Biomass Project Research Center, Hiroshima University, and HOSTY Association are co-organizing the Hiroshima University Biomass Evening Seminar. This seminar covers topics from the fundamentals of biomass to the latest information so that it can contribute the activities on biomass in this district. The102nd seminar will be held as follows. Please join. Please wear a mask to protect against corona when participating. In the case of direct participation, we will accept participation on the day. But We need to contact the online participants with the URL, so please fill in the required items in the format at the end and send it to bprc@hiroshima-u.ac.jp. Also for those who participate directly, it would be helpful if you could contact us in advance. Online, only ZOOM is used. Please understand that materials cannot be distributed and that there are possibilities of not being able to accept questions or bad connection.

Date & Time: THU. 22 Sep., 2022 16:20-17:50

Place: Engineering 110 Lecture Room, Higashi-Hiroshima Campus, Hiroshima University
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Commentary: Yukihiko MATSUMURA Professor, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University

Lecture: Ryoya OTA B4 student, School of Engineering, Hiroshima University
“Behavior of sulfate ion treated with formic acid under hydrothermal condition”
Behavior of sulfur during supercritical water gasification of biomass is crucial in terms of catalyst deactivation. It is expected that sulfate ion, once reduced, can be properly removed from the system. Thus, reduction of sulfate ion in the hydrothermal reactor is of interest. In this study, reaction of sulfate with formic acid was studied. Sulfuric acid was delivered to a hydrothermal reactor with formic acid, and liquid effluent was analyzed. The behavior of sulfur is discussed.

Lecture: Natsuki WATANABE B4 student, School of Engineering, Hiroshima University
“Reaction rate of uric acid under hydrothermal conditions”
Chicken manure is a typical waste biomass. It is used as energy by methane fermentation. However, there is a problem that nitrogen is converted to ammonia during the fermentation and this ammonia inhibits the fermentation itself. Since chicken manure contains large part of nitrogen as uric acid, its behavior during hydrothermal pretreatment should be important. In this study, uric acid was treated under hydrothermal condition in a batch reactor, and its decomposition rate was determined. Concentration of remaining uric acid was determined using absorbance after reaction with phosphotungstic acid.

Lecture: Takehiro KITAMURA M2 student, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University
“Production of carboxylic acids by hydrothermal treatment of biomass”
Oil can be used as a biodiesel. Oil can be produced from acetic acid. Therefore, study about the production of carboxylic acid such as acetic acid, which can be produced from glucose, is important. In this study, hydrothermal treatment of glucose was performed to estimate the optimal hydrothermal reaction conditions for the acetic acid production. For this purpose, carbon yields and intermediates of acetic acid production were determined. The effect of the residence time and the oxygen equivalent ratio on the carboxylic acid yield has been investigated. Moreover, the effect of the heating rate on its production has been investigated.

Lecture: Yoshiko OKAMURA Professor, Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University
“An attempt to produce butanoic-acid in Escherichia coli”
Nitratireductor sp. OM-1 assimilates volatile fatty acids as carbon sources and accumulates high levels of butenoic acid, a raw material for chemical products, under nitrogen-depleted conditions, and converts it to butenoic acid polymer harboring ester bonds. OM-1 also accumulates polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and total lipid up to 90% of cell weight. On the other hand, despite its ability to produce and accumulate high levels of lipids, the production yield of OM-1 is not so high due to low-density culture. Therefore, we attempted to synthesize butenoic acid by heterologous expression of the butenoic acid synthesis pathway in E. coli, which can be cultured at high density.

Chair: Yukihiko MATSUMURA Professor, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University

[For those who wish to participate] Please post the following 5items (1-4 are required) in the email, write “I would like to participate in the evening seminar” in the subject line, and send it to bprc@hiroshima-u.ac.jp.

1. Participation Seminar: August 1st, 102nd Biomass Evening Seminar
2. name:
3. Email address:
4. Participation form: □ Online □ Face-to-face
5. message: