Sharif Digital Repository

An aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) containing polyethylene glycol (PEG) and potassium phosphate (K2HPO4) was used for partitioning and partial purification of alkaline protease produced by Bacillus licheniformis ATCC 21424. The effect of PEG molar mass, pH and concentration of NaCl salt addition on partition coefficient, yield and purification factor (PF) for ATPS were studied. The highest partition coefficient (5.3) was achieved in an ATPS of 25% (w/w) PEG 10,000 (g/mol) and 10% (w/w) NaCl at pH 9. Cation and anion exchange chromatography was employed for purification of alkaline protease from protein mixture and the yield and PF for enzyme fractions were obtained to make a comparison... 

In this study a membrane bioreactor (MBR) has been studied experimentally for the treatment of oil field wastewater (produced water). This type of wastewater is characterised with relativity moderate to high amount of salt and oil. The normal bacteria which are growing in conventional activated sludge and MBR cannot withstand at these adverse conditions, therefore it is necessary to be adapted. In this study, different samples from sea sediment in Bushehr (south of Iran) were analysed and different groups of bacteria were isolated and adapted for surveying under high salinity conditions. The performance and efficiency of these bacteria in the degradation of model oil has been studied. The... 

In this study, the Geocoat™ technology was used for the extraction of zinc from a mineral concentrate obtained from the Kooshk mine (Yazd, Iran) by a culture dominated by the mesophilic bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans in a packed column bioreactor. A low grade sphalerite ore was used as support for the concentrate coating. During the 100 days of leaching pH, Fe3+, Fetotal, microbial population density and zinc extraction were measured. The final zinc extraction from concentrate and low grade support was 97% and 78%, respectively, and it was found that leaching from the support does not proceed significantly before leaching from the coating is completed  

The effect of up velocity and influent COD concentration on the activity of sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) in UASB reactors is discussed. To study these effects, four UASB reactors were built and utilized in parallel. Examinations were carried out in two different concentrations of molasses (500 mg COD/l and 1000 mg COD/l) and four different upward flow velocities. It was observed that at velocities greater than 1 m/h, SRB bacteria were easily washed out from the reactors due to lower density and lack of ability to form dense and firm granules. It was found that in low-strength wastewaters with a COD to sulphate ratio of 2, an upward velocity in the range of 1.5-2.5 m/h could be... 

During any microbial enhanced oil recovery process, both cells and the metabolic products of bacteria govern the tertiary oil recovery efficiency. However, very accurate examination is needed to find the functionality of these tiny creatures at different reservoir conditions. In this regard, the effect of cell structure on ultimate microbial recovery efficiency which is the most dominant mechanism based on the microorganism types (gram-negative or gram-positive) was systematically investigated. At the first stage, possible different active mechanisms using Bacillus stearothermophilus SUCPM#14 strain were tested using specially designed injection protocol, in situ and ex situ core flooding... 

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) process is divided into two main categories, namely in-situ and ex-situ techniques. It utilizes reservoir microorganisms or specially selected bacteria to use their metabolites for more oil recovery from depleted oil reservoirs. In the present study, the potential of two biosurfactant-producing strains of Enterobacter cloacae and Bacillus stearothermophilus SUCPM#14 were investigated on tertiary oil recovery efficiency in carbonated cores using different designed injection protocols. The required operational time, process cost and proper selection of bacterial formulation during the MEOR process were the main objectives of this study. The results of... 

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) cause many significant ecological problems because of their low degradability, high harmfulness, and solid bioaccumulation.Two bacterial strains were isolated from soil that had been polluted with electrical transformer liquid for more than 40 years. The isolates were distinguished as Lysinibacillus macrolides DSM54Tand Bacillus firmus NBRC15306Tthrough 16S rRNA sequencing analysis.This is the primary report of an agent of the genus Bacillus firmus equipped for the removal of PCBs. The strains could develop broadly on 2-Chlorobiphenyl and 2,4-dichlorobiphenyl. GC/MS analysis of individual congeners revealed up to 80% degradation of the xenobiotics in 96h,... 

Petroleum products which are used in a wide variety of industries as energy sources and raw materials have become a major concern in pollution of terrestrial and marine environments. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential of indigenous microbial isolates for degradation of diesel fuel. Two most proficient bacterial strains among five isolated strains from polluted soil of an industrial refinery were studied. The isolates then were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis using biochemical tests and 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. P. aeruginosa showed higher biodegradation efficiency than B. subtilis in shaking flask containing diesel-contaminated water. P.... 

Graphene-based materials are revealing the leading edge of advanced technology for their exceptional physical and chemical properties. Chemical manipulation on graphene surface to tailor its unique properties and modify atomic structures is being actively pursued. Therefore, the discovery of robust and general protocols to anchor active functionality on graphene basal plane is still of great interest. Multicomponent reactions promise an enormous level of interest due to addressing both diversity and complexity in combinatorial synthesis, in which more than two starting compounds react to form a product derived from entire inputs. In this article, we present the first covalent... 

In the current study, a facile green synthesis of silver-gelatin core-shell nanostructures (spherical, spherical/cubic hybrid, and cubic, DLS diameter: 4.1-6.9 nm) is reported via the wet chemical synthesis procedure. Sunlight-UV as an available reducing agent cause mild reduction of silver ions into the silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs). Gelatin protein, as an effective capping/shaping agent, was used in the reaction to self-assemble silver nanostructures. The formation of silver nanostructures and their self-assembly pattern was confirmed by SEM, AFM, and TEM techniques. Further investigations were carried out using zeta-potential, UV-Vis, FTIR, GPC, and TGA/DTG/DTA data. The prepared Ag-NPs... 

Mixing has become a challenge in micro-fluidic systems because of the low Reynolds number in micro-channels. The method which is implemented in this paper is to use freely-swimming bacteria to enhance the mixing process. Accordingly, the Serratia marcescens bacteria were used for this matter. The mixing performance of the system is quantified by measuring the diffusion rate of Rhodamine B in a particular section of a channel connected to a chamber with varying Rhodamine B concentration. The concentration of Rhodamine B was measured using the Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) technique. The channel is in the form of a pipe and is closed on the extending side. In this paper, it is demonstrated... 

Industrial scale continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) for production and grade transitions of poly vinyl acetate (PVAc) at the different reactor sizes was investigated. Such reactor is known to show oscillatory behavior and to have periodic limit points, particularly at high molecular weights. Four efficient novel hybrid optimization methods which use variable population size genetic algorithm (VPGA), bacterial optimization algorithm (BO) and shuffled frog leaping method (SFL) were introduced for this kind of reactors. These algorithms can reliably find dynamically stable points with desired conditions for PVAc production. The dynamic modeling combined with the new hybrid optimization... 

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is receiving renewed interest worldwide in recent years as a viable method while not damaging the reservoir is proven to be remarkably effective, however to some extent costly. This method is based on microorganisms' activities to reduce residual oil of reservoirs, which is dependent on behavior of inherent microorganisms or injection of bioproduct of external microorganisms. In this work, five bacterial species were taken from MIS crude oil that is one of the aging Persian fractured reservoirs. These microorganisms are substantially strong in increasing oil recovery especially by reducing IFT and other MEOR mechanisms such as change of wettability of... 

Biosurfactant production from two indigenous consortia has already been investigated in two previous studies. In this study, comparison and modification of those models for having as much biosurfactant as possible was conducted. After characterization of bacteria by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping, a fully modification on the final models was presented. Response surface methodology has the ability to investigate the liability of the parameters and models by the help of Desirability mode and R2 coefficient in Design Expert software. Our models in the previous works follow the style of (y=f(A,B,. . .)) and two Desirability of 0.968 and 0.996 for Paenibacillus alvei ARN63 and Bacillus... 

In this study, we have investigated the potential of a native bacterial strain isolated from an Iranian oil field for the production of biosurfactant. The bacterium was identified to be Bacillus mycoides by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping. The biosurfactant, which was produced by this bacterium, was able to reduce the surface tension of media to 34 mN/m. Biosurfactant production was optimized by the combination of central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). The factor selected for optimization of growth conditions were pH, temperature, glucose and salinity concentrations. The empirical model developed through RSM in terms of effective operational factors... 

In this study, we have investigated the potential of a native bacterial strain isolated from an Iranian oil field for the production of biosurfactant. The bacterium was identified to be Bacillus mycoides by biochemical tests and 16S ribotyping. The biosurfactant, which was produced by this bacterium, was able to reduce the surface tension of media to 34. mN/m. Compositional analysis of the produced biosurfactant has been carried out by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and FT-IR. The biosurfactant produced by the isolate was characterized as lipopeptide derivative. Biosurfactant production was optimized by the combination of central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology... 

The present study was carried out to evaluate the degradation efficiency of benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) by isolated bacteria from various petroleum-hydrocarbons contaminated sites. Five isolated bacteria were selected for testing BTX biodegradation from liquid culture media. Each of these bacteria was able to degrade BTX but with different efficiencies. Maximum biodegradation efficiency for benzene (more than 70 %) was obtained by Gram-positive coccobacillus, Gram-positive coccus and Gram-negative bacillus bacteria, for toluene (60 %) and xylene (70 %) by Gram-positive coccobacillus and Gram-negative coccobacillus. It was found that the presence of xylene in the substrate mixture... 

In recent years there has been potential increase in the use of alkaline protease as industrial catalysts. Many major industrial and commercial applications, such as food and textile industries, and medical diagnoses, are highly dependent on the protease enzyme. In the cell immobilization technique, the free movement of microorganisms is restricted in the process, and a continuous system of fermentation can be used. In the present work, this technique has been used for alkaline protease production using different carriers, such as chitosan, corn cob and corn tassel. Enzyme activity before immobilization (72 h) was 78.3 U/ml. Corn cob, with 65% immobilization capacity and the highest enzyme... 

The bacterial strain MJ01 was isolated from stock tank water of one of the Iranian south oil field production facilities. The 16S rRNA gene of isolate, MJ01, showed 99% similarity to Bacillus subtilis. The results revealed that biosurfactant produced by this strain was lipopeptide-like surfactin based on FTIR analysis. Critical micelle concentration of produced surfactin in distilled water was 0.06 g/l. Wettability study showed that at zero salinity surfactin can change original oil-wet state to water-wet state, but in seawater salinity it cannot modify the wettability significantly. To utilize this biosurfactant in ex situ MEOR process, economical and reservoir engineering technical... 

Due to great commercial application of protease, it is necessary to study kinetic characterization of this enzyme in order to improve design of enzymatic reactors. In this study, mathematical modeling of protease enzyme production kinetics which is derived from Bacillus licheniformis BBRC 100053 was studied (at 37°C, pH 10 after 73 h in stationary phase, and 150 rpm). The aim of the present paper was to determine the best kinetic model and kinetic parameters for production of protease and calculating K i (inhibition constant) of different inhibitors to find the most effective one. The kinetic parameters K m (Michaelis-Menten constant) and V m (maximum rate) were calculated 0.626 mM and...