The SuperMethanol project involved RTD in the following areas: (a) Production of syngas from glycerine by reforming in supercritical water; (b)Syngas conversion into methanol at high pressures; (c) Production of methanol from glycerine feedstock; (d) Process modelling; (e) Economic assessment and basic engineering of a full-scale glycerine-to-methanol demo plant. According to the final obtained results, the project achieved the demonstration of the complete glycerine-tomethanol process on laboratory and pilot plant scale, obtaining conversion over 90%, and producing a syngas with H2/CO over 1, below 20 vol.% CO2 and below 10 vol.% (CH4+C2+).
D.01 Chairing over/coordinating (international and national) projects
COBISS.SI-ID: 16965398The project was based on application of SCF for sustainable processes with minimum environmental impact and for producing innovative bioproducts with specific properties and high added value. The final results of the projects have contributed to identification of new plant materials and their residues as a source of various biologically active compounds. Cleaner and more sustainable methods for their formulation have additionally been presented. The results have also contributed to new knowledge on applying different polymers for attachment of biollogicaly active compounds isolated from plant materials and their further use. Knowledge in the field of chemistry, pharmacy, biochemistry, health science and technologies has been merged and transferred into industrial environment.
D.01 Chairing over/coordinating (international and national) projects
COBISS.SI-ID: 16964886On this basis, this thesis is aimed to open new perspectives over the use of scCO2 as a ˝green˝ solvent for the processing of biodegradable polymers and composites used as biomaterials. Two biodegradable polymers were chosen for this study, poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) and poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA). Their composite with a bioactive ceramic powder, hydroxyapatite (HA), was also studied. The main idea followed by this thesis was the obtaining of porous polymeric or composite material scaffolds suitable for tissue engineering under mild temperature conditions and without the use of additional organic solvents. The behavior of the two polymers under dense CO2 had been studied and explained. More data about the polymer-gas phase equilibrium, necessary for understanding and optimizing the effect of processing parameters, were obtained by determining the solubility and diffusion coefficients of CO2 in the polymers for certain values of temperature and pressure. The possibility of obtaining porous scaffolds was assessed by using a pressure quench technique using dense CO2 as blowing agent, with and without the presence of aporogen. The effect of pressure, temperature, depressurization rate and porogen on the final porous structure was investigated. The experimental results were compared with literature data and with data obtained by mathematical modeling, employing equations of state commonly used for polymersor polymer/solvent systems. The results indicate that gas foaming of biodegradable polymers represents a promising technique for obtaining tissue engineering scaffolds with the desired structure. Still the processing parameters need to be studied and optimized, according to the nature of the substrate and of the aimed final product.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 13171478Within genus Wallemia three species has been recognized, Wallemia sebi, Wallemia ichthyophaga and Wallemia muriae. W. sebi is a xerotolerant, ubiquitous, food-borne, mycotoxigenic fungus and till 2005 it was the only known species of the genus Wallemia. Since very limited data about biological activity of mycotoxins produced by W. sebi exist, research work aimed to explore in more details effect of isolated fungal metabolites obtained from Wallemia species onto red blood cells, the affinity towards artificial lipid vesicles and finally to identify their chemical structure. The W. sebi lytic activity on mammalian erythrocytes shows its potential involvement in the formation of lesions in subcutaneous infections, in farmer's lung disease, and in consumption of contaminated food and feed with W. sebi. For the first time the production of biologically active metabolites by two other strains within genus Wallemia has been revealed.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 261873920The thesis is comprised of three main categories. The first part of dissertation covers investigations of phase equilibria of compounds from natural materials in conventional and also non conventional supercritical fluids. In details, the impact of pressure and/or temperature on the system behaviour (miscibility, solubility, phase inversion) is investigated, quantitative and qualitative analyses to evaluate and identify compounds contained after performing preliminary extraction experiments from different natural tissues are presented. Second part of dissertation covers studies of phase equilibria of the systems bio oil/gas, which is crucial in biorefinery process design. In the third part of dissertation observation of phase equilibria and determination of the parameters like diffusion coefficient, density and viscosity for the systems polymer/CO2 at elevated pressures is investigated.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 18197270