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Harmful cyanobacteria blooms and the escalating impact of cyanotoxins necessitates the effective removal of cyanobacteria from water ecosystems before they release cyanotoxins. In this study, cyanobacteria removal from water samples taken from the eutrophic Aleksandrovac Lake (southern Serbia) was investigated. For that purpose, novel activated carbons derived from waste biomass—date palm leaf stalk (P_AC), black alder cone-like flowers (A_AC), and commercial activated carbon from coconut shell (C_AC) as a reference were used. To define the best adsorption conditions and explain the adsorption mechanism, the influence of contact time, reaction volume, and adsorbent mass, as well as FTIR analysis of the adsorbents before and after cyanobacteria removal, were studied. The removal efficiency of P_AC and A_AC achieved for the applied concentration of 10 mg/mL after 15 min was ~99%, while for C_AC after 24 h was only ~92% for the same concentration. To check the safety of the applied materials for human health and the environment, the concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTEs), the health impact (HI) after water purification, and the toxicity (MTT and Comet assay) of the materials were evaluated. Although the P_AC and A_AC achieved much better removal properties in comparison with the C_AC, considering the demonstrated genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of the P_AC and the higher HI value for the C_AC, only the A_AC was further investigated. Results of the kinetics, FTIR analysis, and examination of the A_AC mass influence on removal efficiency indicated dominance of the physisorption mechanism. Initially, the findings highlighted the superior performance of A_AC, with great potential to be globally commercialized as an effective cyanobacteria cell adsorbent.

Natural biosorbents made of agricultural by-products and waste are increasingly being studied and are mainly used for heavy and toxic metals removal from waste water. Such biosorbents have large surface area and capacity for various compounds. Our research puts sustainability in the spotlight, as there are tons of seed and pomace left behind during the processing of fruit in juice industry. Even after the oil pressing, 90% of biomass is still available for recycling. Besides, conventional extraction methods used to recover phytochemicals from food waste are time-consuming, expensive and unsustainable, so novel technologies are encouraged. Therefore, we designed the experiment to study two by-products, raspberry seed biomass and liquid by-phase rich in anthocyanins, with the aim to investigate a biosorption potential of seed material in recovery of natural pigments. Two seed materials were prepared to serve as biosorbents, raw seed and defatted seed material. Liquid by-phase was initially collected during depulping of the raspberry seed material, and was subjected to biosorption.Seed material was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Major bands were related to complex polymeric structure of seed, mainly consisting of lignin, as well as cellulose, hemicellulose and other less abundant compounds. FTIR profile of raw and defatted seed pointed to functional groups involved in biosorption. Total anthocyanin content (TAC) before and after biosorption was determined, while individual anthocyanins were assessed by liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC MS). In seed material, cyanidins predominate, followed by pelargonidins and peonidins. Efficiency of the biosrption was examined by comparing the recovery of specific compound. Developed strategy to valorise raspberry seeds and to obtain natural colorants could have applications in the food industry, especially anthocyanins which are considered to be safe and healthy in comparison to commo

Over the last several years, the models for organic waste management have changed to implement circular economy in the productive cycle. In this context, new scenarios have emerged, where the management of different organic waste streams by composting is conducted with decentralized models that manage organic wastes in a more local way. However, in these new models, the standardization of the process control and of the end-product characteristics is necessary to guarantee the quality and agronomic value of the compost obtained, avoiding potential risks for human health and the environment. Thus, the aim of this work was to study two different scenarios of community composting of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste separately collected in order to guarantee the effectiveness and reproducibility of the composting processes and the quality of the composts obtained. For this, the development of the process and the characteristics of the composts at agronomic, hygienic–sanitary and environmental levels were assessed in real conditions and during three cycles of the process. The results obtained show high similarity among the different composting cycles, indicating an important degree of reproducibility among the processes. In addition, the composts obtained showed a good sanitary quality, absence of phytotoxicity and low contents of potentially toxic elements, which guarantee their use in agriculture without posing any risk to human health and to the environment., This research has been financed by the research project NEOCOMP (ref. PID2020-113228RBI00) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and it was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities with a PhD contract (FPU21/01207) to the first author., Postprint (published version)

In this study, an environmental and economic assessment of hydrogen production from biowaste and biomass is performed from a life cycle perspective, with a high degree of primary life cycle inventory data on materials, energy, and investment flows. Using SimaPro LCA software and CML-IA, 2001 impact assessment method, ten environmental impact categories are analyzed for environmental analysis. Economic analysis includes capital and operational expenditures and monetization cost of life cycle environmental impacts. The hydrogen production from biowaste has a high climate impact, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication than biomass while it performs far better in ozone depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, abiotic depletion-fossil, abiotic depletion, human toxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity. The sensitivity analysis of LCA results indicates that feedstock to biogas/pyrolysis-oil yields ratio and the type of energy source for the reforming process can significantly influence the results, particularly climate change, abiotic depletion, and human toxicity. The life cycle cost (LCC) of 1 kg hydrogen production has been accounted as 0.45–2.76 € with biowaste and 0.54–3.31 € with biomass over the plant's lifetime of 20 years. From the environmental impacts of climate change, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication hydrogen production from biomass is a better option than biowaste while from other included impact categories and LCC perspectives it’s biowaste. This research contributes to bioresources to hydrogen literature with some new findings that can be generalized in Europe and even globally as it is in line with and endorse existing theoretical and simulation software-based studies.

The biorefining of biowastes, specifically the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), into biofuels and high-value products is an energy-demanding process, still immature, and largely dependent on the process configuration and efficiency of employed microorganisms. Such issues might undermine the environmental sustainability of the biorefinery by inducing adverse impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources, which need to be explored before the process scale-up. Hence, this study was performed as early sustainability guidance to investigate the environmental impacts of different biorefinery platforms for biofuels production from OFMSW. More specifically, three pretreatment methods (i.e., acetone organosolv, acid, and hot water), two hydrolysis treatments (i.e., acidic and enzymatic), and two fermentation alternatives (i.e., ethanolic fermentation and acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation) were investigated. Based on European Commission's Joint Research Center instruction, the environmental impacts were studied using consequential life cycle assessment for the macro-level decision context. The results demonstrated that ABE fermentation scenarios were not environmentally favorable because the avoided impacts from final products were not sig-nificant enough to compensate for the induced environmental burdens from acetone pretreatment. On the contrary, the ethanolic fermentation scenarios with either acid or hot water pretreatment outperformed both ABE fermentation and ethanolic fermentation with acetone pretreatment. Based on the results, the scenario including simultaneous dilute acid pretreatment and hydrolysis of OFMSW followed by ethanolic fermentation manifested the best performance in all damage categories, as compared to those including acetone pretreatment or higher consumption of enzymes. Such improvements in this scenario led to the highest net saving of-842 potentially disappeared fraction (PDF)/m2/yr,-249.95 kg

Globally, there is increasing interest in recovering resources from sanitation systems. However, the process of planning and implementing circular sanitation is complex and can necessitate software-based tools to support decision-making. In this paper, we review 24 decision support software tools used for sanitation planning, to generate insights into how they address resource recovery across the sanitation chain. The findings reveal that the tools can address many planning issues around resource recovery in sanitation including analysis of material flows, integrating resource recovery technologies and products in the design of sanitation systems, and assessing the sustainability implications of resource recovery. The results and recommendations presented here can guide users in the choice of different tools depending on, for example, what kind of tool features and functions the user is interested in as well as the elements of the planning process and the sanitation service chain that are in focus. However, some issues are not adequately covered and need improvements in the available tools including quantifying the demand for and value of resource recovery products, addressing retrofitting of existing sanitation infrastructure for resource recovery and assessing social impacts of resource recovery from a life cycle perspective. While there is scope to develop new tools or to modify existing ones to cover these gaps, communication efforts are needed to create awareness about existing tools, their functions and how they address resource recovery. It is also important to further integrate the available tools into infrastructure planning and programming processes by e.g. customizing to relevant planning regimes and procedures, to move them beyond research and pilots into practice, and hopefully contribute towards more circular sanitation systems., QC 20230725

The biorefining of biowastes, specifically the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), into biofuels and high-value products is an energy-demanding process, still immature, and largely dependent on the process configuration and efficiency of employed microorganisms. Such issues might undermine the environmental sustainability of the biorefinery by inducing adverse impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources, which need to be explored before the process scale-up. Hence, this study was performed as early sustainability guidance to investigate the environmental impacts of different biorefinery platforms for biofuels production from OFMSW. More specifically, three pretreatment methods (i.e., acetone organosolv, acid, and hot water), two hydrolysis treatments (i.e., acidic and enzymatic), and two fermentation alternatives (i.e., ethanolic fermentation and acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation) were investigated. Based on European Commission's Joint Research Center instruction, the environmental impacts were studied using consequential life cycle assessment for the macro-level decision context. The results demonstrated that ABE fermentation scenarios were not environmentally favorable because the avoided impacts from final products were not sig-nificant enough to compensate for the induced environmental burdens from acetone pretreatment. On the contrary, the ethanolic fermentation scenarios with either acid or hot water pretreatment outperformed both ABE fermentation and ethanolic fermentation with acetone pretreatment. Based on the results, the scenario including simultaneous dilute acid pretreatment and hydrolysis of OFMSW followed by ethanolic fermentation manifested the best performance in all damage categories, as compared to those including acetone pretreatment or higher consumption of enzymes. Such improvements in this scenario led to the highest net saving of-842 potentially disappeared fraction (PDF)/m2/yr,-249.95 kg

In this study, an environmental and economic assessment of hydrogen production from biowaste and biomass is performed from a life cycle perspective, with a high degree of primary life cycle inventory data on materials, energy, and investment flows. Using SimaPro LCA software and CML-IA, 2001 impact assessment method, ten environmental impact categories are analyzed for environmental analysis. Economic analysis includes capital and operational expenditures and monetization cost of life cycle environmental impacts. The hydrogen production from biowaste has a high climate impact, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication than biomass while it performs far better in ozone depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, abiotic depletion-fossil, abiotic depletion, human toxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity. The sensitivity analysis of LCA results indicates that feedstock to biogas/pyrolysis-oil yields ratio and the type of energy source for the reforming process can significantly influence the results, particularly climate change, abiotic depletion, and human toxicity. The life cycle cost (LCC) of 1 kg hydrogen production has been accounted as 0.45–2.76 € with biowaste and 0.54–3.31 € with biomass over the plant's lifetime of 20 years. From the environmental impacts of climate change, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication hydrogen production from biomass is a better option than biowaste while from other included impact categories and LCC perspectives it’s biowaste. This research contributes to bioresources to hydrogen literature with some new findings that can be generalized in Europe and even globally as it is in line with and endorse existing theoretical and simulation software-based studies.

Globally, there is increasing interest in recovering resources from sanitation systems. However, the process of planning and implementing circular sanitation is complex and can necessitate software-based tools to support decision-making. In this paper, we review 24 decision support software tools used for sanitation planning, to generate insights into how they address resource recovery across the sanitation chain. The findings reveal that the tools can address many planning issues around resource recovery in sanitation including analysis of material flows, integrating resource recovery technologies and products in the design of sanitation systems, and assessing the sustainability implications of resource recovery. The results and recommendations presented here can guide users in the choice of different tools depending on, for example, what kind of tool features and functions the user is interested in as well as the elements of the planning process and the sanitation service chain that are in focus. However, some issues are not adequately covered and need improvements in the available tools including quantifying the demand for and value of resource recovery products, addressing retrofitting of existing sanitation infrastructure for resource recovery and assessing social impacts of resource recovery from a life cycle perspective. While there is scope to develop new tools or to modify existing ones to cover these gaps, communication efforts are needed to create awareness about existing tools, their functions and how they address resource recovery. It is also important to further integrate the available tools into infrastructure planning and programming processes by e.g. customizing to relevant planning regimes and procedures, to move them beyond research and pilots into practice, and hopefully contribute towards more circular sanitation systems.

The expansion of food production has a large environmental impact in many ways. More specifically, 30–40% of total food production is lost as wastes and/or by-products before it reaches the market. In this sense, blood is an inevitable by-product in the meat industry that typically consists of 3–5% of the total weight of the animal. The dry organic matter present in blood is mostly protein, which can be employed more efficiently as raw material in the development of biodegradable materials. In the present manuscript, the blood collected after slaughtering of Iberian pigs was centrifuged and the upper (i.e., plasma) and bottom (i.e., red cells) layers were separated. Three freeze-dried fractions were characterized and evaluated on terms of their potential in the field of bioplastics: whole blood, plasma and bottom layer. Albumin was detected clearly in the plasma fraction, while globulins in red cells. After their characterization samples were mixed thoroughly with glycerol and injection molded at 120 °C. Special applications may be proposed for every fraction (i.e., whole blood, plasma or red cells), as the materials displayed different properties depending on the raw material employed. Thus, plasma resulted in materials with a greater deformability and swelling capacity during immersion, resulting in superabsorbent materials when processed at milder conditions (80 °C).

The main goal of this study is to investigate and to evaluate the selected indicators of the circular economy to advance the development of effective tools and policies regarding the circular economy system. This investigation is supported by the three research questions covering the topics of dependence of the circular economy on the use of reusable material, help with the reuse of circular material for economic sectors to establish a platform for effective policy development and implementation, and finally, the necessity of quantifying circular economy indicators to obtain an accurate picture of the circular economy sector relationships. The eight research hypotheses are considered, five of which are rejected. The gross investment of the circular economy sector in tangible goods in the both explored variants – expressed in the currency units also as the share of gross domestic product, circular economy sector value added at factor cost, the glass packaging waste recycling rate, the metallic packaging waste recycling rate, and the municipal waste act in the statistically significant way. The study applies a regression analysis technique with consistently validating test outcomes. The discussion section introduces the implications of the analytical outcomes with a potential of the setting current policies in the circular economy system and the construction of the new ones.

Activated carbon is a highly porous and adsorptive material that is widely used for various applications such as wastewater treatment, air purification, and energy storage. Activated carbon can be produced from various raw materials, including biomass, which is a sustainable and renewable resource. The process of producing activated carbon from biomass involves two main steps: carbonization and activation. In the carbonization step, the biomass is heated in the absence of oxygen to convert it into carbon. The resulting carbonaceous material is then activated using a chemical or physical process to create a highly porous structure with a large surface area. One way to activate the carbonized biomass is to use bases as activators. Bases such as potassium hydroxide (KOH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) have been used as activators due to their ability to promote the development of micropores and mesopores in the carbon structure. Activated carbon was characterized by various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. These techniques provide information on the surface area, pore size distribution, functional groups, and crystal structure of activated carbon.

Climate Change, the large accumulation of waste, the generation of microplastics and the recent scarcity of raw materials are some of the problems that have led to a radical change in the conception of economy from a linear system to a circular system. Thus, different policies, such as Green Deal of the European Union or Horizon Europe, have been created on these aspects. In this context, the use of biowaste for the production of superabsorbent materials can be a clear example of how circular economy can be applied. This opinion review aims to be a global view of these initiatives, presenting examples of the use of different biowaste in superabsorbent materials and explaining the deficiencies that have prevented their inclusion in the market. This review shows that, although the use of biowaste seems to be a key factor for change, further research is needed to make the products more competitive in the current market.

The expansion of food production has a large environmental impact in many ways. More specifically, 30–40% of total food production is lost as wastes and/or by-products before it reaches the market. In this sense, blood is an inevitable by-product in the meat industry that typically consists of 3–5% of the total weight of the animal. The dry organic matter present in blood is mostly protein, which can be employed more efficiently as raw material in the development of biodegradable materials. In the present manuscript, the blood collected after slaughtering of Iberian pigs was centrifuged and the upper (i.e., plasma) and bottom (i.e., red cells) layers were separated. Three freeze-dried fractions were characterized and evaluated on terms of their potential in the field of bioplastics: whole blood, plasma and bottom layer. Albumin was detected clearly in the plasma fraction, while globulins in red cells. After their characterization samples were mixed thoroughly with glycerol and injection molded at 120 °C. Special applications may be proposed for every fraction (i.e., whole blood, plasma or red cells), as the materials displayed different properties depending on the raw material employed. Thus, plasma resulted in materials with a greater deformability and swelling capacity during immersion, resulting in superabsorbent materials when processed at milder conditions (80 °C).

Globally, there is increasing interest in recovering resources from sanitation systems. However, the process of planning and implementing circular sanitation is complex and can necessitate software-based tools to support decision-making. In this paper, we review 24 decision support software tools used for sanitation planning, to generate insights into how they address resource recovery across the sanitation chain. The findings reveal that the tools can address many planning issues around resource recovery in sanitation including analysis of material flows, integrating resource recovery technologies and products in the design of sanitation systems, and assessing the sustainability implications of resource recovery. The results and recommendations presented here can guide users in the choice of different tools depending on, for example, what kind of tool features and functions the user is interested in as well as the elements of the planning process and the sanitation service chain that are in focus. However, some issues are not adequately covered and need improvements in the available tools including quantifying the demand for and value of resource recovery products, addressing retrofitting of existing sanitation infrastructure for resource recovery and assessing social impacts of resource recovery from a life cycle perspective. While there is scope to develop new tools or to modify existing ones to cover these gaps, communication efforts are needed to create awareness about existing tools, their functions and how they address resource recovery. It is also important to further integrate the available tools into infrastructure planning and programming processes by e.g. customizing to relevant planning regimes and procedures, to move them beyond research and pilots into practice, and hopefully contribute towards more circular sanitation systems.

This study investigates the suitability of different lignocellulosic sources, namely eucalyptus, apple bagasse, and out-of-use wood, for injection into blast furnaces (BFs). While wastes possess carbon potential, their high moisture renders them unsuitable for direct energy utilization. Additionally, the P and K impurities, particularly in apple bagasse, can pose operational and product quality challenges in BF. Thus, different thermochemical processes were performed to convert raw biomass into a more suitable carbon fuel. Low-temperature carbonization was selected for eucalyptus, yielding a biochar with properties closer to the low-rank coal. Hydrothermal carbonization was chosen for apple bagasse and out-of-use wood, resulting in hydrochars with enhanced fuel characteristics and fewer adverse inorganic species but still limiting the amount in binary PCI blends. Thermogravimetry evaluated the cause–effect relationships between coal and coal- and bio-based chars during co-pyrolysis, co-combustion and CO2-gasification. No synergistic effects for char formation were observed, while biochars benefited ignition and reactivity during combustion at the programmed temperature. From heat-flow data in combustion, the high calorific values of the chars were well predicted. The CO2-gasification profiles of in situ chars revealed that lignin-rich hydrochars exhibited higher reactivity and conversion than those with a higher carbohydrate content, making them more suitable for gasification applications.

In this study, an environmental and economic assessment of hydrogen production from biowaste and biomass is performed from a life cycle perspective, with a high degree of primary life cycle inventory data on materials, energy, and investment flows. Using SimaPro LCA software and CML-IA, 2001 impact assessment method, ten environmental impact categories are analyzed for environmental analysis. Economic analysis includes capital and operational expenditures and monetization cost of life cycle environmental impacts. The hydrogen production from biowaste has a high climate impact, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication than biomass while it performs far better in ozone depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, abiotic depletion-fossil, abiotic depletion, human toxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity. The sensitivity analysis of LCA results indicates that feedstock to biogas/pyrolysis-oil yields ratio and the type of energy source for the reforming process can significantly influence the results, particularly climate change, abiotic depletion, and human toxicity. The life cycle cost (LCC) of 1 kg hydrogen production has been accounted as 0.45–2.76 € with biowaste and 0.54–3.31 € with biomass over the plant's lifetime of 20 years. From the environmental impacts of climate change, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication hydrogen production from biomass is a better option than biowaste while from other included impact categories and LCC perspectives it’s biowaste. This research contributes to bioresources to hydrogen literature with some new findings that can be generalized in Europe and even globally as it is in line with and endorse existing theoretical and simulation software-based studies.

The biorefining of biowastes, specifically the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), into biofuels and high-value products is an energy-demanding process, still immature, and largely dependent on the process configuration and efficiency of employed microorganisms. Such issues might undermine the environmental sustainability of the biorefinery by inducing adverse impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources, which need to be explored before the process scale-up. Hence, this study was performed as early sustainability guidance to investigate the environmental impacts of different biorefinery platforms for biofuels production from OFMSW. More specifically, three pretreatment methods (i.e., acetone organosolv, acid, and hot water), two hydrolysis treatments (i.e., acidic and enzymatic), and two fermentation alternatives (i.e., ethanolic fermentation and acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation) were investigated. Based on European Commission's Joint Research Center instruction, the environmental impacts were studied using consequential life cycle assessment for the macro-level decision context. The results demonstrated that ABE fermentation scenarios were not environmentally favorable because the avoided impacts from final products were not sig-nificant enough to compensate for the induced environmental burdens from acetone pretreatment. On the contrary, the ethanolic fermentation scenarios with either acid or hot water pretreatment outperformed both ABE fermentation and ethanolic fermentation with acetone pretreatment. Based on the results, the scenario including simultaneous dilute acid pretreatment and hydrolysis of OFMSW followed by ethanolic fermentation manifested the best performance in all damage categories, as compared to those including acetone pretreatment or higher consumption of enzymes. Such improvements in this scenario led to the highest net saving of-842 potentially disappeared fraction (PDF)/m2/yr,-249.95 kg

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages, with around 10.5 million tons manufactured annually. The same amount of spent coffee grounds (SCGs) might harm the environment if disposed of carelessly. On the other hand, pesticide contamination in food and biowaste is a rising problem. Because pesticides are hazardous and can cause serious health consequences, it is critical to understand how they interact with food biowaste materials. However, it is also a question if biowaste can be used to remediate rising pesticide residues in the environment. This study investigated the interactions of SCGs with the organophosphate pesticides malathion (MLT) and chlorpyrifos (CHP) and addressed the possibility of using SCGs as adsorbents for the removal of these pesticides from water and fruit extracts. The kinetics of MLT and CHP adsorption on SCGs fits well with the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The Langmuir isotherm model best describes the adsorption process, giving the maximal adsorption capacity for MLT as 7.16 mg g−1 and 7.00 mg g−1 for CHP. Based on the thermodynamic analysis, it can be deduced that MLT adsorption on SCGs is exothermic, while CHP adsorption is an endothermic process. The adsorption efficiency of MLT and CHP using SCGs in a complicated matrix of fruit extracts remained constant. The neurotoxicity results showed that no more toxic products were formed during adsorption, indicating that SCGs are a safe-to-use adsorbent for pesticide removal in water and fruit extracts.

The increasing usage of pesticides to boost food production inevitably leads to their presence in food samples, requiring the development of efficient methods for their removal. Here, we show that carefully tuned viscose-derived activated carbon fibers can be used for malathion and chlorpyrifos removal from liquid samples, even in complex matrices such as lemon juice and mint ethanol extract. Adsorbents were produced using the Design of Experiments protocol for varying activation conditions (carbonization at 850 °C; activation temperature between 670 and 870 °C; activation time from 30 to 180 min; and CO2 flow rate from 10 to 80 L h−1) and characterized in terms of physical and chemical properties (SEM, EDX, BET, FTIR). Pesticide adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics were then addressed. It was shown that some of the developed adsorbents are also capable of the selective removal of chlorpyrifos in the presence of malathion. The selected materials were not affected by complex matrices of real samples. Moreover, the adsorbent can be regenerated at least five times without pronounced performance losses. We suggest that the adsorptive removal of food contaminants can effectively improve food safety and quality, unlike other methods currently in use, which negatively affect the nutritional value of food products. Finally, data-based models trained on well-characterized materials libraries can direct the synthesis of novel adsorbents for the desired application in food processing.

In this study, an environmental and economic assessment of hydrogen production from biowaste and biomass is performed from a life cycle perspective, with a high degree of primary life cycle inventory data on materials, energy, and investment flows. Using SimaPro LCA software and CML-IA, 2001 impact assessment method, ten environmental impact categories are analyzed for environmental analysis. Economic analysis includes capital and operational expenditures and monetization cost of life cycle environmental impacts. The hydrogen production from biowaste has a high climate impact, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication than biomass while it performs far better in ozone depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, abiotic depletion-fossil, abiotic depletion, human toxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity. The sensitivity analysis of LCA results indicates that feedstock to biogas/pyrolysis-oil yields ratio and the type of energy source for the reforming process can significantly influence the results, particularly climate change, abiotic depletion, and human toxicity. The life cycle cost (LCC) of 1 kg hydrogen production has been accounted as 0.45–2.76 € with biowaste and 0.54–3.31 € with biomass over the plant's lifetime of 20 years. From the environmental impacts of climate change, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication hydrogen production from biomass is a better option than biowaste while from other included impact categories and LCC perspectives it’s biowaste. This research contributes to bioresources to hydrogen literature with some new findings that can be generalized in Europe and even globally as it is in line with and endorse existing theoretical and simulation software-based studies.

Globally, there is increasing interest in recovering resources from sanitation systems. However, the process of planning and implementing circular sanitation is complex and can necessitate software-based tools to support decision-making. In this paper, we review 24 decision support software tools used for sanitation planning, to generate insights into how they address resource recovery across the sanitation chain. The findings reveal that the tools can address many planning issues around resource recovery in sanitation including analysis of material flows, integrating resource recovery technologies and products in the design of sanitation systems, and assessing the sustainability implications of resource recovery. The results and recommendations presented here can guide users in the choice of different tools depending on, for example, what kind of tool features and functions the user is interested in as well as the elements of the planning process and the sanitation service chain that are in focus. However, some issues are not adequately covered and need improvements in the available tools including quantifying the demand for and value of resource recovery products, addressing retrofitting of existing sanitation infrastructure for resource recovery and assessing social impacts of resource recovery from a life cycle perspective. While there is scope to develop new tools or to modify existing ones to cover these gaps, communication efforts are needed to create awareness about existing tools, their functions and how they address resource recovery. It is also important to further integrate the available tools into infrastructure planning and programming processes by e.g. customizing to relevant planning regimes and procedures, to move them beyond research and pilots into practice, and hopefully contribute towards more circular sanitation systems.

The biorefining of biowastes, specifically the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), into biofuels and high-value products is an energy-demanding process, still immature, and largely dependent on the process configuration and efficiency of employed microorganisms. Such issues might undermine the environmental sustainability of the biorefinery by inducing adverse impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources, which need to be explored before the process scale-up. Hence, this study was performed as early sustainability guidance to investigate the environmental impacts of different biorefinery platforms for biofuels production from OFMSW. More specifically, three pretreatment methods (i.e., acetone organosolv, acid, and hot water), two hydrolysis treatments (i.e., acidic and enzymatic), and two fermentation alternatives (i.e., ethanolic fermentation and acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation) were investigated. Based on European Commission's Joint Research Center instruction, the environmental impacts were studied using consequential life cycle assessment for the macro-level decision context. The results demonstrated that ABE fermentation scenarios were not environmentally favorable because the avoided impacts from final products were not sig-nificant enough to compensate for the induced environmental burdens from acetone pretreatment. On the contrary, the ethanolic fermentation scenarios with either acid or hot water pretreatment outperformed both ABE fermentation and ethanolic fermentation with acetone pretreatment. Based on the results, the scenario including simultaneous dilute acid pretreatment and hydrolysis of OFMSW followed by ethanolic fermentation manifested the best performance in all damage categories, as compared to those including acetone pretreatment or higher consumption of enzymes. Such improvements in this scenario led to the highest net saving of-842 potentially disappeared fraction (PDF)/m2/yr,-249.95 kg

In this study, an environmental and economic assessment of hydrogen production from biowaste and biomass is performed from a life cycle perspective, with a high degree of primary life cycle inventory data on materials, energy, and investment flows. Using SimaPro LCA software and CML-IA, 2001 impact assessment method, ten environmental impact categories are analyzed for environmental analysis. Economic analysis includes capital and operational expenditures and monetization cost of life cycle environmental impacts. The hydrogen production from biowaste has a high climate impact, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication than biomass while it performs far better in ozone depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, abiotic depletion-fossil, abiotic depletion, human toxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity. The sensitivity analysis of LCA results indicates that feedstock to biogas/pyrolysis-oil yields ratio and the type of energy source for the reforming process can significantly influence the results, particularly climate change, abiotic depletion, and human toxicity. The life cycle cost (LCC) of 1 kg hydrogen production has been accounted as 0.45–2.76 € with biowaste and 0.54–3.31 € with biomass over the plant's lifetime of 20 years. From the environmental impacts of climate change, photochemical oxidant, and freshwater eutrophication hydrogen production from biomass is a better option than biowaste while from other included impact categories and LCC perspectives it’s biowaste. This research contributes to bioresources to hydrogen literature with some new findings that can be generalized in Europe and even globally as it is in line with and endorse existing theoretical and simulation software-based studies.

The biorefining of biowastes, specifically the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), into biofuels and high-value products is an energy-demanding process, still immature, and largely dependent on the process configuration and efficiency of employed microorganisms. Such issues might undermine the environmental sustainability of the biorefinery by inducing adverse impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources, which need to be explored before the process scale-up. Hence, this study was performed as early sustainability guidance to investigate the environmental impacts of different biorefinery platforms for biofuels production from OFMSW. More specifically, three pretreatment methods (i.e., acetone organosolv, acid, and hot water), two hydrolysis treatments (i.e., acidic and enzymatic), and two fermentation alternatives (i.e., ethanolic fermentation and acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation) were investigated. Based on European Commission's Joint Research Center instruction, the environmental impacts were studied using consequential life cycle assessment for the macro-level decision context. The results demonstrated that ABE fermentation scenarios were not environmentally favorable because the avoided impacts from final products were not sig-nificant enough to compensate for the induced environmental burdens from acetone pretreatment. On the contrary, the ethanolic fermentation scenarios with either acid or hot water pretreatment outperformed both ABE fermentation and ethanolic fermentation with acetone pretreatment. Based on the results, the scenario including simultaneous dilute acid pretreatment and hydrolysis of OFMSW followed by ethanolic fermentation manifested the best performance in all damage categories, as compared to those including acetone pretreatment or higher consumption of enzymes. Such improvements in this scenario led to the highest net saving of-842 potentially disappeared fraction (PDF)/m2/yr,-249.95 kg

The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is a widely-available promising feedstock for biofuel production. However, the presence of different inhibitors originating from fruit and food/beverage wastes as well as recalcitrant lignocellulosic fractions hampers its bioconversion. This necessitates a pretreatment to augment the biodigestibility and fermentability of OFMSW. Hence, this review aims to provide the in-vogue inhibitory compound removal and pretreatment techniques that have been employed for efficient OFMSW conversion into biofuels, i.e., hydrogen, biogas, ethanol, and butanol. The techniques are compared concerning their mode of action, chemical and energy consumption, inhibitor formation and removal, economic feasibility, and environmental sustainability. This critique also reviews the existing knowledge gap and future perspectives for efficient OFMSW valorization. The insights provided pave the way toward developing energy-resilient cities while addressing environmental crises related to generating OFMSW.

Desmodesmus sp. microalgae previously employed in wastewater management was reused as a raw material for producing green nanofibrous membranes through electrospinning. The reduction of biowastes as well as the replacement of common non-degradable plastics would benefit the process sustainability. In this work, different amounts of microalgae (1.25%, 2.5% and 5% wt) were dispersed in an acetic acid/water solution (80/20) and then electrospun at 0.3 mL/h, 25 kV. The presence of acetate cellulose (17%) was required to obtain nanofibres since the microalgae solutions were not sufficiently viscous for electrospinning processing. For the first time, the effect of ultrasound (50 and 125 kWh/kg), and ozone (9 mg/kg) on microalgae before the electrospinning process was evaluated. Ultrasound prompted cell rupture, which allowed both a greater release and higher exposure of the protein, which eventually enabled the formation of nanofibers from the microalgae waste. However, when the intensity of ultrasounds increased from 50 to 125 kWh/kg, a higher presence of aggregates and defects in the fibres could be observed, probably due to protein aggregation. Thus, nanofibrous mats with c.a. 50 nm fibre diameter were obtained when ultrasound pre-treatment at 50 kWh/kg was applied. Protein unfolding was also inferred from the rheological measurements, as higher viscosity values were obtained (∼ 4.1 Vs. 2.5 Pa·s for 50 and 125 kWh/kg ultrasounds, respectively). The present work highlights the potential that Desmodesmus sp. microalgae have in the production of green electrospun mats, still quite unexplored. These bio-based mats possess great potential in different applications that can range from filtering to scaffolds.

La presente investigación tuvo como finalidad evaluar el contenido proteico de las larvas de mosca soldado negro (Hermetia Illucens Sp.) a partir del proceso de degradación de biorresiduos; para ello, se alimentaron larvas con dietas basadas en residuos frescos (vegetales y frutas), residuos cocidos (desechos de restaurantes), residuos cárnicos y residuos de poda y césped. Todos los residuos empleados pasaron por un análisis para determinar sus parámetros físicos.

La presente investigación tuvo como finalidad evaluar el contenido proteico de las larvas de mosca soldado negro (Hermetia Illucens Sp.) a partir del proceso de degradación de biorresiduos; para ello, se alimentaron larvas con dietas basadas en residuos frescos (vegetales y frutas), residuos cocidos (desechos de restaurantes), residuos cárnicos y residuos de poda y césped. Todos los residuos empleados pasaron por un análisis para determinar sus parámetros físicos.

Hard carbon is one of the most promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. In this work, new types of biomass-derived hard carbons were obtained through pyrolysis of different kinds of agro-industrial biowaste (corncob, apple pomace, olive mill solid waste, defatted grape seed and dried grape skin). Furthermore, the influence of pretreating the biowaste samples by hydrothermal carbonization and acid hydrolysis was also studied. Except for the olive mill solid waste, discharge capacities typical of biowaste-derived hard carbons were obtained in every case (≈300 mAh·g−1 at C/15). Furthermore, it seems that hydrothermal carbonization could improve the discharge capacity of biowaste samples derived from different nature at high cycling rates, which are the closest conditions to real applications.

Objective: The goal of this research was to evaluate the influence of the incorporation of Sugarcane Filter Cake (SFC) as an amendment material (AM) on the process of biowaste (BW) composting and the quality of the final product. Methods: In this study the effect (in terms of stability, maturity and agricultural value) of SFC incorporation on four mixture proportions BW: SFC (100:00–control; 90:10; 80:20 and 70:30) was evaluated on a pilot scale. Results: The results show that overall, the incorporation of SFC enabled thermophilic temperatures to be achieved in a shorter time than the control treatment and improved the stability conditions (oxygen consumption <1.0 mgO2/gVSh), germination index (GI >80%: mature product) and quality product index (FI >3.5: high soil fertilization potential). The mixing ratio 80:20, showed the best product quality (highest total N content: 2.32%, TP: 1.42%, CEC: 65.5 meq/100 g), lower electrical conductivity (EC) value (0.38 dS/m) and total and fecal coliforms (15.3 and 4.0 NMP/g respectively), complying with technical standards (Colombian and Chilean) for organic products used as fertilizers and amendments or soil conditioners. In addition to demonstrating the best results of GI and FI (123.40% and 4.67 respectively), Objetivo: Evaluar cómo la incorporación de cachaza (CA) como material de enmienda, afecta la eficiencia del proceso y la calidad del producto final del compostaje de biorresiduos de origen municipal (BOM). Materiales y métodos: En este estudio se evaluó a escala piloto y en términos de estabilidad, madurez y valor agrícola, el efecto de la incorporación de CA sobre el compostaje de BOM en cuatro proporciones de mezcla BOM:CA (100:00– control; 90:10; 80:20 y 70:30). Resultados: Los resultados mostraron que en general, la incorporación de CA permitió alcanzar temperaturas termofílicas en menor tiempo que el tratamiento control y alcanzar mejores condiciones de estabilidad (consumo de oxígeno <1,0 mgO2/gSVh), Índice de Germinación (IG >80%: indicador de un producto maduro) e Índice de calidad de compost (IF >3,5: indicador de alto potencial de fertilización de suelos), siendo la proporción 80:20 la de mejor calidad del producto (mayor contenido de NT: 2,32%, PT: 1,42%, CIC: 65,5 meq/100g), menor valor de CE (0,38 dS/m) y de coliformes totales y fecales (15,3 y 4,0 NMP/g respectivamente), cumpliendo con normas técnicas como la colombiana y la chilena para productos orgánicos utilizados como fertilizantes y acondicionadores del suelo, además de los mejores resultados de IG e IF (123,40% y 4,67 respectivamente).

Hard carbon is one of the most promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. In this work, new types of biomass-derived hard carbons were obtained through pyrolysis of different kinds of agro-industrial biowaste (corncob, apple pomace, olive mill solid waste, defatted grape seed and dried grape skin). Furthermore, the influence of pretreating the biowaste samples by hydrothermal carbonization and acid hydrolysis was also studied. Except for the olive mill solid waste, discharge capacities typical of biowaste-derived hard carbons were obtained in every case (≈300 mAh·g−1 at C/15). Furthermore, it seems that hydrothermal carbonization could improve the discharge capacity of biowaste samples derived from different nature at high cycling rates, which are the closest conditions to real applications.

Wheat straw-derived carbon from the Wheatbelt region in Western Australia was subjected to chemical activation in an electrolyte containing either acid or base treatment. The findings showed an increase in electron/hole mobility towards the interfaces due to the presence of different surface functional groups such as C-SOx-C and S=C in the carbon framework for acid activation. Likewise, the galvanostatic capacitance measured at a current density of 2 mA cm(-2) in a three-electrode configuration for acid-activated wheat straw exhibited 162 F g(-1), while that for base-activated wheat straw exhibited 106 F g(-1). An increase of 34.5 % more capacitance was achieved for acid-treated wheat straw. This improvement is attributed to the synergistic effects between surface functional groups and electrolyte ions, as well as the electronic structure of the porous electrode.

Wheat straw-derived carbon from the Wheatbelt region in Western Australia was subjected to chemical activation in an electrolyte containing either acid or base treatment. The findings showed an increase in electron/hole mobility towards the interfaces due to the presence of different surface functional groups such as C-SOx-C and S=C in the carbon framework for acid activation. Likewise, the galvanostatic capacitance measured at a current density of 2 mA cm(-2) in a three-electrode configuration for acid-activated wheat straw exhibited 162 F g(-1), while that for base-activated wheat straw exhibited 106 F g(-1). An increase of 34.5 % more capacitance was achieved for acid-treated wheat straw. This improvement is attributed to the synergistic effects between surface functional groups and electrolyte ions, as well as the electronic structure of the porous electrode.

Wheat straw-derived carbon from the Wheatbelt region in Western Australia was subjected to chemical activation in an electrolyte containing either acid or base treatment. The findings showed an increase in electron/hole mobility towards the interfaces due to the presence of different surface functional groups such as C-SOx-C and S=C in the carbon framework for acid activation. Likewise, the galvanostatic capacitance measured at a current density of 2 mA cm(-2) in a three-electrode configuration for acid-activated wheat straw exhibited 162 F g(-1), while that for base-activated wheat straw exhibited 106 F g(-1). An increase of 34.5 % more capacitance was achieved for acid-treated wheat straw. This improvement is attributed to the synergistic effects between surface functional groups and electrolyte ions, as well as the electronic structure of the porous electrode.

Hard carbon is one of the most promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. In this work, new types of biomass-derived hard carbons were obtained through pyrolysis of different kinds of agro-industrial biowaste (corncob, apple pomace, olive mill solid waste, defatted grape seed and dried grape skin). Furthermore, the influence of pretreating the biowaste samples by hydrothermal carbonization and acid hydrolysis was also studied. Except for the olive mill solid waste, discharge capacities typical of biowaste-derived hard carbons were obtained in every case (≈300 mAh·g−1 at C/15). Furthermore, it seems that hydrothermal carbonization could improve the discharge capacity of biowaste samples derived from different nature at high cycling rates, which are the closest conditions to real applications.

Objective: The goal of this research was to evaluate the influence of the incorporation of Sugarcane Filter Cake (SFC) as an amendment material (AM) on the process of biowaste (BW) composting and the quality of the final product. Methods: In this study the effect (in terms of stability, maturity and agricultural value) of SFC incorporation on four mixture proportions BW: SFC (100:00–control; 90:10; 80:20 and 70:30) was evaluated on a pilot scale. Results: The results show that overall, the incorporation of SFC enabled thermophilic temperatures to be achieved in a shorter time than the control treatment and improved the stability conditions (oxygen consumption <1.0 mgO2/gVSh), germination index (GI >80%: mature product) and quality product index (FI >3.5: high soil fertilization potential). The mixing ratio 80:20, showed the best product quality (highest total N content: 2.32%, TP: 1.42%, CEC: 65.5 meq/100 g), lower electrical conductivity (EC) value (0.38 dS/m) and total and fecal coliforms (15.3 and 4.0 NMP/g respectively), complying with technical standards (Colombian and Chilean) for organic products used as fertilizers and amendments or soil conditioners. In addition to demonstrating the best results of GI and FI (123.40% and 4.67 respectively), Objetivo: Evaluar cómo la incorporación de cachaza (CA) como material de enmienda, afecta la eficiencia del proceso y la calidad del producto final del compostaje de biorresiduos de origen municipal (BOM). Materiales y métodos: En este estudio se evaluó a escala piloto y en términos de estabilidad, madurez y valor agrícola, el efecto de la incorporación de CA sobre el compostaje de BOM en cuatro proporciones de mezcla BOM:CA (100:00– control; 90:10; 80:20 y 70:30). Resultados: Los resultados mostraron que en general, la incorporación de CA permitió alcanzar temperaturas termofílicas en menor tiempo que el tratamiento control y alcanzar mejores condiciones de estabilidad (consumo de oxígeno <1,0 mgO2/gSVh), Índice de Germinación (IG >80%: indicador de un producto maduro) e Índice de calidad de compost (IF >3,5: indicador de alto potencial de fertilización de suelos), siendo la proporción 80:20 la de mejor calidad del producto (mayor contenido de NT: 2,32%, PT: 1,42%, CIC: 65,5 meq/100g), menor valor de CE (0,38 dS/m) y de coliformes totales y fecales (15,3 y 4,0 NMP/g respectivamente), cumpliendo con normas técnicas como la colombiana y la chilena para productos orgánicos utilizados como fertilizantes y acondicionadores del suelo, además de los mejores resultados de IG e IF (123,40% y 4,67 respectivamente).

La presente investigación tuvo como finalidad evaluar el contenido proteico de las larvas de mosca soldado negro (Hermetia Illucens Sp.) a partir del proceso de degradación de biorresiduos; para ello, se alimentaron larvas con dietas basadas en residuos frescos (vegetales y frutas), residuos cocidos (desechos de restaurantes), residuos cárnicos y residuos de poda y césped. Todos los residuos empleados pasaron por un análisis para determinar sus parámetros físicos.

För att nå de klimatpolitiska målen arbetar såväl Sverige som EU aktivt mot en cirkulär ekonomi där varje resurs nyttjas så effektivt som möjligt. En del i det arbetet handlar om att lyfta fram hållbara energikällor för att succesivt fasa ut fossila bränslen. Ett etablerat förnybart energislag, som fått mer uppmärksamhet på senare tid, är biogas. Produktionen av biogas sker via rötning av biologiskt material och kan generera el och värme, men även uppgraderas till fordonsgas. Ett av alla substrat som kan användas för rötning är gödsel. Den här studien har till syfte att undersöka omfattningen av den outnyttjade energipotentialen i gödsel från mjölkproducerande lantbruk i Sverige. Därtill ger den en bild av hur mycket koldioxid från fossila energikällor som skulle kunna minska i och med tillvaratagandet av energin i gödsel. En gårdsbaserad biogasanläggning vid Fredrikslunds lantbruk i Kalmar kommun är utgångspunkten och beräkningar görs tillsammans med data från bland annat Jordbruksverket och Energigas Sverige. För beräkning av möjligheten till minskat koldioxidutsläpp från fossil källa görs jämförelse med eldningsolja som används vid de svenska kraftverken. Resultatet visar att det finns en betydande energipotential i gödsel från svenska mjölk- producerande lantbruk där majoriteten av den ännu inte nyttjas för biogas- produktion. Nya styrmedel har tillkommit med syfte att gynna en ökad biogasproduktion, vilket kan öka chanserna för att ta vara på energipotentialen. Att genom ökad biogasproduktion minska mängden utsläpp av koldioxid till atmosfären från fossila källor ses också som möjlig. Sammanfattningsvis är studien ett exempel på hur en befintlig resurs kan effektiviseras ytterligare, ett arbete som troligen kommer bli än viktigare framöver., To reach the climate goals, Sweden and the European Union are working towards a circular economy where the resources are used as efficiently as possible. Part of that work is about highlighting sustainable energy sources to gradually replace fossil fuels. An established, renewable type of energy, which has received more attention recently, is biogas. Biogas is produced through anaerobic digestion of biological material. The produced gas can generate electricity and heat, but it can also be upgraded to compressed biogas and used as automotive fuel. One of the substrates that can be used for digestion is manure. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent of the energy potential in manure from dairy farms in Sweden. In addition, it gives an idea of how much carbon dioxide from fossil energy sources that could be reduced if the energy potential in manure were used. Data is received from a farm- based biogas plant at Fredrikslund's farm in Kalmar as well as Swedish statistics of agriculture and energy. To estimate the possibility of reduced carbon dioxide emissions from fossil sources, a comparison is made with fuel oil. The results show that there is a considerable energy potential in manure from Swedish dairy farms where the majority is not yet used for biogas production. Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from fossil sources through increased biogas production is also seen as possible.

Chitosan (Ch)-derived from biowaste along with smectite, an abundant clay mineral, were used in a low-cost and eco-friendly synthesis of a new type of catalyst. Nanocomposite catalysts constituted of Co supported on smectite with chitosan-derived carbon loading were obtained using an impregnation‑carbonization procedure and denoted as Co/cCh-S-T (T stands for applied carbonization temperature). The carbonization was performed in the temperature range from 400 °C to 700 °C in the flow of N2 providing inert atmosphere. The temperature of 500 °C was found to be the most suitable for catalyst synthesis regarding catalytic performance in a peroxymonosulfate activated degradation of tartrazine. The incorporation of carbonized chitosan structure within the interlamellar space of the smectite was confirmed using X-ray powder diffraction. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy confirmed a layered structure of nanocomposites characteristic for smectite, as well as the presence of small spherical cobalt containing nanoformations (confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) well dispersed within structure. The existance of cobalt in the CoII and CoIII oxidation state was proven by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The Co/cCh-S-500 catalyst was proven to be stable and efficient after 5 consecutive cycles. This work showed that nanocomposite Co-catalysts, based on smectite and biowaste-derived carbon, as peroxymonosulfate activators exhibited a very promising performance in the degradation of water pollutants.

La presente investigación tuvo como finalidad evaluar el contenido proteico de las larvas de mosca soldado negro (Hermetia Illucens Sp.) a partir del proceso de degradación de biorresiduos; para ello, se alimentaron larvas con dietas basadas en residuos frescos (vegetales y frutas), residuos cocidos (desechos de restaurantes), residuos cárnicos y residuos de poda y césped. Todos los residuos empleados pasaron por un análisis para determinar sus parámetros físicos.

Wheat straw-derived carbon from the Wheatbelt region in Western Australia was subjected to chemical activation in an electrolyte containing either acid or base treatment. The findings showed an increase in electron/hole mobility towards the interfaces due to the presence of different surface functional groups such as C-SOx-C and S=C in the carbon framework for acid activation. Likewise, the galvanostatic capacitance measured at a current density of 2 mA cm(-2) in a three-electrode configuration for acid-activated wheat straw exhibited 162 F g(-1), while that for base-activated wheat straw exhibited 106 F g(-1). An increase of 34.5 % more capacitance was achieved for acid-treated wheat straw. This improvement is attributed to the synergistic effects between surface functional groups and electrolyte ions, as well as the electronic structure of the porous electrode.

In recent years, the extensive use of chlorpyrifos (CHP) and malathion (MLT), two common organophosphate (OP) insecticides, has raised concerns about their adverse effects on the environment and human health [1]. These pesticides can contaminate water bodies, soil, and food, posing potential risks to non-target organisms and human populations [2, 3]. Therefore, there is a growing demand for effective and sustainable methods to remove these pesticides from the environment [4]. Spent coffee grounds (SCG), a readily available agricultural waste, have shown promising potential as an adsorbent [3]. The aim of this study was to investigate the removal of CHP and MLT using SCG as an adsorbent and to examine the adsorption behavior through isotherm analysis. Isotherm analysis was performed using four isotherm models: Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin, and Dubinin-Radushkevich. The experimental data best fit the Langmuir isotherm model, suggesting a monolayer adsorption process on homogeneous adsorption sites. According to the Langmuir isotherm, the maximum adsorption capacity of SCG for CHP and MLT is 2.34 mg/g and 7.04 mg/g, respectively. Additionally, the Freundlich isotherm model fitted the experimental data for MLT adsorption on SCG very well, implying multilayer physisorption even after all adsorption sites are occupied. These findings provide valuable insights into the feasibility of SCG as an eco-friendly approach for the removal of CHP and MLT from the environment. The energy of adsorption obtained from the DubininRadushkevich isotherm confirmed that in the case of CHP adsorption the binding is stronger than in the case of MLT adsorption.

Production of functional molecules from renewable bio-feedstocks and bio-waste has the potential to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. However, the development of such processes commonly requires invention and scale-up of highly selective and robust chemistry for complex reaction networks in bio-waste mixtures. We demonstrate an approach to optimising a chemical route for multiple objectives starting from a mixture derived from bio-waste. We optimise the recently developed route from a mixture of waste terpenes to p-cymene. In the first reaction step it was not feasible to build a detailed kinetic model. A Bayesian multiple objectives optimisation algorithm TS-EMO was used to optimise the first two steps of reaction for maximum conversion and selectivity. The model suggests a set of very different conditions that result in simultaneous high values of the two outputs., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., ChemE/Product and Process Engineering

Hard carbon is one of the most promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. In this work, new types of biomass-derived hard carbons were obtained through pyrolysis of different kinds of agro-industrial biowaste (corncob, apple pomace, olive mill solid waste, defatted grape seed and dried grape skin). Furthermore, the influence of pretreating the biowaste samples by hydrothermal carbonization and acid hydrolysis was also studied. Except for the olive mill solid waste, discharge capacities typical of biowaste-derived hard carbons were obtained in every case (≈300 mAh·g−1 at C/15). Furthermore, it seems that hydrothermal carbonization could improve the discharge capacity of biowaste samples derived from different nature at high cycling rates, which are the closest conditions to real applications.

La presente investigación tuvo como finalidad evaluar el contenido proteico de las larvas de mosca soldado negro (Hermetia Illucens Sp.) a partir del proceso de degradación de biorresiduos; para ello, se alimentaron larvas con dietas basadas en residuos frescos (vegetales y frutas), residuos cocidos (desechos de restaurantes), residuos cárnicos y residuos de poda y césped. Todos los residuos empleados pasaron por un análisis para determinar sus parámetros físicos.

Chitosan (Ch)-derived from biowaste along with smectite, an abundant clay mineral, were used in a low-cost and eco-friendly synthesis of a new type of catalyst. Nanocomposite catalysts constituted of Co supported on smectite with chitosan-derived carbon loading were obtained using an impregnation‑carbonization procedure and denoted as Co/cCh-S-T (T stands for applied carbonization temperature). The carbonization was performed in the temperature range from 400 °C to 700 °C in the flow of N2 providing inert atmosphere. The temperature of 500 °C was found to be the most suitable for catalyst synthesis regarding catalytic performance in a peroxymonosulfate activated degradation of tartrazine. The incorporation of carbonized chitosan structure within the interlamellar space of the smectite was confirmed using X-ray powder diffraction. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy confirmed a layered structure of nanocomposites characteristic for smectite, as well as the presence of small spherical cobalt containing nanoformations (confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) well dispersed within structure. The existance of cobalt in the CoII and CoIII oxidation state was proven by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The Co/cCh-S-500 catalyst was proven to be stable and efficient after 5 consecutive cycles. This work showed that nanocomposite Co-catalysts, based on smectite and biowaste-derived carbon, as peroxymonosulfate activators exhibited a very promising performance in the degradation of water pollutants.

Low- and negative-value (waste) products represent a valuable resource. Its use as a source for the fabrication of high value materials represents a lucrative pathway to increasing sustainability and decreasing the economic cost of various industries. Thermochemical methods for the valorization of biowaste and low-value natural products are simple and cheap yet sufficiently efficient to deliver significant economic benefits. Plasma-based methods represent another family of technologies for waste-to-value conversion. The nanostructure nucleation and growth in plasmas involve a complex set of physical and chemical processes that occur in bulk plasma and on surfaces. The choice between these two types of technology assumes a complex optimization that takes into account several factors including the cost of precursors; initial outlay and operating cost of equipment; the cost of labor; the cost of production engineering including the research and development efforts for designing the industrial technology, which is typically higher for the plasma-based systems, and so on. In this article a technology level comparison of thermochemical and plasma-based techniques for the valorization of raw and waste biomass, where the intent is to use the resulting products for environmental remediation, energy storage, optoelectronics, and biomedical applications, is presented.

För att nå de klimatpolitiska målen arbetar såväl Sverige som EU aktivt mot en cirkulär ekonomi där varje resurs nyttjas så effektivt som möjligt. En del i det arbetet handlar om att lyfta fram hållbara energikällor för att succesivt fasa ut fossila bränslen. Ett etablerat förnybart energislag, som fått mer uppmärksamhet på senare tid, är biogas. Produktionen av biogas sker via rötning av biologiskt material och kan generera el och värme, men även uppgraderas till fordonsgas. Ett av alla substrat som kan användas för rötning är gödsel. Den här studien har till syfte att undersöka omfattningen av den outnyttjade energipotentialen i gödsel från mjölkproducerande lantbruk i Sverige. Därtill ger den en bild av hur mycket koldioxid från fossila energikällor som skulle kunna minska i och med tillvaratagandet av energin i gödsel. En gårdsbaserad biogasanläggning vid Fredrikslunds lantbruk i Kalmar kommun är utgångspunkten och beräkningar görs tillsammans med data från bland annat Jordbruksverket och Energigas Sverige. För beräkning av möjligheten till minskat koldioxidutsläpp från fossil källa görs jämförelse med eldningsolja som används vid de svenska kraftverken. Resultatet visar att det finns en betydande energipotential i gödsel från svenska mjölk- producerande lantbruk där majoriteten av den ännu inte nyttjas för biogas- produktion. Nya styrmedel har tillkommit med syfte att gynna en ökad biogasproduktion, vilket kan öka chanserna för att ta vara på energipotentialen. Att genom ökad biogasproduktion minska mängden utsläpp av koldioxid till atmosfären från fossila källor ses också som möjlig. Sammanfattningsvis är studien ett exempel på hur en befintlig resurs kan effektiviseras ytterligare, ett arbete som troligen kommer bli än viktigare framöver., To reach the climate goals, Sweden and the European Union are working towards a circular economy where the resources are used as efficiently as possible. Part of that work is about highlighting sustainable energy sources to gradually replace fossil fuels. An established, renewable type of energy, which has received more attention recently, is biogas. Biogas is produced through anaerobic digestion of biological material. The produced gas can generate electricity and heat, but it can also be upgraded to compressed biogas and used as automotive fuel. One of the substrates that can be used for digestion is manure. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent of the energy potential in manure from dairy farms in Sweden. In addition, it gives an idea of how much carbon dioxide from fossil energy sources that could be reduced if the energy potential in manure were used. Data is received from a farm- based biogas plant at Fredrikslund's farm in Kalmar as well as Swedish statistics of agriculture and energy. To estimate the possibility of reduced carbon dioxide emissions from fossil sources, a comparison is made with fuel oil. The results show that there is a considerable energy potential in manure from Swedish dairy farms where the majority is not yet used for biogas production. Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from fossil sources through increased biogas production is also seen as possible.

Wheat straw-derived carbon from the Wheatbelt region in Western Australia was subjected to chemical activation in an electrolyte containing either acid or base treatment. The findings showed an increase in electron/hole mobility towards the interfaces due to the presence of different surface functional groups such as C-SOx-C and S=C in the carbon framework for acid activation. Likewise, the galvanostatic capacitance measured at a current density of 2 mA cm(-2) in a three-electrode configuration for acid-activated wheat straw exhibited 162 F g(-1), while that for base-activated wheat straw exhibited 106 F g(-1). An increase of 34.5 % more capacitance was achieved for acid-treated wheat straw. This improvement is attributed to the synergistic effects between surface functional groups and electrolyte ions, as well as the electronic structure of the porous electrode.