Biomethanol production from renewable resources: a sustainable approach.

The abundant availability of various kinds of biomass and their use as feedstock for the production of gaseous and liquid biofuels has been considered a viable, eco-friendly, and sustainable mode of energy generation. Gaseous fuels like biogas and liquid fuels, e.g., bioethanol, biodiesel, and biomethanol derived from biological sources, have been theorized to produce numerous industrially relevant organic compounds replacing the traditional practice of employing fossil fuels as a raw material. Among the biofuels explored, biomethanol has shown promising potential to be a future product addressing multifactorial issues concerning sustainable energy and associated process developments. The presented mini-review has explored the importance and application of biomethanol as a value-added product. The biomethanol production process was well reviewed by focusing on different thermochemical and biochemical conversion processes. Syngas and biogas have been acknowledged as potential resources for biomethanol synthesis. The emphasis on biochemical processes is laid on the principal metabolic pathways and enzymatic machinery involved or used by microbial physiology to convert feedstock into biomethanol under normal temperature and pressure conditions. The advantage of minimizing the cost of production by utilizing suggested modifications to the overall process of biomethanol production that involves metabolic and genetic engineering in microbial strains used in the production process has been delineated. The challenges that exist in our current knowledge domain, impeding large-scale commercial production potential of biomethanol at a cost-effective rate, and strategies to overcome them along with its future scenarios have also been pointed out.

Composite polymer coated magnetic nanoparticles based anode enhances dye degradation and power production in microbial fuel cells.

Combined power generation and waste degradation through microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology is emerging as an attractive solution for controlling pollution in water bodies. Cyanobacteria as fuel cell catalysts for such shared energy activities are not well studied even though these possess robust metabolic systems supporting exo-electrogenicity, biodegradation of toxic compounds, and their survival under wide environmental conditions. Herein, a dual chambered (50 ml each) MFC assembled with Synechococcus sp. based bioanode and abiotic cathode for simultaneous power generation and Mordant orange dye degradation is reported. The anode was prepared by encrusting chemically synthesised magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) of size 8.4 ±â€¯0.2 nm with magnetization of 69 emu g-1on Toray carbon paper (TCP). The MNPs were encapsulated with aniline and pyrrole composite polymers to facilitate biofilm formation and cellular electron flow to the anode as confirmed by advance microscopic and voltametric techniques, respectively. The MFC with the dye mixed acetate produced current of 14.04 ±â€¯5.5 A m-3 with a maximum power density of 4.9 ±â€¯0.5 W m-3 (at cell voltage of 0.494 ±â€¯0.05 V), which was 18% higher than the control (without dye). The MFC produced a high OCP of 0.949 ±â€¯0.07 V and offered to decolorize 68.5% and degrade 89% of the dye following 216 h of its operation as confirmed by photometry (λ385 nm) and LC-MS/MS analyses, respectively. The efficient dye degradation is attributed to the bioanode for secreting high level of reactive oxygen species. The composite polymer coated MNPs anode with cyanobacterial biofilm is therefore, a highly efficient construct for enhanced azo dye degradation and associated power generation in a MFC system.