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At least 1,225 records · Page 68

Pathways to a Sustainable Aviation Ecosystem: Accelerated Sustainable Aviation Fuel Properties Modeling

With world-class models and supercomputing capabilities combined with accurate property measurement, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) can turn even the most complex sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) property characterization challenges into achievable successes. NREL provides holistic analysis and modeling to guide investments and accelerate the broad adoption of SAF.

aviation↗

Achieving 50% Energy Savings in Chicago Homes: A Case Study for Advancing Equity and Climate Goals

Since 2019, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Elevate have collaborated to identify pathways to deep energy retrofits in Chicago's housing stock, document equity implications and co-benefits of this transition, and validate the findings by implementing retrofits in real Chicago homes. This document summarizes our analysis process to model advanced retrofit packages that lead to greater than 50% energy savings in Chicago homes. Based on these findings, we have also developed a roadmap with the City to guide implementation, and are deploying the recommended retrofit packages in real Chicago homes to realize these energy savings. This work was developed in collaboration with two key stakeholders - the City of Chicago and Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) - and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NREL's Residential Buildings team maintains the best-in-class ResStock™ energy model of the U.S. residential building stock. For this work, we calibrated ResStock to Chicago's unique local housing stock to accurately simulate energy use in Chicago homes both for current conditions and with various retrofit scenarios. We simulated a wide range of potential building retrofits covering all aspects of residential energy use and then grouped these into packages based on energy and utility bill savings. ResStock can model diverse building types and housing characteristics, so we're able to observe the range of outcomes that might occur when these upgrades are deployed across the entire housing stock. We can then estimate potential energy savings from an advanced retrofit program on Chicago's housing stock by comparing the modeled energy use before versus after a retrofit. This novel version of ResStock, calibrated to Chicago with data from Elevate, can help City officials, ComEd, and other partners plan for community-scale decarbonization via residential retrofits. Specifically, this work contributes the following project goals: Develop a building retrofit prioritization strategy for Chicago single-family and 2- to 4-unit buildings; Identify neighborhoods and home types that have the highest potential for savings from electrification; and Assess the impact of advanced building retrofits on energy use, utility bills, and CO2 emissions at the city and building level. Although this study is specific to Chicago, its methods and learnings are applicable across the United States. These findings are especially notable for heat pumps and electrification retrofits in cold climates.

building energy modeling↗

Comparative techno-economic and environmental analysis of using nuclear energy and fossil energy with carbon sequestration in U.S. Gulf Coast petroleum refineries

U.S. Gulf Coast refineries have processing capacity of approximately 9.4 million barrels of crude oil per day—about 50% of U.S. national capacity—while consuming natural gas, electricity, and hydrogen, resulting in approximately 100 million metric tonnes (MMT) of onsite CO₂ emissions in 2022. This study evaluates two alternative refinery energy supply pathways: nuclear energy (NE) and fossil energy-derived hydrogen with carbon capture and sequestration (FE-CCS; autothermal reforming), intermittent renewable sources are not considered as they cannot reliably meet continuous industrial heat and hydrogen demands. Using publicly available data for refineries, we conducted a bottom-up, facility-level assessment to estimate energy use by type, well-to-gate refinery emissions, and associated costs of integration. Compared to current refinery operations using natural gas energy supply and conventional hydrogen production (steam methane reforming without sequestration), NE and FE-CCS could produce, respectively, average emissions reductions of 37% and 42%, total abatement costs of $\$$52–$\$$221 and $\$$211–$\$$612/MT CO₂, and additional costs of about $\$$0.2–$\$$6 and $\$$3–$\$$11 per barrel of crude, respectively. Our analysis indicates that 25 out of 27 refineries have lower total additional cost ($\$$/bbl.) for the NE scenario than the FE-CCS scenario, making a strong case for NE integration with petroleum refineries. This work's main contribution is a detailed bottom-up refinery-level analysis method that can be utilized by the worldwide refining industry and stakeholders as they assess different technological options, along with their costs and environmental impacts for a specific refinery operation.

Carbon capture and sequestration↗

Techno-Economic Analysis and Global Warming Potential of a Novel Offshore Macroalgae Biorefinery

The success of a large scale macroalgae-based biorefinery is dependent on the demonstration of favorable system economics and environmental sustainability. This study uses detailed process modeling to quantify the mass and energy flows through the various unit operations required for a novel free-floating macroalgae biorefinery concept. The modular process model served as the foundation for the techno-economic and global warming potential analyses used to quantify the sustainability of the proposed concept. This work includes detailed techno-economic results for a complete macroalgae cultivation and conversion system with multiple hatchery configurations and several emerging technologies. System optimization was achieved through the evaluation of various technology options for each unit operation. Technologies considered include traditional twine and textile substrate hatchery configurations, drone assisted seeding and biomass transport, mechanized line seeding and harvesting, adhesive spore mixtures that simplify seeding operations and improve hatchery energetics, and hydrothermal liquefaction to produce upgradable biocrude. Outputs from the system include renewable diesel (R100), naphtha, biochar, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, and aqueous/solid waste streams. Three different system pathways were explored, yielding a biomass production cost ranging from $210 to $565 per dry metric ton and a minimum fuel selling price from $1.35 to $2.91 per liter of gasoline equivalent. Stochastic manipulation of the process model and sensitivity analyses support these results. The global warming potential analysis shows net greenhouse gas emissions ranging from 14 to 29 gCO2-eq MJ-1, supported by stochastic and sensitivity analyses. The recommendations from this work highlight critical areas for research and development investment such that a sustainable macroalgae cultivation and conversion system can be realized.

NOMAD seaweed cultivation, techno-economic analysi↗

Mineralogical, magnetic and geochemical data constrain the pathways and extent of weathering of mineralized sedimentary rocks

The oxidative weathering of sulfidic rock can profoundly impact watersheds through the resulting export of acidity and metals. Weathering leaves a record of mineral transformation, particularly involving minor redox-sensitive phases, that can inform the development of conceptual and quantitative models. In sulfidic sedimentary rocks, however, variations in depositional history, diagenesis and mineralization can change or overprint the distributions of these trace minerals, complicating the interpretation of weathering signatures. Here we show that a combination of bulk mineralogical and geochemical techniques, micrometer-resolution X-ray fluorescence microprobe analysis and rock magnetic measurements, applied to drill core samples and single weathered fractures, can provide data that enable the development of a geochemically consistent weathering model. This work focused on one watershed in the Upper Colorado River Basin sitting within the Mesaverde Formation, a sedimentary sandstone bedrock with disseminated sulfide minerals, including pyrite and sphalerite, that were introduced during diagenesis and subsequent magmatic-hydrothermal mineralization. Combined analytical methods revealed the pathways of iron (Fe), carbonate and silicate mineral weathering and showed how pH controls element retention or release from the actively weathering fractured sandstone. Drill core logging, whole rock X-ray diffraction, and geochemical measurements document the progression from unweathered rock at depth to weathered rock at the surface. X-ray microprobe analyses of a 1-cm size weathering profile along a fracture surface are consistent with the mobilization of Fe(II) and Fe(III) into acidic pore water from the dissolution of primary pyrite, Fe-sphalerite, chlorite, and minor siderite and pyrrhotite. These reactions are followed by the precipitation of secondary minerals such as of goethite and jarosite, a Fe-(oxyhydr)oxide and hydrous Fe(III) sulfate, respectively. Microscale analyses also helped explain the weathering reactions responsible for the mineralogical transformations observed in the top and most weathered section of the drill core. For example, dissolution of feldspar and chlorite neutralizes the acidity generated by Fe and sulfide mineral oxidation, oversaturating the solution in both Fe-oxides. The combination of X-ray spectromicroscopy and magnetic measurements show that the Fe(III) product is goethite, mainly present either as a coating on fracture surfaces in the actively weathering region of the core or more homogeneously contained within the unconsolidated regolith at the top of the core. Low-temperature magnetic data reveal the presence of ferromagnetic Fe-sulfide pyrrhotite that, although it occurs at trace concentrations, could provide a qualitative proxy for unweathered sulfide minerals because the loss of pyrrhotite is associated with the onset of oxidative weathering. Pyrrhotite loss and goethite formation are detectable through room-temperature magnetic coercivity changes, suggesting that rock magnetic measurements can determine weathering intensity in rock samples at many scales. In conclusion, this work contributes evidence that the weathering of sulfidic sedimentary rocks follows a geochemical pattern in which the abundance of sulfide minerals controls the generation of acidity and dissolved elements, and the pH-dependent mobility of these elements controls their export to the ground- and surface-water.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Maize specialized metabolome networks reveal organ-preferential mixed glycosides

Despite the scientific and economic importance of maize, little is known about its specialized metabolism. Here, five maize organs were profiled using different reversed-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry methods. The resulting spectral metadata, combined with candidate substrate-product pair (CSPP) networks, allowed the structural characterization of 427 of the 5,420 profiled compounds, including phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, benzoxazinoids, and auxin-related compounds, among others. Only 75 of the 427 compounds were already described in maize. Analysis of the CSPP networks showed that phenylpropanoids are present in all organs, whereas other metabolic classes are rather organ-enriched. Frequently occurring CSPP mass differences often corresponded with glycosyl- and acyltransferase reactions. The interplay of glycosylations and acylations yields a wide variety of mixed glycosides, bearing substructures corresponding to the different biochemical classes. For example, in the tassel, many phenylpropanoid and flavonoid-bearing glycosides also contain auxin-derived moieties. The characterized compounds and mass differences are an important step forward in metabolic pathway discovery and systems biology research.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Mathematical solutions in internal dose assessment: A comparison of Python-based differential equation solvers in biokinetic modeling

Abstract In biokinetic modeling systems employed for radiation protection, biological retention and excretion have been modeled as a series of discretized compartments representing the organs and tissues of the human body. Fractional retention and excretion in these organ and tissue systems have been mathematically governed by a series of coupled first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The coupled ODE systems comprising the biokinetic models are usually stiff due to the severe difference between rapid and slow transfers between compartments. In this study, the capabilities of solving a complex coupled system of ODEs for biokinetic modeling were evaluated by comparing different Python programming language solvers and solving methods with the motivation of establishing a framework that enables multi-level analysis. The stability of the solvers was analyzed to select the best performers for solving the biokinetic problems. A Python-based linear algebraic method was also explored to examine how the numerical methods deviated from an analytical or semi-analytical method. Results demonstrated that customized implicit methods resulted in an enhanced stable solution for the inhaled 60 Co (Type M) and 131 I (Type F) exposure scenarios for the inhalation pathway of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 130 Human Respiratory Tract Model (HRTM). The customized implementation of the Python-based implicit solvers resulted in approximately consistent solutions with the Python-based matrix exponential method ( expm ). The differences generally observed between the implicit solvers and expm are attributable to numerical precision and the order of numerical approximation of the numerical solvers. This study provides the first analysis of a list of Python ODE solvers and methods by comparing their usage for solving biokinetic models using the ICRP Publication 130 HRTM and provides a framework for the selection of the most appropriate ODE solvers and methods in Python language to implement for modeling the distribution of internal radioactivity.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Isotope ratio-based quantification of carbon assimilation highlights the role of plastidial isoprenoid precursor availability in photosynthesis

Abstract Background We report a method to estimate carbon assimilation based on isotope ratio-mass spectrometry (IRMS) of 13 CO 2 labeled plant tissue. Photosynthetic carbon assimilation is the principal experimental observable which integrates important aspects of primary plant metabolism. It is traditionally measured through gas exchange. Despite its centrality in plant research, gas exchange performs poorly with rosette growth habits typical of Arabidopsis thaliana , mutant lines with limited biomass, and accounts poorly for leaf shading. Results IRMS-based carbon assimilation values from plants labeled at different light intensities were compared to those obtained by gas exchange, and the two methods yielded similar values. Using this method, we observed a strong correlation between 13 C content and labeling time (R 2 = 0.999) for 158 wild-type plants labeled for 6 to 42 min. Plants cultivated under different light regimes showed a linear response with respect to carbon assimilation, varying from 7.38 nmol 13 C mg −1 leaf tissue min −1 at 80 PAR to 19.27 nmol 13 C mg −1 leaf tissue min −1 at 500 PAR. We applied this method to examine the link between inhibition of the 2 C -methyl- d -erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) pathway and suppression of photosynthesis. A significant decrease in carbon assimilation was observed when metabolic activity in the MEP pathway was compromised by mutation or herbicides targeting the MEP pathway. Mutants affected in MEP pathway genes 1-DEOXY- d -XYLULOSE 5-PHOSPHATE SYNTHASE (DXS) or 1-HYDROXY-2-METHYL-2-(E)-BUTENYL 4-DIPHOSPHATE SYNTHASE (HDS) showed assimilation rates 36% and 61% lower than wild type. Similarly, wild type plants treated with the MEP pathway inhibitors clomazone or fosmidomycin showed reductions of 52% and 43%, respectively, while inhibition of the analogous mevalonic acid pathway, which supplies the same isoprenoid intermediates in the cytosol, did not, suggesting inhibition of photosynthesis was specific to disruption of the MEP pathway. Conclusions This method provides an alternative to gas exchange that offers several advantages: resilience to differences in leaf overlap, measurements based on tissue mass rather than leaf surface area, and compatibility with mutant Arabidopsis lines which are not amenable to gas exchange measurements due to low biomass and limited leaf surface area. It is suitable for screening large numbers of replicates simultaneously as well as post-hoc analysis of previously labeled plant tissue and is complementary to downstream detection of isotopic label in targeted metabolite pools.

2C‑methyl‑d‑erythritol 4‑phosphate pathway↗

The path to 2060: Saudi Arabia's long-term pathway for GHG emission reduction

Saudi Arabia, as part of its Saudi Green Initiative, has announced its goal to achieve net zero green-house gas emissions by 2060. This ambitious target underscores the nation's dedication to address-ing climate change. However, there is a significant gap in comprehensive analysis regarding the long-term effects of Saudi Arabia's climate policies and their collective contribution towards the net-zero objective. This study endeavors to bridge this gap through a detailed examination using the GCAM-KSA, a specialized version of the Global Change Analysis Model tailored for Saudi Arabia, employing a multi-sectoral methodology that integrates economic, energy, and land use systems within a coherent framework to assess the impact of climate policies on GHG emissions. Our anal-ysis reveals that reaching net-zero GHG emissions by 2060 is a complex challenge requiring con-certed efforts across all sectors of the economy. While transitioning to low-carbon electricity and improving energy efficiency offer considerable emission reductions, fully decarbonizing the indus-trial and transportation sectors poses a significant hurdle. Our findings suggest that Saudi Arabia must triple its emission reduction commitments in its next Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) update to align with its 2060 net-zero goal. Early action and increased ambition could avoid the chances of getting locked into the high emission assets and give enough time to transform the energy system. Furthermore, the adoption and integration of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) tech-nologies are identified as crucial for offsetting residual emissions, especially in sectors that might continue to rely on fossil fuels.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Integrative analysis of CAM photosynthesis reveals its impact on primary metabolism in Yucca

Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) is an adaptation that temporally separates carbon uptake at night from photosynthesis during the day. CAM has evolved repeatedly across vascular plants, as its emergence may depend on simple regulatory changes to deeply conserved metabolic pathways. Modern CAM research relies heavily on interpretation of transcriptomic data, though regulation occurs at multiple levels following transcription. Additionally, while most research to date has focused on a handful of genes and metabolites in the core CAM pathway, the co-option of conserved regulatory and functional genes is bound to have wide-ranging effects on other aspects of primary metabolism. In this study, we integrate transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data to compare primary metabolism between the CAM species Yucca aloifolia and closely related C 3 species, Y. filamentosa. We observe minimal correlation between protein abundance and mRNA expression, suggesting significant post-transcriptional regulation in CAM species. We also find evidence of shifts in gene expression and metabolite accumulation outside of the central CAM pathway, suggesting that the shift to CAM has cascading effects across primary metabolism, especially nitrogen metabolism. Our findings provide insights into the metabolic shifts associated with CAM evolution, and highlight the complexity of its regulation at multiple biological levels.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Impacts of Initial Ca/P on Amorphous Calcium Phosphate

Amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) is a metastable phase in the crystallization pathway of calcium phosphates. Understanding its chemical and structural properties could provide critical insights into biomineralization mechanisms. Of particular interest is the impact of the initial Ca/P on the structure of ACP. Further, the influence of Ca/P on the size, precipitate chemistry, and transformation of ACP is crucial to understanding the metastability of amorphous phosphates. In situ pair distribution function (PDF) analysis results 5 min after mixing show that the Ca-P bonding geometry varies from predominantly monodentate, to mixed monodentate and bidentate, to predominantly bidentate as Ca/P increases from 0.2 to 5.0. This relationship is consistent across a pH range of 6-11. Samples with only monodentate Ca-P geometries transform directly to hydroxylapatite, while samples some or all bidentate geometries form brushite. Regardless of the initial ratio, the Ca/P of precipitates is close to 1.0. In situ small-angle X-ray scattering shows particle size increases with increasing Ca/P. This is the first evidence of structural variations in ACP and is directly linked to system chemistry. Finally, synthesis of ACP with monodentate Ca-P geometries is a promising method to control the crystallization pathway to form hydroxylapatite at circumneutral pH without stabilizing ions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Naphthodithiophene‐Fused Porphyrins: Synthesis, Characterization, and Impact of Extended Conjugation on Aromaticity

The fusion of tetrapyrroles with aromatic heterocycles constitutes a useful tool for manipulating their opto-electronic properties. In this work, the synthesis of naphthodithiophene-fused porphyrins was achieved through a Heck reaction-based cascade of steps followed by the Scholl reaction. The naphthodithiophene-fused porphyrins display a unique set of optical and electronic properties. Fusion of the naphtho[2,1-b:3,4-b’]dithiophene to porphyrin (F2VTP) leads to a ~20% increase in the fluorescence lifetime, which is accompanied, unexpectedly, by a more than two-fold drop in the emission quantum yield (ϕ=0.018). In contrast, fusion of the isomeric naphtho[1,2-b:4,3-b’]dithiophene to porphyrin (F3VPT) results in a ~1.5-fold increase in the fluorescence quantum yield (ϕ=0.13) with a concomitant ~30 % increase in the fluorescence lifetime. This behavior suggests that fusion of the porphyrin with the naphthodithiopheno-system mainly affects the radiative rate constant in the Q-state deactivation pathway, where the effects of the isomeric naphtho[2,1-b:3,4-b’]dithiophene- versus naphtho[1,2-b:4,3-b’]dithiophene-fusion are essentially the opposite. Interestingly, nucleus-independent chemical shifts analysis revealed a considerable difference between the aromaticities of these two isomeric systems. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that subtle structural differences in the fused components of the porphyrin can be reflected in rather significant differences between the photophysical properties of the resulting systems.

Chemistry↗

Microstructural Coarsening Kinetics and Mechanical Property Changes in Long-Term Aged Sn–Pb–Sb Solder Joints

Tin-lead-antimony (50Sn–47Pb–3Sb wt.%) soldered assemblies were mechanically tested approximately 30 years after initial production and found to have solder joints of reduced strength. The microstructure of this solder alloy exhibits a ternary eutectic structure with Sn-rich, Pb-rich, and SnSb phases. Accelerated aging was performed to evaluate solder microstructural coarsening and associated strength of laboratory solder joints to correlate these properties to the “naturally aged” solder joints. Isothermal aging was conducted at room temperature, 55, 70, 100, and 135 °C and aging times that ranged from 0.1 to 365 days. The coarsening kinetics of the Pb-rich phase were determined through optical microscopy and image analysis methods established in previous studies on binary Sn–Pb solder. A kinetic equation was developed with time exponent n of 0.43 and activation energy of 24000 J/mol, suggesting grain boundary diffusion or other fast diffusion pathways controlling the microstructural evolution. Compression testing and Vickers microhardness showed significant strength loss within the first 20–30 days after soldering; then, the microstructure and mechanical properties changed more slowly over long periods of time. Further, by combining accelerated aging data and the microstructure-based kinetics, strength predictions were made that match well with the properties of the actual soldered assemblies naturally aged for 30 years. However, aging at the highest temperature of 135 °C produced anomalous behavior suggesting that extraneous aging mechanisms are active. Therefore, data obtained at this temperature or higher should not be used. Overall, the combined microstructural and mechanical property methods used in this study confirmed that the observed reduction in strength of ~ 30-year-old solder joints can be accounted for by the microstructural coarsening that takes place during long-term solid-state aging.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A versatile and low-cost chip-to-world interface: enabling ICP-MS characterization of isotachophoretically separated lanthanides on a microfluidic device

Microfluidics offer novel and state-of-the-art pathways to process materials. Microfluidic systems drastically reduce timeframes and costs associated with traditional lab-scale efforts in the area of analytical sample preparations. The challenge arises in effectively connecting microfluidics to off-chip analysis tools to accurately characterize samples after treatment on-chip. Here, a fused silica microfluidic device (MFD) is connected to a fused-silica capillary in order to create a world-to-chip connection between the MFD and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). Specifically, this is demonstrated by utilizing isotachophoresis (ITP) on a microfluidic chip to separate samples containing up to 14 lanthanides into elementally pure bands. The separated sample is successfully transferred across a 7 nL dead space at the microchip-capillary junction, such that separation resolution is maintained and even increased through the interface and into the ICP-MS, where the elemental composition of the separated sample is analysed. Lanthanide samples of varying composition are detected using ICP-MS, demonstrating this versatile and cost-effective approach that does not degrade the separation quality achieved on the MFD. This simple and inexpensive connection enables fast, low-cost sample preparation immediately prior to injection into an ICP-MS or other analytical instruments.

Lackey, Hope E.↗

Understanding non-stochiometric deposition of multi-principal elemental NiCoCr thin films

Multi-principal elemental NiCoCr thin films with compositional flexibility have potential applications as a thermal barrier, corrosion-resistant coatings, and functional energy materials. In this study, the non-stochiometric multi-principal element alloy thin film formation behavior from an equiatomic ablation target of NiCoCr using pulsed laser deposition has been reported. Here, the effect of varying laser fluence on compositions of constituent elements in the NiCoCr thin films is systematically investigated. The increase in laser fluence typically increases the likelihood of acquiring undesirable particulates in thin films. Therefore, to maintain the film quality the laser fluences are adjusted within the range of 1.3–3.3 J·cm -2 , while the film thicknesses are kept constant at ~30 nm. Results show that the constituent elements are well-distributed in the formed NiCoCr thin films, however, having average atomic percentages of Ni and Cr twice as high as Co irrespective of the equiatomic composition of individual elements in the ablation target. This stochiometric alteration in the as-deposited thin films is governed by the rate of ablation and subsequent evaporation of each element, which is facilitated by the optical properties and vapor pressure of individual constituent elements. Additionally, electron energy-loss spectroscopy and x-ray absorption spectroscopy analysis reveal that the thin films have partially oxidized, with the Cr oxidation contributing the most to the O-K edge in comparison to Ni and Co. Finally, this study presents a laser-assisted pathway for fabricating compositionally flexible NiCoCr thin films and develops an understanding of the non-equilibrium laser-material interactions and how the intrinsic properties of constituent elements affect the stoichiometric flow of materials from the target to the final film deposition.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Silica-copper catalyst interfaces enable carbon-carbon coupling towards ethylene electrosynthesis

Membrane electrode assembly (MEA) electrolyzers offer a means to scale up CO 2 -to-ethylene electroconversion using renewable electricity and close the anthropogenic carbon cycle. To date, excessive CO 2 coverage at the catalyst surface with limited active sites in MEA systems interferes with the carbon-carbon coupling reaction, diminishing ethylene production. With the aid of density functional theory calculations and spectroscopic analysis, here we report an oxide modulation strategy in which we introduce silica on Cu to create active Cu-SiO x interface sites, decreasing the formation energies of OCOH* and OCCOH*—key intermediates along the pathway to ethylene formation. We then synthesize the Cu-SiO x catalysts using one-pot coprecipitation and integrate the catalyst in a MEA electrolyzer. By tuning the CO 2 concentration, the Cu-SiO x catalyst based MEA electrolyzer shows high ethylene Faradaic efficiencies of up to 65% at high ethylene current densities of up to 215 mA cm -2 ; and features sustained operation over 50 h.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Structures and function of a tailoring oxidase in complex with a nonribosomal peptide synthetase module

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are large modular enzymes that synthesize secondary metabolites and natural product therapeutics. Most NRPS biosynthetic pathways include an NRPS and additional proteins that introduce chemical modifications before, during or after assembly-line synthesis. The bacillamide biosynthetic pathway is a common, three-protein system, with a decarboxylase that prepares an NRPS substrate, an NRPS, and an oxidase. Here, the pathway is reconstituted in vitro. The oxidase is shown to perform dehydrogenation of the thiazoline in the peptide intermediate while it is covalently attached to the NRPS, as the penultimate step in bacillamide D synthesis. Structural analysis of the oxidase reveals a dimeric, two-lobed architecture with a remnant RiPP recognition element and a dramatic wrapping loop. The oxidase forms a stable complex with the NRPS and dimerizes it. We visualized co-complexes of the oxidase bound to the elongation module of the NRPS using X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM. The three active sites (for adenylation, condensation/cyclization, and oxidation) form an elegant arc to facilitate substrate delivery. The structures enabled a proof-of-principle bioengineering experiment in which the BmdC oxidase domain is embedded into the NRPS.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

The ModelSEED Biochemistry Database for the integration of metabolic annotations and the reconstruction, comparison and analysis of metabolic models for plants, fungi and microbes

Abstract For over 10 years, ModelSEED has been a primary resource for the construction of draft genome-scale metabolic models based on annotated microbial or plant genomes. Now being released, the biochemistry database serves as the foundation of biochemical data underlying ModelSEED and KBase. The biochemistry database embodies several properties that, taken together, distinguish it from other published biochemistry resources by: (i) including compartmentalization, transport reactions, charged molecules and proton balancing on reactions; (ii) being extensible by the user community, with all data stored in GitHub; and (iii) design as a biochemical ‘Rosetta Stone’ to facilitate comparison and integration of annotations from many different tools and databases. The database was constructed by combining chemical data from many resources, applying standard transformations, identifying redundancies and computing thermodynamic properties. The ModelSEED biochemistry is continually tested using flux balance analysis to ensure the biochemical network is modeling-ready and capable of simulating diverse phenotypes. Ontologies can be designed to aid in comparing and reconciling metabolic reconstructions that differ in how they represent various metabolic pathways. ModelSEED now includes 33,978 compounds and 36,645 reactions, available as a set of extensible files on GitHub, and available to search at https://modelseed.org and KBase.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗