Biological methane potential

The biological methane potential (BMP) is probably the best test to measure the gas generation potential from a degradable carbon-based material. The BMP test... 

U.S. capacity for producing biofuels manufactured by biological or thermal conversion of biomass must be dramatically increased to approach the potential contributions based on biomass availabiUty. For example, an incremental EJ per year of methane requires about 210 times the biological methane production capacity that now exists, and an incremental EJ per year of fuel ethanol requires about 14 times existing ethanol fermentation plant capacity. 

Huang, J. J. H., and Shih, J. C. H. 1981. The potential of biological methane generation from Chicken Manure. Biotech. Bioeng., 23, 2307-2314. 

Biomedical. Heart-valve parts are fabricated from pyrolytic carbon, which is compatible with living tissue. Such parts are produced by high temperature pyrolysis of gases such as methane. Other potential biomedical apphcations are dental implants and other prostheses where a seal between the implant and the living biological surface is essential. Plasma and arc-wire sprayed coatings are used on prosthetic devices, eg, hip implants, to achieve better bone/tissue attachments (see Prosthetic and BiOLffiDiCALdevices). 

Hydro-electricity is the most developed renewable resource worldwide, even if it has to face social and environmental barriers [29]. In fact societal preferences are difficult to predict, while hydro-sites are often difficult to reach, which results in high transmission and capital investment costs. These are difficult to be accepted by private power companies. The global economic hydropower potential ranges between 7000 and 9000 TWh per year. Particularly mral communities without electricity appear to be convenient for small (<10 MWe), mini- (<1 MWe), and micro- (<100 kWe) scale hydro schemes. They have low environmental impacts, and generation costs are around 6-12 c/kWh. Emissions of GHG linked with hydro-electricity operation are due to flooding of land upstream of a dam that can imply a loss of biological carbon stocks and can produce methane emissions due to vegetation decomposition. 

Polyesters, such as microbially produced poly[(P)-3-hydroxybutyric acid] [poly(3HB)], other poly[(P)-hydroxyalkanoic acids] [poly(HA)] and related biosynthetic or chemosynthetic polyesters are a class of polymers that have potential applications as thermoplastic elastomers. In contrast to poly(ethylene) and similar polymers with saturated, non-functionalized carbon backbones, poly(HA) can be biodegraded to water, methane, and/or carbon dioxide. This review provides an overview of the microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology of poly(HA) biodegradation. In particular, the properties of extracellular and intracellular poly(HA) hydrolyzing enzymes [poly(HA) depolymerases] are described. 

As for future sourcing, methane generation from biological sources such as coal beds and composted vegetation is well known, industrially exploited, and of particular recent interest as a potentially renewable source. Methane is also an important constituent of numerous petroleum grades that contain hopanoid and optically active hydrocarbons, which are associated with biological and biochemical processes. 

Transition metal catalysts, specifically those composed of iron nanoparticles, are widely employed in industrial chemical production and pollution abatement applications [67], Iron also plays a cracial role in many important biological processes. Iron oxides are economical alternatives to more costly catalysts and show activity for the oxidation of methane [68], conversion of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide [58], and the transformation of various hydrocarbons [69,70]. In addition, iron oxides have good catalytic lifetimes and are resistant to high concentrations of moisture and CO which often poison other catalysts [71]. Li et al. have observed that nanosized iron oxides are highly active for CO oxidation at low tanperatures [58]. Iron is unique and more active than other catalyst and support materials because it is easily reduced and provides a large number of potential active sites because of its highly disordered and defect rich structure [72, 73]. Previous gas-phase smdies of cationic iron clusters have included determination of the thermochemistry and bond energies of iron cluster oxides and iron carbonyl complexes by Armentrout and co-workers [74, 75], and a classification of the dissociation patterns of small iron oxide cluster cations by Schwarz et al. [76]. 

A large proportion of municipal solid wastes (MSW), is biological material. Its disposal in deep landfills furnishes suitable conditions for anaerobic digestion. The produced methane was first recognized as a potential hazard and this led to systems for burning it off. In the 1970s some use was made of this product. 

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