A synergistic use of microalgae and macroalgae for heavy metal bioremediation and bioenergy production through hydrothermal liquefaction

In this investigation a novel synergistic approach for the bioremediation of metal-contaminated water and bioenergy production was developed. Two microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris and Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina), and two macroalgae, Ulva lactuca and Sargassum muticum, were used as passive bioremediation agents for the metals Ni(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cu(II). The metals were added singularly and in combination between 10–150 mM. The metal contaminated biomass was then processed through hydrothermal liquefaction to yield four phases: a bio-crude oil, an aqueous phase, solid residue and gas. Both C. vulgaris and A. platensis gave high bio-crude yields of 39 and 31 wt% respectively, while U. lactuca and S. muticum gave 14% and 9% respectively. Initial studies demonstrated that the addition of up to 150 mM of the target metal sulfates to the biomass feedstock did not significantly affect bio-crude production, and, for microalgae, over 99% of the target metals were partitioned to the solid phase products predominantly as phosphates or oxides. Subsequently, bioremediation of waste water and HTL were successfully coupled, with over 80% of a 10 mM solution of the metals biosorbed, though efficacy depended heavily on the algal species. Upon HTL of the remediating biomass, the yield and composition of the bio-crude were not changed significantly. For the microalgae, the aqueous phase contained significant nitrogen, potassium and phosphate levels, and the majority of the target metals deposited in the solid phase, with over 99.5% metal recovery for Spirulina when all four metals were used. The macroalgal species were not as effective in this process, with limited phosphate recovery in the aqueous phase (albeit with extensive potassium recovery) and with less than 50% of the target metals depositing in the solid residue for the Ulva species examined, presumably due to the affinity of the metals to proteinous species rather than polysaccharide in this species. Combining microalgal bioremediation with hydrothermal liquefaction is therefore a potentially highly effective method of remediating contaminated waste waters, whilst a macroalgae based process may offer a cheaper alternative, albeit with substantially reduced efficacy. The recovery of the target metals and multiple product formation improves the economic viability of the process, thereby valorising the bioremediation process and subsidising environmental clean-up

What You See Is Not What You Know: Deepfake Image Manipulation

Research indicates that deceitful videos tend to spread rapidly online and influence people’s opinions and ideas. Because of this, video misinformation via deepfake video manipulation poses a significant online threat. This study aims to discover what factors can influence viewers’ capability of distinguishing deepfake videos from genuine video footage. This work focuses on exploring deepfake videos’ potential use for deception and misinformation by exploring people’s ability to determine whether videos are deepfakes in a survey consisting of deepfake videos and original unedited videos. The participants viewed a set of four videos and were asked to judge whether the videos shown were deepfakes or originals. The survey varied the familiarity that the viewers had with the subjects of the videos. Also, the number of videos shown at one time was manipulated. This survey showed that familiarity of subjects has a statistically significant impact on how well people can determine a deepfake. Notably, however, almost two thirds of study participants (102 out of 154, or 66.23%) were unable to correctly identify a sequence of just four videos as either genuine or deepfake. Overall, the study provides insights into possible methods for countering disinformation and deception resulting from the misuse of deepfakes

What You See Is Not What You Know: Studying Deception in Deepfake Video Manipulation

Research indicates that deceitful videos tend to spread rapidly online and influence people’s opinions and ideas. Because of this, video misinformation via deepfake video manipulation poses a significant online threat. This study aims to discover what factors can influence viewers’ capability to distinguish deepfake videos from genuine video footage. This work focuses on exploring deepfake videos’ potential use for deception and misinformation by exploring people’s ability to determine whether videos are deepfakes in a survey consisting of deepfake videos and original unedited videos. The participants viewed a set of four videos and were asked to judge whether the videos shown were deepfakes or originals. The survey varied the familiarity that the viewers had with the subjects of the videos. Also, the number of videos shown at one time was manipulated. This survey showed that familiarity with subjects has a statistically significant impact on how well people can determine a deepfake. Notably, however, almost two-thirds of study participants (102 out of 154, or 66.23%) were unable to correctly identify a sequence of just four videos as either genuine or deepfake. This study provides insights into possible considerations for countering disinformation and deception resulting from the misuse of deepfakes

Sustainability and life cycle assessment (LCA) of macroalgae-derived single cell oils

Marine macroalgae (seaweed) has many advantages over terrestrial crops as a source of renewable biomass but is severely underutilised at present, especially within Europe. In particular, macroalgae has elevated poly- and monosaccharide content, making it an ideal feedstock as a heterotrophic fermentation sugar source for the production of higher value chemicals. Recent reports have detailed the suitability of seaweeds as a feedstock for the production of single-cell oils (SCOs) which have application in food, oleochemicals and fuels. It is proposed that a biorefinery system based on the production of SCOs alongside other secondary metabolites, has the potential to provide a sustainable replacement to terrestrial oils such as palm oil. This work therefore evaluates, for the first time, the environmental and economic sustainability of a production process for SCOs from seaweed Saccharina latissima using the oleaginous yeast Metschnikowia pulcherrima. Two alternative fermentation systems were considered, and uncertainties associated with the seasonal variation in seaweed carbohydrate yield and fermentation performance were integrated into the analysis. From an environmental perspective, the work indicates that seaweed derived SCO lipids and fats can be comparable to a terrestrial oil mix, with a potential climate change impact ranging between 2.5 and 9.9 kg CO 2 eq. kg −1 refined SCO. Interestingly and of particular significance, environmental impacts are mainly dominated by energy demand within fermentation and upstream processing steps. From an economic perspective, a break-even selling price for the oil was determined as between €5,300-€31,000 tonne −1 refined SCO, which was highly dependent on cost of the seaweed feedstock. Overall, we demonstrate that key uncertainties relating to seaweed cultivation costs and hydrolysate fermentation at scale result in a large range in values for environmental impact and economic return on investment. Yet even within the constraints and limitations of current knowhow, seaweed already offers a viable proposition for the competitive production of exotic oils similar to cocoa or shea butter in price and nature. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665992 </p

The microalgae biorefinery:A perspective on the current status and future opportunities using genetic modification

There is clear scientific evidence that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), arising from fossil fuel combustion and land-use change as a result of human activities, are perturbing the Earth's climate. Microalgae-derived biofuels have been chased since the 1980swithout success but, lately, a new biorefinery concept is receiving increasing attention. Here, we discuss the possible solutions to the many problems that make this process unrealised to date, considering also the possibility of including genetically modified (GM) organisms to improve the productivity and process economics. Currently, unless coupled to a service or higher value product production, biofuels derived from microalgae fail to achieve economic reality. However, provided sufficient development of new technologies, potentially including new or improved organisms to lower both production and processing costs, as well as looking at the utility of distributed versus centralised production models, algae biofuels could achieve an impact, off-setting our heavy reliance on petroleum-based liquid fuels.</p

Saltwater based fractionation and valorisation of macroalgae

BACKGROUND: Macroalgae are gaining increasing interest as an important biomass feedstock. Yet when valorising marine bio�mass, the presence of salt can pose a substantial obstacle to the effectiveness of downstream biological and chemical processes, as well as the engineering infrastructure required. Accordingly, dewatering, washing and drying are often considered the first and crucial primary steps in processing marine biomass such macroalgae. The high costs of these processes can make further marine biorefinery commercialisation prohibitive. This investigation assesses simple pre-treatments for macroalgal biomass in saltwater, thereby reducing the freshwater footprint, and removing the need for an energy-intensive washing and drying stage. RESULTS: Using acid and basic catalysts, the carbohydrate and soluble protein components were fractionated into a soluble aqueous phase, for further fermentation and a solid phase suitable for hydrothermal liquefaction. The presence of saltwater was found to aid the fractionation process, solubilising more of the biomass. The use of H2SO4 produced more monosaccha�rides, whereas NaOH solubilised higher levels of biomass at lower temperatures. The aqueous phase was demonstrated to be suitable for biological processing with the salt tolerant yeast Metschnikowia pulcherrima, and the residual solids suitable for processing via hydrothermal liquefaction. CONCLUSION: By contrast with existing pre-treatment strategies, we demonstrate that an entirely salt-based biochemical con�version route is a potentially viable option. For the first time this work demonstrates that, rather than a hindrance, the presence of saltwater can be advantageous, and could provide an alternative, more cost-effective pathway to achieving a successful macroalgal-based biorefinery. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industr

The Ursinus Weekly, October 6, 1966

Cultural opportunities abound at U.C. during 1966: Art exhibit • Orientation brings return of the dink: Red and gold revived on the U.C. scene • U.C. hosts parents on October 8 • Politics main theme of Forums • Record enrollment • NSA tests open to upperclassmen • Academy of Music sponsors student concerts • Luxurious new dorms opened • Editorial • Frosh meet challenge of matriculation blues • Letters to the editor • Book review • What\u27s in a name? You\u27d be amazed! • New cars, big engines in news • Wilkinson\u27s inmates undismayed by unfinished state of dorm • Booters strive for coherence, consistency • Bears impress in scoreless opener • Youthful gridders much improved since 1965 • Gurzynski\u27s runners face Eastern Baptist Friday • Fall hockey preview: Loss of strong line players leaves gaps • Greek gleaningshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1191/thumbnail.jp

Co-liquefaction of Macroalgae with Common Marine Plastic Pollutants

Macroalgal blooms are environmentally problematic and costly to remediate, but they also represent a vast untapped resource for the production of renewable chemicals and fuels. The responsible exploitation of such marine resources will become increasingly prominent in the transition away from the crude oil economy that currently dominates global productivity. However, crude oil-derived plastic pollution is now a ubiquitous presence in the marine environment, which hampers the effective conversion of marine feedstocks. If the full potential of macroalgae is to be realized, any large-scale industrial process will need to accommodate the presence of this plastic. This study, for the first time, aimed to assess the effect of several common marine plastic pollutants on the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of four UK macroalgae species and determine the impact on the major HTL products and biocrude oil quality. Coliquefaction of polyethylene and polypropylene with L. digitata, U. lactuca, F. serratus, and S. muticum led to modest synergistic effects for plastic conversion. Under hydrothermal conditions, polyethylene underwent fragmentation to olefinic species, as well as oxidative depolymerization to form ketones. Modest synergistic effects on biocrude production were also observed for polypropylene, which depolymerized more readily in the presence of biomass to form gaseous propylene as well as oil-phase products. In both cases, the presence of plastics increased total biocrude carbon content, decreased nitrogen, and boosted higher heating value (HHV), constituting an overall improvement in biocrude fuel properties. Alternatively, nylon-6, typically originating from fisheries debris, depolymerized almost entirely under HTL conditions to form caprolactam, which partitioned mainly to the aqueous phase. While this is not favorable for biocrude production, the reclamation of marine nylon debris for hydrothermal processing to monomers may present a promising revenue stream in future biorefineries. The results demonstrate that plastic contaminants may well represent an opportunity, rather than a threat, to the successful development of an HTL macroalgal biorefinery

UB Knightlines Spring 2016

The UB Knightlines newsletter for spring of 2016. This issue contains articles discussing the heart of the city storytelling series, SASD student Erin LaFavor’s story of entrepreneurship, two UB alumni being awarded teaching awards, alumnus Jim Ford honored at White House for STEM education, UB chaplain leading an interfaith prayer vigil, UB model UN team’s win at the National Model United Nations Europe Conference, SASD students exhibiting at book fair at Yale, UB students win the Connecticut Space Grant, UB seminar on image, perception, and self-perception, a new scholarship to at risk students, UB and the Connecticut Technology Council host a programming challenge, a new Student Entrepreneur Center opens its doors, UB student volunteering during Martin Luther King Jr. Day, emeritus professor Richard Allen’s appearance on Prairie Home Companion, faculty news, alumni news, books published by alums and faculty, an African-American alumni reunion, and other campus and sports news