Toward Sustainable,Economic,and Tailored Production of Cellulose Nanomaterials

This paper introduces a concentrated di-carboxylic acid(DCA) hydrolysis process for the integrated production of thermally stable and carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals(CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils(CNFs). The DCA hydrolysis process addressed several issues associated with mineral acid hydrolysis for CNC production, such as cellulose loss and acid recovery. The surface and morphological properties of the cellulose nanomaterials resulting from the DCA hydrolysis process can be tailored simply by controlling the severity of DCA hydrolysis. To further reduce cost, a lowtemperature(≤80℃) hydrotropic chemical process using p-toluenesulfonic acid(p-Ts OH) was also introduced to rapidly fractionate raw lignocelluloses for the production of lignin containing cellulose nanofibrils(LCNFs) and lignin nanoparticles(LNPs). The LCNF surface hydrophobicity and morphology can be tailored by controlling the fractionation severity, i.e., the extent of delignification. The lignin also improved the thermal stability of LCNFs. LNPs can be easily separated by diluting the spent acid liquor to below the p-Ts OH minimal hydrotropic concentration of approximately 10%. p-Ts OH can also be easily recovered by re-concentrating the diluted spent liquor after lignin precipitation. We believe that these two novel processes presented here have the potential to achieve true sustainable, economic, and tailored production of cellulose nanomaterials, suitable for a variety of applications.

Material Flow Optimization for Make-to-Stock Production System

Under the condition of the market competition becom in g more and more drastic, the demands of market take on some new features such as individuation, diversification, small batch, unstableness and quick delivery et c. The Make-to-Stock mode is usually adopted by many enterprises to improve th e balance and stableness of production process. In such enterprises, order batch , production batch and sales batch are the important factors, which affect the s atisfaction of clients, efficiency and benefit of the enterprise. It takes purch ase, production and sales into account respectively when optimizing product batc h in traditional way. However, it ignored the influences of relations between ea ch links of whole system. It is assumed that the consumption and market demand a re continuous process whereas the factual demands are batched when economic batc h is determined. So there exist some deviations between the economic batch deter mined by traditional way and that by integral optimization. Through the integral analysis of Logistics in the production system, we know that from materials are purchased, then manufactured, finally sold, the material changed in appearance and value, it still exist in different links of production system. The amount of materials occupied varies just in different status, from stock status to produc tion status, then to waiting-be-sold status, there is not any substantial chan ge in quantity until they are sold. So we must comprehensively analyze the relat ions among each link based on integral production system, to optimize the materi al batch and cut short production cycle in order to optimize the whole system. In this paper, the production system is taken as a global entity, and in which m aterials variation law and their relations of each link are analyzed; To optimiz e the whole materials flow, a new model of multi-product systems’ economic orde r batch, economic production batch and optimal sale lot multi-product syste ms’ is developed which based on the limit of capitals and stock area.

Effects of Malnutrition on Economic Productivity in China As Estimated by PROFILES

Objective To calculate the effects of malnutrition on economic productivity in China. Methods PROFILES was used to quantify the function consequences of malnutrition in term of protein energy malnutrition, iron deficiency and iodine deficiency. Results Productivity gained due to improved iodine nutrition. The reduction in the TGR in 1992 to 2001 increased the net present value of further economic productivity by $142 billion. Reduction of the TGR rate to 5% over next 10 years would result in future productivity gains with value of $40 billion. Productivity gain due to reductions in child stunting would result in future economic productivity gains with the value of $101 billion. Reducing stunting further over the next 10 years would gain $20 billion. Productivity gain due to reduction of iron deficiency anemia reduced by 30% over the next 10 years would gain worth $107 billion and if childhood anemia reduced by 30% over next 10 years would gain $348 billion. Conclusion These interventions have huge economic payoff. That is likely to exceed their costs many times over.

Water and nutrient management effects on water use and yield of drip irrigated citrus in vertisol under a sub-humid region

Scarcity of water and nutrients in orchards are the major causes of low productivity and decline of citrus in tropics. With a hypothesis that the optimal amount of water and nutrients application through drip irrigation （DI） could save substantial irrigation and fertilizers comparative to that under traditional basin irrigation （BI） with band placement of fertilizer （BPF）, this study was conducted in citrus in vertisol of central India. Three DI regimes： I1, I2 and I3 scheduled at 50% class-A pan evaporation rate （Ep）, 75% Ep, and 100% Ep atong with three fertilizer doses： F1, F2 and F3 at 50% recommended dose of fertilizer （RDF, N：P2Os：K20=600 g：200 g：100 g）, 75% of RDF and 100% of RDF were applied to mandai＇in plants respectively. BI with band placement of fertilizer （BPF） at 100% RDF was taken for comparison. All the drip-fertigation treatments （except I1F1） produced higher plant growth and fruit yield, with better quality fruits compared with BI＋BPF. The highest fruit yield （16.39t ha^-1）, water use efficiency （3.9 kg m^-3） and fertilizer use efficiency （87.3 kg kg^-1） were observed in I2F2. The concentrations of N, K and Fe in leaves were significantly higher in I2F2 compared to other treatments. The leaf photosynthesis, stomatal conductance （G） and transpiration were the highest in I3F3. However, leaf water use efficiency （LWUE, photosynthesis/transpiration） was the highest in I2F2. The overall results of this study demonstrated that the application of optimum quantity of water and fertilizers （I2F2） through DI could be a productive and water efficient option in citrus production in vertisol.

Succession and Enhancement Mechanism of Ecosystem Productivity in the De-farming Area of the Ecotone Between Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in North China

The succession and enhancement mechanism of the ecosystem productivity with the characteristics ot de-tarmlng in me ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry in North China was discussed in order to provide an ideaology or a technical basis for maintaining the impetus of ecological restoration and economic development in this region. A case study was applied in combination with the theoretical analysis. The results indicated that the biomass productivity of the de-farming subsystem decreased by 38.4-72.3% compared with that of farming subsystem in the ecosystem. The main function of de-farming subsystem was focused on ecological productivity, it caused the ideal beneficial recycling ‘defarming → planting grass → raising animals → earn money＇ difficult to be realized. With the differentiation of de-farming subsystem, the natural and social resources input to the farming subsystem were accumulated. This laid a basis for the new attributes of economic productivity to be upgraded. The case study indicated that the economic productivity of the ecosystem was increased by 8.85-13.35 times due to re-coupling between the de-farming subsystem and the farming subsystem as well as coupling between microhabitat differentiation and crop production in the subsystems, where the microhabitat differentiation could enrich water and fertilizer in the same field. It was concluded that the important mechanisms to enhance the system productivity in the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry of North China included structure rebuilding and opening of the de-farming ecosystem and taking the advantage of complementary cooperative production among different regions under the market economy and rebuilding an open agro-pasture production structure,