Some variations provide a process to produce renewable biogas and cellulosic fiber from a cellulose-rich feedstock, comprising: obtaining a cellulose-rich feedstock that is reduced in concentration of impurities and has a length less than 5 inches; feeding the cellulose-rich feedstock and water to a vacuum steam-explosion vessel, thereby generating a first cellulose-rich intermediate stream; feeding the cellulose-rich intermediate stream to a secondary separation vessel to remove remaining impurities, thereby generating a second cellulose-rich intermediate stream; feeding the second cellulose-rich intermediate stream to an enzymatic-hydrolysis vessel to convert the second cellulose-rich intermediate stream to low-viscosity cellulosic fibers comprising cellulose oligomers; feeding the low-viscosity cellulosic fibers to an anaerobic digester, thereby generating a biogas stream and residual fiber; optionally, recycling residual fiber to the enzymatic-hydrolysis vessel and/or to the anaerobic digester; and recovering some or all of the residual cellulosic fiber from the solid stream as a co-product.

A combination of an electrochemical device for delivering reducing equivalents to a cell, and engineered metabolic pathways within the cell capable of utilizing the electrochemically provided reducing equivalents is disclosed. Such a combination allows the production of commodity chemicals by fermentation to proceed with increased carbon efficiency.

Disclosed is a device for the electrical disintegration of cell structures including a chamber having an inlet for receiving material containing cell structures, an outlet for the discharge thereof, and a conveyor line extending between the inlet and the outlet, an electrode unit which has an electrode body which is arranged within the chamber at least portion-wise along the conveyor line, wherein the chamber has a wall which is portion-wise or completely electrically conductive and electrically insulated from the electrode body, and the electrode unit is adapted to generate an electric field between the electrode body and the wall for electrical disintegration.

A system and method are described for electroporating a sample that utilizes one or more sets of electrodes that are spaced apart in order to hold a surface tension constrained sample between the electrodes. The first electrode is connected to the lower body of the system while the second electrode is connected to the upper body. Both electrodes are connected to a pulse generator. Each electrode has a sample contact surface such that the first electrode and the second electrode may be positioned to hold a surface tension constrained sample between the two sample contact surfaces and the sample may receive a selected electric pulse.

A sorting device is provided. The sorting device includes: a carrier substrate; an input unit disposed on the carrier substrate for inputting a biological sample into the sorting device; a porous material disposed on the carrier substrate and adjacent to the input unit, wherein the porous material contains antigen molecules having specificity to a target biological analyte; a driving module generating at least one driving force in the porous material so as to sort the biological sample based on the affinity for the antigen and the driving force; and an output unit disposed on the carrier substrate and adjacent to the porous material for collecting the sorted target biological analyte. A sorting method is also provided.

An anaerobic digestion system is provided that includes a blend tank operable to control and perform pre-treatment of feedstock. An anaerobic digester is operable to digest the feedstock provided from the blend tank in a totally enclosed oxygen-free environment within a specific temperature range. A bio-mass tank processes liquid digestate from the anaerobic digester. One or more baffles are positioned in the digester, with the one or more baffles providing for plug flow through at least a portion of the digester to create baffled zones that are at least partially operable independently of adjacent baffled zones. A bio-mass tank processes liquid digestate from the anaerobic digester. An energy source is coupled to the anaerobic digester.

Functionalized substrate materials, for example inorganic particles and/or synthetic polymeric particles, are used to enhance bioprocesses such as saccharification and fermentation.

A biohydrogen production device of corn stalks based on synchronous saccharification and fermentation and a hydrogen production method thereof are provided. The biohydrogen production device has a vertical fermenter, an irradiation pretreatment unit, an enzymolysis saccharification unit, a dark fermentation unit, a photofermentation unit, a power supply box and a hydrogen storage tank. The method and device utilize the high specificity of different microorganisms to the substrate to combine the dark fermentation and the process of photofermentation hydrogen production. The method and device can be used for the preparation of hydrogen.

A biohydrogen production device of corn stalks based on synchronous saccharification and fermentation and a hydrogen production method thereof are provided. The biohydrogen production device has a vertical fermenter, an irradiation pretreatment unit, an enzymolysis saccharification unit, a dark fermentation unit, a photofermentation unit, a power supply box and a hydrogen storage tank. The method and device utilize the high specificity of different microorganisms to the substrate to combine the dark fermentation and the process of photofermentation hydrogen production. The method and device can be used for the preparation of hydrogen.

A method to provide a microfluidic flow comprising a central flow and at least one outer flow, such that the central flow includes a first material and the at least one outer flow comprises a second material. One of the first material and the second material has cells and the other of the first material and the second material has solid particles. The method involves injection of a first suspension including the first material through a central inlet with a flow rate Q2 and injection of a second suspension comprising the second material through a pair of side inlets with a flow rate Q2, whereby the ratio of the flow rate Q2 over the flow rate Q1 is at least 4. A device provides such microfluidic flow and a method is provided to alter biological cells.