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OPEFB is a waste product from oil palm mills and is abundant in quantity. OPEFB is a lignocellulosic compound containing cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. The cellulose in OPEFB can be converted into levulinic acid, while hemicellulose can be converted into furfural. The consumption of furfural and levulinic acid in Indonesia is increasing, and so far, the demand has been met through imports. Pretreatment is the first stage in converting OPEFB into valuable products. In this paper, we have simulated furfural and levulinic acid production from OPEFB using two pretreatment methods: ammonia soaking and ammonia expansion. Both process simulations were carried out using Superpro Designer v9.0, with 17,520 metric tons OPEFB/year capacity as input raw material. The simulation of furfural and levulinic acid production using the ammonia expansion pretreatment process resulted in feasibility indicators including a payback period of 2.56 years, an ROI (Return on Investment) of 34.07%, and an IRR (Internal Rate of Return) of 28.62%. On the other hand, using the ammonia-soaking process resulted in an IRR of 22.26%. These parameters indicate that furfural and levulinic acid production is more economically viable using the ammonia expansion pretreatment process than the ammonia soaking pretreatment process.

The article discusses the advancements in brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) and reverse engineering the brain, highlighting the convergence of neuroscience, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. BMIs facilitate direct interaction between the human brain and external technological equipment, with applications in healthcare, robotics, and personal performance improvement. Reverse engineering the brain aims to decipher its complex pathways for potential interventions in disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The ethical implications of these technologies, including privacy concerns and the potential for exploitation, are also addressed in the article. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the role of hydrogen and ammonia technology in promoting clean energy. Hydrogen is seen as a clean energy carrier that can help reduce air pollution. However, most hydrogen production still relies on natural gas, which leads to greenhouse gas emissions. Ammonia gas, which contains more hydrogen than hydrogen itself, is also being explored as a clean alternative to fossil fuels. There are challenges to overcome in transitioning to hydrogen technology, such as safety concerns and high production costs. Despite these challenges, there is increasing investment and commitment to integrating hydrogen into national energy strategies. The article also highlights the potential of green ammonia as a derivative of hydrogen for storage and transport, particularly in sectors where traditional battery storage is not feasible. Ongoing advancements in hydrogen production and the development of green ammonia offer promising opportunities for achieving a sustainable and clean energy future. [Extracted from the article]

Entrapped lipase derived from Candida rugosa can be used as an alternative for commercial heterogeneous catalysts in the biodiesel synthesis process. The inclination towards a recirculating reactor with lipase-containing beds stems from its capability to simultaneously improve both yield and reproducibility in the biodiesel synthesis process. To industrialize biodiesel production with entrapped lipase in a recirculating reactor, optimization is essential, and this can be estimated using a kinetics model. In this context, a kinetics model based on the Ping-Pong Bi-Bi mechanism was developed for enzyme transesterification. Following this, experiments on biodiesel synthesis were carried out in a fixed-bed reactor with a recirculated substrate, and a biodiesel concentration of 2177.231 mol/m3 was achieved from 917.804 mol/m3 triglyceride. In this study, 3 models, namely Model 1, 2, and 3, were developed based on the Ping-Pong Bi-Bi mechanism, and each has assumptions that determine its complexity. To validate these models, two sets of secondary data were taken and fitted into the respective model. The sum relative error is used to express the differences between model and experimental data. Model 1, predicting each component in transesterification, exhibited the highest error of 1.64, while Model 3, assuming excess alcohol and incorporating a pseudo-steady-state for di- and monoglyceride, yielded the lowest error. Despite these variations, every model demonstrated good agreement in following each component profile accurately, providing a more precise description of the reaction elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioproduct from biomass appears to be major interests for future years given the spectacular and fast advances in microbiology. But the industrial developments of the new bioproducts production struggle to follow this constant and massive creation. Therefore, to estimate the potential of new bioproducts is necessary to pre-design biorefineries with the highest relevance. This study proposes a methodology assessing the relevance of such industrialized production. The presented tool is a multi-scale methodology describing a decision-support tool for the determination of an optimal biorefinery from a superstructure through process simulation, and economic and environmental evaluations. To optimize the biorefinery, energy integration is also applied on the selected processes, because a biorefinery needs a large amount of energy to operate, especially in the pretreatment and purification steps of the process due to huge water flowrate. Thus, the tool designs an efficient, profitable and sustainable biorefinery. We demonstrate our methodology capabilities with the acetone, butanol and ethanol production (ABE system) from lignocellulosic biomass, especially from wood wastes.

The operational and economic constraints suffered by amine solvents for CO2 removal have motivated the research on an alternative solvent with better performance and cost-effectiveness. Amino acid salt (AAS) has been identified as an interesting green solvent, an alternative to commercial amine solvents. The present work evaluated the physicochemical and CO2-solubility properties of potassium L-cysteine (K-CYS), a naturally occurring amino-acid-based solvent for CO2 removal from natural gas. Its physicochemical properties, including density, viscosity, and refractive index, were measured at different temperatures ranging between 298.15 and 333.15 K and a concentration range of 5 to 30 wt.%. Based on the experiment, all properties were found to decrease with increasing temperature and increase with increasing concentration. The experiments also demonstrated a significant reduction of CO2 loading from 2.4190 to 1.1802 mol of CO2/mol of K-CYS with increasing solvent concentration from 10 to 30 wt% at 313.15 K and 20 bar (g). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethanolic fermentation can produce byproducts such as yeast containing intracellular amino acid that is used as a raw material of cosmetics. Residual yeast fermentation as sludge was dissolved and extracted by autolysis at 50°C for 24 hours, so we get the product in the form of intracellular content of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Purification of dye and odor yeast extract was conducted by using an activated carbon column adsorption with ratio 1.5:10 yeast extract solution (g / mL) for six times recycle or until it reaches the absorbance value of 0.020. The content of yeast extract in the form of amino acids was analyzed by High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography method. Analysis of the feasibility test yeast extract as cosmetic raw materials made through the pigment deposition method by inhibit tyrosinase activity. 0.05 g yeast extract before adsorption (pale yellow) produce 62% inhibition of tyrosinase 3130 U / mL. Dry yeast extract after adsorption (odorless) had 96% inhibition of tyrosinase 313 U / mL, whereas placental extract by 89% inhibition of tyrosinase 313 U / mL. These results indicate odorless yeast extract can replace placental extract as an alternative to cosmetic raw materials.

Microbial Desalination Cell (MDC) is one of a Bio Electrochemical technology and also modification technology of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC), MDC is a method that desalinate a sea water. In the use of this MDC system, the bio electrode that use is from coconut shell charcoal. The use of charcoal as Bio Electrode because it has a low cost as well as environmentally friendly, and charcoal doesn’t have some toxic properties. Another problem besides the use of bio electrode, is the imbalance between the pH and the chamber becomes another obstacle to the MDC system and the impact of some approaches leads to increased cost of capital and operational costs. In order to overcome these barriers by cost, Lake UI is used as the substrate and Sodium percarbonate (SP or 2Na2CO3∙3H2O) also used as a natural buffered electrolyte. Based on the results of variations of SP concentration, best concentration of SP was at 0.15 M (SR=15.14%), concentration NaCl at 35 g/L were able to reduce the mass of 3.626 g to 3.077 g with salinity 30.77 g/L.

One of the potential co-product of the manufacture of bioethanol made from oil palm empty fruit bunches are yeasts, which have antioxidant activity. Source of antioxidants can be obtained from vitamins and enzymes. In the characterization study of the antioxidant properties of yeast extract refers to a method performed by Xiong, by varying solvent and extraction time using hot water and ethanol 25%. From the variation of time and solvent extraction will be tested with the GSH content of alloxan method, to obtain the maximum concentration. The results show the isolation of amino acids with a hot solvent, at 15 minutes is better. These results are then carried out the characterization of amino acids with LCMS methods. An amino acid which has antioxidant activity is methionine, using the solvent water and tested methods of abortion LCMS and 3402.91 ppm ethanol with LCMS method implies 4137.002 ppm. Characterization of amino acids can then be used as a source of raw materials economic cosmetics worth selling.

Brassicaceae plant is a commodity of edible plant that is very important for Indonesia, with cabbage worm (Plutella xylostella) as its main pest. Pest control with biopesticide is needed to preserve environment and increase crops production. Several biological substance is toxic to cabbage worm, including bromelain enzyme and isothiocyanates. Extraction of bromelain is experimented by varying mixing duration (15, 30, 45, 60 mins) and solvent type (distilled water and phosphate buffer). Extraction of isothiocyanate is experimented by varying the solvent ratio (1:1, 1:2, 1:3), using dichloromethane as solvent. For the broccoli stem sample, phosphate buffer is added to maintain pH. Enzyme activity test is used with product tyrosin concentration as standard. Isothiocyanate is determined with GC-MS analysis. The most effective extraction method for bromelain is with distilled water as solvent with 15 min mixing time. The most effective extraction method for isothiocyanate is with 1:1 solvent ratio at 37°C temperature without adding phosphate buffer. Efficacy of each sample to cabbage worm is also experimented by feeding it broccoli leaf spread with sample and observing the mortality rate. Bromelain and isothiocyanate proved to be toxic to cabbage worm and can be used as alternative bioinsecticide with the highest mortality of cabbage worm is by isothiocyanate from radish peel, reaching 100%.