Browsing by Author "Banu, J. Rajesh"

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    Advances in algal biomass pretreatment and its valorisation into biochemical and bioenergy by the microbial processes
    (Elsevier, 2022-06-09) Bhatia, Shashi Kant; Ahuja, Vishal; Chandel, Neha; Gurav, Ranjit; Bhatia, Ravi Kant; Govarthanan, Muthusamy; Tyagi, Vinay Kumar; Kumar, Vinod; Pugazendhi, Arivalagan; Banu, J. Rajesh; Yang, Yung-Hun
    Urbanization and pollution are the major issues of the current time own to the exhaustive consumption of fossil fuels which have a detrimental effect on the nation's economies and air quality due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and shortage of energy reserves. Algae, an autotrophic organism provides a green substitute for energy as well as commercial products. Algal extracts become an efficient source for bioactive compounds having anti-microbial, anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancerous potential. Besides the conventional approach, residual biomass from any algal-based process might act as a renewable substrate for fermentation. Likewise, lignocellulosic biomass, algal biomass can also be processed for sugar recovery by different pre-treatment strategies like acid and alkali hydrolysis, microwave, ionic liquid, and ammonia fiber explosion, etc. Residual algal biomass hydrolysate can be used as a feedstock to produce bioenergy (biohydrogen, biogas, methane) and biochemicals (organic acids, polyhydroxyalkanoates) via microbial fermentation.
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    Enhanced biohydrogen generation through calcium peroxide engendered efficient ultrasonic disintegration of waste activated sludge in low temperature environment
    (Elsevier, 2022-10-27) Banu, J. Rajesh; Preethi; Gunasekaran, M.; Kumar, Vinod; Bhatia, Shashi Kant; Kumar, Gopalakrishnan
    Waste activated sludge is a renewable source for biohydrogen production, whereas the presence of complex biopolymers limits the hydrolysis step during this process, and thus pretreatment is required to disintegrate the sludge biomass. In this study, the feasibility of utilizing waste activated sludge to produce biohydrogen by improving the solubilization by means of thermo CaO2 engendered sonication disintegration (TCP-US) was studied. The optimized condition for extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) dissociation was obtained at the CaO2 dosage of 0.05 g/g SS at 70 °C. The maximum disintegration after EPS removal was achieved at the sonic specific energy input of 1612.8 kJ/kg TS with the maximum solubilization and SS reduction of 23.7% and 18.14%, respectively, which was higher than the US alone pretreatment. Thus, this solubilization yields higher biohydrogen production of 114.3 mLH2/gCOD in TCP-US sample.
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    Microbial exopolysaccharide composites in biomedicine and healthcare: trends and advances
    (MDPI, 2023-04-06) Ahuja, Vishal; Bhatt, Arvind Kumar; Banu, J. Rajesh; Kumar, Vinod; Kumar, Gopalakrishnan; Yang, Yung-Hun; Bhatia, Shashi Kant
    Microbial exopolysaccharides (EPSs), e.g., xanthan, dextran, gellan, curdlan, etc., have significant applications in several industries (pharma, food, textiles, petroleum, etc.) due to their biocompatibility, nontoxicity, and functional characteristics. However, biodegradability, poor cell adhesion, mineralization, and lower enzyme activity are some other factors that might hinder commercial applications in healthcare practices. Some EPSs lack biological activities that make them prone to degradation in ex vivo, as well as in vivo environments. The blending of EPSs with other natural and synthetic polymers can improve the structural, functional, and physiological characteristics, and make the composites suitable for a diverse range of applications. In comparison to EPS, composites have more mechanical strength, porosity, and stress-bearing capacity, along with a higher cell adhesion rate, and mineralization that is required for tissue engineering. Composites have a better possibility for biomedical and healthcare applications and are used for 2D and 3D scaffold fabrication, drug carrying and delivery, wound healing, tissue regeneration, and engineering. However, the commercialization of these products still needs in-depth research, considering commercial aspects such as stability within ex vivo and in vivo environments, the presence of biological fluids and enzymes, degradation profile, and interaction within living systems. The opportunities and potential applications are diverse, but more elaborative research is needed to address the challenges. In the current article, efforts have been made to summarize the recent advancements in applications of exopolysaccharide composites with natural and synthetic components, with special consideration of pharma and healthcare applications.
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    Polyhydroxyalkanoates synthesis using acidogenic fermentative effluents
    (Elsevier, 2021-11-11) Banu, J. Rajesh; Ginni, G.; Kavitha, S.; Kannah, R. Yukesh; Kumar, Vinod; Kumar, S. Adish; Gunasekaran, M.; Tyagi, Vinay Kumar; Kumar, Gopalakrishnan
    Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are natural polyesters synthesized by microbes which consume excess amount of carbon and less amount of nutrients. It is biodegradable in nature, and it synthesized from renewable resources. It is considered as a future polymer, which act as an attractive replacement to petrochemical based polymers. The main hindrance to the commercial application of PHA is the high manufacturing cost. This article provides an overview of different cost-effective substrates, their characteristics and composition, major strains involved in economical production of PHA and biosynthetic pathways leading to accumulation of PHA. This review also covers the operational parameters, various fermentative modes including batch, fed-batch, repeated fed-batch and continuous fed-batch systems, along with advanced feeding strategies such as single pulse carbon feeding, feed forward control, intermittent carbon feeding, feast famine conditions to observe their effects for improving PHA synthesis and associated challenges. In addition, it also presents the economic analysis and future perspectives for the commercialization of PHA production process thereby making the process sustainable and lucrative with the possibility of commercial biomanufacturing.
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    Process optimisation for production and recovery of succinic acid using xylose-rich hydrolysates by Actinobacillus succinogenes
    (Elsevier, 2021-10-28) Jokodola, Esther Oreoluwa; Narisetty, Vivek; Castro, Eulogio; Durgapal, Sumit; Coulon, Frederic; Sindhu, Raveendran; Binod, Parameswaran; Banu, J. Rajesh; Kumar, Gopalakrishnan; Kumar, Vinod
    Succinic acid (SA) is a top platform chemical obtainable from biomass. The current study evaluated the potential of Actinobacillus succinogenes for SA production using xylose-rich hemicellulosic fractions of two important lignocellulosic feedstocks, olive pits (OP) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB) and the results were compared with pure xylose. Initial experiments were conducted in shake flask followed by batch and fed-batch cultivation in bioreactor. Further separation of SA from the fermented broth was carried out by adapting direct crystallisation method. During fed-batch culture, maximum SA titers of 36.7, 33.6, and 28.7 g/L was achieved on pure xylose, OP and SCB hydrolysates, respectively, with same conversion yield of 0.27 g/g. The recovery yield of SA accumulated on pure xylose, OP and SCB hydrolysates was 79.1, 76.5, and 75.2%, respectively. The results obtained are of substantial value and pave the way for development of sustainable SA biomanufacturing in an integrated biorefinery.