Development of a Prediction Software for the Growth Kinetics of Pseudomonas spp. in Culture Media using Various Primary Models

  Background and Objective: Pseudomonas spp. are bacteria with the widest effects on food spoilage. These bacteria can be found in several environments such as soil and water. The major purpose of this study was to develop a software; by which, the growth behaviours of Pseudomonas spp. in culture media could be predicted. Material and Methods: A total number of 509 bacterial data points of Pseudomonas spp. in culture media were collected from the ComBase database. Temperature and pH were used as the major prediction variables for the description of Pseudomonas spp. behaviours in culture media. Modified Gompertz, Baranyi and Huang models, the most commonly used models in predictive food microbiology to predict the count of microorganisms, were used as well. Fitting capability of each model was assessed and compared with other capabilities considering their statistical indices of the root mean square error, RMSE; coefficient of determination, R2; corrected Akaike information criterion, AICc; and Bayesian information criterion, BIC. Results and Conclusion: Huang model provided better predictions with 0.951 of R2 and 0.825 of RMSE, compared to those of traditionally used models. Prediction capability of the Huang model was assessed considering externally collected data from the ComBase database. Huang model in the validation process provided satisfactory statistical indices (bias factor = 1.027 and accuracy factor = 1.075). These results have revealed that Huang model can be reliably used as a model of describing the growth behaviours of Pseudomonas spp. Furthermore, developed software in this study includes significant potentials for predicting Pseudomonas counts in culture media. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest

Influence of Bentonite Nanoparticles on Properties of PVP-CMC-Gums Biodegradable Hydrogel Films for Biomedical Applications

Abstract Using polymer daily becomes increasingly extensive; the many characteristics of hydrogel lead to a wide range of uses, particularly in biomedical applications. Hydrogel films were made from a variety of materials in this investigation. Casting techniques and room temperature drying were used to make PVP- CMC- Gums films based on hydrogels, however, the effects of adding bentonite clay were needed. SEM, FTIR, XRD, TGA, swelling, solubility, contact angle, and a variety of other studies were used to illustrate and analyze a variety of physical, mechanical, thermal, and many characteristics. The major findings revealed new peaks, which indicate the creation of cross-linking bonds, which are the primary cause of capsulation and release characteristics, indicating that these films might be utilized in drug delivery and a variety of other applications. The PCXB film has the best color, surface hydrophobicity, solubility, and swelling properties, while the PCGB film has the greatest biodegradability and permeability results, and both films have strong thermal, mechanical, and releasing properties. As a result, adding bentonite clay to hydrogel films improves all of their characteristics, making them suitable for a variety of biomedical applications such as dentistry root filling, tissue engineering, contact lenses, and bandages.</jats:p

Integration of sorption enhanced reforming with biomass gasification for highly purified hydrogen production

Biomass gasification integrated with Sorption-Enhanced Reforming (SER) provides an advanced thermochemical pathway for high-purity hydrogen production while minimizing carbon emissions. In this study, a fixed-bed gasification model is developed and validated using Aspen Plus® for three organic waste-based feedstock: municipal solid waste (MSW), poultry waste (PW), and food waste (FW). The integration of SER employs calcium oxide (CaO) as a solid sorbent to capture CO2 in situ, shifting the chemical equilibrium toward hydrogen formation via water-gas shift and reforming reactions. The simulation results indicate that hydrogen purity reaches up to 99.4 % at 923 K and 20 bar. Among the tested feedstocks, food waste yielded the highest Hydrogen mole fraction at 94 %, followed by PW (92.8 %) and MSW (92.2 %). Additionally, CO2 capture efficiency exceeded 90 %, demonstrating the system's capability to operate near carbon neutrality. Sensitivity analyses highlight the critical impact of gasifier temperature, equivalence ratio, and air mass flow rate on syngas quality and hydrogen yield. The hybrid process not only intensifies hydrogen generation but also integrates carbon capture without additional downstream units. This work presents a scalable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable approach for hydrogen production from diverse organic waste streams, supporting the development of low-emission energy systems for future industrial deployment

Investigation of Structural, Morphological, and Optical Properties of Novel Electrospun Mg-Doped TiO2 Nanofibers as an Electron Transport Material for Perovskite Solar Cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are quickly becoming efficient solar cells due to the effective physicochemical properties of the absorber layer. This layer should ideally be placed between a stable hole transport material (HTM) layer and a conductive electron transport material (ETM) layer. These outer layers play a critical role in the current densities and cell voltages of solar cells. In this work, we successfully fabricated Mg-doped TiO2 nanofibers as ETM layers via electrospinning. This study systematically investigates the morphological and optical features of Mg-doped nanofibers as mesoporous ETM layers. The existence of the Mg element in the lattice was confirmed by XRD and XPS. These optical characterizations indicated that Mg doping widened the energy band gap and shifted the edge of the conduction band minimum upward, which enhanced the open circuit voltage (Voc) and short current density (Jsc). The electron-hole recombination rate was lowered, and separation efficiency increased with Mg doping. The results have demonstrated the possibility of improving the efficiency of PSCs with the use of Mg-doped nanofibers as an ETM layer

Numerical and experimental investigation of hydrogen-rich syngas production via biomass gasification

In this work, the relation between hydrogen-rich syngas production and the gasification parameters such as equivalence ratio (ER), gasification temperature and biomass moisture content were studied. Stoichiometric equilibrium model that developed during this study was used to investigate the optimum hydrogen output generated from woody biomass in a fixed bed downdraft gasifier by considering the thermodynamic equilibrium limit. The mathematical model, based on thermodynamic equilibrium is necessary to understand complicated gasification process that will contribute to obtain maximum attainable hydrogen production. The effects of different oxidizing agents on the hydrogen concentration in the product gas as well as the effect of various air-biomass, oxygen-biomass and steam-biomass ratios were investigated. For validation, the results obtained from the mathematical model were compared with the experimental data obtained from the gasifier that uses air as gasification medium. The validated mathematical model was used to represent the gasifier that uses both oxygen and air-steam mixture as the gasification medium and the theoretical results were obtained for both cases. The theoretical results clearly show that the gasification process specially ones that use the air-steam mixture as the gasification medium can be used for hydrogen production. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved