Chemoenzymatic Conversion of Biomass-Derived D-Xylose to Furfuryl Alcohol with Corn Stalk-Based Solid Acid Catalyst and Reductase Biocatalyst in a Deep Eutectic Solvent–Water System

In this work, the feasibility of chemoenzymatically transforming biomass-derived D-xylose to furfuryl alcohol was demonstrated in a tandem reaction with SO42−/SnO2-CS chemocatalyst and reductase biocatalyst in the deep eutectic solvent (DES)–water media. The high furfural yield (44.6%) was obtained by catalyzing biomass-derived D-xylose (75.0 g/L) in 20 min at 185 °C with SO42−/SnO2-CS (1.2 wt%) in DES ChCl:EG–water (5:95, v/v). Subsequently, recombinant E.coli CF cells harboring reductases transformed D-xylose-derived furfural (200.0 mM) to furfuryl alcohol in the yield of 35.7% (based on D-xylose) at 35 °C and pH 7.5 using HCOONa as cosubstrate in ChCl:EG–water. This chemoenzymatic cascade catalysis strategy could be employed for the sustainable production of value-added furan-based chemical from renewable bioresource.

Extraction cellulose from corn-stalk taking advantage of pretreatment technology with immobilized enzyme

In this paper, the corn-stalk cellulose (CSC) was extracted from the corn-stalk pretreated by the immobilized enzyme which was prepared using xylanase and laccase.

LONGITUDINAL COMPRESSING AND SHEARING PROPERTIES OF SILAGE CORN STALK IN NORTH CHINA PLAIN

During silage harvesting, silage corn stalk is compressed by a feeding device and fed into the shearing device to be sheared into qualified segments to make silage fermentation easier. To optimize the working quality of the existing silage harvester and reduce energy consumption, it’s necessary to make a comprehensive analysis of the longitudinal compressing and shearing properties of the silage corn stalks and get a reliable shearing model. According to the different structural properties of the silage corn stalks, the main factors affecting the shearing energy consumption and their levels were obtained by compressing and shearing tests on internodes and nodes in this paper. The results of three-level and three-factor experiments showed that the overall shearing energy consumption for nodes was much higher than that for internodes. Compressing the silage corn stalk to some extent before shearing at the loading direction of 0° and lower shearing speed was beneficial to saving energy during the process of shearing off the silage corn stalk. The reduced energy requirements of the silage corn stalk could be exploited advantageously to present new reference for the feeding and cutting mechanisms of silage harvester. The research results can provide a reference for silage corn harvesting.

Detoxification of corn stalk pretreated with calcium hydroxide for true protein accumulation

Alkaline pretreatment is essential in lignin degradation, but the inhibitors produced in this process affect microbial growth. To overcome the impacts of the phenolic compounds, detoxification was applied to corn stalk pretreated with calcium hydroxide.The results showed that ferulic acid degradation rate can reach 85.11% by laccase at the optimal conditions. Phanerochaete chrysosporium degraded most vanillin (77.19%) and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (63.82%) but the degradation of ferulic acid (15.34%) was relatively weak. Laccase combined with Phanerochaete chrysosporium detoxified most of the phenolic compounds including 2- methoxy-4-vinylphenol (88.46%) and salicylic acid (58.13%) that hardly decompose alone after calcium hydroxide pretreatment in this study. These results inferred that Phanerochaete chrysosporium might generate some substance during the spore germination and growth period which may cooperate with laccase to decompose the phenolic compounds. After the fermentation of detoxified corn stalk by Neurospora crassa, the true protein content was increased by 2.73 times, and 21.17% lignin was degraded.

Effect of Different Mulching Materials on the Growth and Yield of Green Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in Nfonta the Western Highlands of Cameroon

Mulching is a common technique used across the world by farmers to especially conserve soil moisture in vegetable production but farmers in Nfonta and the entire western highlands of Cameroon have not practiced the uses of mulching. In this experiment, a randomized complete block designe with 5 treatments and 3 replications was set up to study the effect of elephant grass, saw dust and white plastic as mulching materials on the growth and yield of green bean (Phaseolusvulgaris L.) in Nfonta. Data was collected on plant height; number of leaves per plants, leaf area index and yield of mature pods per plant. Data was analyzed using one way ANOVA from stat graphics centurion xv and means were separation using the Fischer least significant difference (LSD) test at 95% confidence interval. Results showed white plastic, and elephant grass mulches to have significantly (P<0.05) affected the growth and yield of green bean. White plastic mulched plants exhibited the highest growth parameters and subsequently produced the highest yield of 12.00 mature pods per plant with average pod length of 11.97cm and average mature pod weight of 4.22g compared to the other mulch treatments. There were no significant (P>0.05) differences in yield of green bean grown with no mulch (control), saw dust mulch and corn stalk mulch. Corn stalk mulched bean plants produced the lowest yield of 7.83 mature pods per plant with average pod length of 9.17cm and an average mature pod weight of 2.83 which was not much different from that produced by the control. These results call for more investigations to the potentials of white plastic as best mulch material for achieving optimum green beans yield in Nfonta and the entire western highlands of Cameroon.