Domenico Pirozzi

• PhD
• Professor at University of Naples Federico II

Magnetic chitosan nanoparticles, synthesized by in situ precipitation, have been used as adsorbents to remove sulfamethoxazole (SMX), a sulfonamide antibiotic dangerous due to its capacity to enter ecosystems. The adsorption of SMX has been carried out in the presence of tertiary wastewaters from a depuration plant to obtain more realistic results....

The pursuit of sustainable and inexpensive systems for the degradation of organic aquatic pollutants working under sunlight or even without irradiation is still open. Herein, an amorphous titanium oxide modified with dibenzoylmethane, an aromatic diketone, is proposed as a solar photocatalyst showing oxidative activity also in the dark. Ti(IV)-dibe...

Use of novel alternative compounds in agriculture is being promoted to reduce synthetic pesticides. An in vitro study was conducted to evaluate antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of chitosan hydrochloride (CH) and COS (chito-oligosaccharides)-OGA (oligo-galacturonides) at concentrations of 1%, 0.5%, 0.25%, 0.1%, 0.05%, and 0.025%. COS-OGA at...

A significant bottleneck for the industrial application of lipases stems from their poor stability in the presence of commercial triglycerides. This is mainly due to the inactivating effect of the products of triglyceride oxidation (PTO), which are usually produced when oils and fats, being imported from far countries, are stored for long periods....

Methanol is expected to be a possible solution for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and minimizing the dependency on fossil fuels. This paper presents a systematic approach of methanol (MeOH) production from industrial waste gases including flue gas (FG) and coke oven gas (COG) that are considered an important threat to the environment. The...

Dyes are considered as one the most important classes of contaminants that threaten the environment and human life. The synergy between the adsorption capacity of chitosan hydrogels and the catalytic properties of the enzyme laccase was exploited to improve the removal of contaminants from a liquid stream. The adsorption capacity of a chitosan hydr...

Two cyclodextrin-based nanosponges (CD-NSs) were synthesized using diamines with 6 and 12 methylene groups, CDHD6 and CDHD12, respectively, and used as adsorbents to remove 2,4-D from aqueous solutions. The physico-chemical characterization of the CD‒NSs demonstrated that, when using the linker with the longest chain length, the nanosponges show a...

Three tailor-made magnetic metal-ceramic nanocomposites, obtained from zeolite A (ZA1 and ZA2) and a natural clinoptilolite (LB1), have been used as adsorbents to remove sulfanilamide (SA), a sulfonamide antibiotic of common use, from water. A patented process for the synthesis of nanocomposites has been suitably modified to maximize the efficiency...

Bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) reactor is advantageous for synthesis gas or syngas production among other available gasifiers. In this study, a BFB gasifier has been designed, utilizing non-woody biomass (rice straw) and air as gasifying medium, to investigate the effect of equivalence ratio (ER), static bed height, and operating temperature on synth...

Hybrid materials based on amorphous titanium or zirconium oxide with specific organic ligands show oxidative activity toward organic pollutants in the dark, owing to the generation and unusual long-term adsorption of superoxide radical anions on their surfaces. Here an overview of perspectives for the development of these materials and their proces...

The generation and stabilization of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including the superoxide radical anion (O2⁻), have a huge potential in environmental remediation and industrial chemical processes, but they still remain a challenge. Here, we elucidate the formation, stability and reactivity of superoxide radicals spontaneously produced on the surf...

List of contributors

Liquid biofuel is a promising alternative to petroleum-based fossil fuel. Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) is considered as a potential source of biofuel since it is not food competitive always. Moreover, it has a wide range of sources, such as agriculture residues, forest residues, grass, and energy crops. Though the resources are abundant and readil...

The biorefinery consists of the sustainable transformation of biomass, such as plant, algae, yeasts, bacteria, into a vast range of marketable products such as biofuels and energy. In order to develop efficient biorefinery models, it is essential to develop new strategies or biochemical/microbial conversion processes to increase their productivity...

Lignocellulosic Biomass to Liquid Biofuels explores the existing technologies and most recent developments for the production of second generation liquid biofuels, providing an introduction to lignocellulosic biomass and the processes for its conversion into biofuels. The book demonstrates biorefinery concepts compared with petro refinery, as well...

Anaerobic co-digestion of mixed feedstocks improves the biogas yields due to a better balance of nutrients in the digestion medium. A suitable choice for improving biogas yields from the anaerobic digestion of municipal solid wastes is the co-digestion with lignocellulosic materials. The growing exploitation of the giant reed in several industrial...

So far, the processes in single bioreactor were mainly developed to produce bioethanol. In this study, this process was developed to produce microbial oils from steam exploded Arundo donax, a flexible energy crop that can be cultivated in partially fertile lands. Lipomyces starkeyi was used as oleaginous microorganism. The microbial oils can be use...

Immobilized enzymes are increasingly used in enzymatic microreactors, to encourage applications in different fields: food industry, medical diagnostics, organic synthesis, drug discovery, biosensors. As a matter of facts, microfluidic systems offer many advantages over conventional packed-bed bioreactors, such as higher efficiency, feasibility of m...

Bio-based waste management processes, as anaerobic digestion, couple waste treatment with energy production using natural processes based on microbial metabolism. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) combine the production of electric power to the lowering the load of waste organic and mineral nutrients. In this study, the coordinated utilization of MFCs wi...

Biohydrogen is considered a promising biofuel of strategic interest characterized by high energy content per mass unit, easiness in producing electricity through fuel cells, a process that produces water as the only by-product. Among the bioprocesses aimed at biohydrogen production, dark fermentation is gaining a worldwide interest for being both e...

Biofuel production from edible substrate raises a social conflict because it hikes the food price, occupies the arable land and competes with the food industry. Therefore, microbial oils or single cell oils (SCOs) have attracted the attention as suitable alternative of triglycerides. A variety of microbes have been studied such as microalgae, bacte...

Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate the feasibility of using irreversible electroporation (EP) as a microbial cell disruption technique to extract intracellular lipid within short time and in an eco‐friendly manner. An EP circuit was designed and fabricated to obtain 4 kV with frequency of 100 Hz of square waves. The yeast cells of Lip...

A mixed culture of oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkeyi and wastewater native microalgae (mostly Scenedesmus sp. and Chlorella sp.) was performed to enhance lipid and biomass production from urban wastewaters. A 400 L raceway pond, operating outdoors, was designed and used for biomass cultivation. Microalgae and yeast were inoculated into the cultiv...

The discharge of palm oil mill effluent (POME) on arable land causes large amounts of environmental distress due to its high concentration of phenolic compounds and chemical oxygen demand (COD). The approach of simultaneous microbial oil production and wastewater treatment is an attractive option to combine renewable energy production and environme...

The biohydrogen production by dark fermentation (DF) of Arundo donax enzymatic hydrolysate, obtained from untreated (ADH) and steam-exploded (ADHexp) biomass, was investigated. A glucose synthetic medium (SM) was also studied for comparison. The main novelty of the manuscript is the use of a new methodology for the selection of H2 producing bacteri...

Bio-based waste management processes, like Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and Dark Fermentation (DF), couple waste treatment with energy production using natural processes based on microbial metabolism. In addition, Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), like other Bio-Electrochemical Systems (BESs), couples the removal of organic load and mineral nutrients with t...

The aim of this work is to explore the use of biochar as additive in anaerobic digestion of food waste and investigate the involved in the improvement of CH4 yields. In conclusions, the total biogas volume is not affected by the addition of biochar. Nevertheless, the CH4 yields and the CH4 concentration (%v/v) in the produced biogas were considerab...

In this work, an attempt to correlate the effect of biochar on AD of OFMSW to its physico-chemical properties was made. Biochar was obtained from slow pyrolysis up to 873 K using Populus nigra as feedstock. Steam is used as pyrolyzing agent, as it positively affects the structural characteristics of char. AD of OFMSW was carried out in a batch reac...

Succinic acid is increasingly used in pharmaceutical industries, for the production of additives in food industries, in agriculture and in refinery processes as a precursor of many chemical compounds among which the most important is the succinate salt. It is also used as an ion chelator and surfactant, and for the biochemicals production. Currentl...

Single-cell oils (SCOs) raise a growing interest due to their potential for the production of biofuels, bioplastics and more recently of food additives. The production of SCOs by exploitation of residual lignocellulosic biomass has become a realistic target, due to the recent advances in enzyme hydrolysis technology. The fermentation of yeasts offe...

A series of TiO2-based hybrid inorganic-organic materials was synthesized by sol-gel and characterized by thermal and spectroscopic techniques. The xerogels have an amorphous structure, with part of Ti4+ ions stably coordinated to acetylacetonate ligands. Ligand-to-metal charge transfer results in an extended light absorption in the visible range,...

Hydrogen (H2) is meeting with increasing interest as possible alternative to fossil fuels for energy production. It can be produced both thermochemically and biologically from a number of organic substrates. H2 is usually employed in fuel cells, a technology aimed at producing electricity, characterized by low environmental impact and high efficien...

Abstract: Traditional biodiesel feedstock like edible oils or plant oils, animal fats and cooking waste oil have been replaced by microbial oil in recent research of biodiesel synthesis. The well-known community of microbial oil producers includes microalgae, oleaginous yeast and seaweeds. Conventional transesterification of microbial oil to produc...

The demand and prospect of biogas technology as a renewable energy source in terms of market value have not been adequately addressed. This paper focuses on the status of legal framework and future market situation related to biogas technology in order to facilitate its improvements. Biogas technology, known as biofuel production process through fe...

Factors tuning the functional performances of the various TiO2-based materials in the wide range of their possible applications are poorly understood. Here the electronic structure of TiO2-based materials characterized by Ti³⁺ self-doping, obtained by a sol–gel route wholly performed in air at room temperature, is reported. In the amorphous hybrid...

Microbial oils are considered as alternative to vegetable oils or animal fats as biodiesel feedstock. Microalgae and oleaginous yeast are the main candidates of microbial oil producers' community. However, biodiesel synthesis from these sources is associated with high cost and process complexity. The traditional transesterification method includes...

Biofuels production is mostly oriented with fermentation process, which requires fermentable sugar as nutrient for microbial growth. Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) represents the most attractive, low-cost feedstock for biofuel production, it is now arousing great interest. The cellulose that is embedded in the lignin matrix has an insoluble, highly-...

A TiO 2 –based hybrid material (HSGT), obtained by a sol–gel route wholly performed in air at room temperature, was used as catalyst for the oxidative degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4-CPA) and phenanthrene (PHE). Acetylacetonate ligand, used as complexing/sensitizing molecule, was added directly to the solu...

In this study, the oleaginous yeasts cultured in tomato waste hydrolysates (TWH) to produce microbial lipids that offer a suitable alternative to vegetable oils as feedstock for the biodiesel synthesis. The TWH were prepared by acid hydrolysis (2.5% H2SO4). To obtain higher growth rates, as well as higher lipid contents, Lipomyces starkeyi were cul...

Currently, two of the organic wastes produced in larger quantities are the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and the sewage sludge (SS) from wastewater treatment plants. The addition of co-substrates such as OFMSW may allow a more efficient use of these plants, having a positive effect on the anaerobic process and as well as on its...

Biogas technology, which converts biological waste into energy, is considered as an excellent tool to improve the lives, livelihoods, health, and ecosystem. The demand and prospect of biogas technology as a renewable energy source in terms of market value have not been adequately addressed, although it offers a large revenue opportunity that suppor...

Two synthetic strategies were developed for in-situ modification of a silica sol gel matrix in a PEEK tubing, to obtain a hybrid monolith with entrapped lipases. A suitable combination of the sol-gel precursors (tetramethoxysilane, methyltrimethoxysilane and n-propyltrimethoxysilane) was found, for the simultaneous improvement of the monolith adhes...

Biohydrogen (BioH 2) is considered a promising biofuel being renewable and C neutral, having a high energy content per unit mass (143 kJ/g), being easily converted into electricity by a Fuel Cell systems (FCs) and giving water as the only byproduct the combustion process. Nevertheless, the broad use of BioH 2 is still impaired by the necessity to s...

The exploitation of mixed cultures for the dark fermentation of hydrolysates of lignocellulosic biomass is hindered by low hydrogen yields due to the presence of inhibitors of bacterial growth (phenols, furans) and to proliferation of bacteria not involved in the production of hydrogen (e.g. lactic acid bacteria) or consuming hydrogen (methanogens,...

The catalytic activity of an amorphous gel-derived hybrid TiO2-acetylacetonate material with stably adsorbed superoxide radicals (•O2-) has been assessed in two different reactions in water solution: the oxidative degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol and the oxidation of benzyl alcohol. The former compound is readily decomposed at room temperature eve...

I risultati ottenuti in questo lavoro dimostrano l’efficacia della tecnica di DF per la produzione di biogas ricchi in idrogeno da deiezioni animali ed apre la strada allo sviluppo di nuove tecnologie recupero di biomasse di scarto a fini energetici. I vantaggi sono indiscussi: oltre a ridurre l’impatto ambientale si consente un ritorno economico d...

In conclusion, this work demonstrated that it is possible to obtain lipid yields of 0.21 (g/g total glucose) adopting pH control under SSF conditions, a value higher compared to previous known data [16]. The experimental results also suggest that the pH control is necessary to enhance lipids production. [16] Huang C., Wu H., Liu Z., Cai J., Lou W....

Hybrid sol-gel TiO2-acetylacetonate (HSGT) material has been synthesized via a sol-gel route. The as dried HSGT can be described as an amorphous polymeric network of titanium oxo-clusters on which surface part of Ti4+ ions are involved in strong complexation with acetylacetonate (acac) ligands. In this material a ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LM...

The hybrid sol-gel zirconia-acetylacetonate amorphous material (HSGZ) shows high catalytic activity in oxidative degradation reactions without light or thermal pre-treatment. This peculiar HSGZ ability derives from the generation of highly reactive oxide radical species (ROS) upon exposure to air at room conditions. We disclose the origin of such u...

Use of oleaginous yeasts for the exploitation of lignocellulosic biomasses

Hydrolysates of Arundo donax, a crop offering high productivity in contaminated or salinized soils with no inputs of irrigation and agrochemicals, were used in a discontinuous fermenter to grow the oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkey, to obtain microbial oils potentially useful for the production of 2 nd-generation biodiesel. A mixture of fermentabl...

In the present paper, an experimental and model-based analysis is carried out to optimize the contact times of a batch stirred adsorber to remove the herbicide MCPA, a herbicide that causes serious environmental concerns due to its persistence in the environment. Mesoporous Al2O3 has been used as sorption material. The study shows that a two-stage...

Municipal solid wastes (MSW) were used as feedstock to produce biogas by anaerobic digestion. Experiments were carried out in batch stirred reactors using different amounts of inoculum under mesophilic conditions (37 °C). The effect of the inoculum amount on the biogas cumulative volume and composition was investigated. The profiles of pH, volatile...

Municipal solid wastes (MSW) were used as feedstock to produce biogas by anaerobic digestion. Experiments were carried out in batch stirred reactors using different amounts of inoculum under mesophilic conditions (37 o C). The effect of the inoculum amount on the biogas cumulative volume and composition was investigated. The profiles of pH, volatil...

A discontinuous fermenter was used to grow the oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkeyi in the presence of hydrolysates of lignocellulosic wastes from Arundo donax. The lignocellulosic materials were first steam-exploded and subsequently treated with commercial preparations of cellulases and β-glucosidases, to obtain a mixture of fermentable sugar. A ph...

Hydrogen may be considered as an alternative source of energy since it can be produced from several thermochemical and biological processes. The hydrogen obtained can be feed to fuel cells, which are the most promising devices to produce electric energy with high efficiency and very low environmental impact. The present work studies the biological...

Municipal solid wastes (MSW) were used as feedstock to produce biogas by anaerobic digestion. Experiments were carried out in batch stirred reactors using different amounts of inoculum under mesophilic conditions (37 oC). The effect of the inoculum amount on the biogas cumulative volume and composition was investigated. The profiles of pH, volatile...

Biodiesel can be a potential alternative to petroleum diesel, but its high production cost has impeded its commercialization in most parts of the world. One of the main drivers for the generation and use of biodiesel is energy security, because this fuel can be produced from locally available resources, thereby reducing the dependence on imported o...

The oxidative degradation of 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA), 4-(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy)butanoic acid (MCPB), 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4-CPA) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4 D) by ZrO2-acetylacetonate hybrid catalyst (HSGZ) without light irradiation was assessed. The thermal stability of the catalyst was investigated by ther...

Microbial oils, to be used as feedstock for biodiesel and for biodegradable plastics, were produced from lignocellulosic biomasses. The oleaginous yeasts Lipomyces starkeyi, that are able to accumulate a significant fraction of their biomass (> 20%) were cultivated using as growing medium fermentable sugars obtained by steam explosion of Arundo don...

The exploitation of lignocellulosic materials offers important perspectives for the improvement of our energy security, as well as of the reduction of greenhouse emissions. Nevertheless, technical and economical obstacles still delay a full commercial exploitation of lignocellulosic biomass. In the present study, lignocellulosic biomasses are used...

The intrinsic catalytic activity of a hybrid gel-derived ZrO2-acetylacetonate (HSGZ) material towards the oxidative degradation of phenanthrene (PHE), in aqueous solution and in the dark, was revealed for the first time. The HSGZ catalyst is a polymeric network of zirconium oxo-clusters on the surface of which part of Zr4+ ions are involved in stro...

A discontinuous fed-batch fermenter was used to grow the oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkey in the presence of hydrolysates of lignocellulosic wastes from Arundo donax (AD). The lignocellulosic materials were first steam-exploded and subsequently treated with commercial preparations of cellulases and ß- glucosidases, to obtain a mixture of fermenta...

Arundo donax hydrolysate (ADH), obtained by steam explosion and enzymatic treatment, was exploited as a substrate for anaerobic digestion aimed to the production of hydrogen. Mixed cultures of hydrogen-forming anaerobic bacteria selected from a primary sludge digester were used as inocula. Methanogens were removed from the wild consortium by the us...

Lignocellulosic wastes from Arundo donax (AR) and Sorghum bicolor (SB) were used as a source of fermentable sugars for culturing the oleaginous yeasts Lipomyces starkey. In order to minimize the generation of inhibitors of the microbial growth, that is a serious bottleneck still limiting the industrial production of microbial oils, the lignocellulo...

Lignocellulosic wastes from Arundo donax (AR) and Sorghum bicolor (SB) were used as a source of fermentable sugars for culturing the oleaginous yeasts Lipomyces starkey. In order to minimize the generation of inhibitors of the microbial growth, that is a serious bottleneck still limiting the industrial production of microbial oils, the lignocellulo...

The oleaginous yeasts Lipomyces starkey were grown in the presence of dairy industry wastewaters (DIW). The yeasts were able to degrade the organic components of DIW and to produce a significant fraction of their biomass as triglycerides. When using DIW from the Ricotta cheese production or residual whey as growth medium, the L. starkey could be cu...

Stirred adsorbers offer a number of advantages in comparison to fixed bed systems, as they reduce mass transfer resistances, pressure drops and fouling of the sorbent particles. Single-, double- and triple-stage adsorbers were designed for the adsorption of two herbicides, 6-chloro-N,N’-diethyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine (Simazine) and (4-chloro-2-...

Arundo donax (giant reed) hydrolysate was exploited as a substrate for anaerobic digestion aimed to the production of biogas and biohydrogen. A mixed culture adapted from a primary sludge digester was used as inoculum. Besides the biogas, the anaerobic fermentation products were ethanol, acetic acid and butyric acid. Together, the soluble products...

Hydrolysates of lignocellulosic materials from Arundo donax (Giant reed, GR) and Sorghum vulgaris (SV) were used as a source of fermentable sugars, employed for culturing the oleaginous yeasts Lipomyces starkey. A significant fraction of the L. starkey biomass was made of triglycerides, potentially exploitable for the synthesis of biodiesel. The co...

The market penetration of the Ist generation biodiesel is limited by the relatively high cost of the feedstock (i.e. vegetable oils and animal fats), the insufficient availability of fertile land, as well as the social and environmental problems caused in different developing countries. New promising perspectives are offered by the hydrolysis of li...

A class II hybrid sol-gel material was prepared starting from zirconium(IV) propoxide and 2,4-pentanedione and its catalytic activity in the removal of the herbicide 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) was revealed. The thermal and structural characterization, performed by thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, and diffuse reflecta...

Two mesoporous metal oxides, Al(2)O(3) and Fe(2)O(3), were evaluated as regards their ability to remove simazine, a highly persistent herbicide of s-triazines, using a batch equilibrium method. The effect of several experimental parameters such as pH, contact time, initial concentration and sorbent dosage on the sorption of the herbicide was invest...

A single-stage sol-gel route was set to entrap yeast cells of Lipomyces starkeyi in a zirconia (ZrO(2)) matrix, and the remediation ability of the resulting catalyst toward a phenoxy acid herbicide, 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxyacetic acid (MCPA), was studied. It was found that the experimental procedure allowed a high dispersion of the microorganisms i...

Lipomyces starkey were able to survive and proliferate in the presence of olive oil mill wastewaters (OMW), a medium difficult to process by biological treatments, due to the antimicrobial activities of their phenolic components. The microorganisms were grown in the presence of undiluted OMW, without external organic supplements, producing a signif...

Oleaginous yeasts can use different kinds of residues as nutrients. Their biomass contains a significant fraction (>20%) of lipids, that can be used as feedstock for biodiesel production. Lipomyces starkeyi were able to survive and proliferate in the presence of olive mill wastewater (OMWW), without external organic supplement, in spite of the anti...

The thermal deactivation of solid-state acid-phosphatase has been studied, in the presence and in the absence of organic solvents. The experimental results have been modelled in terms of a single-step, non-linear, irreversible kinetic model. Enzyme stability was strongly affected by deactivation temperature and initial water content of the enzyme p...

Acid phosphatase thermal deactivation follows a complex path consisting of an initial decay of the native enzyme towards an equilibrium distribution of two intermediate structures, mutually at equilibrium. This initial transition is followed by a final decay towards a completely inactive enzyme configuration. All the relevant parameters (one equili...

The thermostability of anhydrous α-chymotrypsin has been analysed both in air and in organic solvents, with regard to the effect of the protein water-content on the course of deactivation. A higher initial water content increases the rate of inactivation. Deactivation tests carried out under a constant thermodynamic activity of water indicate that...

Zirconia-based sol–gels have been used for lipase entrapment, to avoid the biocatalyst inactivation associated to the use of basic or acid catalysts. The method developed allows a single-step entrapment of the enzyme in a zirconia sol–gel with mesopores of diameter in the range 2–4 nm, and a surface area of 219 m2 g−1. The zirconia matrix is substa...

A prolipase from Rhizopus oryzae (proROL) was engineered in order to increase its stability toward lipid oxidation products such as aldehydes with the aim of improving its performance in oleochemical industries. Out of 22 amino acid residues (15 Lys and 7 His) prone to react with aldehydes, 6 Lys and all His residues (except for the catalytic histi...

The alpha-hydroxy esters are increasingly employed in cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical formulations as they determine reduced skin-irritant effects in comparison with the respective acids, offering similar hygroscopic, emulsifying, and exfoliating properties. The enzymatic synthesis of lactate esters in nonaqueous systems was studied as regards t...

Lactate esters are increasingly used in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations due to their hygroscopic, emulsifying and exfoliating properties. The lipase-catalysed synthesis of butyl lactate by transesterification was investigated, in order to provide some basic design criteria.Novozyme SP435 (from Candida antarctica) was found to be the...

Several compounds generated by atmospheric oxidation of triglycerides, such as hydroperoxides and secondary products, may cause significant lipase inactivation in low-water medium. Activity decay is usually time-dependent and shows a non-linear dependence on inactivating compound concentration. As the effect of very dilute poisons becomes much more...

The use of dry mycelium of Rhizopus oryzae as biocatalyst for ester production in organic solvent has been studied. Mycelia with notable carboxylesterase activity were produced when different Tweens (20, 40, 60 and 80) were employed as main carbon source for the growth. Dry mycelium of four strains of Rhizopus oryzae proved effective for efficientl...

A very small-scale continuous flow reactor has been designed for use with enzymes in organic media, particularly for operational stability studies. It is constructed from fairly inexpensive components, and typically uses 5 mg of catalyst and flow rates of 1 to 5 mL/h, so only small quantities of feedstock need to be handled. The design allows contr...

The lipase-catalysed synthesis of geranyl caproate has been carried out in a stirred batch reactor.A continuous flow of nitrogen is provided. The gas is pre-equilibrated by bubbling within different vessels upstream from the reactor, in order to insure controlled conditions in terms of water thermodynamic activity. In order to avoid a continuous st...

The influence of dehydration procedure and of KCl addition on thermal stability of anhydrous α-chymotrypsin was analysed. At high temperature (100 °C), formation of insoluble and inactive protein aggregates was observed. The partially inactivated proteins were characterised in terms of fraction of soluble enzyme and its specific activity. Secondary...