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Patáková P., Lipovský J., Čížková H., Fořtová J., Rychtera M., Melzoch K. (2009): Exploitation of food feedstock and waste for production of biobutanol. Czech J. Food Sci., 27: 276-283. Nine strains of solventogenic clostridia including the species C. acetobutylicum, C. beijerinckii, C. pasteurianum, and C. saccharoperbutylacetonicum were tested for the solvents production using potato, maize, and sugar beet molasses as substrates. The solvent concentrations reached in the cultivations with maize and molasses media (15.23 g/l and 13.70 g/l, respectively) looked promising. Based on the screening experiments, the strain C. acetobutylicum DSM 1731 was selected for further experiments in the laboratory bioreactor using the maize medium. The results achieved in this batch cultivation (total solvents concentration 12.91 g/l, the yield from maize starch 22%, the solvents formation productivity 0.22 g/l/h, and the ratio of B:A:E approximately 2:1:0) imply the potential of maize as an energetic crop for the biofuel production. In addition, whey protein concentrate was tested as a possible replacement of the usual but expensive media components, i.e. yeast autolysate and/or trypton, and it was confirmed that these substitutes functioned well in the glucose medium.

Nowadays, knowledge in Public Sector environment becomes very vast and increasing day by day at speedy pace. So, to handle and manage the knowledge becomes a tedious job, resulting into degrading the overall affectivity and productivity of the system. Hence, the need of effective architecture arises, which can increase the performance of disseminating knowledge in public sector. This results the implementation of knowledge management (KM) using Multi Agents (MA). Using Multi Agents reduces the time overhead for serving relevant knowledge to end users. The objective of this paper is to propose KM architecture using MA which will be helpful and effective in circulating knowledge to public sectors in a much better and easier manner, due to which it enhances the productivity and performance. The paper firstly, gives the understanding of literature on various knowledge management frameworks and tools for implementing Multi Agents. Then it proposes a MA enterprise knowledge management architecture (MAEKM), stating that how knowledge circulation will be done. At the end, using JADE framework, paper implements MAEKM architecture for public sector. The paper describes the necessity of implementing this architecture and its usefulness in disseminating knowledge in public sectors

Biodiesel from sunflower oil using lipase chemically immobilized on silk-cocoon matrix in a packed-bed bioreactor was investigated. The immobilization was demonstrated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy and activity study. The lipase loading was 738.74 U (~0.01 g lipase powder)/g-lipase-immobilized matrix. The Km (Michaelis-Menten constant) of the free and the immobilized lipase was 451.26 μM and 257.26 μM, respectively. Low Km value of the immobilized lipase is attributed to the hydrophobic nature of the matrix that facilitated the substrate diffusion to the enzyme surface. The biodiesel yield of 81.62% was obtained at 48 hours reaction time, 6 : 1 methanol : oil ratio (v/v), and 30°C. The immobilized lipase showed high operational stability at 30°C. The substrate conversion was only marginally decreased till third cycle (each of 48 hours duration) of the reaction since less than even 5% of the original activity was decreased in each of the second and third cycle. The findings demonstrated the potential of the silk-cocoon as lipase immobilization matrix for industrial production of biodiesel.

The implementation of community-level de-centralised anaerobic digestion (AD) systems offers a sustainable solution for organic waste management and energy provision, but there is currently a need for low-cost methods of system control and management at this scale. The problem becomes accentuated with increasing deployment, as greater complexities are created by the need to both monitor and control a wider network of smaller, community-scale plants. This paper describes research to design, deploy and test such a system by creating a network of two independent biogas generation AD reactor sites situated in the United Kingdom and Thailand. Internet of things (IoT) aspects such as inexpensive and widely available open-source control electronics was used in combination with small commercial gas analysers to log, transfer and share data with a central station, achieving real-time monitoring of performance for both networked digesters. The design proved beneficial for collaboration and knowledge exchange purposes along with providing off-site observations on reactor status. This information was used for early intervention to maintain biogas yields and enable the dynamic assessment of process economics. The concept showed potential for upscaling to larger multi-site networks of AD reactors that could maintain process optimisation without the need for skilled staff on site.