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In the quest for inexpensive feedstocks for the cost-effective production of liquid fuels, we have examined gaseous substrates that could be made available at low cost and sufficiently large scale for industrial fuel production. Here we introduce a new bioconversion scheme that effectively converts syngas, generated from gasification of coal, natural gas, or biomass, into lipids that can be used for biodiesel production. We present an integrated conversion method comprising a two-stage system. In the first stage, an anaerobic bioreactor converts mixtures of gases of CO₂ and CO or H₂ to acetic acid, using the anaerobic acetogen Moorella thermoacetica. The acetic acid product is fed as a substrate to a second bioreactor, where it is converted aerobically into lipids by an engineered oleaginous yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica. We first describe the process carried out in each reactor and then present an integrated system that produces microbial oil, using synthesis gas as input. The integrated continuous bench-scale reactor system produced 18 g/L of C16-C18 triacylglycerides directly from synthesis gas, with an overall productivity of 0.19 g⋅L⁻¹⋅h⁻¹ and a lipid content of 36%. Although suboptimal relative to the performance of the individual reactor components, the presented integrated system demonstrates the feasibility of substantial net fixation of carbon dioxide and conversion of gaseous feedstocks to lipids for biodiesel production. The system can be further optimized to approach the performance of its individual units so that it can be used for the economical conversion of waste gases from steel mills to valuable liquid fuels for transportation., United States. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (DE-AR0000059), United States. Department of Energy (DE-SC0008744)

Synchronization constitutes one of the most fundamental collective dynamics across networked systems and often underlies their function. Whether a system may synchronize depends on the internal unit dynamics as well as the topology and strength of their interactions. For chaotic units with certain interaction topologies synchronization might be impossible across all interaction strengths, meaning that these networks are non-synchronizable. Here we propose the concept of interaction control, generalizing transient uncoupling, to induce desired collective dynamics in complex networks and apply it to synchronize even such non-synchronizable systems. After highlighting that non-synchronizability prevails for a wide range of networks of arbitrary size, we explain how a simple binary control may localize interactions in state space and thereby synchronize networks. Intriguingly, localizing interactions by a fixed control scheme enables stable synchronization across all connected networks regardless of topological constraints. Interaction control may thus ease the design of desired collective dynamics even without knowledge of the networks' exact interaction topology and consequently have implications for biological and self-organizing technical systems.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, 2015., Cataloged from PDF version of thesis., Includes bibliographical references., Cost effective production of biofuels depends critically on feedstock cost and availability. As such, volatile fatty acids (VFAs) can play an important role in advancing sustainable biofuel production since they can be derived from low cost feedstock including gases and municipal solid waste. To this end, we studied fermentations of the oleaginous microbe Yarrowia lipolytica engineered for lipid overproduction. With acetate as sole carbon source, we conducted fed batch fermentations of Y. lipolytica in which acetic acid was maintained at low, non-inhibitory levels yielding high lipid titer of 50 g/L and productivity of 0.25 g/L/h, along with a lipid content of 60%. We also conducted fed batch fermentations with cell recycle to utilize dilute steams of acetic acid that essentially replicated the results of the fed batch process. Carbon balances were satisfied and no excess carbon dioxide production was detected beyond the amounts associated with biomass formation and product synthesis. Acetate is one member of the entire range of VFAs produced from municipal solid waste (MSW) via anaerobic digestion; thus, facilitating the use of MSW as a primary feedstock would be contingent on the ability of the above strain to grow on a mixture of VFAs. Given the insufficient literature examining microbial growth on VFAs, one of the goals of this project was to explore individual as well as mixed VFAs as a feedstock for Y.lipolytica. Dilute stream of mixed VFAs were successfully used as feed in bioreactor studies to obtain high cell density cultures. Similar results with respect to lipid production were obtained in comparison to the study on acetate. In addition, the microbe could tolerate perturbations in the feed composition and grow to similar cell densities. The success in establishing VFAs as a potential substrate for lipid accumulation in Yarrowia lipolytica raises the possibility of a two-stage commercial bioprocess enabling biodiesel production from MSW., by Sagar Chakraborty., Ph. D.