Metabolism studies process efficiency

This book answers this question for industrial processes, in particular those in the energy and chemical industry. Having a long experience in joint efforts with industry and with teaching, the authors use the fundamental laws of thermodynamics as a point of departure. They contrast the present industrial society with the emerging metabolic society, in which mass production and consumption are in harmony with the natural environment through closure of material cycles. These are ultimately driven by the primary new energy source, the sun. This book provides keys to a quantification of process efficiency and sustainability. This is illustrated in case studies, examples, and problems. 

Enzymes occupy an important place in analytical biochemistry and many investigations require their detection and quantitation. Studies of the enzyme content of blood plasma are particularly useful in clinical biochemistry both in the monitoring of normal metabolic processes and in the detection of abnormal levels of enzyme production or release. Enzyme assays also provide convenient methods for assessing the quality of foodstuffs and checking the efficiency of sterilization and pasteurization processes. 

Electron transfer (ET) reactions play a key role in both natural (photosynthesis, metabolism) and industrial processes (photography, polymerisation, solar cells). The study of intermolecular photoinduced ET reactions in solution is complicated by diffusion. In fact, as soon as the latter is slower than the ET process, it is not anymore possible to measure km, the intrinsic ET rate constant, directly [1], One way to circumvent this problem, it is to work in a reacting solvent [2]. However, in this case, the relationship between the observed quenching rate constant and k T is not clear. Indeed, it has been suggested that several solvent molecules could act as efficient donors [3]. In this situation, the measured rate constant is the sum of the individual ksr-... 

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