Orientador: Helenice de Oliveira Florentino Silva / Banca: Adriana Cristina Cherri / Banca: Fernando Luiz Pio dos Santos / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é propor um modelo matemático que consiste em determinar quais variedades de cana-de-açúcar adaptável ao solo local serão plantadas nos talhões disponíveis de forma a obter o menor custo possível para o processo de colheita e transporte da cana, e ainda desenvolver e testar um algoritmo genético (AG) para investigar a solução deste problema. Inicialmente é feito um breve estudo do ciclo produtivo da cana-de-açúcar, dos prazos para a eliminação de sua queima e do custo, de sua colheita e transporte até a usina. Em seguida estuda-se o algoritmo Branch-and-Bound, o qual dentre os métodos exatos é bastante utilizado para resolver Problemas de Programação Linear Inteira (PPLI). Para testar e comparar a performance do algoritmo genético com o Branch-and-Bound foram realizadas quatro simulações com diferentes áreas de plantio e número de variedades, simulando situações reais na região geográfica trabalhada. Os resultados foram analisados e discutidos neste texto, mostrando que o algoritmo genético pode ser uma ferramenta alternativa e de grande utilidade para problemas de grande porte / Abstract: The objetive of this study is to propose a mathematical model that consist of determining which varieties of sugar cane adaptable to local soil should be planted in plots available in order to obtain the lowest cost to the process of harvesting and transportation of cane, and further develop and test a genetic algorithm (GA) to investigate the solution of this problem. Initially it has been done a short study of the production cycle of sugar cane, the deadline for the elimination of his burns and the cost of harvest and transport to the mill. In the next step, we studied the algorithm Branch-and-Bound, which among methods available is often employed to solve Integer Linear Programming Problems (PPLI). To test and compare the performance of the genetic algorithm with the Branch-and-Bound simulations were performed with four di®erent planting areas and number of varieties, simulating real situations in the geographical region worked. The results were analyzed and discussed in this text, showing that the genetic algorithm can be an alternative tool and very useful for large problems / Mestre

As tecnologias de Agricultura de Precisão - AP já são adotadas nas lavouras do Brasil, com técnicas cada vez mais produtivas, indispensáveis para garantir a liderança do país na produção agrícola. No entanto, não existem ainda estudos sobre a intensidade do uso das tecnologias de AP no país e dos condicionantes de sua adoção. O desafio central deste trabalho foi, então, investigar o processo de adoção e uso das tecnologias de AP alcançado pela indústria sucroalcooleira no Estado de São Paulo. Para tanto, foram utilizados dados primários, a partir do encaminhamento de questionário a todas as empresas do setor sucroalcooleiro paulista, com o objetivo de se conhecer, não só o grau de adoção e uso das tecnologias de AP, mas também aprofundar a discussão sobre o tema da AP na indústria sucroalcooleira. Assim, foram obtidas informações sobre as características das empresas, as fontes de informação para adoção, os impactos da AP nas empresas e os obstáculos encontrados às práticas de AP. Paralelamente, estimou-se um modelo econométrico lógite para verificar a influência das variáveis estudadas na probabilidade de adoção das tecnologias de AP. As principais conclusões deste trabalho sugerem que a adoção e uso dessas tecnologias trazem resultados positivos para as empresas, como por exemplo, a melhoria no gerenciamento, o aumento da produtividade, a redução dos custos, a minimização dos impactos ambientais e a melhoria da qualidade da cana. A análise econométrica mostrou que a probabilidade de adotar as tecnologias de AP é maior em ordem decrescente de importância, em usinas/destilarias de capital nacional, que fazem parte de um grupo empresarial, de orientação exportadora, de gestão profissional, e que utilizam maior percentual de fontes de financiamento próprio. / The technologies of Precision Agriculture - PA - are already a reality in crops throughout Brazil, using more and more productive techniques, crucial to ensure the country as the world leader in agriculture. However, there are not yet studies on the intensity of the use of PA technologies in Brazil and the determiners of their adoption. The main focus of this study was, therefore, to investigate the adoption process and the use of PA technologies in the sugarcane industry in São Paulo state. For that purpose, it was used primary data based upon a questionnaire submitted to all enterprises of the sugarcane sector in the state, aiming to figure out not only the adoption level and use of PA technologies in the sugarcane industry, but also to deepen the discussion about Precision Agriculture, obtaining therefore, more information regarding the characteristics of the enterprises, sources of information for the adoption of PA, the impact of PA technologies on the enterprise and the obstacles faced by the PA practices. In parallel, the econometric model logit was estimated to verify the influence of the variables studied on the probability for the adoption of the PA technologies. The main conclusions of this study suggest that the adoption for these technologies bring results to enterprises, such as improvement of management procedures, increase of productive, cost reduction, minimization of environmental impacts and improvement of sugarcane quality. The econometric analysis showed that the probability to adopt PA technologies is higher in decrescent order of importance in mills/distilleries of national capital, which are part of an export-driven group, of professional management and that use higher percentage of their own resources.

Network theory has been widely and successfully used to model, analyse and visualise complex systems. This study aimed to develop approaches to analyse complex integrated sugarcane supply and processing systems. A literature review includes network theory, complex systems, the Theory of constraints, indicator analysis and root cause analysis. The cause-and-effect networks of four sugarcane milling areas in South Africa; viz. Eston, Felixton, Komati and Umfolozi were developed, where the factors that negatively affected the performance of the milling areas were represented by vertices, the relationships among the factors by arcs and the strength of these relationships by weights. Three network theory based analytical tools namely; (a) primary influence vertex analysis, (b) indicator vertex analysis and (c) root cause vertex analysis were developed to analyse the networks. The results from the analyses indicate variations in the numbers and strengths of primary influence factors, problem indicator factors and root causes of problems between the four milling areas. Rainfall, drought and high soil content in sugarcane were identified as the strongest primary influences in the respective milling areas. High crush rate variability, low cutter productivity, running behind allocation and increases in operating costs were identified as the strongest indicators of poor performance in the respective milling areas. Rainfall was found to be the most dominating root cause of poor performance in all the milling areas. Since the South African integrated sugarcane production and processing system is complex, it is likely that the unique approaches developed in this study can be used successfully to also analyse other relatively complex systems. It is recommended that these approaches be tested within other systems. The main contribution of this study is in the form of a relatively easy-to-use network theory based comprehensive systems analyses tool. This analytical approach has, to the author's knowledge, not been used in any agri-industrial application previously. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The use of microsatellite markers has matured and become commonplace for plant genome analyses and is now poised for widespread practical application in sugarcane. Sequence Tagged Microsatellite Site (STMS) amplification is the most prevalent microsatellite-based approach and involves the amplification of a microsatellite by designing primers that flank and hence define the microsatellite site, revealing variation in the length of repeat motifs between individuals. Twenty-six microsatellite primer pairs received from the International Sugarcane Microsatellite Consortium (ISMC) were evaluated and the STMS protocol was optimised to ensure robust and reproducible results. The objectives of this study were to use STMS for sugarcane parentage analysis and fingerprinting. Previously, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) marker data had suggested that the parentage of a genetic mapping population, sugarcane cross AA40 (N18 x CP57/614), was incorrect. Based on the assertion that the incorrect parentage was as a result of either mislabelling at planting or at seed collection, microsatellite parentage analysis was carried out on eight potential parent pairs (13 cultivars). A total of 75 markers were scored with non-parental bands (12 on average) being observed for all of the potential parent pairs and none could be identified as the true AA40 parents. It has been suggested in other plant species that PCR artefacts could give rise to non-parental bands and to investigate this the marker data of single parent DNA reactions and pooled parent pair DNA reactions or 'synthetic offspring' were compared. The results suggested that either a certain percentage of non-parental bands, perhaps 10% (maximum value observed), should be tolerated in microsatellite parentage analysis or a marker should only be considered to be discriminating for parentage if it is absent in both the parents and the pooled parent pair amplifications. Fingerprinting of 20 cultivars using 14 microsatellite primer pairs was conducted to evaluate the potential of the STMS approach for sugarcane varietal identification. It was found that only two microsatellite primer pairs were required to discriminate between all 20 cultivars with a theoretical number of non-differentiated pairs of cultivars (XK) of only 0.03. This estimator was used to determine the approximate number of microsatellites necessary for large-scale sugarcane fingerprinting. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The South African sugar industry is of significant local and international importance and covers an area in excess of 450 000 hectares. This area yields approximately 21 million tons of sugarcane per annum which is transported almost exclusively by road, from farms to the sugar mills. The industry is under increasing economic pressures to improve its productivity and competitiveness and sugarcane transport in the sugarcane supply chain has been identified as one area where large improvements and associated cost reductions can be made. This is mainly due to the excess in number of vehicles in the inbound transport system, the high relative cost of transport compared to other production costs in producing sugarcane, and the high fixed costs associated with truck fleet operations. A simulation case study of the transport system was completed in 2005 in the Sezela Mill area in which approximately 2.2 million tons of sugarcane is transported per annum over an average distance of 29 km by approximately 120 independently managed vehicles owned by a wide range of hauliers and individual growers. This amounts to an estimated cost of R58 million per annum. This study investigated the potential savings that could occur as a result of a central fleet control system with integrated vehicle scheduling. A scheduling software package named ASICAM, which resulted in significant savings in the timber industry (Weintraub et al, 1996), was applied within the Sezela region. Results suggested that the number of trucks in the fleet could theoretically be reduced by at least 50%, providing that a central office controls vehicle movements and that all hauliers serve all growers in an equitable fashion. In addition, investigations towards decreasing loading times, decreasing offloading times, changing vehicle speeds and increasing payloads by reducing trailer tare mass showed further reductions in the number of trucks required. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

The eldana stalk borer (Eldana saccharina Walker) is the most serious pest of the Southern African sugarcane industry, and it is imperative that effective control measures are available to minimize economic damage. Because conventional control methods have had limited success, cultivar resistance is seen as the most viable method of controlling infestation. However, due to the space- and time-consuming nature of the present screening methods, only small numbers of cultivars can be tested relatively late in the Plant Breeding selection programme. Increased resistance in breeding and selection populations is therefore slow. Buds are a preferred entry point of eldana larvae as they are softer than the rind that is present on the rest of the stalk surface. Preliminary results by other workers suggested that near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) could provide a rapid screening method for the chemical profile in bud scales, the outer coating of buds and therefore the first contact point of an invading larva. If feasible, analysis of samples using this method could be done in the South African Sugar Experiment Station's (SASEX) stage two selection trials, providing an early indication of eldana resistance on large numbers of cultivars, without the necessity of separate trials. However, knowledge of how environments, position of bud scales on the stalk and age affect NIRS is required in order to determine the feasibility of the method. Planting of a trial with an identical set of genotypes across a range of environments, sampled at a number of ages, would provide the necessary information on environmental effects, whilst simultaneously providing the necessary range of samples to develop a calibration between bud scale chemical profiles and eldana resistance ratings. Inheritance patterns of the characteristics being measured is also required if they are to be used in a breeding programme. The original work by Rutherford (1993) was carried out on only five calibration sets (a set of standard clones with relatively well-known eldana resistance ratings), and different sets were not comparable due to what was assumed to be environmental differences between calibration sets. One aspect of the current experiment was to examine more closely the effect of genotype x environment interaction (G x E) on the performance of the NIRS technique under a range of conditions. Two sites were chosen to represent the conditions encountered in trials carried out by SASEX. The crops were sampled at three ages, representing the range of ages at which sugarcane is harvested in South Africa. Two locations on the stalk were also examined, top and bottom, for removal of bud scales, based on the assumption that aging of bud scales may affect chemical composition. A new NIRSystems 6500 instrument was acquired during the course of this study. Data from the new instrument indicated that there were no longer differences between the different calibration sets, and therefore no longer differences between environments. Spectra for different samples were very close, the differences being of the same scale as those recorded with repeated measures of the same samples, or between the readings for the standard solvent solution. This led to the conclusion that the differences observed on the original NIRSystems 5000 instrument were due to instrument error, not environmental differences. More importantly, the different calibration sets were not comparable despite being similar to each other. Prediction from one calibration set to another was low. These observations led to the conclusion that NIRS was not a suitable method for determining chemical compounds associated with tolerance of sugarcane genotypes to eldana borer. The original NIRS instrument was subject to error, and the small number of calibration sets included in the study led to the erroneous conclusion that NIRS was suitable for the prediction of varietal tolerance to eldana. With the acquisition of the new instrument, the errors generated by the old instrument became apparent. With the increase in number of calibration sets included in the study, it also became apparent that a global calibration covering all environments was not possible. An analysis of the heritability of the chemical compounds associated with eldana resistance was also included in this study. A biparental progeny design of 24 crosses with 33 unselected offspring per cross was used. This trial would have been analysed once the calibration had been developed using the environmental trial, and it would have provided knowledge of the breeding behaviour of the chemical compounds associated with tolerance to eldana. Because the NIRS technique proved to be unsuitable for detection of chemical compounds associated with eldana resistance, the heritability of these chemical compounds could not be studied. As the NIRS study did not produce data, the G x E interaction analysis and determination of heritability was applied to the bud scale mass data set. This study showed a relatively low positive correlation between bud scale mass and resistance to eldana. The broad sense heritability estimate for bud scale mass from the G x E interaction analysis was 0.45, and the narrow sense heritability estimate from parent-offspring regression analysis was approximately 0.27, suggesting a low degree of genetic determination in bud scale mass. The G x E interaction analyses gave varying results depending on the method used. The ANOVA analysis suggested that ages, sites and years had an effect on bud scale mass, while deviation from maximum plot showed no significance for G x E interactions. The number and choice of genotypes selected as unstable also varied with the method used to determine the stability of individual genotypes. Regression analysis and rank order analysis revealed a number of unstable genotypes, whilst stability variance and ecovalence, which produced similar results, detected only two unstable genotypes. In the rank order analysis correction of data to remove genotype effect, reduced the number of unstable genotypes, suggesting that the G x E interaction effect was partially confounded with the bud scale mass of the genotypes. This was a more reliable method than the uncorrected rank order analysis, and would be the preferred analysis type of all those tried. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

Governments and policy-makers are currently dealing with some key issues as energy security in countries dependent on oil imports; global economic development, including increased food production; and controlling global climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. The perception that biofuel could solve these challenges simultaneously has led to the implementation of policy and regulatory mechanisms on the mandatory use of biofuels, resulting in a sharp increase in biofuel production and consumption. Serious concerns about large-scale ethanol production have been raised regarding loss of biodiversity and competition for land between food and ethanol production. It is also suggested that sugarcane-based ethanol increases GHG emissions due to indirect land use change. Furthermore, sugarcane harvesting has been criticised for causing air pollution and bad working conditions for cutters. These criticisms have mostly been denied by Brazilian actors. This thesis seeks to clarify these divergent views and conflicts concerning Brazilian ethanol. It was carried out within a KTH research programme that uses frames in the analysis of conflicts emerging from the development and implementation of new technologies. Frame analysis can help improve understanding of such conflicts, which derive from differences in values, world views and beliefs and can be difficult to resolve. Frame analysis seeks to identify the particular factors determining the actions taken by different stakeholders, giving equal treatment to all actors. The results showed that the international views expressed in the media captured the attention of the public and policy-makers, and led them to frame ethanol as a destructive for nature fuel. The analysis identified that the ethanol as a threat to food security frame combined with the ethanol as a destructive for nature frame led the public and policy-makers to frame ethanol as a brown fuel. However, Brazilian actors frame ethanol differently: as a green and safe fuel. These differences have raised the conflicts that are analysed in this thesis. Furthermore, the analysis identified that the changes in the harvesting system, from manual to mechanised –besides decreasing air pollution- will cost the job of hundreds of thousands of cane cutters. Values and beliefs orientating such changes are analysed in the thesis. / QC 20110912

Sugarcane bacilliform virus (SCBV) is an economically important pathogen of sugarcane in Australia which limits access to foreign sugarcane germplasm. Although SCBV is present in the major cane growing regions worldwide, very little is known about its variability, virulence and the yield losses resulting from infection. The limited information on SCBV has resulted in quarantine measures being introduced to protect the Australian sugarcane industry, with a major consequence being restricted access to imported sugarcane germplasm for breeding programs. Foreign sugarcane germplasm plays an important role in breeding of new commercial varieties for the Australian sugar industry and is essential for the long term productivity, profitability and sustainability of the sugar industry. This study was aimed at characterising Australian isolates of SCBV to enable the development of reliable and robust molecular and/or antibody-based diagnostic tests which could be used to not only assess the impact of SCBV on the Australian sugarcane industry, but could also be used to screen imported sugarcane germplasm for the virus. SCBV virions (SCBV-IM) were purified from the sugarcane accession "Ireng Maleng" and the dsDNA genome was cloned and sequenced. The genome of SCBV-IM comprised 7687 bp with an organisation typical of other badnaviruses. When the entire nucleotide sequence of SCBV-IM was compared to that of the Moroccan SCBV isolate (SCBV-Mo), less than 75% similarity was present. Within the coding regions, ORF I, ORF II and ORF III had 83%, 71% and 73% nucleotide similarity to SCBV-Mo, respectively. At the amino acid level, ORFs I, II and III from SCBV-IM showed 91%, 84% and 85% similarity to the equivalent regions in SCBV-Mo, respectively. To further investigate the level of sequence variability within Australian SCBV isolates, virions were purified from three further sugarcane accessions and a 220 bp fragment of the reverse transcriptase-coding region was amplified. Five clones from each sub-population were selected and sequenced. Analysis of these sequences revealed considerable variability in the virus population with variability within one plant as great as it was between isolates. However, since the use of specific primers could also be selecting for a sub-population of SCBV sequences, it was possible that the variability may actually be greater than that reported. These results indicated that SCBV isolates are complex and variable and may represent a continuum of genetic variability. High molecular weight DNA species larger than the SCBV 7.6 kbp unit-length genome were found in DNA extracted from purified SCBV-IM virions. We confirmed that these high molecular weight nucleic acids were virus-specific and open circular in conformation. Using field inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE), the SCBV-IM DNA was separated into four discrete bands with sizes ranging from between 1 to 4 genome copies. The DNA was shown to comprise overlapped individual genome-length molecules and not covalently-bonded continuous DNA strands. We presume that these DNA molecules are concatamers formed during replication as a result of a terminal overlap on the sense strand. The presence of these concatamers within virions may explain the observation of particles with lengths corresponding to one, two or three times the modal length of 130 nm. Four SCBV-infected Saccharum officinarum plants were examined for the presence of integrated viral DNA. Southern blot analysis of viral DNA and total DNA extracted from the same plant source were compared with, or without, restriction digestion. The resulting restriction patterns from viral and total DNA were almost identical suggesting that there were no integrated SCBV sequences in the sugarcane cultivars tested. Although larger-than-single-genome copy bands were detected in both the viral and the total DNA samples, this was probably due to the presence of genomic concatamers. SCBV integration studies using Southern analyses were further complicated by high sequence variability which precluded the restriction digestion of all viral DNA species. As such, some of the SCBV DNA species remain as concatamers which appear as larger-than-unit-length SCBV products. An antiserum derived from a mixture of purified SCBV isolates has been used routinely in the past to screen for SCBV infection, but the heterogeneity reported for badnaviruses has cast doubt on the ability of this antiserum to detect all SCBV isolates. We attempted to determine whether antiserum generated against proteins other than the viral capsid could be used to detect SCBV infections, thus improving the reliability and robustness of SCBV diagnosis. The complete coding regions of SCBV ORF I and ORF II were bacterially expressed and used as antigens for antiserum production. Both ORF I and II proteins were found to be highly immunogenic and generated high-titre antisera, designated AS-I and AS-II, respectively. The diagnostic utility of both antisera to detect SCBV in six different infected sugarcane plants was tested using both immunosorbent electron microscopy (ISEM) and western blots. The currently used SCBV antiserum (AS-V), generated against a mixture of purified SCBV isolates, was included for comparison. In western analyses, neither AS-I nor AS-V was able to conclusively detect SCBV in any of the six infected plants due to reactivity with numerous non-specific proteins. In contrast, AS-II reacted specifically with a protein of the expected size (~13.5 kDa) in 2/6 infected plants. When compared using ISEM, AS-V, AS-I and AS-II trapped virions from 6/6, 6/6 and 2/6 SCBV-infected plants, respectively. However, the number of virions trapped using AS-V was approximately 30-fold more than that trapped using either AS-I or AS-II. These results highlight the variability between SCBV isolates and suggest that ISEM with antisera raised against mixtures of viral proteins may be a useful tool for the detection of viral isolates.

Submitted by Airton Juliano Damaceno null (airtonjuliano@gmail.com) on 2016-06-30T13:04:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_PGQ_Airton Juliano Damaceno.pdf: 4444619 bytes, checksum: 5d7d757e1406c83cd5cafcbf20263a65 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-07-04T13:54:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 damaceno_aj_me_sjrp.pdf: 4444619 bytes, checksum: 5d7d757e1406c83cd5cafcbf20263a65 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-04T13:54:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 damaceno_aj_me_sjrp.pdf: 4444619 bytes, checksum: 5d7d757e1406c83cd5cafcbf20263a65 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-08 / O Brasil é líder na produção de cana-de-açúcar e a cada ano o setor vem crescendo e buscando novas formas para diversificar a planta de produção. Tal fato que o nome da indústria evoluiu de sucroalcooleira para sucroenergéticas devido à importância da co-geração de energia a partir da queima do bagaço nas caldeiras. A bioeletricidade de cana-de açúcar caminha a passos constantes e segue com vários projetos pelo país, devido as usinas estarem próximas dos centro e distribuição/consumo. Outra empresa que busca esta diversificação da sua planta são as indústrias de papel e celulose, principalmente dos seus rejeitos (lignina). Este trabalho tem como objetivo extrair lignina diferentes variedades de cana-de-açúcar para identificar a variedade que tem melhor rendimento na extração da lignina e rendimento energético, comparar com o bagaço misto (mistura de várias variedades) e por fim desenvolver imunossensores por meio da reação entre antígenos e anticorpos sobre superfícies condutoras de nanografite a partir da mistura de lignina de bagaço de cana e lignina Kraft. A grande questão é a aplicação eletroquímica com o desenvolvimento de imunossensores devido a alta sensibilidade e principalmente pelo baixo custo e utilização em área clínica. A partir do presente estudo pode-se inferir que a variedade SP83-2847 possui o maior rendimento na extração da lignina, já em relação a perda calorífica a variedade SP84-1431 obteve o maior valor e a RB86-7515 o menor. Após a extração da lignina o bagaço resultante contento celulose e hemicelulose apresentou ser mais estável termicamente. As Técnicas de Raios-x e infravermelho confirmaram a extração da liginina, além de demostrar que existe resquício da fração de celulose e hemicelulose na lignina extraída e que o mesmo ocorre quando extraímos a lignina, uma fração fica na celulose. O eletrodo construído a partir do compósito nonografite-lignina kraft modificado com cobre apresentou atividade eletroquímica, estabilidade mecânica e eletroquímica. / Brazil is a leader in sugarcane production, growing each year and looking for new ways to diversify the plant production. By the way, the industries names evolved from sugar and alcohol to sugar and energy due to its importance in energy cogeneration from bagasse burning in boilers. The cane bioeletricity walks in constant steps and continues with various projects around the country, because the plants are close downtown and distribution and consumption centers. Another company seeking this diversification of the plant are the industries of pulp and paper especially its residues (lignin). This project aims to extract lignin from different varieties of sugarcane to identify the the best performer in the extraction and energy efficiency compared with the mixed bagasse sample (mixture of several varieties) and finally develop immunosensors through the reaction between antigens and antibodies on conductive nanographite surfaces from Kraft lignin and bagasse’s lignin mixture. The great question is the development of immunosensors due to high sensitivity and especially the applicability in the clinical area. From this study it can infer that the SP83-2847 variety has the highest extraction yield of lignin, as compared to loss heat the variety SP84-1431 obtained the highest value and the lowest was the RB86-7515. After lignin extraction, the resulting residue containing cellulose and hemicellulose showed to be more thermally stable. XRD and FTIR results confirmed lignin extraction and demonstrated that there is remnant cellulose and hemicellulose fraction of extracted lignin and the same occurs when we extract lignin, a fraction remains in cellulose. The electrode constructed from the composite kraft lignin-nonographite modified with copper showed electrochemical activity, mechanical stability and electrochemistry. These were applied to investigate uric acid in simulated blood plasma samples. For sure lignin is a byproduct that in near future will be a very promising and profitable raw materials in different industries.

Thesis (MTech (Chemical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / The sugar industry contributes to the development of the economy in many countries, including South Africa. The wastewater generated by this industry has a high pollution load, and therefore requires treatment before discharge to the environment. The primary aims of this study were to determine the performance of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating sugarcane molasses and to develop an empirical model to predict the behaviour of the UASB in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and biogas production. A UASB (46 L working volume) was inoculated with granular sludge from the brewery industry and was used to investigate the treatment of synthetic sugar industry wastewater with an average COD of 4101 mg/L. The experiments were designed using Design-Expert® Software Version 10. The analysis of variance for the models and the optimisation of reactor temperature and feed carbon to nitrogen (C/N ratio) were carried out using response surface methodology. The UASB was operated at constant hydraulic retention time and organic loading rate of 2.04 days and 2.01 kg/m3.d, respectively. A start-up period of 22 days was required to reach steady-state. The developed empirical models for total COD removal efficiency and biogas production rate were found to be statistically significant with Prob > F values of 0.0747 and 0.0495 and the determination coefficients (R2) were found to be 0.80 and 0.65, respectively. The optimal conditions were found to be at a temperature of 38oC and C/N ratio of 22 mgTOC/mgTN. The corresponding removal efficiencies in terms of total COD, five day biological oxygen demand, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and sulphate was 77.7, 85.9, 99.2, 44.4 and 57.2%, respectively. Biogas was produced at a rate of 0.832 L/L.d with a methane, carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen content of 65.2, 32.8 and 0.6%. Results suggest that UASBs may offer a feasible option for reducing the organic strength of sugar industry wastewater, while simultaneously generating methane-rich biogas.