Search

A method for subtracting the pairwise correlations of a pressure-transmitting medium from neutron pair distribution functions obtained under hydro­static compression is presented and applied to Ni, MgO and α-quartz., High pressure is a powerful thermodynamic tool for exploring the structure and the phase behaviour of the crystalline state, and is now widely used in conventional crystallographic measurements. High-pressure local structure measurements using neutron diffraction have, thus far, been limited by the presence of a strongly scattering, perdeuterated, pressure-transmitting medium (PTM), the signal from which contaminates the resulting pair distribution functions (PDFs). Here, a method is reported for subtracting the pairwise correlations of the commonly used 4:1 methanol:ethanol PTM from neutron PDFs obtained under hydro­static compression. The method applies a molecular-dynamics-informed empirical correction and a non-negative matrix factorization algorithm to recover the PDF of the pure sample. Proof of principle is demonstrated, producing corrected high-pressure PDFs of simple crystalline materials, Ni and MgO, and benchmarking these against simulated data from the average structure. Finally, the first local structure determination of α-quartz under hydro­static pressure is presented, extracting compression behaviour of the real-space structure.

This work addresses the joint management of residual microalgae and pine wood waste through pyrolysis to obtain a solid product for its use as soil amendment and two other by-products (liquid and gaseous) that can be used for energy purposes. Two management routes have been followed. The first route is through the co-pyrolysis of mixtures of both residual materials in several proportions and the later use of their solid fraction for soil amendment. The second route is the pyrolysis of pine wood waste and its direct combination with dried residual microalgae, also using it as soil amendment. The solid fraction assessment shows that from seven solid products (biochar) three stand out for their positive applicability in agriculture as soil amendment. In addition, they also present the benefit of serving as carbon sink, giving a negative balance of CO2 emissions. However, caution is suggested due to biochar applicability being subject to soil characteristics. To ensure the sustainability of the overall process, the energy available in liquid and gaseous fractions has been assessed for covering the drying needs of the residual microalgae in both cases. These results suggest that the pyrolysis process is a sustainable way to manage specific evaluated residues and their products.

The wastewater concentration is commonly acceptable for macroalgae growth; this process consumes water and is applicable for bioremediation. This study evaluated biodiesel's potential production from freshwater macroalga, Nitella sp., using batch experiment. Algae were collected from wastewater saturated from irrigation canals. Water quality and algae growth environment characteristics were monitored and analyzed. COD and BOD values were 18.67 ± 4.62 mg/L and 5.40 ± 0.30 mg/L, respectively. The chemical composition contents were high, demonstrating that water quality and sufficient nutrients could support algae growth. Oil extraction was estimated by the room temperature and heat extraction methods. The biodiesel in room temperature treatment was 0.0383 ± 0.014%, and in heat, extraction treatment was 0.0723 ± 0.029%. Results confirmed that the heat extraction treatment gave a high amount of oil and biodiesel yield. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to analyze fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Results revealed that 9-octadecane was a major portion of the substance. The obtained results confirmed that the wastewater contains many elements that can be utilized for dual-mode, like bioremediation and enhanced macroalgae growth for biodiesel production. Therefore, macroalgae grown in canal wastewater were highly feasible for use in sustainable biodiesel production. HIGHLIGHTS Irrigation wastewater-grown algae were utilized.; Waste water contents can be utilized for dual mode bioremediation and energy generation.; Wastewater-grown algae content rich in nitrogen, and organic contents.; Reflux reaction gives enhanced biodiesel production.; Nitella sp. is viable for sustainable biodiesel production.

This chapter presents the study on pollutant removal in palm oil mill effluent using chitosan as natural coagulant. Up until today, palm oil mill effluent (POME) considered one of the significant sources of environmental pollution. The characteristics of POME include contaminating the source of drinking water, which also harmful to the aquatic ecosystem by creating a highly acidic environment or causing eutrophication. With increasing public awareness of environmental pollution, it creates the need to address this issue. Chitosan is non-polluting food-based anionic and biodegradable biopolymer that are environmentally friendly useful in wastewater treatment. The critical parameter to determine the effectiveness of pollutants removal is chemical oxygen demand, color, and total suspended solids. This chapter also presents and discusses some of the significant findings to provide proper understandings and implications in this topic.

Unharvested hardwoods are abundant in eastern Canada, due to the low quality of their fiber and the absence of outlets in conventional wood transformation industries. The objective of this study was to assess the biochemical and thermochemical energy conversion potential of decaying hardwoods and compare their relationships with external and internal indicators of tree degradation. We characterized how wood-decay processes altered the physical and chemical properties of these woods and affected their digestibility yield and their performance according to indexes of stability and efficiency of combustion. DNA analysis on wood samples was also performed to determine the relative abundance of white-rot fungi compared to that of other saprotrophs. All properties stayed within the range of variations allowing the wood to remain suitable for conversion into bioenergy, even with increased decay. We found no significant differences in the physical and chemical properties that are crucial for energy production between wood from externally-assessed live and decayed trees. However, the proportion of wood area affected by rot was significantly associated with increased digestibility yield, and with decreased combustion reactivity. We could not detect any specific effect associated with increased relative abundance of white-rot fungi. These results suggest that the utilization of biomass from decayed hardwoods instead of live trees for bioenergy production should not alter the conversion efficiency and even potentially increase the performance of biochemical pathways, and hence, support their use as feedstock for bioenergy production.

Environmental concern for our planet has changed significantly over time due to climate change, caused by an increasing population and the subsequent demand for electricity, and thus increased power generation. Considering that natural gas is regarded as a promising fuel for such a purpose, the need to integrate carbon capture technologies in such plants is becoming a necessity, if gas power plants are to be aligned with the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere, through understanding the capturing efficacy of different absorbents under different operating conditions. Therefore, this study provided for the first time the comparison of available absorbents in relation to amine solvents (MEA, DEA, and DEA) CO2 removal efficiency, cost, and recirculation rate to achieve Climate change action through caron capture without causing absorbent disintegration. The study analyzed Flue under different amine-based solvent solutions (monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), and methyldiethanolamine (MDEA)), in order to compare their potential for CO2 reduction under different operating conditions and costs. This was simulated using ProMax 5.0 software modeled as a simple absorber tower to absorb CO2 from flue gas. Furthermore, MEA, DEA, and MDEA adsorbents were used with a temperature of 38 &deg, C and their concentration varied from 10 to 15%. Circulation rates of 200&ndash, 300 m3/h were used for each concentration and solvent. The findings deduced that MEA is a promising solvent compared to DEA and MDEA in terms of the highest CO2 captured, however, it is limited at the top outlet for clean flue gas, which contained 3.6295% of CO2 and less than half a percent of DEA and MDEA, but this can be addressed either by increasing the concentration to 15% or increasing the MEA circulation rate to 300 m3/h.

Intelligent responsive microcarriers have emerged as a promising class of biomaterials for therapeutic delivery and tissue regeneration, since they can respond to external stimuli and release the loaded drugs in an active manner. Among various available stimuli, near‐infrared (NIR) light is particularly attractive because it can penetrate biotic tissues with sufficient intensity and minimal damage. In this work, a kind of photoresponsive delivery microcarriers (PDMs) is developed using microfluidics. The microcarriers consist of NIR‐absorbing graphene oxide, thermosensitive poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide), and biocompatible gelatin methacrylate. Under NIR light, the PDMs exhibit an evident volume shrinkage and effectively trigger the drug release. After the NIR light is switched off, the shrunken microcarriers return to their original size. This reversible process can be stably repeated for many cycles. An in vitro experiment demonstrates that the NIR‐radiated PDMs can actively release vascular endothelial growth factors and improve the tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The results from the in vivo experiment also show an obvious photothermal effect and superior therapeutic efficacy of these PDMs in a rat model of tissue defects. These features make the PDMs an excellent drug delivery system and represent a great potential for clinical applications in tissue repair., Photoresponsive delivery microcarriers are developed using microfluidics, which consist of graphene oxide, poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide), and gelatin methacrylate. These microcarriers can actively respond to near‐infrared light and release the encapsulated drugs according to the irradiation frequency. After being implanted into a rat model of abdominal wall defects, they also exhibit potential value in tissue repair.

Objective Articular cartilage-derived progenitor cells (ACPCs) are a potential new cell source for cartilage repair. This study aims to characterize endogenous ACPCs from healthy and osteoarthritic (OA) cartilage, evaluate their potential for cartilage regeneration, and compare this to cartilage formation by chondrocytes. Design ACPCs were isolated from full-thickness healthy and OA human cartilage and separated from the total cell population by clonal growth after differential adhesion to fibronectin. ACPCs were characterized by growth kinetics, multilineage differentiation, and surface marker expression. Chondrogenic redifferentiation of ACPCs was compared with chondrocytes in pellet cultures. Pellets were assessed for cartilage-like matrix production by (immuno)histochemistry, quantitative analyses for glycosaminoglycans and DNA content, and expression of chondrogenic and hypertrophic genes. Results Healthy and OA ACPCs were successfully differentiated toward the adipogenic and chondrogenic lineage, but failed to produce calcified matrix when exposed to osteogenic induction media. Both ACPC populations met the criteria for cell surface marker expression of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Healthy ACPCs cultured in pellets deposited extracellular matrix containing proteoglycans and type II collagen, devoid of type I collagen. Gene expression of hypertrophic marker type X collagen was lower in healthy ACPC pellets compared with OA pellets. Conclusions This study provides further insight into the ACPC population in healthy and OA human articular cartilage. ACPCs show similarities to MSCs, yet do not produce calcified matrix under well-established osteogenic culture conditions. Due to extensive proliferative potential and chondrogenic capacity, ACPCs show potential for cartilage regeneration and possibly for clinical application, as a promising alternative to MSCs or chondrocytes.

International audience; Automation throughout history has caused profound changes in employment dynamics. With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, a new threat may affect employability, asrobots and AI-based processes can now assume tasks considered exclusive to humans. This position paperaims to motivate the study of the effects of AI and automation on employability, extending it into a collaborative network perspective. The problem is firstly observed from a historical perspective. The collaboration aspects are considered through the analysis of two casestudies. Results suggestthata latent element of collaborative networks, complexity, may have effects in terms of employability.

In November 2015, a dam from iron mining collapsed, which is considered as the largest environmental accident in Brazil. Over than 50 million m³ were released reaching the Doce River and killed 20 people in Mariana. The literature review shows that the mining tailings can be used as raw material to the synthesis of zeolites, which can be used for the wastewater treatment. The aim of this work was the synthesis of zeolites from the Samarco tailings and its application for the treatment of electroplating effluent. The residue was characterized which identified high-iron content for the synthesis of zeolites. The residue was mixed with NaOH (1:1) and the reaction temperature was evaluated from 350 °C to 650 °C. Then, the material was mixed with aluminum source and the effect of time was evaluated. The zeolite was applied to the wastewater treatment from electroplating industry. Results showed that the synthesis of zeolite A was carried out with a fusion step at 450 °C for 1 h using RAS: NaOH ratio 1:1, and further hydrothermal treatment at 100 °C during 4 h. The zinc removal from the wastewater was up to 98% using 50 mL of the solution, 2.5 g zeolite A, 60min and pH 6.4. The main metals presented in the solution were adsorbed up to 90% by the zeolite synthesized. Zinc adsorption by the zeolite fitted better on Langmuir isotherm. The zeolite was used four times in a row and zinc removal declined 98–68%. Keywords: Fundão dam, Brumadinho, Mining tailings, Mariana, Ion exchange

[EN] Nitrogen recovery technologies such as the hollow fibre membrane contactor are now being developed. However, an economic analysis is needed prior to their full-scale application in wastewater treatment plants. The aim of this study was to analyse the economic and environmental aspects of scaling-up this method. To achieve it, a full-scale 40,000 m3·day¿1-wastewater treatment plant influent flow rate was simulated jointly with a membrane contactor plant to evaluate the minimum costs of optimum operating conditions of membrane contactors (pH, feed flow rate and membrane surface). The optimum conditions for treating 600 m3·day¿1 of reject water was found to be 10 pH, 0.08 m3·s¿1 feed flow rate and 10,580 m2 of membrane surface, obtaining a 4% nitrogen ammonia sulphate solution. The results indicated capital (membrane modules and pumps) and operating costs (reagents and energy) of 0.0095 €·m¿3 and a profit of 0.0090 €·m¿3, including energy savings in terms of aeration and sales of the recovered ammonia sulphate, with the added benefit of reducing CO2-eq by 10.3 tons per day., This research was financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO projects CTM2014-54980-C2-1/2-R and CTM2017-86751-C2-1/2-R) with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as well as the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia via a pre-doctoral FPI fellowship to the first author.

We investigated the use of dielectric layers produced by atomic layer deposition (ALD) as an approach to strain mitigation in composite silicon/superconductor devices operating at cryogenic temperatures. We show that the addition of an ALD layer acts to reduce the strain of spins closest to silicon/superconductor interface where strain is highest. We show that appropriately biasing our devices at the hyperfine clock transition of bismuth donors in silicon, we can remove strain broadening and that the addition of ALD layers left T 2 (or temporal inhomogeneities) unchanged in these natural silicon devices.

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132773., Quantitative image analysis (QIA) is a simple and automated method for process monitoring, complementary to chemical analysis, that when coupled to mathematical modelling allows associating changes in the biomass to several operational parameters. The majority of the research regarding the use of QIA has been carried out using synthetic wastewater and applied to activated sludge systems, while there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the application of QIA in the monitoring of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) systems. In this work, chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonium (NNH4+), nitrite (NNO2-), nitrate (NNO3-), salinity (Cl), and total suspended solids (TSS) levels present in the effluent of an AGS system treating fish canning wastewater were successfully associated to QIA data, from both suspended and granular biomass fractions by partial least squares models. The correlation between physical-chemical parameters and QIA data allowed obtaining good assessment results for COD (R2 of 0.94), NNH4+ (R2 of 0.98), NNO2- (R2 of 0.96), NNO3- (R2 of 0.95), Cl (R2 of 0.98), and TSS (R2 of 0.94). While the COD and NNO2- assessment models were mostly correlated to the granular fraction QIA data, the suspended fraction was highly relevant for NNH4+ assessment. The NNO3-, Cl and TSS assessment benefited from the use of both biomass fractions (suspended and granular) QIA data, indicating the importance of the balance between the suspended and granular fractions in AGS systems and its analysis. This study provides a complementary approach to assess effluent quality parameters which can improve wastewater treatment plants monitoring and control, with a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly procedure, while avoiding daily physical-chemical analysis., The authors thank the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding to the research units CEB (UIDB/04469/2020) and CBQF (UIDB/50016/2020) and the project AGeNT - PTDC/BTA-BTA/31264/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031264). The authors wish to thank the company Aguas do Tejo Atlantico, S.A. for supplying the granules. Daniela P. Mesquita and Catarina L. Amorim thank FCT for funding through program DL 57/2016 – Norma transitoria., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

International audience; Shellfish farming, a key sector of French aquaculture activity, allows the production of oyster spat in a controlled environment. Their production in commercial hatcheries requires control over the quality of the seawater used to sustain crossbreeding, breeding, and the production of fodder microalgae. Therefore, improving the filtration conditions of incoming water is crucial in ensuring the sustainability of production. An ultrafiltration pilot plant was therefore installed at Vendee Naissain. This ultrafiltration pilot plant allows filtration at 0.02 mu m; it is used upstream of hatcheries to eliminate pathogens and parasites that can influence the development of cultivated species and downstream to remove oyster gametes in hatchery effluents. The objectives of this work were: (i) to use ultrafiltered seawater for the culture of the microalga Isochrysis lutea (T-Iso) to determine whether better growth than that observed with borehole water, historically used by the producer, can be achieved; and (ii) to determine whether the use of ultrafiltered water results in better fertilization rates of the cupped oyster Crassostrea gigas compared to filtered and UV-treated seawater. Ultrafiltered water has shown definite efficiency for culturing T-Iso with rapid growth and significant reduction in contamination compared to cultivation in well water. The contribution of ultrafiltered water in hatching is more nuanced; ultrafiltered water does not stabilize hatch rates, and its quality is highly dependent on the quality of the seawater used.

Coffee-pulp (CP) is an agricultural by-product produced in tropical regions. The high moisture and high carbohydrates content promote rapid spoilage by microorganisms together with detrimental consequences for the environment. Proper conservation of this biomass could be useful as a substrate for other processes. The feasibility of CP silage without any additive was studied at a large scale. Four silages were carried out each one containing 4.5 t of CP. Coffee-pulp silage was monitored during three months and samples were collected at regular intervals of time. Samples were used to determine microbiological parameters (lactic acid bacteria and yeasts population) and physicochemical variables like dry matter, pH, water-soluble carbohydrates, organic acids and ethanol. In all the 4 silages carried out, a high level of lactic acid was rapidly reached, decreasing the pH. Additionally, acetic and propionic acids were produced inducing an antifungal effect. Limited ethanol production was observed in the first days of silage due to the yeast´s activity. The internal temperature of silos rose indicating residual aerobic activity. Stable silage conditions in terms of high lactic acid concentration (> 8% DM), low pH (3.9) and no butyric acid production, were established during the first 72 h. These CP silage variables were kept constant after 30 days and until 90 days. Coffee-pulp is a suitable agricultural by-product for in situ conservation at large-scale silage process without addition of inoculum.

Background Czech older adults have lower rates of physical activity than the average population and lag behind in the use of digital technologies, compared with their peers from other European countries. Objective This study aims to assess the feasibility of intensive behavior monitoring through technology in Czech adults aged ≥50 years. Methods Participants (N=30; mean age 61.2 years, SD 6.8 years, range 50-74 years; 16/30, 53% male; 7/30, 23% retired) were monitored for 12 weeks while wearing a Fitbit Charge 2 monitor and completed three 8-day bursts of intensive data collection through surveys presented on a custom-made mobile app. Web-based surveys were also completed before and at the end of the 12-week period (along with poststudy focus groups) to evaluate participants’ perceptions of their experience in the study. Results All 30 participants completed the study. Across the three 8-day bursts, participants completed 1454 out of 1744 (83% compliance rate) surveys administered 3 times per day on a pseudorandom schedule, 451 out of 559 (81% compliance rate) end-of-day surveys, and 736 episodes of self-reported planned physical activity (with 29/736, 3.9% of the reports initiated but returned without data). The overall rating of using the mobile app and Fitbit was above average (74.5 out of 100 on the System Usability Scale). The majority reported that the Fitbit (27/30, 90%) and mobile app (25/30, 83%) were easy to use and rated their experience positively (25/30, 83%). Focus groups revealed that some surveys were missed owing to notifications not being noticed or that participants needed a longer time window for survey completion. Some found wearing the monitor in hot weather or at night uncomfortable, but overall, participants were highly motivated to complete the surveys and be compliant with the study procedures. Conclusions The use of a mobile survey app coupled with a wearable device appears feasible for use among Czech older adults. Participants in this study tolerated the intensive assessment schedule well, but lower compliance may be expected in studies of more diverse groups of older adults. Some difficulties were noted with the pairing and synchronization of devices on some types of smartphones, posing challenges for large-scale studies.

International audience; In many real world situations, the design of social rankings over agents or items from a given raking over groups or coalitions, to which these agents or items belong to, is of big interest. With this aim, we revise the lexicographic excellence solution and introduce two novel solutions which, moreover, take into account the size of the groups. We present some desirable axioms which are interpreted in this context. Next, a comparable axiomatization of these three solutions is established, revealing the main differences among the two new social rankings and the lexicographic excellence solution. Finally, we apply the three social rankings under study to a real scenario. Specifically, the performance of some football players of Paris Saint-Germain during the UEFA Champions League according to these three rules is analyzed.

Producción Científica, Junta de Castilla y León (grants CLU 2017-09 and UIC 071), Biogas contain minor concentration of volatile methyl siloxanes (VMS), responsible for severe damages in turbines or internal combustion engines. Sustainable biological processes for VMS abatement are limited by the low aqueous solubility of VMS. In order this limitation, the siloxanes (D4, D5, L2 and L3) removal performance of a two-phase partitioning biotrickling filter (TP-BTF) was study in terms of the empty bed residence time (EBRT) and the fraction of the organic phase (silicone oil). A decrease in the total VMS removal from 76 to 49% was observed when the EBRT was reduced from 60 to 15 min. The highest removals were achieved for D4 (53–84%) and D5 (69–87%), compared to the lower values recorded for L2 (19–45%) and L3 (31–81%). The increase in the share of silicone oil in the recycling mineral medium from 5 to 45% resulted in an improvement of the total VMS abatement from 35 to 52%. This enhancement was observed for L3 (21–50%), D4 (26–64%) and D5 (58–78%), whereas L2 removals remained < 25%. A highly specialized bacterial community dominated by the genus KCM-B-112 was retrieved at the end of the experiment., European Commission-H2020-MSCA–IF–2019 (project 897284), Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (Horizon 2020 grant 745785)

Background Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most challenging diseases in the 21st century and is the sixth leading cause of death. Telemedicine has increasingly been implemented in the care of patients with DM. Although teleconsultations at home have shown to be more effective for inducing HbA1c reduction than other telemedicine options, before the 2019 coronavirus disease crisis, their use had been lagging behind. Studies on physicians’ or patients’ perceptions about telemedicine have been performed independently of each other, and very few have focused on teleconsultations. In a time of great pressure for health systems and when an important portion of health care has to be assured at a distance, obtaining insights about teleconsultations at home from the stakeholders directly involved in the health care interaction is particularly important. Objective The perceptions of patients and physicians about their intentions to use home synchronous teleconsultations for DM care are examined to identify drivers and barriers inherent to programs that involve home teleconsultations. Methods Two identical questionnaires integrating the technology acceptance model and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and assessing the confidence in information and communication technology use of patients and physicians were developed. Responses by patients (n=75) and physicians (n=68) were analyzed using canonical correlation analysis. Results Associations between predictor constructs (performance, effort, social influence, facilitating conditions, and attitude) and intention to use yielded significant functions, with a canonical R2 of 0.95 (for physicians) and 0.98 (patients). The main identified barriers to patient intention to use were the expected effort to explain the medical problem, and privacy and confidentiality issues. The major drivers were the facilitation of contact with the physician, which is beneficial to patient disease management and treatment, time savings, and reciprocity concerning physicians’ willingness to perform teleconsultations. Responses from physicians revealed an association between intention to use and the expected performance of home teleconsultations. The major barrier to intention to use expressed in physicians’ answers was doubts concerning the quality of patient examination. The major drivers were time savings, productivity increases, improvements in patient’s health and patient management, National Health System costs reduction, and reciprocity relative to patients’ willingness to engage in teleconsultations. Conclusions To promote the use of home teleconsultations for DM, decision makers should improve patients’ health literacy so the physician–patient communication is more effective; explore information and communication technology developments to reduce current limitations of non–face-to-face examinations; ensure patient privacy and data confidentiality; and demonstrate the capabilities of home teleconsultations to physicians.

Nowadays, black liquor, the liquid residue from cooking step in pulp industry is burnt to produce energy for the plant. But as the pulp mills have energy in excess, higher added values applications for black liquor may be looked for. Hydrothermal treatment offers a good opportunity as it is well suited for this kind of wet feedstock. It may be used to depolymerize organic compounds or produce syngas for biofuels applications. The objective of this study is to combine phenols and biofuel production by extracting the small organic molecules formed at moderate temperature prior to complete gasification of black liquor. Hydrothermal experiments from 225 °C to 600 °C have been performed on sulfur-free black liquor in batch reactor. At 280 °C phenol, guaiacol and syringol were found in their highest quantity: 5% of the initial lignin (which represented 6 wt% of the liquid black liquor) could be converted into these three compounds.

Organosolv processes provide access to less degraded and higher purity lignins. However, these are rarely applied to softwood species with high lignin contents and complex condensed structures. We are presenting here the results of an optimized organosolv process, allowing for a high extraction yield of organosolv lignin from black spruce (Picea mariana), while preserving a good solid cellulose recovery. Optimized conditions are 70% ethanol liquor with a ratio of 1:10 (wood:liquor) and 5% FeCl3·6H2O as catalyst, treated in a Parr reactor for 90 min at 180 °C. The cellulosic pulp was then extracted with pure ethanol to recover the 2nd lignin. This 2nd lignin was darker in colour and denser than the 1st lignin obtained by precipitation from residual liquor. The other lignin properties were almost identical. The total lignin recovery averaged at 74% (with a purity of 97%), the highest result for lignin recovery from softwoods published so far.

In this paper, the performance and effectiveness of combined sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and reverse osmosis (RO), as well as differences in treating young and matured landfill leachate, was investigated. Samples of young and stabilized leachate were collected from a municipal landfill in north-eastern Poland. The general pollution parameters, organic and inorganic indicators were determined in raw leachate and after each step of leachate treatment. The performance characteristics of the reverse osmosis system were made based on permeate flux, electroconductivity removal rate, concentration factor and removal rate. The use of biological pre-treatment had a good efficiency (>98% for both leachate) in ammonia nitrogen removal. The SBR treatment effectiveness for BOD (64%), Fe (29%), Cl− (0.2%) and Total Organic Carbon (-5.3%) was lower for young leachate compared to a stabilized. Pretreated leachate was directed to a RO system which was characterized by better operational parameters during the filtration of stabilized leachate: the average permeate flux was higher by 3.3 L/m2⋅s⋅10−6 and the filtration time was shorter by 110 min compared to the young leachate. The main reason of membrane clogging during young leachate filtration was a higher content of organic matter and its neutralization by Ca2+ and N-NH4+ presented in leachate, causing clogging of negatively charged RO membrane. Another reason could be complex formation between iron and natural organic matter that may precipitate on the membrane surface or inside the pores. This study has shown a high removal efficiency (over 80%) of the integrated SBR-RO method for all analyzed parameters.

For sustainable road construction and rehabilitation, this paper aims to evaluate the potentiality of utilizing Rubber Seed Oil (RSO) as a bio-based rejuvenator for 100 % RAP recycled cold asphalt mixtures. Determination of the rejuvenation effect of RSO on the volumetric and strength characteristics of cold recycled asphalt mixtures was performed using response surface methodology (RSM). RSM was utilized to institute the optimum percentage of RSO, Total water content (TWC) and curing time (C-Time) via central composite design (CCD). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the effect of interaction between the RSO, TWC and the C-Time was significant. For all the properties investigated, RSO seems to have more influential effect. A good agreement between the actual and predicted values was observed through the high value of the coefficient of determination (R2) and low percent error (PE) recorded. Numerical optimization suggested that the optimum contents of RSO and TWC was 0.68 % and 4.7 % respectively at the optimal curing duration of 15 days.

The effect of dry grinding on the oxidation features of 304L stainless steel (SS) in simulated primary water of BWR and PWR was studied. The objective is to demonstrate the influence of mechanical surface treatments on surface state and oxidation behavior of the SS. Thus, the oxide formed on a ground surface and two polished surfaces (down to 2400 with SiC emery paper and with colloidal silica) had been compared. Subsurface characterizations were first performed to describe the microstructural modification induced by the surface treatment. Then, the morphology and the composition of the oxides' duplex structure were characterized by either scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy or X-Ray photoelectron spectrometry. Finally, the reactivity of the oxidized surfaces was determined ex-situ by a recently developed electrochemical technique based on electrochemical Impedance spectroscopy and Mott-Schotcky approach. The mechanical surface treatment mainly influences the thickness and doping density of the inner oxide; and the composition and morphologies of the outer oxide-hydroxide precipitates in terms of shape and size. This work evidences that the thinner the inner oxide, the higher the doping density. Besides, the impact of the considered environment on oxidation features is also discussed.

This review paper summarizes the best method for the utilization of agricultural wastes as raw material for the production of bioethanol. Agricultural wastes are rich in sugar and complex carbohydrates that makes it suitable source to carry out the fermentation process. Bioethanol is widely used in industries such as, chemical, pharmaceutical and food for various purposes especially as sterilizer. Carbohydrates are considered as the renewable sources and the primary material for the production of bioethanol. Microorganisms such as some species of yeasts and bacteria are capable to ferment carbohydrates and convert it into ethyl alcohol. However, the ability of these micro-organisms differs with respect to the production of ethanol and this research we study the possibility of producing bioethanol from the bacterium Zymomonas mobilis. One of the major industrial aspects of ethanol is the production of vinegar and there are several methods that could be utilized for its production from ethanol. Studies have reported that Zymomonas mobilis has 5-10 times more capability to produce bioethanol as compared with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Therefore, this study has been done to highlight the possibilities of production of bioethanol from Zymomonas mobilis

International audience; This experimental paper deals with the development of a hybrid biological reactor for the treatment of a synthetic oilfield produced water under an increase in total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration. To comply with strengthening regulations concerning produced water discharge and peculiar produced water compositions, a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) consisting in a combination of free activated sludge and moving biofilm supports was compared to a fixed bed hybrid biological reactor (FBHBR) consisting in a combination of free activated sludge and a fixed biofilm support. After a 216 days experimental period, the MBBR and the FBHBR were efficient to treat a synthetic produced water with chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate above 90% under an increase in TDS concentrations from 1.5 to 8 g·L−1. Ecotoxicity measurements on freshwater and marine microorganisms revealed an absence of toxicity on treated waters. A decrease in bacterial diversity indices with respect to the inoculum was observed in both bioreactors. This suggests that the increase in TDS concentrations caused the predominance of a low number of bacterial species.

Since invasive bladder cancer (BC) can progress to life threatening metastases, understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying BC invasion is crucial for potentially decreasing the mortality of this disease. Herein, it is discovered that autophagy‐related gene 7 (ATG7) is remarkably overexpressed in human invasive BC tissues. The knockdown of ATG7 in human BC cells dramatically inhibits cancer cell invasion, revealing that ATG7 is a key player in regulating BC invasion. Mechanistic studies indicate that MIR190A is responsible for ATG7 mRNA stability and protein overexpression by directly binding to ATG7 mRNA 3′‐UTR. Furthermore, ATG7‐mediated autophagy promotes HNRNPD (ARE/poly(U)‐binding/degradation factor 1) protein degradation, and in turn reduces HNRNPD interaction with ARHGDIB mRNA, resulting in the elevation of ARHGDIB mRNA stability, and subsequently leading to BC cell invasion. The identification of the MIR190A/ATG7 autophagic mechanism regulation of HNRNPD/ARHGDIB expression provides an important insight into understanding the nature of BC invasion and suggests that autophagy may represent a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of human BC patients.

Given the large number of existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), this paper investigates the effects of routine operational factors on retaining the properties of the microplastics (MPs) of a typical aerobic bioreactor, which is widely adopted in both municipal and industrial WWTPs. The three most detected plastics, namely, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride, are pulverized and injected into an anoxic–oxic configured laboratory facility to explore the size distribution and removal efficiency of the MPs in the effluent. A laser particle analyzer is used for the continuous particle size distribution testing, which indicates that nearly all the particles whose diameters exceed 35 μm are retained. This phenomenon poses a threat to mammal health for particles less than 20 μm in diameter that dominate the effluent’s abundance. Comprehensive discussions and comparisons with existing works in terms of how the three operational factors affect the bioreactor’s retaining properties significantly are presented. The moderate mixed liquor suspended solids and short hydraulic retention time of the bioreactor are beneficial to the MPs removal based on the in-depth analysis of variance of the limited experiment runs. Furthermore, the sludge in the bioreactor renders an adsorption–desorption pathway in retaining the MPs.

Anaerobic fermentation is a clean production process for recycling of many agricultural and industrial wastes. During anaerobic fermentation, the existence of various inhibitors often leads to low efficiency or even failure of anaerobic digesters. 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is such an inhibitor which can be produced in the pretreatment of biomass for subsequent anaerobic digestion. This paper provides a review of various production methods of HMF and its effects on hydrogen production, methane production and ethanol production through fermentation. The conversion and removal of HMF were summarized from the aspects of biomass pretreatment, non-biological treatment and biological treatment. This article aims to provide new ideas and methods for reducing the inhibition effect of HMF on anaerobic fermentation of biomass and restoring the performance of the anaerobic fermentation.

Organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is an ideal substrate for biogas production; however, complex chemical structure and being heterogeneous obstruct its biotransformation in anaerobic digestion (AD) process. Thermal pre-treatment of OFMSW has been suggested to enhance the solubilization and improve the anaerobic digestibility of OFMSW. This paper critically and comprehensively reviews the characterization of OFMSW (physical, chemical, bromatological) and enlightens the valuable properties of OFMSW for waste valorization. In following sections, the advantages and limitations of AD of OFMSW are discussed, followed by the application of temperature phased AD, and various thermal pre-treatments, i.e., conventional thermal, microwave, and thermo-chemical for high rate bioenergy transformation. Effects of pre-treatment on COD, proteins, sugars and VS solubilization, and biogas yield are discussed. Formation of recalcitrant during thermal pre-treatment and the effect on anaerobic digestibility are considered. Full scale application, and techno-economic and environmental feasibility of thermal pre-treatment methods are also revealed. This review concluded that thermophilic (55 °C) and temperature phased anaerobic digestion, temperature phased anaerobic digestion, TPAD (55 + 37 °C) processes shows effective and stable performance at low HRTs and high OLRs and achieved higher methane yield than mesophilic digestion. The thermal pre-treatment at a lower temperature (120 °C) improves the net energy yield. However, high-temperature pre-treatment (>150 °C) result in decreased biogas yield and even lower than the non-pre-treated OFMSW, although a high degree of COD solubilization. The OFMSW solubilization in terms of COD, proteins, and sugars cannot accurately reflect thermal/hybrid pre-treatments' potential. Thus, substrate pre-treatment followed by anaerobic digestibility of pretreated substrate together can evaluate the actual effectiveness of thermal pre-treatment of OFMSW.

The scarcity and contamination of water by suspended nanoparticles and hazardous metal ions demand more performant technologies to reduce space, time and cost of wastewater treatment. For example, it is desirable to find eco-friendly chemicals that warranty simultaneous separation of colloidal particles and hazardous metallic contaminants for a more sustainable recovery of water quality. As the second part of a series of physicochemical studies about multifunctional biopolyelectrolytes (BPEs), in this paper, we present three of the main features of the glucurono ferulauted arabinoxylans (GFAXs) from nejayote: simple extraction, physicochemical characterization and multifunctional performance when used in a wastewater treatment unit. The polyelectrolytic and macrochelating properties of the GFAXs were studied through zeta potential measurements to predict and understand the multifunctional performance of GFAXs in a conventional coagulation-flocculation unitary operation. Two real cases were approached: the wastewater from silicon wafer cutting process (SWCP) and the wastewater from electroplating baths (EPB). Nejayote GFAXs showed high coagulant, flocculant and macrochelating activity in the simultaneous separation of Si4+, Al3+, Cr3+, Ni2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, Pb2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Fe2+. The water treatment tests demonstrate the high performance of the GFAXs in the coagulation-flocculation of the wastewater according to the following parameters: EPB wastewater at pH = 5.0 (optimal dose = 55–65 mg GFAXs/L, clarification = 380 T%/h and sedimentation kinetics = 110.4 mm/h); SWCP wastewater at pH = 5.5 (optimal dose = 30.0–32.5 mg GFAXs/L, clarification = 295 T%/h and sedimentation kinetics = 89.4 mm/h). With these results, nejayote GFAXs showed to be a sustainable solution for the wastewater treatment from semiconductor and metal finishing industry with high content of hazardous metal ions and SiO2 nanoparticles.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of n-butanol/gasoline blends (nBGBs), 2.5% n-butanol/gasoline blend with 9% water injection into the intake air on the engine performance, fuel cost and exhaust emissions in an automobile spark-ignition engine. Experiments have been performed for three different nBGBs, nB2.5 (nB2.5 contains 2.5% n-butanol and 97.5% gasoline in volume basis), nB5 and nB7.5 for five different loads at 3000 and 5000 rpms. The test results showed that nBGBs generally decrease brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) at all of the selected operating conditions. The maximum reductions of bsfc at 3000 and 5000 rpms have been attained at the levels of 7.22% and 9.99% for nB2.5, respectively. nBGBs decrease carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions at the selected operating conditions. However, nBGBs increase nitrogen oxides (NOx) at 3000 rpm. At 5000 rpm, nB2.5 and nB5 reduce NOx but nB7.5 increases NOx. The NOx could not be reduced as much as desired by applying nBGBs. For this reason, 9% water introduction into the intake air with nB2.5 (nB2.5-WI9) have been applied to decrease NOx. The test results showed that nB2.5-WI9 and nB2.5 decrease NOx approximately 58% and 9%, respectively at 5000 rpm. nB2.5-WI9 reduces CO more than nB2.5 at two engine speeds. However, nB2.5-WI9 increases THC and bsfc more than nB2.5. Total fuel cost for nB2.5 and nB2.5-WI9 become higher than neat gasoline. However, nB2.5-WI9 shows higher fuel cost as compared to nB2.5.

Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) utilizes water as the reaction medium to convert biomass into a mixture of gases (i.e., H2, CO2, CO, CH4, and other short-chain hydrocarbons) at typical operating temperature ≥ 400 °C and pressure ≥ 23 MPa. Understanding kinetics of SCWG processes is critically important for future development and scale-up application of the SCWG technology. Thus, this study aimed to develop a general kinetic model to predict the yields of gases from SCWG of various lignocellulosic feedstocks with varying contents of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The model was established based on the experimental results from K2CO3-catalyzed SCWG of various biomass model compounds including cellulose, xylan and lignin at 450–550 °C for 10–50 min, followed by validation of the model using the experimental data obtained from SCWG of real biomass (i.e., corn stalk and pinewood) under same reaction conditions. The validation results showed that the general kinetic model developed could accurately predict the yields of gases from real biomass SCWG and the quantitative influences of temperature and residence time on the gas yield in biomass SCWG. Additionally, the kinetic model has been validated other SCWG data in the literature obtained with various facilities and different lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks. The development of the general kinetic model provides an applicable way to assess the potential of SCWG of various lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks for producing combustible gases at various conditions.

There is a dire need to cut post-harvest food loss to improve global food security, public health, and sustainable natural resource use. Fruits and vegetables constitute one of the most perishable food items and typically require cold storage systems, adequate packaging, and efficient transport and road systems to reduce their loss. This research showed that by stabilizing cornstarch and beeswax emulsion with cellulose nanocrystals, a sustainable and edible coating that substantially reduces the spoilage of fruits and other produce could be obtained. Native and aliphatic succinic anhydride-modified CNCs were employed as Pickering emulsifiers. The effect of emulsion stabilizers concentrations on the enhancement of physical properties, reduction of water vapor loss, and oxygen permeability was investigated, and 2 wt.% modified CNC was selected as the optimal Pickering emulsion stabilizer. Fresh bananas, strawberries, and fresh-cut apples that were dip-coated with the formulated edible coating displayed magnificent color and freshness preservation by reducing oxygen activities and preventing moisture losses. Overall, the studied emulsion is edible and inexpensive, making it an exciting material that can be used to combat fresh produce waste caused by oxidative and enzymatic over-ripening.

Biofiltration is a widely used process in drinking water treatment plants to remove natural organic matter (NOM). A novel biofiltration process using ion exchange resins as supporting media (i.e., biological ion exchange or BIEX) has been demonstrated to provide a superior performance compared to conventional biological activated carbon (BAC). In order to optimize the performance of BIEX filters, the impact of temperature and empty bed contact time (EBCT) on NOM removal was systematically studied. In the present study, bench-scale BIEX filters were set up in parallel with BAC filters and operated at different temperatures (i.e., 4 °C, 10 °C and 20 °C) and EBCTs (i.e., 7.5 min, 15 min and 30 min). Higher average dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal was achieved in BIEX filters (73 ± 6%) than BAC filters (22 ± 9%) at the steady state with an EBCT of 30 min. Higher temperatures improved NOM removal in both BAC and BIEX filters, with the impact being greater at lower EBCTs (i.e., 7.5 min and 15 min). Higher EBCTs could also improve NOM removal, with the impact being greater at lower temperatures (i.e., 4 °C and 10 °C). DOC removal for BIEX and BAC filters can be modeled with a first-order kinetic model (R2 = 0.93–0.99). BAC had a higher temperature activity coefficient than BIEX (1.0675 vs. 1.0429), indicating that temperature has a greater impact on BAC filtration than BIEX filtration. Overall, temperature and EBCT must be considered simultaneously for biofilters to efficiently remove NOM.

Maximizing biomass production is a key factor in developing large-scale microalgae cultivation. One major aspect to address is the cultivation medium composition in regards to the process objective. In this study, the effect of eight important nutrients/factors (glucose, nitrate, phosphate, sulfate, magnesium, iron, manganese, and calcium) and their interactions were investigated on the biomass production of the microalgae Tetradesmus obliquus under mixotrophic conditions. The Taguchi method, a robust tool for experimental design optimization, was used to find the optimum media composition for biomass production, with only a few well-defined experimental sets. Using Taguchi's L18 orthogonal array resulted to a 4-fold enhancement in biomass yields, with a maximum of about 7.98 g/L. Nitrate exhibited the most significant effect. Iron and phosphate showed a strong influence on short-term cultivations (6 to 9 days), while glucose and calcium had more impact on long-term cultivations (15 days). The overall optimum experimental conditions were provided.

Membrane fouling in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) is highly influenced by the characteristics of the influent, the mixed liquor microbial community and the operational parameters, all of which are environment specific. Therefore, we studied the dynamics of microbial community during the treatment of real municipal wastewater in a pilotscale anoxic-oxic (A/O) MBR equipped with a gravity-driven membrane filtration system. The MBR was operated at three different solid retention times (SRTs): 25, 40 and 10 days for a total period of 180 days in Nordic environmental conditions. Analysis of microbial community dynamics revealed a high diversity of microbial species at SRT of 40 days, whereas SRT of 25 days was superior with microbial richness. Production of soluble microbial products (SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) was found to be intensely connected with the SRT and food to microorganism (F/M) ratio. Relatively longer operational period with the lowest rate of membrane fouling was observed at SRT of 25 days, which was resulted from the superior microbial community, lowest production of SMP and loosely bound EPS as well as the lower filtration resistance of larger sludge flocs. Abundance of quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria and granular floc forming bacterial genera at SRT of 25 days provided relatively lower membrane fouling tendency and larger floc formation, respectively. On the other hand, substantial amount of various surface colonizing and EPS producing bacteria was found at SRT of 10 days, which promoted more rapid membrane fouling compared with the fouling rate seen at other tested SRTs. To sum up, this research provides a realistic insight into the impact of SRT on microbial community dynamics and resulting characteristics of mixed liquor, floc size distribution and membrane fouling for improved MBR operation. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Anaerobic wasted activated sludge (WAS) digestion has been widely applied to reduce sludge volume and generate bioenergy in the form of methane. However, anaerobic WAS digestion performance is often challenged with poor hydrolysis of biomass cellular structures. In the present study, the feasibility of using calcium hypochlorite (Ca(ClO)2) to improve the thermophilic digestion of WAS was studied. Two thermophilic upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactors (one with and one without Ca(ClO)2 pretreatment) were operated for 120 days under low and high organic loading rate (OLR) conditions, corresponding hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 10 days and 6 days, respectively. Both reactors achieved satisfied performance during the studied period. Under the low OLR condition, Ca(ClO)2 pretreatment significantly improved WAS total volatile solids (VS) removal efficiency (from 48.06 ± 2.63% to 57.34 ± 3.54%) and methane yield (from 289.2 ± 27.6 to 362.2 ± 36.7 N mL/g VS). However, no significant improvement was observed under the high OLR condition. g_S1 and g_Fervidobacterium were predominant bacteria in the thermophilic UASB reactor fed with Ca(ClO)2 pretreated WAS. Methanosarcina was dominant archaea in both reactors. The treatment mechanism and application potential of using Ca(ClO)2 to enhance the WAS digestibility were further discussed.

The interest in the A-stage of the adsorption/bio-oxidation (A/B) process has considerably increased due to its capacity of carbon redirection to the solids stream. Induced by its flexible and compact design, the Alternating Activated Adsorption (AAA) was recently implemented in full-scale as an alternative A-stage system. However, the literature on such a system is scarce. In this article for the first time, the performance of the novel AAA system is evaluated. Two lab-scale AAA systems were operated as a primary settler replacement (AAA-1) or to complement the primary settler (AAA-2). Systems were assessed in terms of process control, effluent quality and carbon diversion. As settling and aeration are performed in the same reactor, AAA maintained high MLSS (2121 ± 293 mg/L for AAA-1 and 806 ± 116 mg/L for AAA-2) compared to the literature at such a very low aerobic SRT (

Abundant in municipal, agricultural, and industrial wastewaters, ammonia is a versatile chemical, which can be used as fertilizer or as a hydrogen carrier for the hydrogen economy. Membrane contactors (MC) are an effective membrane process for selectively recovering ammonia from a wastewater stream, but the system’s continuous acid consumption and the residual acidity in the produced stream remain a major hurdle. In this study, we propose a chemical-free, electrified process that combines MC with bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED) to produce ammonia as a gas from wastewater. We devise three different BMED configurations, and identify the most suitable configuration by examining the impact of different operating conditions including pH, initial ammonia concentration, and relative volume ratios on the ammonia recovery and BMED energy consumption. We demonstrate up to ∼68% recovery of theoretically recoverable ammonia, and attribute the unrecovered fraction primarily to the diffusion of neutral ammonia through membranes. While the system is sub-optimal, the relative energy consumption of the system is comparable to the Haber-Bosch process for conventional ammonia production, with potentially lower energy consumption and higher ammonia recovery through higher initial ammonia concentrations, higher relative volume ratios or alternate BMED configurations.

To date, no standardized methods have been proposed for conducting microplastic analyses in treated drinking waters, resulting in challenges associated with direct comparisons among studies. This study compares known methods for collecting and extracting microplastics from drinking waters: an in-laboratory (in-lab) filtration method and an in-line filtration method (i.e., water filtered on-site without an intermediate storage and/or transportation step). In-lab methods have been the predominant method for sample collection in drinking water matrices, and in-line methods are emerging due to the potential to sample large volumes of water on site and minimize contamination from airborne particles, but the two methods have yet to be directly compared using real samples. In response, this study evaluates both methods in terms of recovering spiked reference microplastics, collecting microplastics from tap water samples using the same water volume, and quantifying the removal of microplastics through a full-scale ultrafiltration system. In-line filtration was shown to have higher recoveries for all the reference microplastics examined (+37 % for PVC fragments, +23 % for PET fragments, +22 % for nylon fibers and +7 % for PET fibers) and a greater potential to reduce microplastic contamination. It also resulted in lower standard deviations for total microplastic counts in the tap water and UF influent and effluent samples. The filtration capacity of the proposed in-line filtration method could exceed 350 L of treated water, but this is highly dependent on the water quality. This study therefore supports the use of in-line filtration methods towards the standardization of microplastic collection procedures in drinking water.

Extensive use of pesticides and their slow degradation have resulted in contamination of environment, which inflicts damages on the ecosystem and human health. The presence of pesticides in aqueous media is of a global concern. Photocatalytic processes have gained a lot of attention over the last decades with regard to degradation of pesticides. This study is aimed at reviewing the most relevant reports on the application of the photocatalytic process involved in the degradation of pesticides in aqueous solutions. Moreover, the effects of influential variables such as catalyst amount, pH, concentration of pesticides, light intensity and contact time were discussed in detail. Within this study, three subgroups of pesticides were reviewed, namely insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. Meta-analysis was also conducted by the random-effects model. In addition, statistical analyses were accomplished by the R software. After the screening process, 22 articles were found to be suitable in the meta-analysis. Results of meta-analysis proved that the photocatalytic processes could remove pesticides with an average acceptable degradation efficiency of 93.36%. The average pooled percent of photocatalytic processes for the degradation of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides was 93.35 (95% CI: 89.89–96.81), 90.73 (95% CI: 80.44–101.02) and 100 (95% CI: 98.12–101.88), respectively. The results of the Begg’s test (z = 0.4903, P = 0.6239) indicated that no bias regarding the potential publication was detected. Finally, it was demonstrated that photocatalytic processes are highly appropriate for the degradation of pesticides from aqueous solutions.

Spent coffee waste (SCW) is extremely attractive to be exploited and utilized as a material source for energy generation and chemical production. This study concerned bio-oil production via non-catalytic and catalytic fast pyrolysis using SCW in a bubbling fluidized-bed reactor (BFR). In particular, a comparative analysis of the quality of the bio-oil produced was conducted for non-catalytic (using silica sand as the bed material) and catalytic (using dolomite, HZSM-5, hematite, and magnetite as the catalyst) fast pyrolysis. Scale-up modeling confirmed using the experimental data was performed at a feed rate of 100 kg h−1 (1,000-fold capacity), which showed different orders in the quality of energy (hematite > magnetite > dolomite > HZSM-5 > silica, in order of energy from highest to lowest) owing to the realistic integration of the BFR with other components in plants, such as the combustor, compressor, and separator. Further, techno-economic analysis of scale-up system revealed that the unit production costs of bio-oil were 0.0151, 0.0034, 0.0143, 0.0095, and 0.0102 $ MJ−1 for silica, dolomite, HZSM-5, hematite, and magnetite, respectively (dolomite > hematite > magnetite > HZSM-5 > silica, in order of unit cost from lowest to highest). Among them, dolomite and hematite showed competitive unit production costs compared to the price of conventional crude oil (0.0098 $ MJ−1). The importance of coupling laboratory-scale experimental results with scale-up modeling and economic analysis has thus been demonstrated for practical feasibility studies of the SCW pyrolysis for bio-oil production.

Composting and vermicomposting have attracted attention in relation to both waste management and the potential to produce organic amendments that could improve soil quality. The main differences between compost depend on the feedstock, the production process, and the degree of maturity. In the present study, samples of compost of different origin (food and green waste, livestock waste, algae waste, urban waste or sewage sludge) or subjected to different composting methods (traditional or using earthworms) were collected for analysis. Additionally, samples collected at various stages of the composting process were compared (raw material, 15 and 30 days of composting, and final compost). Different analysis and techniques were used to establish the chemical composition, physicochemical and acid-base properties of compost samples and the organic matter extracts. The correlations obtained (between the abundance of acid groups in different extracts of the compost or between the cation exchange capacity and the C/N atomic ratio) would allow for predicting the compost behaviour based on certain characteristics, and a reduction in the number of parameters determined experimentally, thus facilitating comparisons between different compost. In addition, the potential value of the compost as amendment was tested with a Haplic Cambisol from a mining area. The application of compost increased the pH, the organic matter and nutrient content, and promoted seed germination and root growth.

Bioethanol is widely perceived as a clean fuel that can be used directly as automobile fuel or blended with petrol without engine modification. Similarly, biomethane can be used as an environmentally friendly substitute to natural gas for diverse applications such as transportation, heating, and electricity generation. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the cost-effective and sustainable production of both these biofuels. The present study reveals a conceptual design for biomethane and bioethanol production from crude glycerol obtained from the biodiesel industry. The techno-economic feasibility of three different scenarios was assessed. Scenario 1 is based on bioethanol production by coupling hydrothermal gasification and syngas fermentation. Scenario 2 consists of hydrothermal gasification, syngas fermentation, and CO2 capture unit. In scenario 3, biomethanation and electrolytic unit were added to scenario 2 to convert CO2 to biomethane. The energy efficiency of the scenarios examined ranges from 30.2% to 35.1%. Scenario 3 had the highest energy efficiency of 35.1%. Moreover, the minimum selling price of bioethanol declined in the following order: scenario 2 (USD $1.4 per liter) > scenario 1 (USD $1.32 per liter) > scenario 3 (USD $0.31 per liter). The discounted cash flow analysis results indicated that scenario 3 is the most profitable because of its non-discounted net present value of USD $34.9 million compared to the other case studies. Sensitivity analysis reveals that electricity and glycerol cost had the most effect on the minimum selling price of bioethanol.

International audience; The potential of psychological and fiscal framing interventions in motivating environmentally responsible behavior is explored in a context of long distance leisure travel. A series of discrete choice experiments is conducted with 789 participants. Framing conditions like information on CO2 emissions, an injunctive and a descriptive norm, fiscal incentives such as a carbon tax, a bonus-malus and a personal carbon trading scheme are tested while controlling the usual travel price-duration tradeoff. Pricing (including internalization of social cost of CO2 through fiscal incentives) has the expected effect of reducing the choice of travelling and hence CO2 emissions. Providing information on CO2 emissions of each transport alternative significantly reduces preferences for the most emitting modes (air) and favors a less emitting mode (train). Framing the fiscal incentive as personal carbon trading adds a moderate incentive to the price effect in reducing air choice.

The economic impact of different potentially scalable process improvements was here assessed for the first time in the specific context of a Eucalyptus wood biorefinery producing biofuels, high-value chemicals and energy. The base case scenario referring to bioethanol as the only product was clearly unviable, which mostly resulted from the high cost of cellulases and heat transfer utilities and the moderate final ethanol titers. By supplementing cheese whey to eucalyptus wood hydrolysis, ethanol production increased 51% leading to a notable improvement on the NPV, from 14.4 to 3.4 M$. Similarly, when an additional section was included for the recovery of XOS present in the autohydrolysis liquor, the operating costs raised 36% but annual revenues increased around 5 M$, resulting in a very solid NPV of 18.9 M$. Internally burning the final stillage led to savings of 98% on low-pressure steam consumption and an additional electricity revenue, both contributing to a more economic scenario. One final scenario consisted on the simultaneous integration of all process variations, referring to a complex facility producing not only ethanol but also XOS and energy. This integrated process provided the best economic output, which was translated on a noticeable reduction of the minimum ethanol selling price from 4.88 $/gal (Base case) to 0.76 $/gal, and thus confirming the critical role of adopting biorefinery schemes for an economic utilization of lignocellulosic materials., This work has been carried out at the Biomass and Bioenergy Research Infrastructure (BBRI) – LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022059, supported by Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (PORTUGAL2020), by Lisbon Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa 2020) and by North Portugal Regional Operational Program (Norte 2020) under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and has been supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 and through Project EcoTech (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032206) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This study represents an integrated and sustainable approach to mine fullest potential of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) for the production of bio-H2 and bioethanol along with organic farming. Experiments were designed in three phases, where feasibility of bio-H2 production was initially evaluated with pure xylose and further validated with real field feedstock (i.e, SCB). Acid pretreatment of SCB with 2% H2SO4 (v/v) yielded xylose rich hydrolysate (21.8 g xylose/100 g SCB), which was subjected to dark fermentation for bio-H2 and VFA production. Heat-pretreated inoculum at pH 7.0 showed maximum bio-H2 fraction of 34.2% (v/v) with corresponding volumetric yield of 204.5 mL H2/g xylose. 5200 mg/L of VFA was noted with butyrate and acetate as the major fermentative metabolites. The unhydrolysed biomass recovered after acid hydrolysis of SCB was further subjected to simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) for bioethanol production. SSF of cellulose rich recovered biomass with cellulase enzyme showed 86.56% (w/w) depolymerization of cellulose into glucose and production of 241.2 mg ethanol/g treated SCB by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Lastly acidogenic effluent (AE) from bio-H2 production process was utilized as phosphate solubilizing organic fertilizer for the cultivation of chick pea (Cicer arietinum). Regular supplementation of AE showed beneficial effect on phosphate solubilization in soil and uptake by plants. The obtained results confirm the feasible utilization of segregated streams of SCB for bio-H2 and bioethanol production with integrated organic farming in a closed loop approach. This integrated strategy would extract maximum potential of the agri-biomass feedstock with net-zero waste discharge.

Natural stone is quite popular and is commonly used in building interiors, for its aesthetic appeal and for its performance, durability and environmentally-friendly composition. Natural stone also adds considerably to the real estate market value of houses. Different types of natural stone, including granite, can be used in interior design. The stones are thus exposed to staining and are affected differently depending on the staining agent involved. The European standard UNE-EN 16301:2014 defines a procedure for determining the sensitivity of ornamental stones to accidental staining. However, a more detailed study of the physical and chemical effects of such staining agents on stones is required. Adapting this standard, nine different stains (red wine, olive oil, instant coffee, ketchup, cola, citric acid , artificial urine, lime juice and blueberry juice) were applied to a granite commonly used in the Iberian Peninsula. The granite had a polished finish, and three cycles of staining-cleaning (with an anionic detergent) were applied. In the standard evaluation, a qualitative score is awarded on a text-based scale, by external evaluators . In this study, a more complex physical, chemical and texture evaluation of the granite surfaces was carried out to determine the sensitivity of the granite to accidental staining. Colour, roughness, hydrophobicity, gloss and texture were considered key parameters for evaluating the sensitivity of the granite to accidental staining. The sensitivity of the granite to staining clearly depended on the characteristics of the staining agents. In terms of aesthetic properties, all stains except lime juice caused significant colour changes on the granite surface. None of the stains, except red wine, caused important changes in surface gloss. The staining agents, particularly ketchup, blueberry juice and citric acid increased the wettability of the granite surface, thus further enhancing the absorption of aqueous solutions. Olive oil residues were not completely removed from stone surfaces after the cleaning process and therefore caused an increase in the static contact angle, although the stained granite surfaces remained hydrophilic . Citric acid solution caused a chemical interaction with quartz grains, highlighted by the formation of etch pits.