TY - JOUR A1 - Grimbs, Sergio A1 - Arnold, Anne A1 - Koseska, Aneta A1 - Kurths, Jürgen A1 - Selbig, Joachim A1 - Nikoloski, Zoran T1 - Spatiotemporal dynamics of the Calvin cycle multistationarity and symmetry breaking instabilities JF - Biosystems : journal of biological and information processing sciences N2 - The possibility of controlling the Calvin cycle has paramount implications for increasing the production of biomass. Multistationarity, as a dynamical feature of systems, is the first obvious candidate whose control could find biotechnological applications. Here we set out to resolve the debate on the multistationarity of the Calvin cycle. Unlike the existing simulation-based studies, our approach is based on a sound mathematical framework, chemical reaction network theory and algebraic geometry, which results in provable results for the investigated model of the Calvin cycle in which we embed a hierarchy of realistic kinetic laws. Our theoretical findings demonstrate that there is a possibility for multistationarity resulting from two sources, homogeneous and inhomogeneous instabilities, which partially settle the debate on multistability of the Calvin cycle. In addition, our tractable analytical treatment of the bifurcation parameters can be employed in the design of validation experiments. KW - Multistationarity KW - Calvin cycle KW - Algebraic geometry KW - Bifurcation parameters KW - Biomass Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2010.10.015 SN - 0303-2647 VL - 103 IS - 2 SP - 212 EP - 223 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - THES A1 - Falco, Camillo T1 - Sustainable biomass-derived hydrothermal carbons for energy applications T1 - Nachhaltiger, Biomasse-basierter Hydrothermalkohlenstoff für Energieanwendungen N2 - The need to reduce humankind reliance on fossil fuels by exploiting sustainably the planet renewable resources is a major driving force determining the focus of modern material research. For this reason great interest is nowadays focused on finding alternatives to fossil fuels derived products/materials. For the short term the most promising substitute is undoubtedly biomass, since it is the only renewable and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels as carbon source. As a consequence efforts, aimed at finding new synthetic approaches to convert biomass and its derivatives into carbon-based materials, are constantly increasing. In this regard, hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) has shown to be an effective means of conversion of biomass-derived precursors into functional carbon materials. However the attempts to convert raw biomass, in particular lignocellulosic one, directly into such products have certainly been rarer. Unlocking the direct use of these raw materials as carbon precursors would definitely be beneficial in terms of HTC sustainability. For this reason, in this thesis the HTC of carbohydrate and protein-rich biomass was systematically investigated, in order to obtain more insights on the potentials of this thermochemical processing technique in relation to the production of functional carbon materials from crude biomass. First a detailed investigation on the HTC conversion mechanism of lignocellulosic biomass and its single components (i.e. cellulose, lignin) was developed based on a comparison with glucose HTC, which was adopted as a reference model. In the glucose case it was demonstrated that varying the HTC temperature allowed tuning the chemical structure of the synthesised carbon materials from a highly cross-linked furan-based structure (T = 180oC) to a carbon framework composed of polyaromatic arene-like domains. When cellulose or lignocellulosic biomass was used as carbon precursor, the furan rich structure could not be isolated at any of the investigated processing conditions. These evidences were indicative of a different HTC conversion mechanism for cellulose, involving reactions that are commonly observed during pyrolytic processes. The evolution of glucose-derived HTC carbon chemical structure upon pyrolysis was also investigated. These studies revealed that upon heat treatment (Investigated temperatures 350 – 900 oC) the furan-based structure was progressively converted into highly curved aromatic pre-graphenic domains. This thermal degradation process was observed to produce an increasingly more hydrophobic surface and considerable microporosity within the HTC carbon structure. In order to introduce porosity in the HTC carbons derived from lignocellulosic biomass, KOH chemical activation was investigated as an HTC post-synthesis functionalisation step. These studies demonstrated that HTC carbons are excellent precursors for the production of highly microporous activated carbons (ACs) and that the porosity development upon KOH chemical activation is dependent on the chemical structure of the HTC carbon, tuned by employing different HTC temperatures. Preliminary testing of the ACs for CO2 capture or high pressure CH4 storage yielded very promising results, since the measured uptakes of both adsorbates (i.e. CO2 and CH4) were comparable to top-performing and commercially available adsorbents, usually employed for these end-applications. The combined use of HTC and KOH chemical activation was also employed to produce highly microporous N-doped ACs from microalgae. The hydrothermal treatment of the microalgae substrate was observed to cause the depletion of the protein and carbohydrate fractions and the near complete loss (i.e. 90%) of the microalgae N-content, as liquid hydrolysis/degradation products. The obtained carbonaceous product showed a predominantly aliphatic character indicating the presence of alkyl chains presumably derived from the lipid fractions. Addition of glucose to the initial reaction mixture was found out to be extremely beneficial, because it allowed the fixation of a higher N amount, in the algae derived HTC carbons (i.e.  60%), and the attainment of higher product yields (50%). Both positive effects were attributed to Maillard type cascade reactions taking place between the monosaccharides and the microalgae derived liquid hydrolysis/degradation products, which were in this way recovered from the liquid phase. KOH chemical activation of the microalgae/glucose mixture derived HTC carbons produced highly microporous N-doped carbons. Although the activation process led to a major reduction of the N-content, the retained N-amount in the ACs was still considerable. These features render these materials ideal candidates for supercapacitors electrodes, since they provide extremely high surface areas, for the formation of electric double-layer, coupled to abundant heteroatom doping (i.e. N and O) necessary to obtain a pseudocapacitance contribution. N2 - Die Notwendigkeit, die Abhängigkeit der Menschheit von fossilen Brennstoffen zu reduzieren ist die treibende Kraft hinter aktuellen Forschungsanstrengungen in den Materialwissenschaften. Folglich besteht heutzutage ein erhebliches Interesse daran Alternativen zu Materialien, die aus fossilen Resourcen gewonnen werden, zu finden. Kurzfristig ist zweifellos Biomasse die vielversprechendste Alternative, da sie aus heutiger Sicht die einzige nicht-fossile, nachhaltige und nachwachsende Kohlenstoffquelle ist. Konsequenterweise werden die Antrengungen neue Syntheseansätze zur Konvertierung von Biomasse und ihren Derivaten in kohlenstoffbasierten Materialien forwährend erhöht. In diesem Zusammenhang hat sich die Hydrothermalkarbonisierung (HTC) als sehr vielseitiges Werkzeug zur Konvertierung von Biomasse-basierten Ausgangsstoffen in funktionale Kohlenstoffmaterialien herausgestellt. Dennoch gibt es bisher wenige Ansätze um rohe Biomasse, genauer gesagt Lignicellulose, direkt in funktionale Materialien umzusetzen. Könnte der direkte Einsatz von roher Biomasse Verfahren wie der HTC zugänglich gemacht werden, würde dies die Nachhaltigkeit des Verfahrens immens steigern. Daher wurde in dieser Dissertation die Hydrothermalkarbonisierung von kohlenhydratreicher (d. h. Lignicelluse) und proteinreicher (d. h. Microalgae) Biomasse systematisch analysiert. Diese Untersuchung galt dem Ziel einen besseren Einblick in das Potential dieser thermochemischen Verarbeitungsmethode funktionale Kohlenstoffmaterialien aus unverarbeiteter Biomasse hervorzubringen zu gewinnen. Die hergestellten Materialien wurden mittels chemischer Aktivierung nachträglich weiter behandelt. Dieser zusätzliche Verarbeitungsschritt ermöglichte die Herstellung hochporöser aktiverter Kohlenstoffe (AC). Die aus Lignicellulose gewonnenen ACs zeigten exzellente Eigenschaften bei der Aufnahme von CO2 und der Hochdruckspeicherung von CH4 währen die aus Microalgae gewonnen Eigenschaften an den Tag legten (z. B. hohe Oberfläche und N-Dotierung), welche sie zu vielversprechenden Materialien für Superkondensatoren machen. Die in dieser Dissertation präsentierte Arbeit zeigte außergewöhnliche Fortschritte in Richtung der Anwendung von unbehandelter Biomasse als Ausgangsmaterial für die Produktion von funktionalen Kohlenstoffen. KW - Biomasse KW - Kohlenmaterialien KW - Grüne Chemie KW - Nachhaltigkeit KW - Enegieanwendungen KW - Biomass KW - Carbon materials KW - Green Chemistry KW - Sustainability KW - Energy Applications Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-59785 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schroeder, Florian A1 - Lisso, Janina A1 - Obata, Toshihiro A1 - Erban, Alexander A1 - Maximova, Eugenia A1 - Giavalisco, Patrick A1 - Kopka, Joachim A1 - Fernie, Alisdair R. A1 - Willmitzer, Lothar A1 - Muessig, Carsten T1 - Consequences of induced brassinosteroid deficiency in Arabidopsis leaves JF - BMC plant biology N2 - Background: The identification of brassinosteroid (BR) deficient and BR insensitive mutants provided conclusive evidence that BR is a potent growth-promoting phytohormone. Arabidopsis mutants are characterized by a compact rosette structure, decreased plant height and reduced root system, delayed development, and reduced fertility. Cell expansion, cell division, and multiple developmental processes depend on BR. The molecular and physiological basis of BR action is diverse. The BR signalling pathway controls the activity of transcription factors, and numerous BR responsive genes have been identified. The analysis of dwarf mutants, however, may to some extent reveal phenotypic changes that are an effect of the altered morphology and physiology. This restriction holds particularly true for the analysis of established organs such as rosette leaves. Results: In this study, the mode of BR action was analysed in established leaves by means of two approaches. First, an inhibitor of BR biosynthesis (brassinazole) was applied to 21-day-old wild-type plants. Secondly, BR complementation of BR deficient plants, namely CPD (constitutive photomorphogenic dwarf)-antisense and cbb1 (cabbage1) mutant plants was stopped after 21 days. BR action in established leaves is associated with stimulated cell expansion, an increase in leaf index, starch accumulation, enhanced CO2 release by the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and increased biomass production. Cell number and protein content were barely affected. Conclusion: Previous analysis of BR promoted growth focused on genomic effects. However, the link between growth and changes in gene expression patterns barely provided clues to the physiological and metabolic basis of growth. Our study analysed comprehensive metabolic data sets of leaves with altered BR levels. The data suggest that BR promoted growth may depend on the increased provision and use of carbohydrates and energy. BR may stimulate both anabolic and catabolic pathways. KW - Brassinosteroids KW - Arabidopsis KW - Tricarboxylic acid cycle KW - Biomass KW - Cell expansion KW - Growth Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-014-0309-0 SN - 1471-2229 VL - 14 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Omorogie, Martins O. A1 - Babalola, Jonathan Oyebamiji A1 - Unuabonah, Emmanuel I. A1 - Song, Weiguo A1 - Gong, Jian Ru T1 - Efficient chromium abstraction from aqueous solution using a low-cost biosorbent: Nauclea diderrichii seed biomass waste JF - Journal of Saudi Chemical Society N2 - Toxic Cr(III) which poses environmental hazard to flora and fauna was efficiently abstracted by low-cost Nauclea diderrichii seed biomass (NDS) with good sequestral capacity for this metal was investigated in this study. The NDS surface analyses showed that it has a specific surface area of 5.36 m(2)/g and pHpzc of 4.90. Thermogravimetric analysis of NDS showed three consecutive weight losses from 50-200 degrees C (ca. 5%), 200-400 C (ca. 35%), >400 degrees C (ca. 10%), corresponding to external water molecules, structural water molecules and heat induced condensation reactions respectively. Differential thermogram of NDS presented a large endothermic peak between 20-510 degrees C suggesting bond breakage and dissociation with the ultimate release of small molecules. The experimental data showed kinetically fast biosorption with increased initial Cr(III) concentrations, indicating the role of external mass transfer mechanism as the rate controlling mechanism in this adsorption process. The Langmuir biosorption capacity of NDS was 483.81 mg/g. The use of the corrected Akaike Information Criterion tool for ranking equilibrium models suggested that the Freundlich model best described the experimental data, which is an indication of the heterogeneous nature of the active sites on the surface of NDS. N. diderrichii seed biomass is an easily sourced, cheap and environmental friendly biosorbent which will serve as a good and cost effective alternative to activated carbon for the treatment of polluted water and industrial effluents. (C) 2012 King Saud University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Biomass KW - Equilibrium KW - External mass transfer KW - Kinetics KW - Adsorption KW - Water Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jscs.2012.09.017 SN - 1319-6103 SN - 2212-4640 VL - 20 SP - 49 EP - 57 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -