University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc.

Sudhagar Mani

Hitesh Handa

Keshav C Das

Marcus J Goudie

Jitendra Pant

James Kastner

Roger Hilten

Jaya Sundaram

Biodegradable composite membranes with antimicrobial properties consisting of nanocellulose fibrils, chitosan, and S-Nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) were developed and tested for food packaging applications. Nitric oxide donor, SNAP was encapsulated into completely dispersed chitosan in 100 mL, 0.1N acetic acid and was thoroughly mixed with nanocellulose fibrils (CNF) to produce a composite membrane. The fabricated membranes had a uniform dispersion of chitosan and SNAP within the nanocellulose fibrils, which was confirmed through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs and chemiluminescence nitric oxide analyzer. The membranes prepared without SNAP showed lower water vapor permeability than that of the membranes with SNAP. The addition of SNAP resulted in a decrease in the Young's modulus for both 2-layer and 3-layer membrane configurations. Antimicrobial property evaluation of SNAP incorporated membranes showed an effective zone of inhibition against bacterial strains of, andand demonstrated its potential applications for food packaging.

Nitric oxide-releasing packaging membranes

A bio-oil production process involving torrefaction pretreatment, catalytic esterification, pyrolysis, and secondary catalytic processing significantly reduces yields of reactor char, catalyst coke, and catalyst tar relative to the best-case conditions using non-torrefied feedstock. The reduction in coke as a result of torrefaction was 28.5% relative to the respective control for slow pyrolysis bio-oil upgrading. In fast pyrolysis bio-oil processing, the greatest reduction in coke was 34.9%. Torrefaction at 275&#xb0; C. reduced levels of acid products including acetic acid and formic acid in the bio-oil, which reduced catalyst coking and increased catalyst effectiveness and aromatic hydrocarbon yields in the upgraded oils. The process of bio-oil generation further comprises a catalytic esterification of acids and aldehydes to generate such as ethyl levulinate from lignified biomass feedstock.

Torrefaction reduction of coke formation on catalysts used in esterification and cracking of biofuels from pyrolysed lignocellulosic feedstocks

Growing community of inventors

Watkinsville, GA, United States of America

Sudhagar Mani