Search

The production of fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass is achieved by the synergistic action of a group of enzymes called cellulases. Cellulose is a long chain of chemically linked glucoses by β-1,4 bonds. The enzyme β-1,4-endoglucanase is the first cellulase involved in the degradation, breaking the bond of the amorphous regions. A β-1,4-endoglucanase enzyme with high activity was obtained from a Bacillus subtilis strain isolated from wastewater of a pulp and paper mill. Sequencing and bioinformatic analysis showed that the gene amplified by PCR consisting of 1407 nucleotides and coding for a β-1,4-endoglucanase enzyme of approximately 55 kDa. The open reading frame (ORF) encoding the mature endoglucanase (eglS) was successfully inserted in a modified cloning plasmid (pITD03) and into the pYD1 plasmid used for its expression in yeast. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) plate assay, SDS-PAGE, and zymogram confirmed the production and secretion by the transformed E. coli BL21-SI strain of a 39 kDa β-1,4-endoglucanase consistent with the catalytic domain without the cellulose-binding module (CBM). The results showed that the truncated β-1,4-endoglucanase had higher activity and stability., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The author(s) declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

SERS measurements for monitoring bactericides in dairy products are highly desired for food safety problems. However, the complicated preparation process of SERS substrates greatly impedes the promotion of SERS. Here, we propose acoustofluidic one-step synthesis of Ag nanoparticles on paper substrates for SERS detection. Our method is economical, fast, simple, and eco-friendly. We adopted laser cutting to cut out appropriate paper shapes, and aldehydes were simultaneously produced at the cutting edge in the pyrolysis of cellulose by laser which were leveraged as the reducing reagent. In the synthesis, only 5 μL of Ag precursor was added to complete the reaction, and no reducing agent was used. Our recently developed acoustofluidic device was employed to intensely mix Ag + ions and aldehydes and spread the reduced Ag nanoparticles over the substrate. The SERS substrate was fabricated in 1 step and 3 min. The standard R6G solution measurement demonstrated the excellent signal and prominent uniformity of the fabricated SERS substrates. SERS detection of the safe concentration of three bactericides, including tetracycline hydrochloride, thiabendazole, and malachite green, from food samples can be achieved using fabricated substrates. We take the least cost, time, reagents, and steps to fabricate the SERS substrate with satisfying performance. Our work has an extraodinary meaning for the green preparation and large-scale application of SERS., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The use of microalgae and bacteria as a strategy for the startup of bioreactors for the treatment of industrial wastewater can be a sustainable and economically viable alternative. This technology model provides satisfactory results in the nitrification and denitrification process for nitrogen removal, organic matter removal, biomass growth, sedimentation, and byproducts recovery for added-value product production. The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of microalgae and bacteria in their symbiotic process when used in the treatment of paper pulp industry wastewater. The experiment, lasting fourteen days, utilized four bioreactors with varying concentrations in mgVSS/L of microalgae to bacteria ratio (R1-100:100, R2-100:300, R3-100:500, R4-300:100) in the startup process. Regarding the sludge volumetric index (SVI), the results show that the R1 and R2 reactors developed SVI30/SVI10 biomass in the range of 85.57 ± 7.33% and 84.72 ± 8.19%, respectively. The lipid content in the biomass of reactors R1, R2, R3 e R4 was 13%, 7%, 19%, and 22%, respectively. This high oil content at the end of the batch, may be related to the nutritional stress that the species underwent during this feeding regime. In terms of chlorophyll, the bioreactor with an initial inoculation of 100:100 showed better symbiotic growth of microalgae and bacteria, allowing exponential growth of microalgae. The total chlorophyll value for this bioreactor was 801.46 ± 196.96 μg/L. Biological removal of nitrogen from wastewater from the paper pulp industry is a challenge due to the characteristics of the effluent, but the four reactors operated in a single batch obtained good nitrogen removal. Ammonia nitrogen removal performances were 91.55 ± 9.99%, 72.13 ± 19.18%, 64.04 ± 21.34%, and 86.15 ± 30.10% in R1, R2, R3, and R4, respectively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In 2023, we published a research article in the Journal of Colloidal and Interface Science, based on our experimental findings and substantiating scaling arguments leading to a simple theoretical insight on the effect of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation on the wicking behaviour of a finite volume of blood as it navigates through the porous passages of a paper matrix (Laha et al., 2023). Of late, we received comments from Li (2024), which offered certain suggestions regarding the possible improvement of the capillary bundle model as considered in our article for analyzing the transport of blood through the paper pores. Herein, we provide a detailed discussion on each of the points raised by Li (2024) and rationalize our views in further details in addition to the contents already provided in our concerned article., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Paper-based relics is an important carrier for recording and preserving information, however, it faces irreversible UV-induced damage, including photocleavage, oxidation, acidification and discoloration, which seriously affects its value and lifespan. Carbon dots (CDs) possess excellent UV absorption and good chemical stability, making them suitable for UV protection. Herein, we propose a high-security and efficient method utilizing CDs films (CDFs) for preventive protection of paper against UV damage. The CDFs with high tunable UV absorbance and minimal absorbance in the visible light range, effectively shield paper from UV radiation while preserving its visual appeal. Moreover, the UV transmittance of the film can be fine-tuned to the content of CDs and can be easily removed from the paper without residue. Artificial accelerated UV aging experiments demonstrate the deceleration of acidification, oxidation, and photocleavage in the protected bamboo paper and Xuan paper. This research paces a new direction for the protection of paper and paper-based relics and artworks with emerging carbon materials, offering customizable protection effects tailored to specific preservation and exhibition requirements. This research pioneers a novel approach to preventive protection of paper and paper-based relics using emerging carbon dots materials, offering tailored protection for diverse preservation needs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Tibetan strawberry ( Fragaria nubicola ) is a wild medicinal and edible plant in Tibet possessing various health benefits such as neuroprotection and anti-oxidation. However, there has been little study reported on its chemical constituents. To investigate the inhibitors of monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) in Tibetan strawberry, we immobilized the enzyme onto cellulose filter paper for the first time to develop a new screening method. Two known glycosides (compounds 1 and 2 ) and one new iridoid glucoside (Compound 3 ) were fished out by this method, which was found to effectively inhibit MAO-B with IC 50 values of 16.95 ± 0.93, 24.69 ± 0.20, and 46.77 ± 0.78 μM, respectively. Molecular docking and kinetic analysis were performed to reveal the inhibition mechanism of these compounds. Furthermore, compound 1 exhibited neuroprotective effects against 6-OHDA-induced injury on PC12 cells. The developed method exhibits the advantages of rapidness and effectiveness in screening of MAO-B inhibitors from complex herbal extracts., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described was original research that has not been published previously, nor under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part.

Hypothesis: Electronic paper displays rely on electrokinetic effects in nonpolar solvents to drive the displacement of colloidal particles within a fluidic cell. While Electrophoresis (EP) is a well-established and frequently employed phenomenon, electro-osmosis (EO), which drives fluid flow along charged solid surfaces, has not been studied as extensively. We hypothesize that by exploiting the interplay between these effects, an enhanced particle transport can be achieved., Experiments: In this study, we experimentally investigate the combined effects of EP and EO for colloidal particles in non-polar solvents, driven by an electric field. We use astigmatism micro-particle tracking velocimetry (A-μPTV) to measure the motion of charged particles within model fluidic cells. Using a simple approach that relies on basic fluid flow properties we extract the contributions due to EP and EO, finding that EO contributes significantly to particle transport. The validity of our approach is confirmed by measurements on particles with different magnitudes of charge, and by comparison to numerical simulations., Findings: We find that EO flows can play a dominant role in the transport of particles in electrokinetic display devices. This can be exploited to speed up particle transport, potentially yielding displays with significantly faster switching times., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Laha et al. studied the diffusive behavior of a whole-blood drop on filter paper using the generalized capillary bundle model. However, some model parameters should be further refined to accurately reflect the physics involved in this diffusion process. Moreover, citations are missing for some key equations. Addressing these aspects will improve the model applicability to this application and benefit readers in accessing more accurate and detailed information., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The highly dispersed small-size metal co-catalysts can effectively improve the photocatalytic efficiency of semiconductor photocatalysts by separating photogenerated electrons and enriching active sites. However, this system tends to aggregate in the absence of carrier, resulting in the decrease of active sites. Here, MOF-derived carbon skeleton (MDCS) encapsulated Ni nanoparticles (Ni@MDCS) and BiOBr was loaded onto carbonized cellulose fibers (CCF) with the help of polydopamine (PDA) to construct high-performance and recyclable photocatalytic paper for photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes in water. The characterization results showed that MDCS promoted good dispersion of Ni nanoparticles and provided sufficient active sites. And Ni@MDCS as a co-catalyst accelerated the separation of photogenerated carriers in BiOBr. The PDA improved the loading state of Ni@MDCS on CCF and converted into N-doped C in the carbonization process for further increasing the transfer efficiency of photogenerated electrons. In the composite paper, the stable loading of Ni@MDCS/BiOBr hybrid on CCF improved the dispersion and reusability of photocatalyst. The degradation rate of rhodamine B on CCF/PDA-C/Ni@MDCS/BiOBr paper was as high as 94.6 % after 60 min visible light irradiation, which was about 2.5 times higher than that of CCF/BiOBr paper. During 10 cycles, CCF/PDA-C/Ni@MDCS/BiOBr paper maintained high photocatalytic efficiency and good structural stability. This study provides a new way for developing high-performance and recyclable photocatalytic paper., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The scarcity of freshwater resources and increasing demand for drinking water have driven the development of durable and sustainable desalination technologies. Although MXene composites have shown promise due to their excellent photothermal conversion and high thermal conductivity, their high hydrophilicity often leads to salt precipitation and low durability. In this study, we present a novel Cellulose (CF)/MXene paper with a Janus hydrophobic/hydrophilic configuration for long-term and efficient solar-driven desalination. The paper features a dual-layer structure, with the upper hydrophobic layer composed of CF/MXene paper exhibiting convexness to serve as a photothermal layer with exceptional salt rejection properties. Simultaneously, the bottom porous layer made of CF acts as an efficient thermal insulation. This unique design effectively minimizes heat loss and facilitates efficient water transportation. The Janus CF/MXene paper demonstrates a high evaporation rate of 1.11 kg m -2 h -1 and solar thermal conversion efficiency of 82.52 % under 1 sun irradiation. Importantly, even after 2500 h of operation in a simulated seawater environment, the paper maintains a stable evaporation rate without significant salt deposition and biodegradation due to an antibacterial rate exceeding 90 %. These findings highlight the potential of the Janus CF/MXene paper for scalable manufacturing and practical applications in solar-driven desalination., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) and aqueous magnesium ion batteries (AMIBs) offer powerful alternatives for large-scale energy storage because of their high safety and low cost. Consequently, the design of high-performance cathode materials is essential. In this paper, we present a simple strategy that combines oxygen defect (O d ) engineering with a 2D-on-2D homogeneous nanopape-like bilayer V 2 O 5 nH 2 O xerogel (BL-HVO d NPS). This strategy employs O d to improve Zn 2+ /Mg 2+ insertion/extraction kinetics and reduce irreversible processes for high-performance AZIBs/AMIBs. And interlayer water molecules serve as an effective spacer to stabilize the expanded interlayer gap in BL-HVO d NPS, thereby providing extended diffusion channels for Zn 2+ /Mg 2+ during insertion/extraction. The interlayer water molecules help shield the electrostatic interaction between Zn 2+ /Mg 2+ and BL-HVO d NPS lattice, which improves diffusion kinetics during repeated. In addition, electrochemical characterization results indicate that the BL-HVO d  NPS can effectively the surface adsorption and internal diffusion of Zn 2+ /Mg 2+ . More importantly, the successfully prepared unique 2D-on-2D homogenous nanopaper structure enhances electrolyte/electrode contact and reduces the migration/diffusion path of electrons/Zn 2+ and Mg 2+ , thus greatly improving rate performance. As a result, the BL-HVO d NPS as AZIBs/AMIBs electrodes offer better reversible capacity of 361.8 and 162.8 mA h g -1 (at 0.2 A g -1 ), while displaying impressively long cycle lifes. This method provides a way to prepare advanced xerogel cathode materials for AZIBs and AMIBs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Solar energy-driven water evaporation technology is a promising, low-cost and sustainable approach to alleviate the global clean water shortage, but usually suffers from low water evaporation rate and severe salt deposition on the water evaporation surface. In this work, a hydrophilic bilayer photothermal paper-based three-dimensional (3D) cone flowing evaporator was designed and prepared for stable high-performance seawater desalination with excellent salt-rejecting ability. The as-prepared bilayer photothermal paper consisted of MXene (Ti 3 C 2 T x ) and HAA (ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowires, poly(acrylic acid), and poly(acrylic acid-2-hydroxyethyl ester)). The accordion-like multilayered MXene acted as the efficient solar light absorber, and ultralong hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanowires served as the thermally insulating and supporting skeleton with a porous networked structure. A siphon effect-driven unidirectional fluid transportation unit in the 3D cone flowing evaporator could guide the concentrated saline flowing away from the evaporating surface to prevent salt deposition on the evaporation surface, avoiding severe deterioration of the performance in solar water evaporation. Furthermore, combining high solar light absorption and high photothermal conversion efficiencies, low water evaporation enthalpy (1838 ± 11 J g -1 ), and additional energy taken from the ambient environment, the as-prepared cone flowing evaporator exhibited a high water evaporation rate of 3.22 ± 0.20 kg m -2 h -1 for real seawater under one sun illumination (1 kW m -2 ), which was significantly higher than many values reported in the literature. This study provides an effective approach for designing high-performance solar energy-driven water evaporators for sustainable seawater desalination and wastewater purification., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Biomass can be used as an energy source to thermochemical conversion processes to biocrude production. However, the supply and dependence on only one biomass for biocrude production can be an obstacle due to its seasonality, availability, and logistics costs. In this way, biomass waste and agroindustrial residues can be mixture and used as feedstock to the hydrothermal co-liquefaction (co-HTL) process as an alternative to obtaining biocrude. In this sense, the present paper analyzed the biocrude yield influence of the co-HTL from a quaternary unprecedented blend of different biomasses, such as sugarcane bagasse, brewer's spent grain (BSG), sludge from a paper recycling mill (PRM), and microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris). In this way, a simplex lattice design was employed and co-HTL experiments were carried out in a 2000 mL high-pressure stirred autoclave reactor under 275 °C for 60 min, considering 15% of feedstock/water ratio. Significant effects in each feedstock and their blends were analyzed aiming to increase biocrude and biochar yield. It was found that the addition of microalgae is only significant when considered more than 50% into the blend with BSG and PRM sludge to increase biocrude yield., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Mateus de Souza Amaral reports financial support was provided by Minas Gerais StateFoundation of Support to the Research. Sara Cangussu Bassoli reports financial support was provided by Coordination of Higher Education Personnel Improvement., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The quest for efficient hydrogen production highlights the need for cost-effective and high-performance catalysts to enhance the electrochemical water-splitting process. A significant challenge in developing self-supporting catalysts lies in the high cost and complex modification of traditional substrates. In this study, we developed catalysts featuring superaerophobic microstructures engineered on microspherical nickel-coated Chinese rice paper (Ni-RP), chosen for its affordability and exceptional ductility. These catalysts, due to their microspherical morphology and textured surface, exhibited significant superaerophobic properties, substantially reducing bubble adhesion. The nickel oxy-hydroxide (NiO x H y ) and phosphorus-doped nickel (PNi) catalysts on Ni-RP demonstrated effective roles in oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), achieving overpotentials of 250 mV at 20 mA cm -2 and 87 mV at -10 mA cm -2 in 1 M KOH, respectively. Moreover, a custom water-splitting cell using PNi/Ni-RP and NiO x H y /Ni-RP electrodes reached an impressive average voltage of 1.55 V at 10 mA cm -2 , with stable performance over 100 h in 1 M KOH. Our findings present a cost-effective, sustainable, and easily modifiable substrate that utilizes superaerophobic structures to create efficient and durable catalysts for water splitting. This work serves as a compelling example of designing high-performance self-supporting catalysts for electrocatalytic applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The demand for paper and paper-based packaging has seen a massive increase in past years, resulting in accelerated deforestation to meet the rising demand, negatively impacting the environment, and there is a need to look towards different non-woody raw materials. Kraft pulping (KP) is widely used in paper making, for which the chemical dose, temperature, time, and energy required must be optimized, for which many insignificant experimental trials are performed. An effort is made to solve this problem by developing the regression equations with the help of Excel using One Factor at a Time Analysis (OFAT), followed by carrying out design of experiments (DoE) using orthogonal approach and regression analysis in Minitab software. Life cycle Assessment (LCA) using the Open-LCA software estimates the effect of chemicals and energy required during pulping on human health, ecosystem quality, and resource depletion. Using regression analysis, the equations for predicting kappa number, yield (%), total energy consumed, and mechanical properties of the paper sheet showed a good fit with an R 2 value in the range of 0.90-0.99. Apart from that, the mechanical properties, namely tensile index (41.43 Nm/g), tear index (6.96 mN m 2 /g), bending stiffness (0.5 mN m), and burst index (3.92 kPa m 2 /g) of the unbeaten sheet, were determined experimentally at optimized conditions. Based on the Open-LCA result, the optimized pulping conditions had less impact on human health, ecosystem quality, and resource depletion. Industries can use the model to predict the values of kappa number, yield, mechanical properties, and energy consumption without performing optimization experiments that may impact the industry's economy to a greater extent., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Despite the intriguing features of freestanding flexible electronic devices, such as their binder-free nature and cost-effectiveness, the limited loading capacity of active material poses a challenge to achieving practical high-performance flexible electrodes. We propose a novel approach that integrates multiple self-assembly and in-situ polymerization techniques to fabricate a high-loading paper-based flexible electrode (MXene/Polypyrrole/Paper) with exceptional areal capacitance. The approach enables polypyrrole to form a porous conductive network structure on the surface of paper fiber through MXene grafting via hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interaction, resulting in an exceptionally high polypyrrole loading of 10.0 mg/cm 2 and a conductivity of 2.03 S/cm. Moreover, MXene-modified polypyrrole paper exhibits a more homogeneous pore size distribution ranging from 5 to 50 μm and an increased specific surface area of 3.11 m 2 /g. Additionally, we have optimized in-situ polymerization cycles for paper-based supercapacitors, resulting in a remarkable areal capacitance of 2316 mF/cm 2 (at 2 mA/cm 2 ). The capacitance retention rate and conductivity rate maintain over 90 % after undergoing 100 bends.The maximum energy density and cycling stability are characterized to be 83.6 μWh/cm 2 and up to 96 % retention after 10,000 cycles. These results significantly outperform those previously reported for paper-based counterparts. Overall, our work presents a facile and versatile strategy for assembling high-loading, paper-based flexible supercapacitors network architecture that can be employed in developing large-scale energy storage devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The demand for high-quality graphene for electronic applications is increasing due to its high carrier mobility and electrical conductivity. In this connection, printing technology is a reliable method towards the fabrication of conductive, disposable graphene-based electrode for low-cost sensor application. Herein, we aimed to report the synthesis of high-quality graphene nanosheets obtained by electrochemical exfoliation of biomass-derived from corn cob. The conductive ink was prepared from this exfoliated graphene and was utilized for the preparation of paper-based graphene electrode towards double stranded DNA (dsDNA) sensor application. This paper, based graphene electrode opens the possibility of direct electrochemical analysis of analyte without any sample preparation. In this study, two irreversible oxide peaks were obtained from paper-based printed graphene electrode, corresponds to oxidation of guanine (G) and adenine (A) of dsDNA in the linear range of 0.2 pg mL -1 to 5 pg mL -1 with the detection limit of 0.68 pg mL -1 and the sensitivity of 0.00656 mA pg -1 cm -2 . Further, a small-scale printable circuit is fabricated using this graphene shows good conductivity of 1.145x10 3 (S/m)., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Paper mill Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) ash contains a mixture of alkali metal chloride (34.2 %) and sulfate (84.2 %) which has serious negative effects on the environment and makes it more expensive and constrained to dispose ESP ash. Therefore, handling and recycling ESP ash demands extra thought when disposing of it. Present study, aimed to separate chloride and sulfate from ESP ash using electrochemical membrane technology. Three different concentrations of ESP ash solution such as 200 g L -1 , 320 g L -1 and 450 g L -1 were used as the electrolyte. Ti/TiO 2 -IrO 2 -RuO 2 and titanium (Ti) are used as anode and cathode respectively. Caustic and sulfate solutions were recovered at the respective compartments. The collected sulfate solution was dried by solar light to convert 99 % sulfate salts as confirmed by Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) analysis. Recovered sulfate salt was used for the dye fixing process, in which the colour fixing difference of ΔE value was about 2.10 and the strength of the dye was about 86.72 %. Therefore, the textile industry can repurpose the recovered sulfate salt for the dye fixing process., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The pulp-paper industry is one of the main industrial sectors that produce massive amounts of residual sludge, constituting an enormous environmental burden for the industries. Traditional sludge management practices, such as landfilling and incineration, are restricted due to mounting environmental pressures, complex regulatory frameworks, land availability, high costs, and public opinion. Valorization of pulp-paper industry sludge (PPS) to produce high-value products is a promising substitute for traditional sludge management practices, promoting their reuse and recycling. Valorization of PPIS for biorefinery beneficiation includes biomethane, biohydrogen, bioethanol, biobutanol, and biodiesel production for renewable energy generation. Additionally, the various thermo-chemical technologies can be utilized to synthesize bio-oil, hydrochar, biochar, adsorbent, and activated carbon, signifying potential for value-added generation. Moreover, PPIS can be recycled as a byproduct by incorporating it into nanocomposites, cardboard, and construction materials development. This paper aims to deliver a comprehensive overview of PPIS management approaches and thermo-chemical technologies utilized for the development of platform chemicals in industry. Substitute uses of PPIS, such as making building materials, developing supercapacitors, and making cardboard, are also discussed. In addition, this article deeply discusses recent developments in biotechnologies for valorizing PPIS to yield an array of valuable products, such as biofuels, lactic acids, cellulose, nanocellulose, and so on. This review serves as a roadmap for future research endeavors in the effective handling of PPIS., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Solar interfacial evaporation is one of the most efficient and environmentally-friendly clean freshwater production technologies. Plasma metal nanoparticles are excellent optical absorption materials, but their high cost and inherent resonance narrow bandwidth absorption limit their application. In this work, commercial cellulose papers are used as substrates to synthesize Ag-Ni/cellulose paper by the seed-mediated method. The Ag-Ni/cellulose paper exhibits high light absorption at the full wavelength (200-2500 nm) resulting from the synergistic effect of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Ag NPs and the interband transitions (IBTs) of Ni. Under one-sun irradiation (1 kW m -2 ), the energy utilization efficiency of Ag-Ni/cellulose paper is as high as 93.8%, and the water evaporation rate is 1.87 kg m -2  h -1 . Diffusion inhibition experiment results show that the Ag-Ni/cellulose paper exhibits excellent antibacterial performance, and the antibacterial performance is highly related with Ag NPs content. These provide new opportunities for commercial production of competitive cost, green, and portable solar evaporators for different application sceneries., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Hypotheses: (1) The equilibrium size and characteristics of a radially wicked fluid on porous material such as paper is expected to be dependent on the fluid properties and therefore could serve as a diagnostic tool. (2) The change in wicked stain size between biological fluids is dependent on a change in solid-liquid surface interfacial energy due to protein adsorption., Experiments: Sessile droplets of increasing volume of blood, its components, and model fluids were deposited onto paper and the equilibrium stain size after coming to a halt was recorded. The contact angle of fluid droplets on model cellulose surfaces was measured to quantify the effect that blood protein adsorption at the solid-liquid interface has on radially wicked equilibrium size. Finally the significance of droplet evaporation for the time scale of interest was analysed., Findings: The final stain area of all fluids tested on paper scales remarkably linearly with droplet volume. Different fluids were compared and the gradient of this linear relation was measured. Model fluids varying in surface tension and viscosity all behave similarly and exhibit a constant gradient. Blood and its components produce smaller stains, demonstrated by lower gradients. The gradient is a function of protein concentration, thus the mechanism of this phenomenon was identified as protein adsorption at the cellulose-liquid interface. The slope of the area/volume relationship for droplets is an important quantitative mechanistic variable., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

An abundance of early warning graphene-based nano-materials and sensors have been developed to avoid and prevent the critical fire risk of combustible materials. However, there are still some limitations that should be addressed, such as the black color, high-cost and single fire warning response of graphene-based fire warning materials. Herein, we report an unexpected montmorillonite (MMT)-based intelligent fire warning materials that have excellent fire cyclic warning performance and reliable flame retardancy. Combining phenyltriethoxysilane (PTES) molecules, poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) nanofiber (PBONF), and layers of MMT to form a silane crosslinked 3D nanonetwork system, the homologous PTES decorated MMT-PBONF nanocomposites are designed and fabricated via a sol-gel process and low temperature self-assembly method. The optimized nanocomposite paper shows good mechanical flexibility (good recovery after kneading or bending process), high tensile strength of ∼81 MPa and good water resistance. Furthermore, the nanocomposite paper exhibits high-temperature flame resistance (almost unchanged structure and size after 120 s combustion), sensitive flame alarm response (∼0.3 s response once exposure onto a flame), cyclic fire warning performance (>40 cycles), and adaptability to complex fire situations (several fire attack and evacuation scenarios), showing promising applications for monitoring the critical fire risk of combustible materials. Therefore, this work paves a rational way for design and fabrication of MMT-based smart fire warning materials that combine excellent flame shielding and sensitive fire alarm functions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The pulp and paper industry consumes a huge amount of water and releases more polluted and colored wastewater every year. Many conventional techniques are used in the treatment of paper industry wastewater. However, for color removal from paper mill effluent, there is no proven method so far, on an industrial scale. Due to high energy input and high cost, there is an urgent need to find out a new technique that must be sustainable, economical, and environment friendly. Various methods have been investigated on bench scale and pilot scale also but no proven method for color removal on an industrial scale. The paper provides an overview of the color removal techniques from different sources of pulp and paper mill wastewater discharged by various industries. The review described various components involved in various processes for color removal from paper mill waste water. The present works focus on processes like chemical, chemical/physical, biological, physicochemical, and electrochemical applied in color removal from paper mill wastewater. The present review gives key information on the effectiveness, use, betterment, and limitations of numerous methods of treatment targeted at color removal from paper mill wastewater using various techniques still under evolution., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pseudoestrogene bisphenol A (BPA) can be important ingredient of thermochromic inks, increasingly used materials in thermal printing paper, security printing, advertising, design and as temperature indicators in medicine and food industry. BPA mass fraction in thermochromic inks can be up to several percent. Hence, disposal of items with thermochromic prints pose a risk of environmental pollution. In this work BPA mass fraction was monitored during anaerobic degradation of papers with thermochromic prints in soil in both matrices: papers and soil. The degradation conditions simulated deeper layers of waste at a landfill site. Six types of papers with prints of thermochromic ink containing 2% of BPA were subjected to anaerobic degradation over up to 150 days. Initial mass fractions of BPA in papers decreased form (126-460) μg/g to (

Waste paper disposed in landfills notably contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impedes more sustainable, circular alternatives, such as recycling. In Hong Kong, this unsustainable approach is currently dominant as 68% of waste paper products are treated in landfills in 2020. To contextualize the impact of local waste paper management and explore mitigation potentials of circular alternatives, this paper develops a quantitative assessment framework around GHG emissions development trajectories. Combining guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), national GHG inventories, and local parameters from life cycle analysis, five GHG emissions projections were simulated along the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) until 2060. Most recent baselines indicate that Hong Kong's current waste paper treatment generated 638,360 tons CO 2 -eq in 2020, comprising 1,821,040 tons CO 2 -eq from landfill and 671,320 tons CO 2 -eq from recycling, and -1,854,000 tons CO 2 -eq from primary material replacement. Proceeding along a Business-as-Usual scenario under SSP5, GHG emissions will dramatically increase to a net 1,072,270 tons CO 2 -eq by 2060, whereas a recycling-intensive scenario will lead to a net saving of -4,323,190 tons CO 2 -eq. To complement the quantitative evidence on the benefits of waste paper recycling, field research was conducted to explore the feasibility of circular policy innovation from the perspective of recycling stakeholders. These empirical qualitative and quantitative findings from stakeholders' business routines and material transactions provide crucial indications for policy and institutional innovation: Essentially, for Hong Kong to improve waste paper recycling capacities and facilitate a circular economy (CE), local stakeholders require support via fiscal policy measures (financial subsidies or tax reductions) and infrastructure improvements (delivery access and material storage). In sum, this study employs a novel analytical framework combining original qualitative and quantitative evidence to provide policy innovation towards circular, GHG emission-saving waste paper management., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Hypothesis: The complex spreading dynamics of blood on paper matrix is likely to be quantitatively altered with variations in the fractional occupancy of red blood cells in the whole blood (haematocrit). Here, we presented an apparently surprising observation that a finite volume blood drop undergoes a universal time-dependent spreading on a filter paper strip that is virtually invariant with its hematocrit level within physiologically healthy regime, though distinctively distinguishable from the spreading laws of blood plasma and water., Experiments: Our hypothesis was ascertained by performing controlled wicking experiments on filter papers of different grades. Spreading of human blood samples of different haematocrit levels ranging between 15% and 51% and the plasma separated from therein were traced by combined high-speed imaging and microscopy. These experiments were complemented with a semi-analytical theory to decipher the key physics of interest., Results: Our results unveiled the exclusive influence of the obstructing cellular aggregates in the randomly distributed hierarchically structured porous pathways and deciphered the role of the networked structures of the various plasma proteins that induced hindered diffusion. The resulting universal signatures of spontaneous dynamic spreading, delving centrally on the fractional reduction in the interlaced porous passages, provide novel design basis for paper-microfluidic kits in medical diagnostics and beyond., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This article describes a study on the viability of using waste from the paper industry: biomass boiler ash and green liquor dregs to fabricate mortars and concretes. Both types of ash were characterized by obtaining their chemical and mineralogical composition, their organic matter content, granulometry, adsorption and other common tests for construction materials. Seven different mortars were fabricated, one for reference made up of cement, sand, and water, three in which 10, 20, or 30% of the cement was replaced by biomass ash, and three others in which 10, 20, or 30% of the cement was replaced with dregs. Test specimens were fabricated with these mortars to conduct flexural and compression tests. Flexural strength is reduced for all the mortars studied. Compressive strength increases for the mortars fabricated with biomass ash and decreases for the mortar with dregs. Finally, 5 concretes were made, one of them as a reference (neither biomass ash nor dregs added), two of them with replacements of 10 and 20% of biomass ash instead of cement and another two with replacements of 10 and 20% of dregs instead of cement. The compressive and tensile splitting strength increase when a 10% of ash is replaced and decrease in all the other cases. The modulus of elasticity always decreases., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Generally, the mechanical strength and stiffness of old corrugated cardboard (OCC) waste paper are decreased after multiple recycling procedures. Surface sizing starch, which is extensively used in the surface sizing of paper making, accumulates after dissolving from the fibers and is transformed into pollutant during the OCC re-pulping process. To overcome the pollution and reutilization problem of the waste starch during the recycling process of OCC paper, waste starch was ionized using hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to improve the mechanical properties of OCC paper during the reutilization. The results showed that the carboxyl group of waste starch increased with an increasing degree of ionization, resulting in enhanced copper ion adsorption capacity. Furthermore, the retention rate of the modified starch in the wet-end increased from 18.0% to 48.2%. The OCC paper presented the highest burst index and tensile strength of 8.94 kPa m 2 /g and 112.5 N m/g, respectively, when MS-2 was added. This work has great significance for implementation of the cleaning production of OCC waste papers and the reutilization of the waste starch., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pulp and paper industry produces massive amounts of sludge from wastewater treatment, which constitute an enormous environmental challenge. A possible management option is the conversion of sludge into carbon-based adsorbents to be applied in water remediation. For such utilization it is important to investigate if sludge is a consistent raw material originating reproducible final materials (either over time or from different manufacturing processes), which is the main goal of this work. For that purpose, different primary (PS) and biological sludge (BS) batches from two factories with different operation modes were sampled and subjected to pyrolysis (P materials) and to pyrolysis followed by acid washing (PW materials). All the materials were characterized by proximate analysis, total organic carbon (TOC) and inorganic carbon (IC), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and N 2 adsorption isotherms (specific surface area (S BET )and porosity determination). Sludge from the two factories proved to have distinct physicochemical properties, mainly in what concerns IC. After pyrolysis, the washing step was essential to reduce IC and to considerably increase S BET , yet with high impact in the final production yield. Among the materials here produced, PW materials from PS were those having the highest S BET values (387-488 m 2  g -1 ). Overall, it was found that precursors from different factories might originate final materials with distinct characteristics, being essential to take into account this source of variability when considering paper mill sludge as a raw material. Nevertheless, for PS, low variability was found between batches, which points out to the reliability of such residues to be used as precursors of carbon adsorbents., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this work, heterogeneous photocatalysis was used to treat pulp and paper mill effluent (PPME). Magnetically retrievable Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 was fabricated by employing a solvent-free mechanochemical process under ambient conditions. Findings elucidated the successful incorporation of Fe 2 O 3 into the TiO 2 lattice. Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 was found to be an irregular and slightly agglomerated surface morphology. In comparison to commercial P25, Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 exhibited higher ferromagnetism and better catalyst properties with improvements in surface area (58.40 m 2 /g), pore volume (0.29 cm 3 /g), pore size (18.52 nm), and band gap (2.95 eV). Besides, reusability study revealed that Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 was chemically stable and could be reused successively (five cycles) without significant changes in its photoactivity and intrinsic properties. Additionally, this study demonstrated the potential recovery of Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 from an aqueous suspension by using an applied magnetic field or sedimentation. Interactive effects of photocatalytic conditions (initial effluent pH, Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 dosage, and air flow-rate), reaction mechanism, and the presence of chemical oxidants (H 2 O 2 , BrO 3 - , and HOCl) during the treatment process of PPME were also investigated. Under optimal conditions (initial effluent pH = 3.88, [Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 ] = 1.3 g/L, and air flow-rate = 2.28 L/min), the treatment efficiency of Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 was 98.5% higher than the P25. Based on Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model, apparent rate constants of Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 and P25 were 9.2 × 10 -3 and 2.7 × 10 -3 min -1 , respectively. The present study revealed not only the potential of using magnetic Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 in PPME treatment but also demonstrated high reusability and easy separation of Fe 2 O 3 -TiO 2 from the wastewater., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Pulp and paper mill sludge is a waste stream derived from the pulp and paper making industry, comprised of organic and inorganic material in the form of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and ash. In South Africa, approximately fivefour hundred thousand wet tonnes are produced per annum and is currently disposed via landfilling or incineration. However, these disposal methods raise environmental and financial concerns. This waste stream is an attractive feedstock for fermentable sugars, mainly glucose, recovery and can be redirected for valorisation as a feedstock for microbial fermentation to produce value-added products. Sugar recovery by enzymatic hydrolysis, as opposed to acidic hydrolysis, is a promising approach but is hampered by the lignin and inorganic material found in pulp and paper mill sludge. Several treatment steps to reduce or remove these components prior to enzymatic hydrolysis are assessed in this review. Pretreatment improves hydrolysis of cellulosic fibres and ensures a substantial yield of sugars., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

At present, there is no reliable method in use that unequivocally describes paper industry material flows and makes it possible to compare geographical regions with each other. A functioning paper industry Material Flow Account (MFA) that uses uniform terminology and standard definitions for terms and structures is necessary. Many of the presently used general level MFAs, which are called frameworks in this article, stress the importance of input and output flows but do not provide a uniform picture of material recycling. Paper industry is an example of a field in which recycling plays a key role. Additionally, terms related to paper industry recycling, such as collection rate, recycling rate, and utilization rate, are not defined uniformly across regions and time. Thus, reliably comparing material recycling activity between geographical regions or calculating any regional summaries is difficult or even impossible. The objective of this study is to give a partial solution to the problem of not having a reliable method in use that unequivocally describes paper industry material flows. This is done by introducing a new material flow framework for paper industry in which the flow and stage structure supports the use of uniform definitions for terms related to paper recycling. This new framework is termed the Detailed Wheel of Fiber., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Land-use change in the boreal forest region leads to agriculture to be carried out on acid, shallow and low fertility soils. To correct soil fertility and promote crop productivity, manure and inorganic fertilizers are added, increasing the risk for greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE). To reduce the reliance on synthetic soil amendments while taking advantage of locally relevant industrial by-products, wood ash (WA) and paper sludge (SL) have been proposed as soil amendments for a range of soil types. We posited that amending soils with WA, SL and biochar will improve soil health parameters and fertility of boreal soils. Microbial activity resulting to nitrogen losses and availability were assessed. WA had a stronger ameliorative effect on acid boreal soils compared to SL. Both WA and SL increased soil microbial biomass and basal respiration resulting in higher net mineralization and thus significant increases in CO 2 emissions. Co-application of urea with WA or SL further increased net mineralization compared to when used independently. Conversely, the biochar's effect was short-lived and not significant. Nevertheless, addition of biochar was shown to reduce CO 2 emissions in all cases except in WA amended soils. No significant differences were observed in CH 4 emissions across all treatments. WA and SL may improve soil fertility and quality but could also contribute significantly to GHG emissions in acid boreal soils. Further research is recommended to assess the mitigating effect of various biochar feedstocks on GHG emissions when co-applied with WA and SL., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Lithium metal is deemed a promising anode material for the next-generation batteries with high specific energy. Unfortunately, the growth of Li dendrites and infinite volume change during cycling, caused by the "hostless" feature of metallic Li, have posed a great challenge to the commercialization of Li metal anode. The introduction of appropriate host materials for Li metal is highly desirable. In this work, a N, P dual-doped 3D carbon derived from low-cost quantitative filter paper (NPCQP) is designed and fabricated for direct using as a host for Li metal anode. The resulting NPCQP host achieves a high deposition/stripping Coulombic efficiency of above 97.5 % with a low nucleation overpotential. Moreover, the NPCQP@Li symmetric cells enable an excellent long-term cycling performance (1000 h) with an ultralow voltage hysteresis (12 mV) and stable interface behavior. When paired with the commercial LiFePO 4 cathode, the full cell with NPCQP@Li anode displays impressive long-term cyclic stability and rate capability, outperforming the counter cell with bare Li anode. This contribution sheds light on the rational design of viable host for practical lithium metal anodes., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and influenza A are two respiratory infectious diseases with similar clinical manifestations. Because of the complex global epidemic situation of COVID-19, the distinction and diagnosis of COVID-19 and influenza A infected persons is crucial for epidemic prevention and control. In this study, tetrahedral DNA framework (TDF) was combined with a rotational paper-based analytical device, and the color change generated by the reaction between horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and 3,3'5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB)-H 2 O 2 was used for grayscale signal analysis by ImageJ software. The quantitative detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza A H1N1 virus were realized simultaneously. Under the optimal conditions, the paper-based analytical device showed a good linear relationship between the two viruses in the range of 10 -14 -10 -8 g/mL, and the two viruses were not affected by cross reaction. This sensor provides a convenient and reliable method for clinical rapid differentiation and diagnosis of COVID-19 and influenza A., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The total emission control target of water pollutants (e.g., COD and NH4-N) for a certain industrial sector can be predicted and analysed using the popular technology-based bottom-up modelling. However, this methodology has obvious uncertainty regarding the attainment of mitigation targets. The primary uncertainty comes from macro-production, pollutant reduction roadmap, and technical parameters. This research takes the paper and pulp industry in China as an example, and builds 5 mitigation scenarios via different combinations of raw material structure, scale structure, procedure mitigation technology, and end-of-pipe treatment technology. Using the methodology of uncertainty analysis via Monte Carlo, random sampling was conducted over a hundred thousand times. According to key parameters, sensitive parameters that impact total emission control targets such as industrial output, technique structure, cleaner production technology, and end-of-pipe treatment technology are discussed in this article. It appears that scenario uncertainty has a larger influence on COD emission than NH4-N, hence it is recommended that a looser total emission control target for COD is necessary to increase its feasibility and availability while maintaining the status quo of NH4-N. Consequently, from uncertainty analysis, this research recognizes the sensitive products, techniques, and technologies affecting industrial water pollution., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The complexity of residual toxic organics from biologically treated effluents of pulp and paper mills is a serious concern. To date, it has been difficult to choose the best treatment technique because each of the available options has advantages and drawbacks. In this study, two different treatment techniques using laboratory-scale aerobic sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were tested with the same real recycled paper mill effluent to evaluate their treatment efficiencies. Two attached-growth SBRs using granular activated carbon (GAC) with and without additional biomass and a suspended-growth SBR were used in the treatment of real recycled paper mill effluent at a chemical oxygen demand (COD) level in the range of 800-1300 mg/L, a fixed hydraulic retention time of 24 h and a COD:N:P ratio of approximately 100:5:1. The efficiency of this biological treatment process was studied over a 300-day period. The six most important wastewater quality parameters, namely, chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity, ammonia (expressed as NH3-N), phosphorus (expressed as PO4(3)-P), colour, and suspended solids (SS), were measured to compare the different treatment techniques. It was determined that these processes were able to almost completely and simultaneously eliminate COD (99%) and turbidity (99%); the removals of NH3-N (90-100%), PO4(3)-P (66-78%), colour (63-91%), and SS (97-99%) were also sufficient. The overall performance results confirmed that an attached-growth SBR system using additional biomass on GAC is a promising configuration for wastewater treatment in terms of performance efficiency and process stability under fluctuations of organic load. Hence, this hybrid system is recommended for the treatment of pulp and paper mill effluents., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The removal of xenotrpic murine leukemia virus (xMuLV) by size-exclusion filter paper composed of 100% naturally derived cellulose was validated. The filter paper was produced using cellulose nanofibers derived from Cladophora sp. algae. The filter paper was characterized using atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, helium pycnometry, and model tracer (100 nm latex beads and 50 nm gold nanoparticles) retention tests. Following the filtration of xMuLV spiked solutions, LRV ≥5.25 log10 TCID50 was observed, as limited by the virus titre in the feed solution and sensitivity of the tissue infectivity test. The results of the validation study suggest that the nanocellulose filter paper is useful for removal of endogenous rodent retroviruses and retrovirus-like particles during the production of recombinant proteins., (Copyright © 2015 The International Alliance for Biological Standardization. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this study, hydrogen harvesting from fermentation of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) was promoted by maintaining synergism between sulfonated graphene (SGR) catalyst and paper mill sludge (PMS). The sulfonic acid (-SO 3 H) groups in the catalyst played a major role in destructing the β-1,4 glycosidic bonds of sugarcane bagasse, releasing readily biodegradable sugars into the fermentation medium. The cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin conversion efficiency were improved by 127.5%, 495.0%, and 109.2%, respectively with 20 mgSGR/gVS catalyst addition, compared with the control samples. These values were also higher than those obtained by non-sulfonated graphene catalyst. The hydrogenation of sugarcane bagasse was maximized at a sulfonated graphene catalyst dosage of 60 mgSGR/gVS, providing the highest hydrogen harvesting of 4104 ± 321 mL. This was associated with an increase of the Proteobacteria phyla up to 52.0%, Firmicutes phyla to 13.9%, and Acinetobacter sp. to 39.8% compared with only 37.0%, 11.3% and 11.1% in the control assay respectively. Moreover, sulfonated graphene catalyst supplementation promoted the acetate fermentation reaction pathway by increasing the acetate/butyrate ratio up to 4.1. Nevertheless, elevating the catalyst dosage up to 120 mgSGR/gVS reduced the hydrogen harvesting (1190 ± 92 mL) due to the release of furfural (1.76 ± 0.02 g/L) in the fermentation cultures, deteriorating the microbes' internal composition and metabolism bioactivities. Finally maximizing the hydrogen productivity from sugarcane bagasse is feasible by incorporation of paper mill sludge and sulfonated graphene catalyst at dosage not exceeding 60 mgSGR/gVS. However, investigating the recyclability and disposal of digestate containing sulfonated graphene catalyst and the associated economic feasibility needs more attention in the future., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the best studied industrial chemicals in terms of exposure, toxicity, and toxicokinetics. This renders it an ideal candidate to exploit the recent advancements in physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling to support risk assessment of BPA specifically, and of other consumer-relevant hazardous chemicals in general. Using the exposure from thermal paper as a case scenario, this study employed the multi-phase multi-layer mechanistic dermal absorption (MPML MechDermA) model available in the Simcyp® Simulator to simulate the dermal toxicokinetics of BPA at local and systemic levels. Sensitivity analysis helped to identify physicochemical and physiological factors influencing the systemic exposure to BPA. The iterative modelling process was as follows: (i) development of compound files for BPA and its conjugates, (ii) setting-up of a PBPK model for intravenous administration, (iii) extension for oral administration, and (iv) extension for exposure via skin (i.e., hand) contact. A toxicokinetic study involving hand contact to BPA-containing paper was used for model refinement. Cumulative urinary excretion of total BPA had to be employed for dose reconstruction. PBPK model performance was verified using the observed serum BPA concentrations. The predicted distribution across the skin compartments revealed a depot of BPA in the stratum corneum (SC). These findings shed light on the role of the SC to act as temporary reservoir for lipophilic chemicals prior to systemic absorption, which inter alia is relevant for the interpretation of human biomonitoring data and for establishing the relationship between external and internal measures of exposure., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Sebastian Polak and Zofia Bielecka are Certara UK (Simcyp Division) employees. Certara is a developer of the Simcyp platform which was used in the current study. All other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Flexible zinc-silver oxide (Zn-Ag 2 O) batteries have attracted extensive attention for comfortable wearable electronics owing to their stable output voltage, inherent safety, and environmental benignity. However, they suffer from inferior specific capacity and poor mechanical stability due to the low utilization of Ag 2 O cathodic material and weak interfacial adhesion of active material/substrate. Inspired by the nature of the tree root system, we develop an interface-engineered cathode, in which Ag 2 O nanoparticles are rooted on an Au, Ni co-modified filter paper substrate (CFP) through an electroless plating followed by an in situ electrochemical oxidation. The staggered-stacked Ag 2 O nanoparticles provide abundant electrochemically active sites and convenient ion diffusion paths, and the unique biological tree-root-like structure of the electrode material creates robust interlocking interfaces. A quasi-solid-state Zn-Ag 2 O battery assembled with a tree-root-like Ag 2 O/CFP cathode delivers a high areal specific capacity of 1.08 mAh cm -2 and long-term cycling durability with a capacity retention of 77.3% even after 100 cycles. Moreover, the device presents good mechanical stability under various flexural deformations, including bending, folding, and twisting, and exhibits minimal capacity changes after 1000 bending cycles. These findings suggest that the bio-inspired interface-engineered electrode structure is an efficient approach for developing flexible batteries with excellent electrochemical performance and mechanical properties., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Pulp and paper mill biomass boilers generate large quantities of ash in Canada with British Columbia (BC) being the highest ash generating province followed closely by Quebec. Generally, the generated ash is landfilled, particularly in BC, with only a small amount being used beneficially. It is anticipated that the difficulty associated with the management of ash will worsen over time as the industry increases its reliance on green fuel. Thus, there is a strong need to identify beneficial uses of pulp and paper boiler ash for the sake of environmental and economic sustainability. The purpose of this report is to provide the first step in this direction, a review of proposed or implemented uses for coal and hog (or wood) ash around the world. Considering both the properties of the ash and local opportunities, this could be the first step toward screening the applications that may apply to individual mills. Several large-scale practices use ash, such as land application (as a nutrient source or as a liming agent), use in the construction industry (as a replacement for cement or as a fill material), and reclamation of mine sites and stabilization of unpaved forest roads. In some cases, relatively small-scale applications have been used which included uses such as a compost component, agent for pH adjustment of liquid streams and slurries, blasting abrasive, and source of quartz for glass manufacturing to name a few. It is important to note that the chemical nature of both fly and bottom ashes can be quite variable due to the type of wood residues combusted as well as combustion equipment used and must be considered in identifying beneficial applications., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)