As an alternative way to produce diesel hydrocarbons, the hydrocracking of rapeseed oil was studied on three different types of bifunctional catalysts: Pt/H-Y, Pt/H-ZSM-5, and sulfided NiMo/γ-Al 2 O 3 . Experiments were carried out in a batch reactor over a temperature range of 300-400 °C and initial hydrogen pressures from 5 to 11 MPa. The reaction time was limited to 3 h to prevent a high degree of cracking. The Pt-zeolite catalysts had a strong catalytic activity for both cracking and hydrogenation reactions, and therefore a higher severity was required to reach a relatively high oil conversion into liquid hydrocarbons. With dependence on the activity of the acid sites of the catalysts, the results show a trade-off between the yield of green diesel and the degree of isomerization, which had a direct effect on the cold properties of the diesel. Among the three catalysts, hydrocracking on Ni-Mo/γ-Al 2 O 3 gave the highest yield of liquid hydrocarbons in the boiling range of the diesel fraction, i.e., green diesel, containing mainly n-paraffins from C 15 to C 18 , and therefore with poor cold flow properties. While for both zeolitic catalysts, hydrotreating of rapeseed oil produced more iso-than n-paraffins in the boiling range of C 5 to C 22 , which included significant amounts of both green diesel and green gasoline. The gas chromatography (GC) analysis of the gaseous phase revealed the presence of mainly CO 2 , CO, propane, and remaining hydrogen. It was observed that both pressure and temperature play an important role in the transformation of triglycerides and fatty acids into hydrocarbons.

Renewable green diesel-type alkanes can be produced by hydrotreating jatropha oil and vegetable oils at standard hydrotreating conditions (i.e., 543−573 K) with Pt/H-ZSM-5 catalysts, which are active under the weight ratio of jatropha or vegetable oil/catalyst of 1. The carbon molar yield of straight chain C15−C18 alkanes was ∼80% for hydrotreating pure jatropha oil. However, under the jatropha oil/catalyst weight ratio of 10, being important from a practical point of view, the alkanes yield falls to only 2.3%. Under a high jatropha oil/catalyst ratio of 10, rhenium-modified Pt/H-ZSM-5 catalyst is found to be effective for raising the C15−C18 alkanes yield. The yield of C15−C18 alkanes is 67% at an optimun Re/Al molar ratio of 0.8. Investigation of catalyst natures indicates that metallic Pt and Re are independently present on the surface, but synergism of these two metals could play an important role in the hydrotreating reaction, even at a high ratio of jatropha oil/catalyst of 10. The reaction pathway involves hydrogenation of the CC bonds of the jatropha oils followed by mainly hydrodeoxygenation with decarbonylation and decarboxylation to form C15−C18 straight chain alkane mixtures.

No abstract

Biohydrogenated diesel (BHD) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fuel were produced by the hydrotreatment of vegetable oils over Ni–Mo-based catalysts in a high-pressure fixed-bed flow reaction system at 350 °C under 4 MPa of hydrogen. Because triglycerides and free fatty acids underwent the hydrogenation and deoxidization at the same time during the reaction, various vegetable oils (jatropha oil, palm oil, and canola oil) were converted to mixed paraffins by the one-step hydrotreatment process although they contained quite different amounts of free fatty acids. Ni-Mo/SiO2 formed n-C18H38, n-C17H36, n-C16H34, and n-C15H32 as predominant products in the hydrotreatment of jatropha oil. These long normal hydrocarbons had high melting points and thus gave the liquid hydrocarbon product over Ni-Mo/SiO2 a high pour point of 20 °C. Either Ni-Mo/H-Y or Ni-Mo/H-ZSM-5 was not suitable for producing BHD from jatropha oil because a large amount of gasoline-ranged hydrocarbons was formed on the strong acid sites of zeolites. When SiO2-Al2O3 was used as a support for the Ni-Mo catalyst, the pour point of the liquid hydrocarbon product decreased to −10 °C by converting some C15–C18 n-paraffins to iso-paraffins and light paraffins on SiO2-Al2O3. Because SiO2-Al2O3 had a proper solid acidic strength, both the chemical composition and the pour point of liquid hydrocarbon product over Ni-Mo/SiO2-Al2O3 were similar to those of a normal diesel bought from a petrol station. Meanwhile, the glycerin groups in the vegetable oils were converted to propane over Ni-Mo/SiO2-Al2O3 by the hydrogenation and deoxidization. Therefore, the liquid hydrocarbon product can be directly used as a BHD fuel for the current diesel engines, and the gas hydrocarbon product can be used as a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fuel in the hydrotreatment of vegetable oils over Ni-Mo/SiO2-Al2O3.

Recently, intriguing new roles for some small nucleolar RNA host genes (SNHGs) in cancer have emerged. In the present study, a panel of SNHGs was profiled to detect aberrantly expressed SNHGs in gastric cancer (GC). The expression of SNHG5 was significantly downregulated in GC and was significantly associated with the formation of a tumor embolus and with the tumor, node and metastasis stage. SNHG5 was a long non-coding RNA, which was a class of non-coding RNA transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides. SNHG5 suppressed GC cell proliferation and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, SNHG5 exerted its function through interacting with MTA2, preventing the translocation of MTA2 from the cytoplasm into the nucleus. SNHG5 overexpression led to significant increases in the acetylation levels of histone H3 and p53, indicating that SNHG5 might affect acetylation by trapping MTA2 in the cytosol, thereby interfering with the formation of the nucleosome remodeling and histone deacetylation complex. This study is the first to demonstrate that SNHG5 is a critical and powerful regulator that is involved in GC progression through trapping MTA2 in the cytosol. These results imply that SNHG5 may be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of GC.

Jatropha oil containing 15 wt % free fatty acids (FFAs) was converted to green diesel by hydrotreatment in a fixed-bed reactor over sulfided Ni–Mo/SiO2–Al2O3 catalyst with functions of hydrogenation, deoxygenation, and isomerization/cracking.

Currently, trastuzumab resistance is a major clinical problem in the treatment of Her2-overexpressing breast cancer. The underlying molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. Our previous study demonstrates that β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) and Her2 comprise a positive feedback loop in human breast cancer cells and that crosstalk between Her2 and β2-AR affects the bio-behaviors of breast cancer cells, suggesting that the β2-AR activation may be involved in trastuzumab resistance. In this study, we show that the expression of β2-AR, which mediates most catecholamine-induced effects, negatively correlates with trastuzumab response in the patients with Her2-overexpressing breast cancer. Catecholamines potently antagonize the anti-proliferative effects of trastuzumab both in vitro and in vivo. Catecholamine stimulation upregulates the expression of miR-21 and MUC-1 by activating Her2 and STAT3, leading to deficiency of phosphatase and tensin homolog and activation of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) and Akt. Through inhibition of miR-199a/b-3p, catecholamines induce the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) activation. Thus, trastuzumab resistance-dependent PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway is controlled by catecholamine-induced β2-AR activation. The data indicate that β2-AR is a reliable molecular marker for prediction of response probability to trastuzumab-based therapy in breast cancer. We also demonstrate that β-blocker propranolol not only enhances the antitumor activities of trastuzumab but also re-sensitizes the resistant cells to trastuzumab. Our retrospective study shows that concurrent treatment of β-blocker and trastuzumab significantly improved progression-free survival and overall survival in the patients with Her2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer, implicating the possibility for combination therapy with trastuzumab plus β-blocker in Her2-overexpressing breast cancer.

Direct conversion of dilute CO2 contained in power plant or industrial exhaust gas and the atmosphere into high-concentration hydrocarbons without a need of separate CO2 capture and purification processes is one of the awaited technologies in envisioned low-carbon societies. In this study, we investigated the performance of integrated CO2 capture and reduction to CH4 over Nibased dual functional catalysts promoted with Na, K and Ca. Ni/Na-γ-Al2O3 exhibited the highest activity for integrated CO2 (5% CO2) capture and reduction, achieving high CO2 conversion (>96%) and CH4 selectivity (>93%). In addition, very low concentration CO2 (100 ppm CO2) was successfully converted to 11.5% CH4 at the peak point (>1000 times higher concentration than that of the supplied CO2) over Ni/Na-γ-Al2O3. The Ni-based dual functional catalyst exhibited a high CO2 conversion exceeding 90%, even when 20%O2 was present during CO2 capture. Furthermore, an increased operation pressure had positive impacts on both CO2 capture and CH4 formation, and these advantageous effects were also observed when CO2 concentration was at the level of atmospheric CO2 (100-400 ppm). As pressure increased from 0.1 to 0.9 MPa, CH4 production capacity with 400 ppm CO2 was enhanced from 111 to 160 µmol gcat -1 . The approach in combination with the efficient catalyst shows encouraging promises for CO2 utilization, enabling direct air capture-conversion to value-added chemicals.CH4 productivity increased from 188 to 266 μmol gcat −1 . In addition, the effect of pressure on catalyst performance was also investigated at very low CO2 levels of 100 and 400 ppm, and high pressure was found to positively affect both CO2 capture and CH4 formation. These results suggest that high pressure enhances the CO2 absorption and CH4 formation capacities of dual-functional catalysts and allows for efficient integrated CO2 capture and reduction into CH4 even at atmospheric levels of CO2. The approach, in combination with the efficient catalyst, is promising for CO2 utilization, thus enabling direct air capture-conversion to value-added chemicals.