Studies on the composition and nutritional value of the cultivated mushroom, agaricus bisporus (Lange) Sing

The effects of various cultural conditions on the composition and nutritional quality of Agaricus bisporus (Lange) Sing. were investigated. Variation in composition was found between different classes of sample. Sampling techniques were standardised to allow for major variations in the different developmental stages and culture ages. Fruitbodies were found to be of low calorific value but contained protein of high digestibility and quality, containing all the essential amino acids required by man. Quantitative estimates of the sulphur-containing amino acids indicated that fruitbodies were deficient in methionine and cysteine. The extent of water application and the supplementation of conventional substrates with various nitrogen-containing substances, influenced yield and composition, establishing the importance of these two factors in the physiology of fruitbodies and cultural management. Storage conditions influenced composition, high temperatures being deleterious to the nutritional value of fruitbodies. Submerged culture techniques were used to investigate the effects of various nutrients on growth and composition of mushroom mycelium, with special reference to the sulphur-containing amino acids. Yield and composition were greatly affected by the carbon:nitrogen ratio of the medium and by the nitrogen source. Significant increases in mycelial methionine content were observed on the addition of inorganic sulphate, the methionine derivative N-acetyl-L-methionine, and L-methionine. A greater increase in methionine content was obtained when the biomass of a thermophilic bacterium isolated from compost was used as a nitrogen source.

Premium e-grocery:exploring value in logistics integrated service solutions

E-grocery is gradually becoming viable or a necessity for many families. Yet, most e-supermarkets are seen as providers of low value "staple" and bulky goods mainly. While each store has a large number of SKU available, these products are mainly necessity goods with low marginal value for hedonistic consumption. A need to acquire diverse products (e.g., organic), premium priced products (e.g., wine) for special occasions (e.g., anniversary, birthday), or products just for health related reasons (e.g., allergies, diabetes) are yet to be served via one-stop e-tailers. In this paper, we design a mathematical model that takes into account consumers' geo-demographics and multi-product sourcing capacity for creating critical mass and profit. Our mathematical model is a variant of Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (CVRPTW), which we extend by adding intermediate locations for trucks to meet and exchange goods. We illustrate our model for the city of Istanbul using GIS maps, and discuss its various extensions as well as managerial implications.

Thermochemical characterisation of Parinari polyandra Benth fruit shell

The aim of this work is to investigate the thermochemical characteristics of Parinari polyandra Benth fruit shell. An agricultural waste residue is investigated using standard methods including thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), proximate and ultimate analysis, structural composition and bomb calorimeter. The proximate and ultimate analyses were carried out to determine the ash and fixed carbon contents, volatile matter, and elemental compositions. The structural composition analysis determined the hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin content of the biomass. The measured calorific value obtained was 20.5. MJ/kg. The TGA and DTG profiles indicate the waste fruit shells are viable for pyrolysis reaction. The inorganic contents are relatively low with potassium found to be the most abundant element. The hemicelluloses and cellulose contents are indicative of relatively higher rate of pyrolysis and comparable with established biomass utilised for bio-oil production.

Energy conversion assessment of vacuum, slow and fast pyrolysis processes for low and high ash paper waste sludge

The performance of vacuum, slow and fast pyrolysis processes to transfer energy from the paper waste sludge (PWS) to liquid and solid products was compared. Paper waste sludges with low and high ash content (8.5 and 46.7 wt.%) were converted under optimised conditions for temperature and pellet size to maximise both product yields and energy content. Comparison of the gross energy conversions, as a combination of the bio-oil/tarry phase and char (ECsum), revealed that the fast pyrolysis performance was between 18.5% and 20.1% higher for the low ash PWS, and 18.4% and 36.5% higher for high ash PWS, when compared to the slow and vacuum pyrolysis processes respectively. For both PWSs, this finding was mainly attributed to higher production of condensable organic compounds and lower water yields during FP. The low ash PWS chars, fast pyrolysis bio-oils and vacuum pyrolysis tarry phase products had high calorific values (∼18-23 MJ kg-1) making them promising for energy applications. Considering the low calorific values of the chars from alternative pyrolysis processes (∼4-7 MJ kg-1), the high ash PWS should rather be converted to fast pyrolysis bio-oil to maximise the recovery of usable energy products.

Catalytic pyrolysis of agricultural residues for bio-oil production

Agricultural residues from Thailand, namely stalk and rhizome of cassava plants, were employed as raw materials for bio-oil production via fast pyrolysis technology. There were two main objectives of this project. The first one was to determine the optimum pyrolysis temperature for maximising the organics yield and to investigate the properties of the bio-oils produced. To achieve this objective, pyrolysis experiments were conducted using a bench-scale (150 g/h) reactor system, followed by bio-oil analysis. It was found that the reactor bed temperature that could give the highest organics yield for both materials was 490±15ºC. At all temperatures studied, the rhizome gave about 2-4% higher organics yields than the stalk. The bio-oil derived from the rhizome had lower oxygen content, higher calorific value and better stability, thus indicating better quality than that produced from the stalk. The second objective was to improve the bio-oil properties in terms of heating value, viscosity and storage stability by the incorporation of catalyst into the pyrolysis process. Catalytic pyrolysis was initially performed in a micro-scale reactor to screen a large number of catalysts. Subsequently, seven catalysts were selected for experiments with larger-scale (150 g/h) pyrolysis unit. The catalysts were zeolite and related materials (ZSM-5, Al-MCM-41 and Al-MSU-F), commercial catalysts (Criterion-534 and MI-575), copper chromite and ash. Additionally, the combination of two catalysts in series was investigated. These were Criterion-534/ZSM-5 and Al-MSU-F/ZSM-5. The results showed that all catalysts could improve the bio-oils properties as they enhanced cracking and deoxygenation reactions and in some cases such as ZSM-5, Criterion-534 and Criterion-534/ZSM-5, valuable chemicals like hydrocarbons and light phenols were produced. The highest concentration of these compounds was obtained with Criterion-534/ZSM-5.

Mechanisms of tumour-induced cachexia

The effect of cancer cachexia on host metabolism has been studied in mice transplanted with either the MAC16 adenocarcinoma which induces profound loss of host body weight and depletion of lipid stores or, the MAC13 adenocarcinoma which is of the same histological type, but which grows without an effect on host body weight. Oxidation of D-[U-14C]glucose was elevated in both tumour-bearing states irrespective of cachexia, when compared with non tumour-bearing controls. Both the MAC16 and MAC13 tumours in vivo utilised glucose at the expense of the brain, where its use was partially replaced by 3-hydroxybutyrate, a ketone body. Oxidation of both [U-14C]palmitic acid and [1-14C]triolein was significantly increased in MAC16 tumour-bearing animals and decreased in MAC13 tumour-bearing animals when compared with non tumour-bearing controls, suggesting that in cachectic tumour-bearing animals, mobilisation of body lipids is accompanied by an increased utilisation by the host. Weight loss in MAC16 tumour-bearing animals is associated with the production of a lipolytic factor. Injection of this partially purified lipolytic factor induced weight loss in recipient animals which could be maintained over time in tumour-bearing animals. This suggests that the tumour acts as a sink for the free fatty acids liberated as a result of the mobilisatation of adipose stores. Lipids are important as an energy source in cachectic animals because of their high calorific value and because glucose is being diverted away from host tissues to support tumour growth. Their importance is further demonstrated by the evidence of a MAC16 tumour-associated lipolytic factor. This lipolytic factor is the key to understanding the alterations in host metabolism that occur in tumour-induced cachexia, and may provide future alternatives for the reversal of cachexia and the treatment of cancer itself.

The mechanical properties and formability of dual-phase steel

In recent years dual phase steels comprising of 5-20% martensite in a ferrite matrix have come into the limelight of high strength cold formable steels because of their potential for vehicle weight saving. They show the following features: no yield point; relatively low initial flow stress; high initial workhardening rate; well sustained work hardening. As a consequence of these characteristics, dual phase steels exhibit a better combination of strength and elongation than other HSLA steels. In this thesis, a broad view of the factors which influence their properties is presented. Mechanical properties and forming ability of a commercially available dual phase steel and an AL-Si killed steel processed to dual phase form are investigated to ascertain the effect of their microstructure on their properties. It is found that the yield phenomena are masked by the transformation induced stresses present during processing and so yield point could be recovered under suitable ageing treatment; that apart from giving the above properties dual phasing gives rise to very low strain-rate sensitivity and a low R value ~ 1; that the mechanical response under rolling conditions is not different from those under tension; that there is a danger of damage to tooling during forming operations of these steels if fracture should precede instability as a result of grain size dependent strength found for these steels. It is also found that very little deformation of the martensite islands took place during deformation except at high strains. The work-hardening and the strength levels can be controlled by either decreasing the grain size or increasing the martensite volume fraction, but it is found that increasing martensite has a detrimental effect on ductility and the ductility and fracture strength can be controlled better by refining the grain size. A remarkable effect found in the dual phase steel tested is that the compressive strength is higher than the tensile strength. The reason for this observation is not yet clear but it is suggested that it might be due to the introduction of emissary type dislocations into the ferrite lattice as a result of twins formed in the martensite during transformation from austenite. The twins are envisaged to be {111} <112> in character.

The intermediate pyrolysis of de-inking sludge to produce a sustainable liquid fuel

De-inking sludge is a waste product generated from secondary fibre paper mills who manufacture recycled paper into new paper sheets; it refers directly to the solid residues which evolve during the de-inking stage of the paper pulping process. The current practice for the disposal of this waste is either by land-spreading, land-filling or incineration which are unsustainable. This work has explored the intermediate pyrolysis of pre-conditioned de-inking sludge pellets in a recently patented 20 kg/h intermediate pyrolysis reactor (The Pyroformer). The reactor is essentially two co-axial screws which are configured in such a way as to circulate solids within the reactor and thus facilitate in the cracking of tars. The potential application of using the volatile organic vapours and permanent gases evolved would be to generate both combined heat and power (CHP) located at paper making sites. The results show that de-inking sludge could be successfully pyrolysed and the organic vapours produced were composed of a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons, phenolic compounds and some fatty acid methyl esters as detected by liquid GC-MS. The calorific value of the oil after condensing was between 36 and 37 MJ/kg and the liquid fuel properties were also determined, permanent gases were detected by a GC-TCD and were composed of approximately 24% CO, 6% CH and 70% CO (v/v%). The solid residue from pyrolysis also contained a small residual calorific value, and was largely composed of mainly calcium based inert metal oxides. The application of applying intermediate pyrolysis to de-inking sludge for both CHP production and waste reduction is in principle a feasible technology which could be applied at secondary fibre paper mills. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Consumer price knowledge in the market for apparel

Purpose – The aim of this study is to analyze consumers' price knowledge in the market for apparels. Design/methodology/approach – After reviewing earlier attempts at assessing the construct, the price estimation error “PEE” was used, a measure based on explicit price knowledge stored in long-term memory, as a valid indicator of price knowledge. Findings – The results, including data from about 1,527 consumers on 66 products from the German apparel market, indicate that price knowledge is relatively low. Originality/value – Although, in the literature, there are several studies on price knowledge in the food industry, little is known about price knowledge in other industry sectors. This is quite surprising since pricing strategy is a concept which is vitally important to all retailers. Therefore, this study is a first contribution to extending the concept of behavioral pricing to the apparel market.

Catalytic pyrolysis of rice husk for bio-oil production

Catalytic pyrolysis experiments have been carried out on Brunei rice husk (BRH) to obtain bio-oil using a fixed-bed pyrolysis rig. ZSM-5, Al-MCM-41, Al-MSU-F and Brunei rice husk ash (BRHA) were used as the catalysts for the catalytic pyrolysis experiments and comparison was done to analyse the changes in the bio-oil properties and yield. Properties of the liquid catalytic and non-catalytic bio-oil were analysed in terms of water content, pH, acid number, viscosity, density and calorific value. The bio-oil chemical composition shows that ZSM-5 increases the production of aromatic hydrocarbons and light phenols, whilst Al-MCM-41 reduces the acetic acid production. The catalytic runs increased the calorific value and water content in the bio-oil, whilst viscosity, density and acid number is decreased. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fixed bed downdraft gasification of paper industry wastes

The two main wastes generated from secondary fibre paper mills are rejects (composed mainly of plastics and fibres) and de-inking sludge, both of which are evolved from the pulping process during paper manufacture. The current practice for the disposal of these wastes is either by land-spreading or land-filling. This work explores the gasification of blends of pre-conditioned rejects and de-inking sludge pellets with mixed wood chips in an Imbert type fixed bed downdraft gasifier with a maximum feeding capacity of 10kg/h. The producer gases evolved would generate combined heat and power (CHP) in an internal combustion engine. The results show that as much as 80wt.% of a brown paper mill's rejects (consisting of 20wt.% mixed plastics and 80wt.% paper fibres) could be successfully gasified in a blend with 20wt.% mixed wood chips. The producer gas composition was 16.24% H, 23.34% CO, 12.71% CO 5.21% CH and 42.49% N (v/v%) with a higher heating value of 7.3MJ/Nm. After the removal of tar and water condensate the producer gas was of sufficient calorific value and flow rate to power a 10kWe gas engine. Some blends using rejects from other mill types were not successful, and the limiting factor was usually the agglomeration of plastics present within the fuel.

Pyrolysis and gasification of biomass and acid hydrolysis residues

This research was carried for an EC supported project that aimed to produce ethyl levulinate as a diesel miscible biofuel from biomass by acid hydrolysis. The objective of this research was to explore thermal conversion technologies to recover further diesel miscible biofuels and/or other valuable products from the remaining solid acid hydrolysis residues (AHR). AHR consists of mainly lignin and humins and contains up to 80% of the original energy in the biomass. Fast pyrolysis and pyrolytic gasification of this low volatile content AHR was unsuccessful. However, successful air gasification of AHR gave a low heating value gas for use in engines for power or heat with the aim of producing all the utility requirements in any commercial implementation of the ethyl levulinate production process. In addition, successful fast pyrolysis of the original biomass gave organic liquid yields of up to 63.9 wt.% (dry feed basis) comparable to results achieved using a standard hardwood. The fast pyrolysis liquid can be used as a fuel or upgraded to biofuels. A novel molybdenum carbide catalyst was tested in fast pyrolysis to explore the potential for upgrading. Although there was no deoxygenation, some bio-oil properties were improved including viscosity, pH and homogeneity through decreasing sugars and increasing furanics and phenolics. AHR gasification was explored in a batch gasifier with a comparison with the original biomass. Refractory and low volatile content AHR gave relatively low gas yields (74.21 wt.%), low tar yields (5.27 wt.%) and high solid yields (20.52 wt.%). Air gasification gave gas heating values of around 5MJ/NM3, which is a typical value, but limitations of the equipment available restricted the extent of process and product analysis. In order to improve robustness of AHR powder for screw feeding into gasifiers, a new densification technique was developed based on mixing powder with bio-oil and curing the mixture at 150°C to polymerise the bio-oil.

The intermediate pyrolysis of de-inking sludge to produce a sustainable liquid fuel

De-inking sludge is a waste product generated from secondary fibre paper mills who manufacture recycled paper into new paper sheets; it refers directly to the solid residues which evolve during the de-inking stage of the paper pulping process. The current practice for the disposal of this waste is either by land-spreading, land-filling or incineration which are unsustainable. This work has explored the intermediate pyrolysis of pre-conditioned de-inking sludge pellets in a recently patented 20 kg/h intermediate pyrolysis reactor (The Pyroformer). The reactor is essentially two co-axial screws which are configured in such a way as to circulate solids within the reactor and thus facilitate in the cracking of tars. The potential application of using the volatile organic vapours and permanent gases evolved would be to generate both combined heat and power (CHP) located at paper making sites. The results show that de-inking sludge could be successfully pyrolysed and the organic vapours produced were composed of a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons, phenolic compounds and some fatty acid methyl esters as detected by liquid GC-MS. The calorific value of the oil after condensing was between 36 and 37 MJ/kg and the liquid fuel properties were also determined, permanent gases were detected by a GC-TCD and were composed of approximately 24% CO, 6% CH and 70% CO (v/v%). The solid residue from pyrolysis also contained a small residual calorific value, and was largely composed of mainly calcium based inert metal oxides. The application of applying intermediate pyrolysis to de-inking sludge for both CHP production and waste reduction is in principle a feasible technology which could be applied at secondary fibre paper mills. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermal processing of miscanthus, sugarcane bagasse, sugarcane trash and their acid hydrolysis residues

The research presented in this thesis was developed as part of DIBANET, an EC funded project aiming to develop an energetically self-sustainable process for the production of diesel miscible biofuels (i.e. ethyl levulinate) via acid hydrolysis of selected biomass feedstocks. Three thermal conversion technologies, pyrolysis, gasification and combustion, were evaluated in the present work with the aim of recovering the energy stored in the acid hydrolysis solid residue (AHR). Mainly consisting of lignin and humins, the AHR can contain up to 80% of the energy in the original feedstock. Pyrolysis of AHR proved unsatisfactory, so attention focussed on gasification and combustion with the aim of producing heat and/or power to supply the energy demanded by the ethyl levulinate production process. A thermal processing rig consisting on a Laminar Entrained Flow Reactor (LEFR) equipped with solid and liquid collection and online gas analysis systems was designed and built to explore pyrolysis, gasification and air-blown combustion of AHR. Maximum liquid yield for pyrolysis of AHR was 30wt% with volatile conversion of 80%. Gas yield for AHR gasification was 78wt%, with 8wt% tar yields and conversion of volatiles close to 100%. 90wt% of the AHR was transformed into gas by combustion, with volatile conversions above 90%. 5volO2%-95vol%N2 gasification resulted in a nitrogen diluted, low heating value gas (2MJ/m3). Steam and oxygen-blown gasification of AHR were additionally investigated in a batch gasifier at KTH in Sweden. Steam promoted the formation of hydrogen (25vol%) and methane (14vol%) improving the gas heating value to 10MJ/m3, below the typical for steam gasification due to equipment limitations. Arrhenius kinetic parameters were calculated using data collected with the LEFR to provide reaction rate information for process design and optimisation. Activation energy (EA) and pre-exponential factor (ko in s-1) for pyrolysis (EA=80kJ/mol, lnko=14), gasification (EA=69kJ/mol, lnko=13) and combustion (EA=42kJ/mol, lnko=8) were calculated after linearly fitting the data using the random pore model. Kinetic parameters for pyrolysis and combustion were also determined by dynamic thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), including studies of the original biomass feedstocks for comparison. Results obtained by differential and integral isoconversional methods for activation energy determination were compared. Activation energy calculated by the Vyazovkin method was 103-204kJ/mol for pyrolysis of untreated feedstocks and 185-387kJ/mol for AHRs. Combustion activation energy was 138-163kJ/mol for biomass and 119-158 for AHRs. The non-linear least squares method was used to determine reaction model and pre-exponential factor. Pyrolysis and combustion of biomass were best modelled by a combination of third order reaction and 3 dimensional diffusion models, while AHR decomposed following the third order reaction for pyrolysis and the 3 dimensional diffusion for combustion.

A micro industry with closed energy and water cycles for sustainable rural development

Sustainable development requires combining economic viability with energy and environment conservation and ensuring social benefits. It is conceptualized that for designing a micro industry for sustainable rural industrialization, all these aspects should be integrated right up front. The concept includes; (a) utilization of local produce for value addition in a cluster of villages and enhancing income of the target population; (b) use of renewable energy and total utilization of energy generated by co and trigeneration (combining electric power production with heat utilization for heating and cooling); (c) conservation of water and complete recycling of effluents; (d) total utilization of all wastes for achieving closure towards a zero waste system. Enhanced economic viability and sustainability is achieved by integration of appropriate technologies into the industrial complex. To prove the concept, a model Micro Industrial Complex (MIC) has been set up in a semi arid desert region in Rajasthan, India at village Malunga in Jodhpur district. A biomass powered boiler and steam turbine system is used to generate 100-200 KVA of electric power and high energy steam for heating and cooling processes downstream. The unique feature of the equipment is a 100-150 kW back-pressure steam turbine, utilizing 3-4 tph (tonnes per hour) steam, developed by M/s IB Turbo. The biomass boiler raises steam at about 20 barg 3 tph, which is passed through a turbine to yield about 150 kW of electrical power. The steam let out at a back pressure of 1-3 barg has high exergy and this is passed on as thermal energy (about 2 MW), for use in various applications depending on the local produce and resources. The biomass fuel requirement for the boiler is 0.5-0.75 tph depending on its calorific value. In the current model, the electricity produced is used for running an oil expeller to extract castor oil and the castor cake is used as fuel in the boiler. The steam is used in a Multi Effect Distillation (MED) unit for drinking water production and in a Vapour Absorption Machine (VAM) for cooling, for banana ripening application. Additional steam is available for extraction of herbs such as mint and processing local vegetables. In this paper, we discuss the financial and economic viability of the system and show how the energy, water and materials are completely recycled and how the benefits are directed to the weaker sections of the community.