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At least 37 records · Page 2

Moving from residual lignocellulosic biomass into high–value products: Outcomes from a long–term international cooperation

Major progress in the bioprocessing of lignocellulose to fuels and value-added chemicals has created the possibility of a low carbon-footprint economy. However, the current complexity and associated costs of lignocellulose conversion result in a higher price for ethanol than for fossil fuels. The cost of cellulosic ethanol production will be lowered by further progress in development of biorefinery technology that produces both ethanol and high-value chemicals with bio-based products that are beginning to penetrate consumer markets in the USA, Brazil, and worldwide. The cost-effectiveness of low carbon-footprint bioproducts will benefit from advances in supplying large amounts of biomass solids to the biorefinery. We describe here outcomes from a successful long-term international cooperation between the Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering (LORRE) at Purdue University in the United States and Brazil's Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) and Federal University of Sâo Carlos (UFSCar), which has contributed practical pathways to enhance the biorefinery concept. Furthermore, this paper gives an overview of developments that address fundamental knowledge of lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment hydrolysis under optimized operational conditions and bioreactor configurations, and the science and engineering that contributes to the effective production of fuel and ethanol and value-added products from biomass.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Residuals-based distributionally robust optimization with covariate information

We consider data-driven approaches that integrate a machine learning prediction model within distributionally robust optimization (DRO) given limited joint observations of uncertain parameters and covariates. Our framework is flexible in the sense that it can accommodate a variety of regression setups and DRO ambiguity sets. We investigate asymptotic and finite sample properties of solutions obtained using Wasserstein, sample robust optimization, and phi-divergence-based ambiguity sets within our DRO formulations, and explore cross-validation approaches for sizing these ambiguity sets. Through numerical experiments, we validate our theoretical results, study the effectiveness of our approaches for sizing ambiguity sets, and illustrate the benefits of our DRO formulations in the limited data regime even when the prediction model is misspecified.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Root carbon interation with soil minerals is dynamic, leaving a legacy of microbially derived residues

Minerals preserve the oldest most persistent soil carbon, and mineral characteristics appear to play a critical role in the formation of soil organic matter (SOM) associations. To test the hypothesis that carbon source and soil microorganisms also influence mineral-SOM associations, we incubated permeable minerals bags in soil microcosms with and without plants, in a 13CO2 labelling chamber. Mineral bags contained quartz, ferrihydrite, kaolinite, or native soil minerals isolated via density separation. Using 13C-NMR, FTICR-MS, and lipidomics, we traced plant-derived carbon onto minerals harvested from microcosms at three plant growth stages, characterizing total carbon, 13C enrichment, and SOM chemistry. While C accumulation was rapid and mineral-dependent, the accumulated amount was not significantly affected by the presence of plant roots. However, the rhizosphere did shape the chemistry of mineral-associated SOM. Minerals incubated in the rhizosphere were associated with a more diverse array of compounds with different C functional groups (carbonyl, aromatics, carbohydrates, lipids) than minerals incubated in a bulk soil control. These diverse rhizosphere-derived compounds may represent a “transient fraction” of mineral SOM, rapidly exchanging with mineral surfaces. Our results also suggest that many of the lipids which persist on minerals are microbially-derived with a large fraction of fungal lipids.

Rhizosphere, soil organic matter, grassland, 13C-N↗

A fundamental problem in determining functional residual capacity or residual volume

To measure a lung volume that is not directly accessible, one often follows dilution of a single-gas tracer, present initially only in the lung or in a rebreathing bag. The final volume available to the tracer is assumed to be the sum of the two initial components. Since O2 is taken up and CO2 is eliminated during the few breaths required for mixing, the total volume changes. The error in lung volume due to this volume change can exceed 10 pct. Theoretical and experimental data is presented to demonstrate the effect of CO2 and O2 exchange. A general equation, based on N2 and Ar, which allows one to circumvent the problems created by these fluxes is introduced. The pitfall of the back-extrapolation approach for a single tracer is shown.

Boutellier, U.↗

Effectiveness of Residue and Tillage Management on Runoff Pollutant Reduction from Agricultural Areas

Highlights No-till and no-till residue systems were effective in reducing runoff particulate and total nutrients but increased dissolved nutrients. Maintaining >30% residue cover reduced most runoff constituents, irrespective of no-till or tillage. No-till-residue prevented runoff nutrient losses and benefitted farm revenue by avoiding tillage. Abstract. Reduced tillage management conservation practices (No-till and Reduced-till) are widely adopted in agriculture; however, understanding their overall effectiveness for water quality protection is challenging. A meta-analysis was conducted to understand and quantify the effectiveness of residue and tillage management on runoff, sediment, and nutrient losses from agricultural fields. Annual runoff and the associated sediment, and nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) loads were compiled from 60 peer reviewed research articles published across the United States and Canada. A total of 1575 site-years of data were categorized into tillage (<30% surface cover), no-tillage (<30% surface cover), tillage with residue (>30% surface cover), no-tillage with residue (>30% surface cover), and pasture management. No-tillage, no-tillage-residue, and tillage-residue managements were evaluated for their effectiveness in reducing runoff, nutrients, and sediment loads compared to tillage. Synthesized and surveyed corn yield data were used to evaluate the economic cost effectiveness of no-tillage-residue management with respect to tillage. Across the site years (1968-2019) studied, median runoff depth for no-tillage and no-tillage-residue were 84% and 70% greater than tillage and tillage-residue management, respectively. No-tillage-residue management had up to 86% less sediment losses than tillage systems, on average, for both >30% and <30% surface cover. No-tillage-residue management was most effective, with a positive performance effectiveness of 65% to 90% in controlling sediments, particulate, and total nutrient losses in runoff compared to tillage. Cost effectiveness analysis revealed the benefits of no-tillage-residue management in reducing nutrient loads and increasing net-farm revenue by avoiding tillage operational costs. Except for dissolved phosphorus, no-tillage-residue management cost effectiveness for sediments and nutrient loads ranged from negative $6 to negative $102 per every Mg or kg of load reduction, indicating it had both economic and environmental benefits compared to tillage management. Overall, these results indicate that over the long-term, no-tillage and tillage, combined with greater than 30% residue cover, can effectively reduce sediment and nutrient losses. This work highlights the importance of crop residues on the soil surface to reduce runoff losses, even in no-tillage systems. Keywords: Conservation tillage, No-tillage, Residue cover, Tillage, Water quality.

Agriculture↗

Measurement of Residual Flexibility for Substructures Having Prominent Flexible Interfaces

Verification of a dynamic model of a constrained structure requires a modal survey test of the physical structure and subsequent modification of the model to obtain the best agreement possible with test data. Constrained-boundary or fixed-base testing has historically been the most common approach for verifying constrained mathematical models, since the boundary conditions of the test article are designed to match the actual constraints in service. However, there are difficulties involved with fixed-base testing, in some cases making the approach impractical. It is not possible to conduct a truly fixed-base test due to coupling between the test article and the fixture. In addition, it is often difficult to accurately simulate the actual boundary constraints, and the cost of designing and constructing the fixture may be prohibitive. For use when fixed-base testing proves impractical or undesirable, alternate free-boundary test methods have been investigated, including the residual flexibility technique. The residual flexibility approach has been treated analytically in considerable detail and has had limited frequency response measurements for the method. This concern is well-justified for a number of reasons. First, residual flexibilities are very small numbers, typically on the order of 1.0E-6 in/lb for translational diagonal terms, and orders of magnitude smaller for off-diagonal values. This poses difficulty in obtaining accurate and noise-free measurements, especially for points removed from the excitation source. A second difficulty encountered in residual measurements lies in obtaining a clean residual function in the process of subtracting synthesized modal data from a measured response function. Inaccuracies occur since modes are not subtracted exactly, but only to the accuracy of the curve fits for each mode; these errors are compounded with increasing distance from the excitation point. In this paper, the residual flexibility method is applied to a simple structure in both test and analysis. Measured and predicted residual functions are compared, and regions of poor data in the measured curves are described. It is found that for accurate residual measurements, frequency response functions having prominent stiffness lines in the acceleration/force format are needed. The lack of such stiffness lines increases measurement errors. Interface drive point frequency respose functions for shuttle orbiter payloads exhibit dominant stiffness lines, making the residual test approach a good candidate for payload modal tests when constrained tests are inappropriate. Difficulties in extracting a residual flexibility value from noisy test data are discussed. It is shown that use of a weighted second order least-squares curve fit of the measured residual function allows identification of residual flexibility that compares very well with predictions for the simple structure. This approach also provides an estimate of second order residual mass effects.

Tinker, Michael L.↗

Cross-scale sensing of field-level crop residue cover: Integrating field photos, airborne hyperspectral imaging, and satellite data

Conservation tillage practices can bring benefits to agricultural sustainability. Accurate spatial and temporal resolved information of field-scale crop residue cover, which reflects tillage intensity, is highly valuable for evaluating the outcomes of government conservation programs and voluntary ecosystem service markets, as well as facilitating agroecosystem modeling to quantify cropland biogeochemical processes. Remote sensing has the potential to cost-effectively detect crop residue cover, however, existing regional-scale studies were limited by insufficient ground truth data, scale mismatch between coarse satellite pixels and ground data, and the lack of key spectral data for detecting crop residues. Therefore, this study developed an innovative cross-sensing framework to integrate proximal sensing, airborne hyperspectral imaging, and satellite Earth Observation through deep learning to quantify field-level crop residue cover fractions at the regional scale. Specifically, we have collected intensive ground orthographic photos and conducted airborne hyperspectral surveys at corn and soybean fields of Champaign and nearby counties in Illinois, the heartland of the U.S. Corn Belt. Through semi-automatic labeling aided by ResNet-50 and superpixel image segmentation, we obtained 6719 records of ground residue fractions. With these ground data, we developed the 1-dimensional convolution neural network (CNN) model using airborne hyperspectral reflectance, which has 0.5m spatial resolution and 3–5 nm spectral resolution from 400 to 2400 nm, to predict residue fractions. By applying the CNN model to airborne pixels, we augmented “ground truth” data of crop residues and further combined them with Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) satellite data to quantify regional residue fractions at 30 m resolution. Results show that airborne hyperspectral imagery with CNN can accurately detect residue fractions (R 2 = 0.82, relative RMSE = 11.73%) to effectively generate quasi “ground truth” data to support satellite upscaling to all fields. With independent ground data for testing, we found that the ground-airborne-satellite integrative framework achieved better predictions in estimating crop residue cover (R 2 = 0.67, relative RMSE = 17.53%) than the conventional ground-satellite upscaling (R 2 = 0.22, relative RMSE = 32.09%). Here we also found that the shortwave infrared wavelengths, particularly 2100–2300 nm, are vital for predicting crop residue cover. Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 data have a comparable capability to track residue fractions due to similar shortwave infrared wavelengths. This study highlights the high accuracy of hyperspectral imaging to detect agroecosystem tillage management practices and the advantages of cross-scale sensing to cost-effectively integrate multi-source data to quantify field-level agroecosystem variables across scales.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Baroclinic Residual Circulation and Mass Transport Due to Internal Tides

Baroclinic (BC) tidal residual circulation due to internal tides is investigated around islands over a shallow ridge using a numerical ocean model. Internal tides enhance vertical mixing over shallow slopes, leading to horizontal density gradients that drive BC residual circulation along the main thermocline. For a strongly stratified summer case, the vertical diffusivity estimated by the Mellor and Yamada turbulence closure model exceeds 1 × 10 -2 m 2 s -1 , and the velocity of BC residual circulations reaches 0.2 m s -1 . The magnitude of BC residual circulation is larger than that of barotropic residual tidal circulation, implying that BC residual circulation due to internal tides plays an important role in coastal ocean circulation. Furthermore, BC residual flow accounts for an equal percentage (5%) of the total tidal kinetic energy as the barotropic residual flow under summer stratification conditions. Results from a coupled sediment resuspension and transport model show the growth of intermediate nepheloid layers formed by strong bottom shear stress and BC residual flow. The residual component contributes largely (23% of the total in summer) to the total suspended sediment flux. Seasonal variability is explored, with weaker winter stratification leading to reduced mixing, and thus weaker BC residual circulation and sediment flux. Lastly, the magnitude of the BC residual circulation is also shown to be proportional to the square of the tidal amplitude.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Geometrical effects on the measured neutron residual stress in additively manufactured cold spray AA6061

Aluminum cold spray additive builds were made with varying wall widths and geometries to explore the effects of build geometry on residual stress development in the additively sprayed material. Deposition rates of over 750 g/hr were achieved without any cracking or delamination of the additively manufactured components. Neutron residual stress measurements revealed a maximum tensile residual stress of 41 MPa at the interface of the substrate and a maximum compressive residual stress of −35 MPa in the cold sprayed material. While there was not found to be significant residual stress changes between the cold sprayed walls, the cold sprayed cylinder had varying residual stress throughout the diameter with the outer diameter having a higher tensile residual stress than the interior. The low residual stress and minimal geometrical dependency demonstrate further part size is possible without concerns for component failure in AA6061. The application of common coating residual stress models to full scale additive builds is evaluated and discussed. The lack of residual stress evolution was studied by in-situ coating property measurement that revealed that the deposition stress of the AA6061 sprays reduced with increased layer thickness. In conclusion, this study provides insight into the evolution of residual stress in cold spray additive components and how both the mechanics and material responses differ from coatings.

Additive manufacturing↗

Water vapor transport through bioenergy grass residues and its effects on soil water evaporation

Miscanthus is a productive perennial grass that is suitable as a bioenergy crop in “marginal” lands (e.g., eroded soils) with low water holding capacity. However, little is known about the impact of miscanthus residues on vapor transport and soil water budgets. Laboratory experiments were conducted to measure the vapor conductance through miscanthus residues and its effect on soil water evaporation. The ranges for the length, width, and thickness of residue elements were 0.5–9.0, 0.1–0.5, and 0.1–0.5 cm, respectively. Average residue areal, bulk, and skeletal densities were 0.88 kg m –2 , 24 kg m –3 , and 1006 kg m –3 , respectively, giving a porosity of 0.98 m 3 m –3 . A power function described the decrease in conductance with increasing residue load. The corresponding conductance for a residue load of 0.88 kg m –2 was 1.6 mm s –1 . During the first days of a 60-day drying experiment, cumulative evaporation showed logarithmic decay with increasing residue load. Conversely, cumulative evaporation during the last days of the study showed little difference between treatments. Measurements indicated that there is a “critical” residue load (~1.0 kg m –2 ) beyond which evaporation no longer decreases appreciably when the soil is under the stage 1 evaporation regime. Results suggest that soil water conservation in marginal lands may be accomplished by maintaining moderate amounts of bioenergy grass residue covering the soil. Determining “critical” loads for different residue types is a knowledge gap that merits further research.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Natively oxidized amino acid residues in the spinach PS I-LHC I supercomplex

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is an unavoidable byproduct of electron transport under aerobic conditions. Photosystem II (PS II), the cytochrome b 6 /ƒ complex and Photosystem I (PS I) are all demonstrated sources of ROS. It has been proposed that PS I produces substantial levels of a variety of ROS including O$_{2}^{·-}$, 1 O 2 , H 2 O 2 and, possibly, ∙OH, however, the site(s) of ROS production within PS I has been the subject of significant debate. We hypothesize that amino acid residues close to the sites of ROS generation will be more susceptible to oxidative modification than distant residues. In this study, we have identified oxidized amino acid residues in spinach PS I which was isolated from field-grown spinach. The modified residues were identified by high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. As expected, many of the modified residues lie on the surface of the complex. However, a well-defined group of oxidized residues, both buried and surface-exposed, lead from the chl a’ of P 700 to the surface of PS I. These residues (PsaB: 609 F, 611 E, 617 M, 619 W, 620 L, and PsaF: 139 L, 142 A, 143 D) may identify a preferred route for ROS, probably 1 O 2 , to egress the complex from the vicinity of P 700 . Additionally, two buried residues located in close proximity to A1B (PsaB: 712 H and 714 S) were modified, which may be consistent with A 1B being a source of O$_{2}^{·-}$. Surprisingly, no oxidatively modified residues were identified in close proximity to the 4Fe-FS clusters F X , F A or F B . These cofactors had been identified as a principal targets for ROS damage in the photosystem. Finally, a large number of residues located in the hydrophobic cores of Lhca1-Lhca4 are oxidatively modified. These appear to be the result of 1 O 2 production by the distal antennae for the photosystem.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗