11 Proc. of the Fourth Intl. Conf. Advances in Bio-Informatics, Bio-Technology and Environmental Engineering- ABBE 2016 Copyright © Institute of Research Engineers and Doctors, USA .All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-63248-091-0 doi: 10.15224/ 978-1-63248-091-0-04 Application of the Microbubble Enhanced Ozonolysis Technology in Biomass Utilisation Dmitriy Kuvshinov, Anggun Siswanto, Jagroop Pandhal, William Zimmerman Abstract -One of the major fields of Bioscience Engineering application is biomass production and utilisation. Increasing the rate of the biomass production has raised the need for the development of the new efficient low cost techniques for the bio-waste management. Nowadays this became an emerging issue not only for a municipal environment but also for the rural conditions. Jatropha cake (JC) is a waste biomass from the biofuel industry which uses an equatorial crop Jatropha curcas Linn as the raw material. The production of JC is significant with no economical profit. Due to its natural toxicity, the high nutritious JC is utilised as a combustion material (fuel). Thermal, chemical and biological methods have been tested as means of the JC detoxification. However, the toxic component, phorbol ester (PE), is known for its stability at high temperatures up to 160 °C. At that level the heat treatment can have a negative effect on the nutritious content of JC. Utilisation of solvents to reduce PE content requires additional steps for the solvent regeneration in which leads to the increase of production cost. The long time factor of the detoxification process is seen as the main drawback of the biological approach in reducing PE. Dmitriy Kuvshinov School of Engineering, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX United Kingdom Anggun Siswanto Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD United Kingdom Jagroop Pandhal Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD United Kingdom William Zimmerman Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD United Kingdom In this paper the experimental data on the development of the new JC detoxification approach with application of micro bubbles enhanced ozonolysis technique is presented. Issues concerning efficiency of the ozone application for the PE detoxification in the Ghanaian Jatropha cake and ozone driven protein degradation are discussed. It was shown that at optimized operating conditions the protein content in the detoxified JC was reduced by 30% of its original level and the treated waste JC could be used as a fish and cattle feed. Keywords - bioscience engineering, jatropha cake, microbubble, ozone, protein. I. Introduction Development of the oil rich waste biomass conversion technologies able to supply food or/and fuel to meet changing market requirements is essential for the economy of equatorial belt countries, where the oil rich crops are widely cultivated. Jatropha curcas Linn is one of the key crops [1] in the biofuel sectors. This plant has an ability to grow in the tropical regions on the low quality soil. It is expected that by 2015 the Jatropha plantations of 12.8 million hectares producing up to 4.1 tons of seed/ha (around 2 tons of oils/ha) will be developed worldwide [2]. Jatropha cake (JC) is a by-product of biofuel industry. JC is produced at the seed de-fatting step. It is reported that 270 kg of JC was obtained by processing of 1T Jatropha seeds [3]. This ratio gives significant amount of JC with a high residual amino acids content equal to the protein guideline for children [4]. With a high level of crude protein around 53%-58% Jatropha can be utilized as an alternative food, feed stock or fertilizer [5]. Currently the only use of JC is a combustion material. The high content of a natural carcinogenic compound called phorbol ester (PE) is the reason for this limited JC utilisation [6]. The PE stays in both the oil and the JC [7-9]. The problem of PE detoxification has been previously addressed with an application of the heat treatment [10]. Unfortunately this method cannot be applied as it results in a very low remaining protein content in JC. Chemical