Tag Archives: Biomass

Modeling the process of alcoholic fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae in MATLAB/Simulink

Yahia Esmail1*, Ramez Mohammad1 and Oulfat Jolaha2

1 Department of Food Science, Lattakia University, Syria.
2 Department of Computer Engineering and Automatic Control, Lattakia University, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Yahia Esmail, Email: yahia.esmail@tishreen.edu.sy, Tel: +963 936 094505).

Received: 3/ 3/ 2025       Accepted: 5/ 7/ 2025

Abstract

In this study, filtered and purified grape juice was fermented at 25℃, after the juice was inoculated with instant dry yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC® 2601™ and the fermentation process took 10 days, a sample was taken every 24 hours to measure the total sugars concentration, biomass and ethanol concentration formed during fermentation. The initial conditions were set as follows: initial sugars concentration S_0=200 ± 0.059g/l, initial alcohol concentration P_0=0g/l, initial yeast concentration X_0=1.5g/l, it was observed that 12.66 ± 0.071g of sugars were consumed after one day of fermentation to produce 10.52 ± 0.22g of ethanol, which represents 83.10% of the consumed sugars, and the biomass increased by 0.66 ± 0.273g, which represents 5.21% of the consumed sugars. The consumption of the substrate continues with the increase in the fermentation period, so that the total consumed sugars reached about 95.74% on the tenth day of fermentation, i.e. at a rate of 191.48 ± 1.291 g, and the maximum alcohol concentration on the tenth day also reached 120.1 ± 0.04g/l. As for the biomass, the maximum concentration of biomass was X_max=15.39 ± 0.04g/l on the tenth day of fermentation, and the growth rate of yeast cells was μ_max=0.674/l. The process of biomass formation, substrate consumption, and alcohol production were modeled according to three special equations as a function of time, which were solved by Runge-Kutta and Euler methods, where the results of the solution by Euler method outperformed the results of the Runge-Kutta method in the measurements of biomass, substrate, and ethanol due to the low value of the coefficient of Determination R^2, the mean absolute error MAE, and the mean square error MSE, where the values reached:

Keywords: Biomass, Substrate, Differential Equations, Runge-Kutta, Euler.

 Full paper in Arabic: PDF

Growth and Biomass Study of Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn. in Merdash Location, Al-Ghab Province

 Bashar Tobo*(1) Hikmat Abbas(1) and Osama Radwan(1)

(1). Forestry and Environment Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Latakia, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Eng. Bashar Tobo. E-Mail: bashar.tobo33@gmail.com).

Received: 22/10/2018                                Accepted: 07/12/2018

Abstract

This research aimed to study the growth and biomass of Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn. in Al-Ghab region. Twenty-one circular samples were taken, the area of each sample was 400 m2. The following measurements were taken for each sample: trees number (N), diameter at breast height (dbh) and total trees height (H). Ten (10) trees were chosen covering all diameter classes, to estimate the form factor and to construct the biomass. Wood volume and mean annual increment of Eucalyptus trees were calculated. In addition to the above, total biomass was calculated using an exponential function. The results showed that mean of the form factor of Eucalyptus trees in the study area was about 0.41, while the wood volume value reached to 249.25 m3/ha with tree density of 208 trees/ha. The mean of annual increment was 3.89 m3/ha/year. The results of this study demonstrated that the study area had high total biomass value with about 318.71 ton/ha.

Key words: Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn., Wood productivity, Biomass, Form factor.

Full Paper in Arabic: PDF

Monitoring Changes in Vegetation cover in Agriculture Stability Zones of Syria Using Time Series NDVI/MODIS During 2000-2012

Eyad Alkhaled*(1) and Rada Kassouha(1)

(1). General Organization of Remote Sensing (GORS), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Eyad Al Khaled. E-Mail: eyadalkhaled@gmail.com).

Received: 27/07/ 2015                                     Accepted: 07/09/ 2015

Abstract

Drought is a natural phenomenon that decreases plants biomass, which can be monitored using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The study aimed to monitor the periodical and spatial changes of plant cover, and drought in Agriculture Stability Zones (ASZ) in Syria, using NDVI/MODIS images, and link them with the rainfall data during 2001- 2012. The results showed that the lowest NDVI values were recorded for zones 1 to 5; the averages during 2008 were 0.412, 0.259, 0.172, 0.131, and 0.109 respectively. The year 2008 was considered the most drought year during the studied period. On the other hand, the year 2003 was considered the least drought year during the same period. The averages of NDVI of the five zones were 0.55, 0.49, 0.37, 0.28, and 0.18 respectively. Al thought there was a high significant correlation (r=0.89*) between rainfall and NDVI during the studied period. The output maps of MODIS using NDVI for the studied period, which is classified to 13 classes, showed that the largest area was for zone 1 of the classes 7, 8, 9, and 10, and the NDVI values ranged from 0.3 to 0.7 which representing rain fed and irrigated crops, and a specific percentage of the horticulture. Zone2 was included in the classes 6,7, and 8 for the NDVI values that ranged from 0.2 to 0.5, which representing grass and rain fed crops, but zones 3 and 4 were included in the classes 5,6, and 7 for the NDVI values that ranged from 0.1 to 0.4, which representing low cover with grass and rain fed crops, finally Zone 5 was included in two classes; 4, and 5 which were dominant and representing low and semi grass cover, with an area about 91.3% of zone 5.

Key words: NDVI, Agricultural stability zones, Biomass, MODIS, Syria.

Full paper in Arabic:

مراقبة التغيرات في الغطاء النباتي في مناطق الاستقرار الزراعي لسورية باستخدام القرينة النباتية NDVI من معطيات MODIS للسلسة الزمنية 2000-2012