Thesis (M.A.)--University of Oregon, 2008. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-111). Also available online.

Thesis (MPhil) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (xi, 165 leaves : col. ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 658.403 CRO)

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on July 10, 2009). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [149]-161).

Thesis (M.S.)--Youngstown State University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-52). Also available via the World Wide Web in PDF format.

Thesis (M.S.)--Marquette University, 2009. / Access available to Marquette University only. Scott Goldsborough, John P. Borg, Jon Kock, Henry Curran, Advisors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2010. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 199 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2010. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Fabian D. Menalled. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-96).

Energy plays a vital role in socio-economic development and raising living standards of human beings. The overreliance on fossil fuels results in the depletion of fossil fuels as well as environmental pollution from the green-house gases that result from the use of fossil fuels. Biomass feedstock are able to ameliorate this situation by utilizing the CO2 that has been used by plants during photosynthesis. This study investigated the suitability of the three garden grass species (Chloris gayana, Cynodon dactylon and Pennisetum clandestum) as biomass feedstock for gasification purposes. The three garden grass species were collected at the Alice Campus of the University of Fort Hare. These grass species were characterized using elemental analyser (CHNS), FT-IR, EDX and TGA. The Activation energy (Ea) of the three grass species were 48.22 kJ/mol for P. clandestum, 36.8 kJ/mol for C. gayana and 258 kJ/mol for C. dactylon. Of the three grass species, C. gayana had the lowest Activation energy of 36.8 kJ/mol and also had the highest maximum efficiency of 69 percent compared to 65.3 percent for P. clandestum and 63.5 percent for C. dactylon. Actual gasification was not carried out but the results on maximum efficiency were obtained from computer simulation of gasification.

Biofuels have been proposed to be a suitable replacement to the already depleting fossil fuels. The complex structures of plant biomasses present a challenge the production of biofuels due to recalcitrance. The complex cellulose structure and hydrogen bonding between repeat units of cellulose is believed to be a major contributor to the recalcitrance of cellulose. Fungal organisms come equipped with various oxidative enzymes involved in degradation of plant biomass. The exact mechanism of cellulose degradation remains elusive. The GH61 is a group of proteins which are PMOs. GH61 sequences where previously described as endoglucanases due to weak endoglucanase activity. These enzymes were later found not possess any enzyme activity of their own however they could enhance the activity of other cellulose degrading enzymes. As a result reclassification of these enzymes as AA9 has been implemented. AA9 proteins have been reported to share structural homology with the bacterial AA10 group of enzymes. Based on cleavage products that are produced when AA9 proteins interact with cellulose, AA9 proteins have been grouped into three types. To date the exact mechanism and the sequence and structural basis for differentiating between the various AA9 types remains unknown. Using various bionformatic techniques sequence and structural elements were identified for distinguishing between the AA9 types. A large dataset of sequences was obtained from the Pfam database from UNIPROT entries. Due to high divergence of AA9 sequences, a smaller dataset with the more divergent sequences removed was created. The inclusion of the reference sequences to the data set was done to observe which sequences belong to a certain type. Phylogenetic analysis was able to group AA9 proteins into three distinct groups. MSA and motif analysis revealed that the N-Terminus of these proteins is mostly responsible for type specificity. Structural analysis of AA9 PDB structures and homology models allowed the effect of physicochemical properties to be gauged structurally. The presence of 310 helices and aromatic residues the surface of AA9 sequences is an observation which still warrants further investigation.