With diminishing oil supplies and growing political instability in oil-producing nations, the world is facing a major energy threat which needs to be solved by virtue of alternative energy sources. Bioethanol has received considerable attention in the transportation sector because of its utility as an octane booster, fuel additive, and even as neat fuel. Brazil and the USA have been producing ethanol on a large scale from sugarcane and corn, respectively. However, due to their primary utility as food and feed, these crops cannot meet the global demand for ethanol production as an alternative transportation fuel. Lignocellulosic biomass is projected as a virtually eternal raw material for fuel ethanol production. The main bottleneck so far has been the technology concerns, which do not support cost-effective and competitive production of lignocellulosic bioethanol. This review sheds light on some of the practical approaches that can be adopted to make the production of lignocellulosic bioethanol economically attractive. These include the use of cheaper substrates, cost-effective pre-treatment techniques, overproducing and recombinant strains for maximized ethanol tolerance and yields, improved recovery processes, effi cient bioprocess integration, economic exploitation of side products, and energy and waste minimization. An integrated and dedicated approach can help in realizing large-scale commercial production of lignocellulosic bioethanol, and can contribute toward a cleaner and more energy effi cient world.

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We report here the observations that exhibit the existence of matter wave phenomena with wavelength in the macrodomain of a few centimeters, for electrons moving along a magnetic field from an electron gun to a collector plate situated behind a grounded grid. These are in accordance with the predictions of a quantumlike theory for charged particles in the classical macrodomain, given by one of the authors [R. K. Varma, Phys. Rev. A 31, 3951 (1985)] with a recent generalization [R. K. Varma, Phys. Rev. E 64, 036608 (2001)]. The beats correspond to two closely spaced "frequencies" in the system, with the beat frequency given, in accordance with the characteristics of a wave phenomena, by the difference between the two frequencies. The beats ride as a modulation over a discrete energy band structure obtained with only one frequency present. The frequency here corresponds to the distance between the electron gun and the detector plate as it characterizes the variation in the energy band structure as the electron energy is swept. The second "frequency" corresponds to the gun-grid distance. These observations of the beats of matter waves in this experiment, with characteristics in accordance with the wave algorithm, then establish unambiguously the existence of macroscopic matter waves for electrons propagating along a magnetic field.

Selective harmonic elimination pulse-width modulation (SHE-PWM) works at low-frequency switching, which reduces switching losses, device stress, and increases energy conversion efficiency. So, it can be an effective control strategy for multilevel inverter working on medium-voltage, high-power industrial energy conversion application. It provides desired output voltage by retaining the requested fundamental component as well as eliminating some low-order harmonics. The application of SHE-PWM in industries is having an influence on precise solvability of complex and non-linear equations. This study presents two recently reported optimisation techniques, namely backtracking search algorithm and differential search algorithm (DSA) for obtaining a more accurate solution of the harmonics elimination problem. The superiority of the proposed optimisation algorithms over the well known ancient algorithm such as genetic algorithm, BEE algorithm and particle swarm optimisation have been established by a comparative study with respect to the possibility of attaining global minima, the rank of convergence rate, and inverter performance analysis. Simulation and experimental results validate the efficacy of the DSA optimisation technique for calculating more precise switching angles that totally eliminate 5th-and 7th-order harmonics with fulfilling the requested fundamental component.

Occurrence of nonlinear phenomena like subharmonics and chaos in power electronic circuits has been reported recently. In this paper, we investigate these phenomena in the current-mode-controlled boost converter. A nonlinear model in the form of a mapping from one point of observation to the next has been derived. The map has a closed form even when the parasitic elements are included. The bifurcation behavior of the boost converter has been investigated with the help of this discrete model.

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