Biaxially oriented polypropylene films produced by simultaneous equi-biaxial stretching to the draw ratio of 4×4 were perforated by the carbon dioxide laser under various laser fluences up to 426.3 J/cm². After applying various laser fluences, the irradiated area was observed using a laser scanning confocal microscope. With the increase of fluence, the surface deformation with the formation of a crater surrounded by a doughnutlike rim was firstly observed at the laser fluence of 49.7 J/cm², followed by the starting of the formation of a microhole surrounded by the rim at 113.7 J/cm². The diameter of the microhole and the size of the rim increased rapidly with the increase of laser fluence. Mechanisms for the formation of a crater, the opening of a microhole, and the formation of surrounding rim were considered to be related to the surface tension and the shrinkage caused by molecular orientation relaxation. On the other hand, volume loss from the laser irradiated area was negligibly small at the moment of microhole opening, and started to increase rapidly when the fluence reached around 150 J/cm². The microhole formation behavior was also observed by a high-speed camera. The velocity of microhole opening increased rapidly at first, presumably during the laser irradiation,and then slowed down after the cessation of laser irradiation. Theoretically estimated temperature distribution along the film thickness was compared with the laser perforation behavior. Starting of the deformation of film matched well with the starting of melting of the film surface. Film temperature was lower than the thermal decomposition temperature at the moment of the opening of a microhole, whereas at the moment of the starting of volume loss, film temperature was lower than the decomposition temperature estimated based on the heating rate of laser irradiated area, indicating that the decomposition and vaporization continues for a while after the cessation of laser irradiation.

An industrial enzyme, Cyclodextrin glucanotransferase (CGTase), was immobilised in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofiber (average diameter around 200 nm) membrane via co-electrospinning of the CGTase/PVA mixture followed with glutaraldehyde vapour phase cross-linking. Addition of enzyme with concentration ranging from 1.5 to 7.5 % to the PVA solution (8 wt%) caused significant changes to the liquid jet behaviours which consequently affected the nanofiber structures and sizes. Incorporation of CGTase in the PVA membrane was confirmed by Raman spectroscopic analysis. The Raman spectra also showed no structural changes occured to the enzyme after subjected to the electrostatic spinning and cross-linking reaction. The immobilised enzyme showed excellent catalytic efficiency with up to 3.6 times higher enzyme loading, 25 % higher activity and good reusability in comparison with CGTase/PVA film made up from the same starting solution (control).

Bioethanol was obtained from softwood bleached kraft pulp (NBKP), an intermediate product from industrial paper processes, by successive or simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. Saccharification of NBKP was performed with several cellulases, revealing that Cellic CTec2 cellulase was the most effective at saccharification and resulted in yield of 76.3% after 72 h. Though X-ray measurements, it was noted that the crystallinity of NBKP decreased after alkali treatment with 9% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution for 10 min at ­10̊C. Alkali-treatment also decreased the weight of NBKP by 5 wt%. This was hypothesized to be due to removal of dissolved hemicellulose and lignin. Short time saccharification of alkali-treated NBKP resulted in good yields of glucose production and the yields did not increase with longer saccharification times. Successive saccharification and fermentation of untreated and alkali-treated NBKP were conducted using Cellic CTec2 (at 1:10 ratio by wt with respect to NBKP) for 72 h and then addition of a recombinant yeast (pYBGA 1) to give ethanol in 91.3% and 93.3% yields under the optimum conditions of cellulase and yeast, respectively, based on saccharified glucose. In contrast, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation could not effectively produce ethanol from NBKP, regardless of alkali-treatment; this may because of low efficiency of the saccharification. Using other combinations of cellulases and yeast strains to produce ethanol, it was found that Sucrase C,Meicelase, and Sumizyme C were also effective cellulases for the saccharification of alkali-treated NBKP. Furthermore pYBGA 1 was more effective at fermentation than yeast strain Kyokai No. 7 (K 7). Under optimized conditions for cellulase and recombinant yeast, ethanol yields were 91.3 and 93.3% for untreated and alkali-treated NBKP, respectively; these results show that a combination of Cellic CTec2 and pYBGA 1 was the most effective for the process of successive saccharification and fermentation of NBKP.

Synthesis of a vinyl polymer with a benzoyl substituent in its side chain based on 5-(hydroxymethyl) furfural (HMF) was accomplished via free radical polymerization. The HMF derivative, 5-(benzoyloxymethyl) furfural, was efficiently converted to its vinyl derivative by the Wittig reaction. Then, vinyl polymer was synthesized by free radical polymerization using azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) initiator in a solution polymerization process. The structures of the obtained vinyl monomer and resulting polymer were confirmed byusingFouriertransforminfrared,¹Hnuclearmagneticresonance(NMR),and¹³CNMRspectroscopy.The productwassubjectedtoGPC,thermogravimetricanalysis,differentialscanningcalorimetry,andX-raydiffractometry.