Rice straw is produced in large quantity throughout the world. Rice straw is a leading feedstock for bioethanol production. Diluted ammonia pretreatment for one week at room temperature was found to be effective pretreatment. This pretreated rice straw was acid hydrolyzed and subsequently fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae CP11 strain. 1.5% ammonia pretreatment at room temperature for one week resulted 82.4% delignification and 78.49% of acid hydrolysis. Acid hydrolysate was fermented with maximum ethanol concentration 5.70 % with an ethanol yield of 0.46g/g and fermentation efficiency of 90.6%. Diluted ammonia pretreatment at higher temperature has reduced delignification, saccharification and fermentation efficiency with more phenols and furfurals.

Cotton stalks are good raw material for bioethanol production due to its availability throughout the world, abundance, high carbohydrate content and not involved in any food chain. Due to recalcitrant nature of cotton stalks pre-treatment, hydrolysis were not effective. In the present study pre-treatment with ammonia at room temperature for 1 week period and 121oC for 60min were attempted and it is compared with the standard 0.2M NaOH treatment. 1.5% ammonia pre-treatment at room temperature for 1 week found to remove 86% of lignin and subsequently undergone 75.92% acid hydrolysis. The acid hydrolysate obtained consists less lignin and furfurals and fermented to 5.75% ethanol with 91% fermentation efficiency with saccharomyces cerevisiae. Hence dilute ammonia pre-treatment for a week was found to be effective for bioethanol production using cotton stalks.

Aims: Phage therapy may be the best alternative to antibiotics in poultry. There is a need for optimization of phage production conditions to produce more Escherichia coli specific phages for poultry applications. Methodology: An E. coli λ bacteriophage isolated in our laboratory was used for optimization studies. An optimization of the E. coli λ bacteriophage production process was carried out by conventional methods to identify the factors, and the Thaguchi process was used for the optimization of conditions for increased bacteriophage production. With four factors each at three levels L9, experimental runs were carried out. Results: In the conventional method, 8 factors were studied and 4 selected for statistical optimization by Taguchi. At optimized conditions of modified nutrient broth with 1% glycerol, temperature 37oC, 100 rpm for 12 hours of phage multiplication, an improvement of the final titer was achieved from a control 2x109  to optimized 5x1012 Plauque formation Units (PFU)/mL. Conclusion: Phage production is dependent on bacterial growth and bacteriophage multiplication in bacteria. In such a complicated system, the Thaguchi method will be a convenient method of phage production optimization.