• KSBB Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.205-211
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• 1999

We investigated optimal conditions for the microbial transformation of $\gamma$-butyrobetaine into L-carnitine by using Achromobacter cycloclast ATCC 21921. When the cells were cultivated in the medium containing $\gamma$-butyrobetaine as the sole carbon source for both cell growth and L-carnitine production, the maximum L-carnitine production was 2.9 g/L and the conversion yield from $\gamma$-butyrobetaine to L-carnitine was as low as 30.9 mol%. In order to enhance the L-carnitine production and the conversion yield, various carbon sources were added to the $\gamma$-butyronetaine containing basal medium. In the medium supplemented with glycerol, L-carnitine production was as high as 4.6 g/L and the conversion yield was 88.2 mol%, showing a significant improvement in L-carnitine synthesis compared to those in the medium without glycerol. We also examined the additional effect of quaternary ammonium compounds such as betaine and choline, which are similar in structure to $\gamma$-butyrobetaine and L-carnitien. It was observed that in the presence of those quaternary ammonium compounds, both the L-carnitine production rate and the conversion yield increased. In addition, we found that cell growth was inhibited by a $\gamma$-butyrobetaine concentration of more than 3%, while L-carnitine production was efficient at the $\gamma$-butyrobetaine concentration of 2-3%. By cultivating the cells in the optimal medium containing glycerol and choline, we obtained an L-carnitine concentration of 7.2 g/L with the conversion yield of 98.7 mol% in 4 days.

• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.64-66
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• 2013

Photoreduction of $CO_2$ into hydrocarbon fuels on the surface of photocatalyst is one of the breakthroughs in the field of photocatalysis. At present various approaches have been investigated with the aim of increasing the $CO_2$ conversion efficiency. The reactor for photoconversion of $CO_2$ plays a vital role in experimental setup. In this work an attempt was made to testify a newly designed the photoreactor for conversion of $CO_2$ into useful products. The photoreactor was specifically designed for simple operation bearing features of temperature and pressure control. The reactor has been tested successively with the standard titania, Degussa P25 yielding methane with moderate production rate of 30.8 $ppm{\cdot}g^{-1}{\cdot}h^{-1}$ under UV lamp with 365 nm wavelength. The methane yield obtained is comparable to the values reported in literature. Thus we anticipate that this experimental setup equipped with newly designed photoreactor can yield competitive amounts of fuels from $CO_2$ photoredcution via 365 nm UV light illumination on various photocatalysts.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.354-361
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• 2019

Renewable energy from biomass and biodegradable wastes can significantly supplement the global energy demand if properly harnessed. Pyrolysis is the most profound modern technique that has proved effective and efficient in the energy conversion of biomass to yield various products like bio-oil, biochar, and syngas. This study focuses on optimization of slow pyrolysis of banana peels waste to yield banana peels vinegar, tar and biochar as bio-infrastructure products. Response surface methodology using central composite design was used to determine the optimum conditions for the banana wastes using a batch reactor pyrolysis system. Three factors namely heating temperature ($350-550^{\circ}C$), sample mass (200-800 g) and residence time (45-90 min) were varied with a total of 20 individual experiments. The optimal conditions for wood vinegar yield (48.01%) were $362.6^{\circ}C$, 989.9 g and 104.2 min for peels and biochar yield (30.10%) were $585.9^{\circ}C$, 989.9 g and 104.2 min. The slow pyrolysis showed significant energy conversion efficiencies of about 90% at p-value ${\leq}0.05$. These research findings are of primary importance to Uganda considering the abundant banana wastes amounting to 17.5 million tonnes generated annually, thus using them as pyrolysis feedstock can boost the country's energy status.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.89-92
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• 2007

Partail oxidation(POX) of n-butane was investigated in this research by employing ceria-promoted Ni/calcium hydroxyapatite catalysts ($Ce_xNi_{2.5}Ca_{10}(OH)_2(PO_4)_6$ ; x = $0.1{\sim}0.3$) which had recently been reported to exhibit good catalytic performance in POX of methane and propane. The experiments were carried out with changing ceria content, $O_2/n-C_4H_{10}$ ratio and temperature. As the $O_2/n-C_4H_{10}$ feed ratio increased up to 2.75, n-$C_4H_{10}$ conversion and $H_2$ yield increased and the selectivity of methane and other hydrocarbons decreased. But with $O_2/n-C_4H_{10}$ = 3.0, $n-C_4H_{10}$ conversion and $H_2$ yield decreased. This is considered due to that too much oxygen may inhibit the reduction of Ni or induce the oxidation of Ni, which results in poor catalytic activity. The optimum $O_2/n-C_4H_{10}$ ratio lay between 2.50 and 2.75. $Ce_{0.1}Ni_{2.5}Ca_{10}(OH)_2(PO_4)_6$ showed the highest $n-C_4H_{10}$ conversion and $H-2$ yield on the whole. In durability tests, higher hydrogen yield and better catalyst stability were obtained with the $O_2/n-C_4H_{10}$ ratio of 2.75 than with the ratio of 2.5.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.444-449
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• 1991

Synthesis of maltosyl-$\beta$-cyclodextrin using maltose ($G_2$) and $\beta$-cyclodextrin ($\beta$-CD) as substrates through the reverse reaction of pullulanase was investigated. The optimal conditions for the condensation reaction were as below: mixing ratio of maltose to $\beta$-CD of 12.7, mixed substrate concentration of 70% (w/w, 70 g/100 ml $H_2O$), and amount of pullulanse of 350 units/100 ml. The concentration of synthesized maltosyl-P-CD concentration was reached up to 2.31 g/100 rnl at above reaction conditions, which corresponded the conversion yield of 43% (w/w, g of branched-CD/g of CD). The synthesis of maltosyl-$\alpha >\gamma >\beta$-CD was also attempted, and conversion yield was in the order of a>y>J3-CDs. Condensation reaction between various maltooligosaccharides ($G-1\sim G_6$ showed that maltose was the most effective oligorner for condensation reaction with $\beta$-CD. To increase the conversion yield various alcohols were added into the reaction mixture, amyl alcohol was found to be the most acceptable alcohol for increasement of convesion yield which increased from 43.0 to 83.0% upon addition of same volume of amyl alcohol into the reaction mixture.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.369-376
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• 2023

This study focuses on investigating the influence of epoxy polymer crosslinking density, a crucial aspect in composite material matrices, on the yield surface using molecular dynamics simulations. Our approach involved generating epoxy models with diverse crosslinking densities and subjecting them to both uniaxial and multiaxial deformation simulations, accounting for the elasto-plastic deformation behaviors. Through this, we obtained key mechanical parameters including elastic modulus, yield point, and strain hardening coefficient, all correlated with crosslinking conversion ratios. A particularly noteworthy finding is the rapid expansion of the yield surface in the biaxial compression region with increasing crosslinking ratios, compared to the uniaxial tensile region. This unique behavior led to observable yield surface variations, indicating a significant pressure-dependent relationship of the yield surface considering plastic strain and crosslinking conversion ratio. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between crosslinking density and plastic mechanical response, especially in the aspect of multiaxial deformation behaviors.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.522-525
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• 2006

Biodiesel conversion from soybean oil reached a maximum of 70% at 18 h using immobilized 1,3-specific Rhizopus oryzae lipase alone. Biodiesel conversion failed to reach 20% after 30 h when immobilized nonspecific Candida rugosa lipase alone was used. To increase the biodiesel production yield, a mixture of immobilized 1,3-specific R. oryzae lipase and nonspecific C. rugosa lipase was used. Using this mixture a conversion of greater than 99% at 21 h was attained. When the stability of the immobilized lipases mixture was tested, biodiesel conversion was maintained at over 80% of its original conversion after 10 cycles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.1229-1258
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• 2002

This paper reports the photochemical reduction of benzil 1 to benzoin 2 and the reduction of 2 to hydrobenzoin 4 in deoxygenated solvents in the presence of triethylamine (TEA) and/or TiO2. Without TEA or TiO2, the photolysis of 1 resulted in very low yield of 2. The presence of TEA or TiO2 increased the rate of disappearance of 1 and the yield of 2, which were further increased considerably by the presence of water. The photoreduction of 1 to 2 proceeds through an electron transfer to 1 from TEA or hole-scavenged excited TiO2 followed by protonation. In the reaction medium of 88 : 7 : 2 : 3 CH3CN/CH3OH/H2O/TEA with 2.5 $㎎/m{\ell}$ of TiO2, the yield of 2 was as high as 85 % at 50 % conversion of 1. The photolysis of 2 in homogeneous media resulted in photo-cleavage to benzoyl and hydroxybenzyl radicals, which are mostly converted to benzaldehyde. The reduction product 4 is formed in low yield through the dimerization of hydroxybenzyl radicals. The addition of TEA increased the conversion rate of 2 and the yield of 4 significantly. This was attributed to the scavenging effect of TEA for benzoyl radical to produce N,N-diethylbenzamide and the photoreduction of benzaldehyde in the presence of TEA. The ratio of $(\pm)$ and meso isomers of 4 obtained from the photochemical reaction is about 1.1. This ratio is the same as that from the photochemical reduction of benzaldehyde in the presence of TEA. In the TiO2-sensitized photochemical reduction of 2, meso-4 was obtained in moderate yield. The reduction of 2 to 4 proceeds through two consecutive electron/proton transfer processes on the surface of the photocatalyst without involvement of ${\alpha}-cleavage$. The radical 11 initially formed from 2 by one electron/proton process can also combine with hydroxy methyl radical, which is generated after hole trapping of excited TiO2 by methanol, to produce 1,2-diphenylpropenone after dehydration reaction.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.350-359
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• 1999

Conversion and oil-yield of a used automotive tire sample in supercritical decomposition and extraction for three solvents such as water, 28% ammoina solution and ammonia, were compared. Supercritical extraction with ammonia gave the highest conversion and oil-yield at the same temperature and pressure. In this paper, supercritical ammonia was used as major solvent and tetralin acting as hydrogen-donor, was used as cosolvent. As the amount of tetralin increased, oil-yield was Increased. When a tire sample was extracted by supercritical ammonia, oil-yield was 48.8% at $280^{\circ}C$, 22.3MPa. But when the weight ratio of tetralin to tire sample (weight of tetralin/weight of tire sample) was 5, oil-yield was 61.2% at $280^{\circ}C$ and 22.3 MPa. These phenomena indicate that as radicals produced in supercritical decomposition become stable, the polymerization and the second decomposition of products may be inhibited. Supercritical extraction of a tire sample swollen by tetralin gave high oil-yield although the amount of tetralin was a little.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.307-318
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• 2006

The pyrolysis of high density polyethylene(HDPE) and low density polyethylene(LDPE) was carried out at temperature between 425 and $500^{\circ}C$ from 35 to 80 minutes. The liquid products formed during pyrolysis were classified into gasoline, kerosene, gas oil and wax according to the petroleum product quality standard of Korea Petroleum Quality Inspection Institute. The conversion and yield of liquid products for HDPE pyrolysis increased continuously according to pyrolysis temperature and pyrolysis time. The influence of pyrolysis temperature was more severe than pyrolysis time for the conversion of HDPE. For example, the liquid products of HDPE pyrolysis at $450^{\circ}C$ for 65 minutes were ca. 30wt.% gas oil, 15wt.% wax, 14wt.% kerosene and 11wt.% gasoline. The increase of pyrolysis temperature up to $500^{\circ}C$ showed the increase of wax product and the decrease of kerosene. The conversion and yield of liquid products for LDPE pyrolysis continuously increased according to pyrolysis temperature and pyrolysis time, similar to HDPE pyrolysis. The liquid products of LDPE pyrolysis at $450^{\circ}C$ for 65 minutes were ca. 27wt.% gas oil, 18wt.% wax, 16wt.% kerosene and 13wt.% gasoline.