Techno-economic analysis of ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass-a comparison of fermentation, thermo catalytic, and chemocatalytic technologies.

Bioethanol produced from 2nd generation biomass comprising of agricultural residues and forest wastes is a viable alternate fuel. Besides fermentation and biomass gasification to syngas and its further conversion to ethanol, a direct chemocatalytic conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into ethanol is being investigated as a viable route which avoids the emission of greenhouse gases. In this work, a detailed configuration of chemocatalytic route is simulated and optimized for minimizing the cost of ethanol production. The economic feasibility of ethanol production through the chemocatalytic pathway is analyzed. The techno-economic analysis is conducted in terms of ethanol selectivity and ethanol production cost. The obtained results show that biomass feedstock and catalyst have major contributions to the production cost. The proposed route is found to be giving a lower ethanol selling price as compared to the well-researched routes of biomass fermentation to ethanol and biomass gasification followed by syngas conversion to ethanol.

The 5HT(7) receptor subtype is involved in the regulation of female sexual behaviour in the rat.

5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) regulates sexual behaviour in the female rat via a number of its receptors. The role of the 5HT(7) receptor was investigated in ovariectomised rats primed with 10 mug oestradiol benzoate (OB) followed at 48 h by 0.5 mg progesterone, which induced receptivity in approximately half of the animals. These animals were treated with three agonists all effective at 5HT(1A) and 5HT(7) receptors; 5-hydroxytryptophan, 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin 1-Br (8-OH DPAT) and 5-carboxy-aminotryptamine (5-CT) in the presence or absence of selective 5HT(1A) and 5HT(7) antagonists: WAY 100135 and SB 269970-A. The three agonists inhibited lordosis in the receptive group, and this was prevented by both the selective 5HT(1A) and 5HT(7) antagonists. When given alone, both WAY 100135 and SB 269970-A increased the lordosis in the non-receptive rats indicating that endogenous 5-HT acting on 5HT(1A) and 5HT(7) receptors may have a tonic inhibitory effect on receptivity. A comparison of OB priming doses on the effect of serotoninergic agents showed that the higher OB doses attenuated the inhibitory effect of 8-OH DPAT and enhanced the stimulatory effect of WAY 100135, but did not affect the actions of 5-CT or SB 269970-A. The interaction between oestradiol and 5-HT activity on sexual behaviour may therefore be selective to the 5HT(1A) pathway.