Membranes Bioreactor or capsules for ethanol production? A PhD thesis

On 4th April, our PhD student Päivi Ylitervo will defend her thesis. She had the goal to develop rapid fermentation of toxic wood hydrolyzates for ethanol production. Her work was in parallel of another PhD study on "Suiciding yeast" that I mentioned last month. She worked on capsules in half of her work, and then focused on membrane bioreactors for ethanol production. It is an interesting and novel work, considering the membrane bioreactors are developed principally for wastewater treatment. It gives a new application for such bioreactors. Let's wish her good luck in her defense!

Her thesis on "Concepts for improving ethanol productivity from lignocellulosic materials: encapsulated yeast and membrane bioreactors", can be found here!

Some of her publications:

Päivi Ylitervo, Carl Johan Franzén, Mohammad J. Taherzadeh,(2011), Ethanol production at elevated temperatures using encapsulation ofyeast, Journal of Biotechnology, 156, 22 – 29

Päivi Ylitervo, Carl Johan Franzén, MohammadJ. Taherzadeh, (2013), Mechanically robust polysiloxane-ACA capsulesfor prolonged ethanol production, Journalof Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 88, 1080–10

Päivi Ylitervo, Carl Johan Franzén, Mohammad J. Taherzadeh, (2013),Impact of furfural on rapidethanol production using a membrane bioreactor, Energies, 6,1604-1617

Päivi Ylitervo, Julius Akinbomi,Mohammad J. Taherzadeh (2013), Membrane bioreactors’ potential for ethanol and biogas production: Areview, Environmental Technology, 34: 1711–1723 

A PhD thesis on Membranes for bioreactors

This week, we will have our third PhD defense in three weeks (one defense per week). The last two defenses went quite well, and I hope this last one will also go well. This time, our PhD student Hamidreza Barghi will defend his thesis that is about making membranes for membrane bioreactors. These membranes are quite specific. They have to retain the cells, while being permeable to the cells feed (substrates) and their products (metabolites), the gases (such as CO2, and methane), and they have to resist the harsh conditions in the reactors.

The thesis can be downloaded here!