Nicholas V Callow

University of Akron · Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Soybean is a most promising sustainable protein source for feed and food to help meet the protein demand of the rapidly rising global population. To enrich soy protein, the environment-friendly enzymatic processing requires multiple carbohydrases including cellulase, xylanase, pectinase, α-galactosidase and sucrase. Besides enriched protein, the pr...

Aspergillus foetidus was found to have different optimal pH conditions for producing different carbohydrases including cellulase, xylanase, pectinase, α-galactosidase, polygalacturonase, and invertase. Designs to trigger these conditions sequentially using controlled pH gradients were evaluated for directing the culture through multiple production...

To maximize value and minimize waste in soy processing, all major soybean components, i.e., oil, protein and carbohydrate, should be collected and utilized. Existing processing was originally designed to maximize oil extraction. It tends to make protein and carbohydrate separation from remaining meal more difficult and reduce their value. In this s...

This work describes the use of nutrient limitations with Trichoderma reesei Rut C-30 to obtain a prolonged stationary phase cellulase production. This period of non-growth may allow for dependable cellulase production, extended fermentation periods, and the possibility to use pellet morphology for easy product separation. Phosphorus limitation was...

Rhamnolipid biosurfactants have potential applications in the control of zoosporic plant pathogens. However, rhamnolipids have not been closely investigated for the anti-zoospore mechanism or for developing new anti-zoospore chemicals. In this study, RhL-1 and RhL-3 groups of rhamnolipids were used to generate the corresponding RhL-2 and RhL-4 grou...

Responding to increasing environmental concerns, lipids are attractive feedstock to produce bio‐based polyurethanes. In this study, ethyl rhamnolipids were used to synthesize polyurethanes by reacting with 1,6‐hexane diisocyanate (HDI). Rhamnolipids were produced by microbial fermentation, providing a novel source for biopolyurethanes. FTIR and gel...

Sugar fatty acid nonionic surfactants have attracted great attention due to their good biodegradability, biocompatibility, and bio-based characteristics. Regioselective sugar acylation is difficult to control for chemical reactions. The immiscible nature between hydrophilic sugars and hydrophobic fatty acids also negatively affects the reaction eff...

In this study, we demonstrate the use of surfactants and specific nutrient control to regulate the growth and behavior of Trichoderma reesei Rut C-30. Although T. reesei is the ubiquitous cellulase producing fungus, many practical engineering issues remain. Typical processing conditions utilize a high growth density complicated with high nutrient d...

Vegetable oil-based shape-memory polyurethane networks are an emerging class of bio-based functional materials with great potential applications. In this study, a series of different structural soybean oil polyols were synthesized, and utilized to fabricate polyurethane networks by reacting with 1,6-diisocyanatohexane. The soybean oil-based polyure...

An oleic acid-based epoxy monomer was synthesized by reacting 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate with epoxy stearic acid and an immobilized lipase. NMR, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and gel permeation chromatography were used to characterize the intermediates and products. 2-(Acryloyloxy) ethyl epoxy stearate was synthesized with a yield of 87 %...

It is desirable to modify the normally filamentous Trichoderma reesei Rut C-30 to a pellet form, for easy biomass separation from the fermentation medium containing soluble products (e.g., cellulase). It was found in this study that this morphological modification could be successfully achieved by addition of the biosurfactant rhamnolipid (at ≥ 0.3...

Lactose, an inexpensive, soluble substrate, offers reasonably good induction for cellulase production by Trichoderma reesei. The fungus does not uptake lactose directly. Lactose is hydrolyzed to extracellular glucose and galactose for subsequent ingestion. The roles of this extracellular hydrolysis step were investigated in this study. Batch and co...

An acid hydrolysate was prepared by a procedure chosen for retaining more oligosaccharides to improve the cellulase-inducing capability when used as substrate in the fungal fermentation for cellulase production. The effect was evaluated with continuous culture of Trichoderma reesei Rut C30 at the dilution rates of 0.03-0.08 h(-1). The specific cell...