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A microgrid is an aggregation of multiple distributed generators (DGs), such as renewable energy sources, conventional generators, and energy storage systems that provide both electric power and thermal energy. Typically, a microgrid operates in parallel with the main grid. However, there are cases in which a microgrid operates in an islanded mode, or in a disconnected state. Islanded microgrid can change its operational mode to gridconnected operation by reconnection to the grid, which is referred to as synchronization. Generally, a single machine simply synchronizes with the grid using a synchronizer. However, the synchronization of microgrids that operate with multiple DGs and loads cannot be controlled by a traditional synchronizer. It is needed to control multiple generators and energy storage systems in a coordinated way for the microgrid synchronization. This is not a simple problem, considering that a microgrid consists of various power electronics-based DGs as well as alternator-based generators that produce power together. This paper proposes an active synchronizing control scheme that adopts the network-based coordinated control of multiple DGs. From the simulation results using Simulink dynamic models, it is shown that the scheme provides the microgrid with a deterministic and reliable reconnection to the grid. The proposed method is verified by using the test cases with the experimental setup of a practical microgrid pilot plant.Index Terms-Energy storage system, microgrid, microgrid central controller (MCC), network-based control, static transfer switch (STS), synchronization.

Butanol has been widely used as an important industrial solvent and feedstock for chemical production. Also, its superior fuel properties compared with ethanol make butanol a good substitute for gasoline. Butanol can be efficiently produced by the genus Clostridium through the acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation, one of the oldest industrial fermentation processes. Butanol production via industrial fermentation has recently gained renewed interests as a potential solution to increasing pressure of climate change and environmental problems by moving away from fossil fuel consumption and moving toward renewable raw materials. Great advances over the last 100 years are now reviving interest in bio-based butanol production. However, several challenges to industrial production of butanol still need to be overcome, such as overall cost competitiveness and development of higher performance strains with greater butanol tolerance. This minireview revisits the past 100 years of remarkable achievements made in fermentation technologies, product recovery processes, and strain development in clostridial butanol fermentation through overcoming major technical hurdles.

Thiolase is the first enzyme catalysing the condensation of two acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) molecules to form acetoacetyl-CoA in a dedicated pathway towards the biosynthesis of n-butanol, an important solvent and biofuel. Here we elucidate the crystal structure of Clostridium acetobutylicum thiolase (CaTHL) in its reduced/oxidized states. CaTHL, unlike those from other aerobic bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Zoogloea ramegera, is regulated by the redox-switch modulation through reversible disulfide bond formation between two catalytic cysteine residues, Cys88 and Cys378. When CaTHL is overexpressed in wild-type C. acetobutylicum, butanol production is reduced due to the disturbance of acidogenic to solventogenic shift. The CaTHLV77Q/N153Y/A286K mutant, which is not able to form disulfide bonds, exhibits higher activity than wild-type CaTHL, and enhances butanol production upon overexpression. On the basis of these results, we suggest that CaTHL functions as a key enzyme in the regulation of the main metabolism of C. acetobutylicum through a redox-switch regulatory mechanism.

No abstract

Rotor eccentricity and local demagnetization in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) increases unbalanced magnetic pull and motor vibration resulting in accelerated aging of motor components. If the asymmetry in the rotor remains undetected, it can increase in severity, and increase the risk of stator-rotor contact, which causes forced outage of the motor and driven process. Detection of PMSM rotor asymmetry currently relies on off-line testing and on-line vibration/current spectrum analysis. However, they are inconvenient or cannot provide reliable detection of rotor faults for all PMSM designs. In this paper, the feasibility of using the signals from analog Halleffect field sensors for detecting eccentricity and local demagnetization is investigated. It is shown that Hall sensors present in machines for motion control can be used for directly measuring the variation in the flux inside the motor due to rotor magnetic asymmetry with minimal hardware modifications. 3dimensional (3D) finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental results performed on an interior PMSM (IPMSM) show that the proposed method can provide sensitive and reliable detection of dynamic/mixed eccentricity and local PM demagnetization.

Clostridium is considered a promising microbial host for the production of valuable industrial chemicals. However, Clostridium is notorious for the difficulty of genetic manipulations, and consequently metabolic engineering. Thus, much effort has been exerted to develop novel tools for genetic and metabolic engineering of Clostridium strains. Here, we report the development of a synthetic small regulatory RNA (sRNA)-based system for controlled gene expression in Clostridium acetobutylicum, consisting of a target recognition site, MicC sRNA scaffold, and an RNA chaperone Hfq. To examine the functional operation of sRNA system in C. acetobutylicum, expression control was first examined with the Evoglow fluorescent protein as a model protein. Initially, a C. acetobutylicum protein annotated as Hfq was combined with the synthetic sRNA based on the Escherichia coli MicC scaffold to knockdown Evoglow expression. However, C. acetobutylicum Hfq did not bind to E. coli MicC, while MicC scaffold-based synthetic sRNA itself was able to knockdown the expression of Evoglow. When E. coli hfq gene was introduced, the knockdown efficiency assessed by measuring fluorescence intensity, could be much enhanced. Then, this E. coli MicC scaffold-Hfq system was used to knock down adhE1 gene expression in C. acetobutylicum. Knocking down the adhE1 gene expression using the synthetic sRNA led to a 40% decrease in butanol production (2.5 g/L), compared to that (4.5 g/L) produced by the wild-type strain harboring an empty vector. The sRNA system was further extended to knock down the pta gene expression in the buk mutant C. acetobutylicum strain PJC4BK for enhanced butanol production. The PJC4BK (pPta-Hfq ) strain, which has the pta gene expression knocked down, was able to produce 16.9 g/L of butanol, which is higher than that (14.9 g/L) produced by the PJC4BK strain, mainly due to reduced acetic acid production. Fed-batch culture of PJC4BK (pPta-Hfq ) strain coupled with in situ gas stripping produced 105.5 g of total solvents (70.7 g butanol, 20.5 g acetone, and 14.3 g ethanol), demonstrating that the sRNA-based engineered C. acetobutylicum strain can be cultured without instability. The synthetic sRNA system reported in this study will be useful for more efficient development of engineered C. acetobutylicum strains capable of producing valuable chemicals and fuels. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 374-383. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

There have recently been signifi cant advances in bio-based production of chemicals from renewable resources. Microorganisms belonging to the genus Clostridium have been considered as one of the promising hosts for the production of desired chemicals of wide industrial use. Clostridium strains have capability to utilize diverse carbon sources, including C5 and C6 substrates, which thus allows production of chemicals from inexpensive and abundant biomass such as corn stover, straw, and woody waste. In addition, Clostridium strains naturally produce various chemicals, such as acetic acid, butyric acid, ethanol, isopropanol, butanol, 1,3-propanediol, 2,3-butanediol, and acetone. Recently, several important strategies for the metabolic engineering of Clostridium have been developed not only for the enhanced production of these natural products and but also for the production of non-natural isobutanol production. Here, we review the strategies employed for the development of metabolically engineered Clostridium strains for the production of such chemicals and provide future perspectives.