Simple extraction and membrane purification process in isolation of steviosides with improved organoleptic activity

In recent years there has been increasing demand for natural non-nutritive high intensity sweeteners with low-calorie value as an alternative to sucrose. Extracts of the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni), have been known for their sweet taste. Steviosides and rebaudioside-A are the two major diterpenoid glucosides components present in the leaf extracts of the stevia, these glycosides are 300 times sweeter than sugar and also exhibits wide therapeutic activity. The conventional methods of isolation of steviosides involve long extraction and purification procedures;therefore optimization of product yields is a challenging problem. The present study, establishes a new improvised process of extraction of steviosides from the stevia leaves in which the dry treated leaves were grounded, defatted, and extracted through pressurized hot water extractor (PHWE), followed by purification and concentration of the sweet glycosides through ultra (UF) and nano (NF) membrane filtration in obtaining high (98.2%) purity steviosides. This process established “green” method for isolation of high quality steviol glycosides, with improved final yield is 10.1% from 11% of crude leaf extract and observed the improved organoleptic and biological activity (antioxidant). Thus the method confirms a simple, inexpensive and eco-friendly process in obtaining pure steviosides.

A Review on 1st and 2nd Generation Bioethanol Production-Recent Progress

Today’s society is based on the use of fossil resources for transportation fuels. The result of unlimited consumption of fossil fuels is a severe depletion of the natural reserves and damage to the environment. Depleting fossil reserves and increasing demand for energy together with environmental concerns have motivated researchers towards the development of alternative fuels which are eco-friendly, renewable and economical. Bioethanol is one such dominant global renewable transport biofuel which can readily substitute fossil fuels. Conventionally, bioethanol has been produced from sucrose and starch rich feedstocks (edible agricultural crops and products) known as 1st generation bioethanol;however this substrate conflicts with food and feed production. As an alternative to 1st generation bioethanol, currently there is much focus on advancing a cellulosic bioethanol concept that utilizes lignocellulosic residues from agricultural crops and residues (such as bagasse, straw, stover, stems, leaves and deoiled seed residues). Efficient conversion of lignocellulosic biomass into bioethanol remains an area of active research in terms of pretreatment of the biomass to fractionate its constituents (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin), breakdown of cellulose and hemicellulose into hexose and pentose sugars and co-fermentation of the sugars to ethanol. The present review discusses research progress in bioethanol production from sucrose, starch and cellulosic feedstocks. Development of efficient technology to convert lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars and optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis using on-site/ in-house enzyme preparation are the key areas of development in lignocellulosic bioethanol production. Moreover, finding efficient fermenting microorganisms which can utilize pentose and hexose sugars in their metabolism to produce ethanol together with minimum foam and glycerol formation is also an important parameter in fermentation. Research has been focusing on the application of genetically modified strains, thermoanaerobes and mixed cultures of different strains in bioethanol production from sucrose, starch and lignocellulosic feedstocks.

Drop formation at nozzles submerged in quiescent continuous phase： an experimental study with TBP-dodecane and nitric acid system

Solvent extraction is an important process in the nuclear fuel cycle. Tributyl phosphate(TBP) diluted with dodecane is commonly used as a solvent for extracting heavy metals from nitric acid medium. Studies on hydrodynamics of a single drop, which is the smallest mass transfer entity, are required for better understanding of the complex mass transfer and phase separation phenomena that occur in extraction equipment. In this study, drop formation at nozzles is studied using 30% TBP-dodecane as the dispersed phase and dilute nitric acid as the quiescent continuous phase. Experiments are carried out to determine the drop diameter, jetting velocity, drop detachment height and drop detachment time for various dispersed phase velocities, nozzle diameters(1.91, 3.04, and 4.88 mm), and nitric acid concentrations(0.01, 1, 3 N). Drop formation is captured using high-speed imaging, which enables quantification of drop size, onset of jetting, drop detachment height, and drop detachment time. Experimental data are used to propose correlations for predicting drop diameter and minimum jetting velocity. The correlations are found to be very accurate with average absolute relative errors being 5.23 and 2.97%, respectively.

Experimental Study to Improve the Agronomic Efficiency of Low Grade Fine Size Rock Phosphate

Soluble phosphate fertilizers have been preferably used in plant crop production. The cost of applying conventional water soluble phosphate fertilizer is high in developing countries since their manufacturing requires importing high grade rock phosphate （RP）. As a result, the use of indigenously available low-grade RP is gaining importance globally. In this study, experiments were carried out using clayey loamy alkaline soil to evaluate the agronomic efficiency of fine sized low grade RP with inorganic nitrogen fertilizers and it was further compared with that of soluble phosphate fertilizer （di-ammonium phosphate）, Cicer arietinum was the test crops subjected to treatments of absolute control, di-ammonium phosphate and low grade RP with varying concentrations of ammonium sulphate or ammonium nitrate. The experiments were conducted during 2012-2013 in the bid to study the growth rate and the biomass of the crop. Tests were also performed to determine the residual effects of the fertilizers on the crops. The results revealed that the combined use of low grade RP and ammonium sulphate or ammonium nitrate, at 16 kg N/ha, resulted in an agronomic efficiency, in terms of biomass of plants, comparable to that of di-ammonium phosphate and was found to be a more attractive management option for resource-poor farmers.