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. The 46th seminar will be held as follows. Please join.

【Date & Time】



Mon.17, Oct,2016 16:20-17:50



【Place】



Engineering 110 Lecture Room, Higashi-Hiroshima Campus, Hiroshima University

For the access to the venue, click here.

For the campus map, click here.

For the layout of the lecture rooms, click here. (Japanese page)



【Program】



Chair / Commentary: Yukihiko MATSUMURA (Professor, Institute of Engineering, Hiroshima University)



◆Lecture: Yutaka NAKASHIMADA

Professor, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University Department of Molecular Biotechnology Hiroshima University



“Development of salt-tolerant anaerobic digestion process with marine microorganisms ”



We have developed effective anaerobic digestion process to recover renewable energy from high-ash containing brawn seaweeds such as Laminaria japonica under the financial support by CREST, JST. In the presentation, we will demonstrate some recent advances in salt-tolerant anaerobic digestion process with halophilic methanogenic microorganism acclimated from sea-sediments in tidal flats, and a present preparation status　to implement a large-scale demonstration test of the developed process in near future.



◆Lecture: Obie FAROBIE

Specially Appointed Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University



“A comparative study of biodiesel production using supercritical methyl acetate and MTBE ”



Depletion of fossil fuel and environmental pollution problems have attracted a tremendous attention to search an alternative diesel fuel. Biodiesel which is a renewable fuel has been utilized to substitute the petroleum diesel fuel. Currently, biodiesel is mainly produced by homogeneous alkali-catalyzed transesterification. However, this process has numerous constrains such as sensitive to the presence of water, requirement of low free fatty acid (FFA), and the generation of undesirable products. In addition, the overproduction of by-product glycerol is unavoidable since it causes the price of glycerol to fall dramatically. To circumvent this problem, biodiesel production using supercritical MTBE and methyl acetate was conducted. By using this route, GTBE and triacetin which is a higher added-value than glycerol was obtained. However, a comparative study of biodiesel production using supercritical methyl acetate and MTBE has not been made. Therefore, the aim of this study is to elucidate the difference in the reaction behavior of methyl acetate and MTBE in the production of biodiesel under supercritical condition. A continuous reactor was employed, and experiments were conducted at various reaction temperatures (300–400 ℃) and reaction times (5–30 min) and at a fixed pressure of 20 MPa and an oil-to-reactant molar ratio of 1:40. The results showed that under the same reaction conditions, supercritical MTBE provided higher biodiesel yield than supercritical methyl acetate. The reaction kinetics of biodiesel production for supercritical MTBE and methyl acetate was also compared.



◆Lecture: Novi SYAFTIKA

D1 Student, Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University

“Hydrothermal pretreatment of rice residues with alkali catalyst addition. ”



Rice residues (rice husk and rice straw) are one of the popular cellulosic biomass resources for bioethanol production. In Japan, rice is the largest amount of agriculture product, including in the small town in Kita Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture. As the consequence, rice husks and rice straw are produced annually in large amount in this region. Hydrothermal process is known as effective pretreatment technique to convert cellulosic biomass into various products including bioethanol since it is using hot compressed water as the medium with or without catalyst addition to decompose lignocellulose structure. In this study, two kind of alkali catalysts (NaOH and KOH) for hydrothermal pretreatment were compared to pretreat the rice residues. The study was conducted using autoclave reactor made of stainless steel with the capacity of 100 mL. The experiments were carried out with varied alkali concentration (0.1, 0.25 and 0.5% w/v) at reaction temperatures of 150, and 200 ℃, and reaction times of 30 min. To measure the effectiveness of pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis was employed after pretreatment to obtain glucose. The effect of two different alkali catalysts (NaOH and KOH) on rice husk and rice straw conversion to glucose by hydrothermal pretreatment at various temperature was elaborated.

※We will hold the discussion meeting from 18:00 (800 JPY needed). Join this meeting, too if you are available.



【Inquiries】

HOSTY Association (Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University)

E-mail: bprc(AT)hiroshima-u.ac.jp（Please replace (AT) with @）