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BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is an effective method for achieving CO2 mitigation while simultaneously keeping energy supplies secure. To put CCS into practice, it is important to develop energy-efficient industrial technologies for CO2 capture. In this work, a pilot-scale demonstration of carbon capture from flue gas by adsorption technology was performed in an existing coal-fired power plant in China, and the power energy consumption to capture 1 kg of CO2 was measured onsite; furthermore, the feasibility and efficiency of adsorption technology for postcombustion CO2 capture were investigated. The pilot-scale carbon capture plant consisted of two successive VPSA units coupled with a dehumidifying unit. In the dehumidifying unit, water vapor in the desulfurized flue gas was removed by alumina adsorption. Then, CO2 in the dehumidified flue gas was captured by two successive VPSA units, where the three-bed eight-step VPSA process was employed in the first unit packed with zeolite 13X APG, and the second two-bed six-step VPSA unit was packed with pitched activated carbon beads. A roots blower was used to supply the desulfurized flue gas to the pilot-scale carbon capture plant at a controlled flow rate, and both a reciprocating pump and a diaphragm pump were employed to desorb adsorbents under vacuum pressure in the two-stage units and recover high-purity CO2 for subsequent storage or utilization. Some key assessment parameters were measured onsite, including the flow rate of flue gas, CO2 recovery from flue gas, CO2 purity in the product gas, and power energy consumption to capture 1 kg of CO2, and the experimental results were verified by numerical simulations using a multibed VPSA modeling framework. Based on the experimental and simulated results, CO2 capture from flue gas in an existing coal-fired power plant by two successive VPSA units was evaluated.

Flame-retardant (FR) cotton fabrics were successfully prepared with the reactive product of (3-piperazinylpropyl)­methyldimethoxysilane and phytic acid, denoted as GPA, through a quick dip-coating technology. The structure, surface micromorphologies, thermal degradation properties, flame retardancy, and combustion properties of samples were assessed. GPA was successfully deposited on the surface of cotton fabrics, which was proved by the results of Fourier-transform infrared analysis as well as scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM–EDS). During a vertical burning test, FR cotton-3, with an increased mass of 14.33 wt %, immediately extinguished after removing the igniter, while the control was entirely burned. The deposition of GPA to create flame-retardant cotton fabrics led to the serious decrease of heat release rate and total heat release. The promoted flame retardancy resulted from the formed thermally stable residues on the surface of cotton fabrics, which held back mass/heat transfer. Thermogravimetric analysis coupled with Fourier-transform infrared analysis (TG–FTIR) results indicated that flame-retardant cotton fabrics released more nonflammable gases (H2O and NH3) and less flammable gases than the control. According to the results of TG–FTIR, SEM–EDS, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the mechanism of the flame retardancy of GPA on the cotton fabrics was proposed.

The success of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) as a pathogen is largely contributes to its ability to manipulate the host immune responses. The genome of M. tuberculosis encodes multiple immune-modulatory proteins, including several members of the multi-genic PE_PPE family. Despite of intense research, the roles of PE_PGRS proteins in mycobacterial pathogenesis remain elusive. The function of M. tuberculosis PE_PGRS41, characterized by an extended and unique C-terminal domain, was studied. Expression of PE_PGRS41 in Mycobacterium smegmatis, a non-pathogenic species intrinsically deficient of PE_PGRS, severely impaired the resistance of the recombinant to multiple stresses via altering the cell wall integrity. Macrophages infected by M. smegmatis harboring PE_PGRS41 decreased the production of TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6. In addition, PE_PGRS41 boosted the survival of M. smegmatis within macrophage accompanied with enhanced cytotoxic cell death through inhibiting the cell apoptosis and autophagy. Taken together, these results implicate that PE_PGRS41 is a virulence factor of M. tuberculosis and sufficient to confer pathogenic properties to M. smegmatis.

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