Direct in situ butanol recovery inside the packed bed during continuous acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation.

In this study, the integrated in situ extraction-gas stripping process was coupled with continuous ABE fermentation using immobilized Clostridium acetobutylicum. At the same time, oleyl alcohol was cocurrently flowed into the packed bed reactor with the fresh medium and then recycled back to the packed bed reactor after removing butanol in the stripper. A high glucose consumption of 52 g/L and a high butanol productivity of 11 g/L/h were achieved, resulting in a high butanol yield of 0.21 g-butanol/g-glucose. This can be attributed to both the high bacterial activity for solvent production as well as a threefold increase in the bacterial density inside the packed bed reactor. Also reported is that 64 % of the butanol produced can be recovered by the integrated in situ extraction-gas stripping process. A high butanol productivity and a high glucose consumption were simultaneously achieved.

All-electric all-semiconductor spin field-effect transistors.

The spin field-effect transistor envisioned by Datta and Das opens a gateway to spin information processing. Although the coherent manipulation of electron spins in semiconductors is now possible, the realization of a functional spin field-effect transistor for information processing has yet to be achieved, owing to several fundamental challenges such as the low spin-injection efficiency due to resistance mismatch, spin relaxation and the spread of spin precession angles. Alternative spin transistor designs have therefore been proposed, but these differ from the field-effect transistor concept and require the use of optical or magnetic elements, which pose difficulties for incorporation into integrated circuits. Here, we present an all-electric and all-semiconductor spin field-effect transistor in which these obstacles are overcome by using two quantum point contacts as spin injectors and detectors. Distinct engineering architectures of spin-orbit coupling are exploited for the quantum point contacts and the central semiconductor channel to achieve complete control of the electron spins (spin injection, manipulation and detection) in a purely electrical manner. Such a device is compatible with large-scale integration and holds promise for future spintronic devices for information processing.