodiesel is one of the potential biofuels source since it can be produced from sustainable resources, leads to reduction in the harmful emissions, non-toxic and biodegradable in nature1. Biodiesel is mainly produced from vegetable oils which have food value and hence cannot be diverted for fuel applications2. In this context, oleaginous microbes are an alternative source since they have the natural ability to accumulate more than 20% lipid on dry weight basis (dwb) and their fatty acid composition is similar to that of vegetable oils3. Moreover under nitrogen and phosphorous stress conditions, lipid content can be enriched up to 70% on dwb. One of the major advantages of using oleaginous microbes is their ability to simultaneously utilize low cost substrates viz., lignocellulosic biomass (LCB), municipal waste, wastewater from different industries as carbon source along with the accumulation of lipids4. Among the potential substrates, glycerol – a byproduct from the biodiesel production refinery is the most promising since its utilization will make the process self sustaining5. In the present study, physico-chemical parameters affecting the lipid accumulation capability of Aspergillus sp. viz., concentration of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorous source, pH, temperature, effect of heavy metals, incubation time and effect of shaking has been studied. From the single parameter study, maximum lipid accumulation of 3.2 g/L having a lipid content of 45% (w/w) was obtained.

Debajyoti Kundu, currently pursuing PhD under the guidance of Prof. Rintu Banerjee from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Mr. Debajyoti is working in the area of Food Biotechnology and bioenergy production from food wastes.

Citrus fruits have a great popularity throughout the world owing to its flavors, therapeutic value and health benefits. In India citrus fruits are produced in large quantities. India holds third rank in respect of production of citrus fruits in the world[1]. Despite being rich in nutrients, citrus fruit residues do not find any commercial importance and are largely disposed of in municipal dumps or as underutilized cattle feed [2]. Fruit processing industries generates a huge amount of solid wastes which includes fruit peel and mash. The proper conversion of these solid wastes through biotechnological intervention not only led to biofuel production but, also resulting in less environmental pollution caused due to open waste disposal[3,4]. In India, especially North-East belt is associated with the higher production of citrus fruits and subsequently generates a large amount of fruit wastes. Essential oil extracted from citrus peel is one of the valuable by-product. On the other hand the solid fruit waste has high cellulose content other than water soluble components such as glucose, fructose and sucrose that represents as a potential candidate for bioethanol production[5]. The presence of low lignin levels makes such substrates ideal for fermentation-based products, such as ethanol production. In this regard an attempt has been taken to utilize the solid fruit waste for the production of bioethanol. Solid residue produced after fermentation is also use as a biomanure after proper processing. The present work deals with simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) (with yeast as inoculums) for bioethanol production. Several parameters like solid loading, incubation time, temperature, inoculum volume and inoculums age were studied to see the effect of these parameters for bioethanol production from citrus fruit wastes. The optimization studies are been continued. Preliminary study reveals that 13.08 % (v/v) bioethanol was obtained when SSF was practiced.

Knawang C Sherpa is pursuing her Ph.D at P.K Sinha Centre for Bioenergy, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Her research work is focused on second generation bioethanol using sugarcane tops as lignocellulosic biomass

Utilization of renewable energy as a sustainable alternative to rapidly decreasing crude reserves has enhanced biofuel production globally1. Various progress has occurred in the field of bioethanol fermentation technology since it can be used as a direct substitute for fossil fuel in transportation. Research efforts nowadays are directed towards cheap sources of ethanol such as lignocellulosic substrates that are cost competitive and sustainable. Sugarcane which is abundantly available in India produces 0.25-0.3 MT of sugarcane tops (an agricultural waste left after harvest) for every 1 MT of sugarcane and has been used as the substrate of interest2. Some of the major challenges in bioethanol production are the recalcitrant lignin, high cost of holocellulase and inadequate or non-utilization of pentose fraction during fermentation that has grave impediment in attaining a cost effective and viable process3. Efforts were made to overcome the mentioned obstacles by adapting an eco-friendly biotechnological process. Pretreatment and saccharification were conducted using in-house produced laccase and holocellulase respectively4,5. In the present study, the potential of ethanol production from sugarcane tops was assessed by subjecting the enzymatically pretreated substrate to co-fermentation. C6 and C5 utilizing strains were used for simultaneous fermentation of hexose and pentose sugars of the pretreated sugarcane tops. Co-fermentation was able to increase the ethanol yield and reduce the fermentation time. The effect of several key factors was investigated besides fermentation time, including hexose: pentose strain ratio, substrate loading, temperature and inoculation size since these process parameters play a major role in making the process economical. Thus sugarcane tops subjected to co-fermentation was able to increase the substrate loading to 25% (w/v) giving maximum ethanol titre of 7.56 % (v/v) in 22-24 h.

Archana Dash is currently pursuing her PhD under the guidance of Prof. Rintu Banerjee from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. Miss Dash is working in the area of Biodiesel Production from Microalgae.

Microbial sources have been explored for biodiesel production for years owing to their oleaginous nature (Ochsenreither et al., 2016; Dong et al., 2016). In spite of the extensive research biofuel scientists failed to come up with potential economic solutions to several challenges algae biodiesel industry is facing at the current time. Lipid enhancement at the cost of biomass accumulation and harvesting difficulties are some of the major bottlenecks to be named in this context (Tan and Lee, 2016; Sandip et al., 2015). It suggests the need for the search of other unconventional biodiesel feedstocks, which can oppress these challenges with improved biomass and lipid yields with cost-effective harvesting. One such concept is the use of co-culture strategy for biomass and intracellular lipid generation. Certain microalgae and fungi are known to be symbiotically associated (Das et al., 2016) and can grow as a single entity benefitting each other in nature. This concept has been recapitulated to construct the algae-fungi association for constructive biomass and lipid generation taking the aim for subsequent drop-in fuel manufacture. In this study, Aspergillus awamori, an oleaginous filamentous fungus was co-cultured with Chlorophycean green alga: Chlorella minutissima. The growth and lipid accumulation behaviour were examined in the presence of diverse carbon and nitrogen sources along with various altered cultural attributes. The effects on the biomass and lipid agglomeration abilities of the co-cultures were evaluated against the unialgal and unifungal cultures. Biomass production and lipid accumulation were observed to be significantly enhanced in the co-cultures in comparison to the monocultures. Glycerol was found to be the most effective carbon source, which resulted in a 3.4 to 5.1-time upturn of the total lipid yields as compared to the axenic monocultures. Similarly, potassium nitrate was observed to be the best biomass and lipid accumulator among the nitrogen sources. The co-culture oil was found to be rich in palmitic acid, methyl ester and oleic acid, methyl ester, which suggests its suitability for biodiesel production. Thus, this work suggests that the co-culture of specific oleaginous microalgae and fungi could be an efficient and potential strategy for biodiesel production.

Mohan Das, currently pursuing PhD under the guidance of Prof. Rintu Banerjee from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Mr. Mohan is working in the area of Food Biotechnology.

Global energy crisis is a burning issue. To address such issues the different problems associated with energy supply not only by emphasizing global warming but also the environmental issues such as air pollution, acid precipitation, ozone depletion, forest destruction and emissions from different radioactive elements are given utmost priority so that the energy and environment issues can be taken into consideration in a single goal [1]. In this context the present work emphasizes the waste from agricultural farm house practices and/ or agro based industries after processing the starchy rich cereals and grains. These includes discoloration, breakage, cracking, attack by fungi, insect damage, chalky grain, partial softening by being damp, dirty and bad smell etc. The damaged grains used are ten times cheaper than fine quality and can be utilized for bioethanol production considering the high starch content (60-80% of the dry matter) [2]. The amount of grain utilised neither for food, nor for feed purposes has grown in recent years in the tune of 10% increment annually. The process of bioethanol production from rice waste includes liquefaction to extract starch from rice followed by amylase treatment to hydrolyze starch for fermentable sugars production which can be further fermented to produce bioethanol. In addition, the latter two stages can be integrated into a single process, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) [3] which has the potential to cut down the overall time requirement keeping the overall yield of bioethanol constant. Current research focused on the process of bioethanol production from rice waste via liquefaction and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. In the study, saccharification was performed by α-amylase extracted from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens [4] while fermentation agent employed was Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For optimizing the process for maximum ethanol production, process parameters viz., solid loading, incubation time, inoculum volume and enzyme concentration were selected. Through experimentation, maximum ethanol concentration of 13.1% (v/v) was obtained after 15h of processing time. The bioethanol obtained through this process can be used for potable purposes and can also be used as a fuel with the potential of replacing gasoline.