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In biology, a species (: species) is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour, or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. However, only about 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a two-part name, a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature, also so

Model-based scale-up of a continuously operated consolidated bioprocess based on a microbial consortium for the production of ethanol

David Béat Dempfle

This work demonstrated that consolidated bioprocessing is a promising concept for conversion of lignocellulose to ethanol at industrial scale. CBP offers great cost saving potential, is feasible to be operated continuously and may be scaled up due to extensive knowledge of the process from a chemical engineering point of view.Cost savings of up to 27.5% of the total costs compared to conventional bioethanol production from lignocellulose, as stated by a techno-economic assessment, make continuous CBP the strongest lever to reduce processing costs of lignocellulosic ethanol. A cost sensitivity analysis identified scale and yield as the main cost-pushers from a process point of view, whereas the price level of the plant location has the highest impact on the investment conditions.To prove the feasibility of continuous CBP, and therefore the mentioned cost savings, experiments with a maximum titer of 3.258±0.007 g/L, a productivity of 0.025 g/(Lh) and constant enzyme production over 750h were conducted. Furthermore, the continuous experiments showed that experiments with identical volumetric oxygen transfer rate k_L a, but different oxygen fluxes per membrane area, showed titer differences of ca. 80% (1.83 g/L vs 3.26 g/L) in favor of setups with the large membrane surface. A rigorous process model was developed for continuously operated CBP. 9 species were considered (oxygen, glucose, total concentration Trichoderma reesei, secondary mycelia concentration of T. reesei, enzymes, cellulose, cellobiose, yeast density and ethanol). 8 of these 9 species needed to be modelled spatially resolved to account properly for mass transfer limitations. The fungal biofilm thickness d_f was found to be a critical parameter with an optimum for every membrane configuration. Smaller d_f reduced the fungal biofilm volume and thus, the enzyme production and larger d_f increased the diffusion path length causing shortage in nutrient supply as well as lower enzyme concentrations in the bulk. The enzyme synthesis rate of the secondary mycelia was fitted by reducing it by ca. 40% (0.67 FPU/(mLd) vs 1.152 (FPU/(mL*d) compared to batch models.With the process model as centerpiece, a scale-up framework consisting of the model and a set of non-dimensional parameters was developed to scale CBP from 2.7L laboratory scale to 130L pilot scale. The majority of the non-dimensional parameters could be kept constant during scale-up as requested by the similarity paradigm. Necessary changes were simulated with the model. Again, the fungal biofilm thickness d_f proved to be a relevant parameter for scale-up considerations. In general, the relative loss of biofilm volume is compensated by longer residence times since the residence time has by far the least impact on the process economics.Finally, popular rate-controlled separation techniques were investigated regarding their potential with CBP, since they offer the potential to reduce yeast inhibition, to avoid separation limitations by the azeotrope and they are not bound to the vapor-liquid-equilibrium of highly diluted ethanol-water mixtures. However, most of the mechanisms fail to handle the solids of the fermentation broth. Pervaporation, being the most promising concept for in-situ product removal, would be a cost-saving alternative to distillation for batch operation, but is limited by an unfavorable vapor-liquid equilibrium due to low bulk concentrations during continuous operation.

EPFL2022

Critical issues in using the common mixture toxicity models concentration addition or response addition on species sensitivity distributions: A theoretical approach

Vincent Gregorio

The risk of chemical mixtures to ecosystems is often assessed by applying the model of concentration addition or response addition combined with species sensitivity distribution (SSD) curves. Mixture effect predictions have been shown to be consistent only when these models are applied for a single species, however, and not with several species simultaneously aggregated to SSDs. The more stringent procedure for mixture risk assessment would hence be to apply first the concentration addition or response addition models to each species separately and, in a second step, to combine the results to construct an SSD for a mixture. Unfortunately, this methodology is not applicable in most cases because the large data sets it requires are usually unavailable. Based on theoretical data sets generated, the authors aimed to characterize the difference that can exist between these 2 methodologies. Results show that the use of concentration addition on SSD directly may lead to underestimations of the mixture concentration affecting 5% or 50% of species, especially when substances present a large standard deviation in ecotoxicity data constructing their SSD. The application of response addition can lead to over- or underestimations, depending mainly on the slope of the dose-response curves of the individual species. When assessing the risk of mixtures, one must therefore keep in mind this source of error when applying concentration addition or response addition to SSDs directly. (c) 2013 SETAC

Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Press2013

Chemical and electrochemical promotion of supported rhodium catalyst

Olena Baranova

The chemical and electrochemical promotion of highly dispersed nanofilm Rh catalysts (dispersion: about 10 %, film thickness: 40 nm) has been investigated for the first time. To this end Rh metal was sputter-deposited, either on a purely ionic conductor (8 % Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2) or on a mixed ionic-electronic conductor (TiO2), the latter being a highly dispersed layer of TiO2 (4 µm) deposited on YSZ. These catalysts are designated as Rh/YSZ and Rh/TiO2/YSZ, respectively. It was established analytically that both in the Rh/YSZ and in the Rh/TiO2/YSZ system, the catalyst films have a nanoparticle-size grain structure. The Rh supported on titania is rather porous, exhibiting a higher dispersion and surface area than Rh on YSZ. Both after reduction (H2, T=400 °C) and after oxidation (O2, T=400 °C), Rh supported on TiO2 was found to be in a more highly reduced state than Rh on YSZ. After reducing treatment, the Rh/TiO2/YSZ samples contain a larger amount of weakly bonded oxygen, which can be attributed to oxygen "backspillover" from the TiO2. A major feature of this research was the electrochemical characterization of the oxygen/Rh/solid electrolyte three-phase boundary by steady-state polarization measurements and by impedance spectroscopy. These are powerful techniques for extracting experimental trends and details that are useful for an understanding of the electrochemical promotion principles. It was shown that the exchange current densities at the Rh/solid electrolyte interface are lower on account of the TiO2 layer. The exchange current densities are more than twice lower at Rh/TiO2(4 µm)/YSZ than at Rh/YSZ, demonstrating that the former interface is much more polarizable. The mechanism of oxygen exchange occurring close to equilibrium (O2/O2- couple) was investigated for the first time at Rh catalyst electrodes interfaced with solid electrolyte. The processes of cathodic oxygen reduction and anodic oxygen evolution are not symmetric, but they are similar in the two systems, Rh/YSZ and Rh/TiO2(4 µm)/YSZ. The cathodic process consists of three steps: dissociative adsorption of oxygen at the gas-exposed Rh surface, atomic oxygen diffusion to the electrochemical reaction sites (ERS), and a two-electron transfer to this oxygen on the ERS. The cathodic process is limited by interfacial diffusion of oxygen atoms from the gas-exposed metal surface to the ERS. The anodic process includes two steps: two-electron transfer reaction, which is the rate-determining step, and oxygen desorption to the gas phase. With data obtained from impedance spectroscopy at the equilibrium potential, it was possible to confirm the reaction scheme proposed. It was demonstrated that Rh nanofilm catalysts interfaced with YSZ or TiO2/YSZ can be electrochemically promoted for the reaction of ethylene oxidation. Small anodic currents cause periodic oscillations in catalytic rate and potential of the Rh/YSZ catalyst, while at Rh/TiO2/YSZ they give rise to a stable and reversible rate enhancement by up to a factor 80. The increase in ethylene oxidation rate is up to 2000 times larger than the electrochemical rate, I/2F, of O2- oxidation. The pronounced electrochemical promotion behavior that has been observed is due to the anodically controlled migration of O2- species from the electrolyte to the Rh/gas interface. At the Rh surface, these species destabilize the formation of rhodium surface oxide (Rh2O3). The existence of backspillover oxygen species has been confirmed by impedance measurements under positive applied potential. Another significant result for heterogeneous catalysis is the finding that thick as well as thin films of Rh/TiO2/YSZ catalyst are open to chemical promotion of ethylene oxidation and partial methane oxidation, ie, they offer a higher catalytic activity and stability than the Rh/YSZ catalysts. The modification of catalytic activity observed for Rh/TiO2/YSZ was attributed to either a "long-range" electronic-type SMSI mechanism or to a self-driven electrochemical promotion mechanism. In both cases, the ultimate cause of promotion are different work functions of catalyst and support. Equilibration of the work functions of two solids in contact induces surface charging, a migration of O2- ions to the catalyst/gas interface, and a weakening of the Rh-O chemisorptive bonds. It facilitates reduction of oxidized surface sites. Another important achievement of the present work was that of exploring and confirming the possibilities of current-assisted activation of Rh/TiO2/YSZ catalysts. In partial methane oxidation using close to stoichiometric gas compositions (CH4 : O2 = 2 : 1) at 550 °C, the inactive (oxidized) Rh/TiO2/YSZ catalyst was successfully activated by applied currents, either positive or negative. This phenomenon is an example of "permanent" electrochemical promotion furnishing a permanent rate enhancement ratio of γ = 11. The activation by negative currents is explained in terms of an electrochemical reduction of rhodium surface oxide, while the activation by positive currents can be explained by the mechanism of electrochemical promotion.

EPFL2005