The Future of Food Preservation: Active Packaging with Controlled Release Systems

This report provides an overview of active packaging with a focus on controlled release packaging (CRP) technologies, which have been developed to improve the shelf life of food products. Active packaging systems incorporate various functional components such as antimicrobial agents or oxygen scavengers into package material to maintain product quality during storage. CRP technology involves encapsulating bioactive compounds within a carrier matrix that can be released in a controlled manner over time. The paper compares these two promising technologies and highlights their advantages for extending shelf life while maintaining product quality. While active packaging is more suitable for short-term preservation due to non-controllable active agent release, CRP has potential applications in long-term preservation due to its ability to provide sustained release of bioactive compounds. Future prospects include developing a blend of CRP and intelligent food packaging. However, challenges remain including the sustainable release rate of the active agents from the packaging into the headspace or food surface. Overall, this review provides insights into the current state-of-the-art research on CRP technologies while highlighting future directions for improving food safety through innovative approaches aimed at preserving freshness while minimizing waste generation from expired products

Performance Analysis of Integral Process of Bio-Oil Production, Bio-Oil Upgrading, and Hydrogen Production from Sewage Sludge

This research investigated the production of bio-oil through the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process using sewage sludge from wastewater, along with the hydrotreating of the bio-oil. The simulation process began with a wastewater flow rate of 460 tonnes/day, where the feedstock was divided into two streams. The first stream underwent the HTL process, while the other was directed towards hydrogen production. The resulting products included gaseous products, crude bio-oil, and heavy liquid. The crude bio-oil was further upgraded by introducing hydrogen, which was obtained through gasification and purified by gas separation using a palladium membrane. The primary product mainly comprised alkane, with a carbon content of 85.89% and hydrogen content of 14.11%. For the purification of gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and fuel oil, a fractionation distillation tower arrangement was designed. In addition, Additionally, the gaseous products underwent fractionation distillation to obtain 98% nitrogen and 99.9% liquid carbon dioxide. Considering the carbon footprint, it was observed that the bio-oil production process resulted in the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

Climate-Conscious Food Preserving Technologies for Food Waste Prevention

Global food production is responsible for around 26% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities. Notably, 6% of these emissions are caused by unconsumed food. Both traditional and current climate-conscious technologies for food preservatives that assure food waste reduction are discussed. This review investigates the potential of smart packaging biosensors and natural antimicrobial agents in fostering environmentally friendly, cutting-edge food systems. Specifically, it highlights the studies that explore the use of natural antimicrobial agents of calcined corals in active packaging systems for storing milk. The finding revealed that this method had a significant impact on maximizing the shelf life of fresh food. Furthermore, this review discusses the concept of smart packaging of food, focusing on biopolymer-based nanocomposites and biosensors, which have gained increasing attention in the food industry due to concerns about food safety and quality. The review also examines the efforts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to combat food waste through the initiatives such as UAE Food Bank, Winnow, and Ne’ma which is the national food loss and waste project. These technologies and practices have the potential to guarantee food safety, preserve quality, and reduce waste, but there are still issues with cost, biocompatibility, and consumer acceptance

Development of magnetic floc technology for water treatment

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Microwave-Assisted Pyrolysis of Fuel Oil for Hydrocarbons Upgrading

By-product upgrading is crucial in hydrocarbon processing industries as it can increase the competitiveness of the business. This research investigated opportunity to upgrade fuel oil by-product obtained from olefins production by using microwave pyrolysis. A lab-scale quartz reactor filled with placed inside a 1,200 watts household microwave oven was used for the experiments. Coconut-based activated carbon was used as a microwave receptor. Microwave powers were varied at 600 W, 840 W and 1,200 W to adjust cracking temperature between 800°C and 900°C. The effect of residence time was investigated by adjusting flow rate of N2 carrier gas. The chemical compositions and product yields were analyzed by using gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). It was revealed that hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon gaseous product (alkanes, naphthenics and alkenes) were produced as the main products. For liquid products, the main compositions were cycloalkenes and polycyclic aromatic groups

Performance analysis of two-stage pressure retarded osmosis

The performance of a two-stage pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) for power generation with a total membrane length of 1 meter was investigated and analyzed in this work. Two feed configurations of freshwater and seawater were studied: one with the freshwater entering at the first stage only and the other with freshwater entering at both stages. The effect of membrane length and flow ratio between freshwater and seawater on the PRO performance were also examined. The results revealed that the performances of both feed configurations were quite similar. The membrane with a shorter length offered a higher average power density than that of a longer length. It was also revealed that the flow ratio had a strong influence on the average power density produced. The maximum average power density of 10.15 W/m2 was obtained at the applied hydraulic pressure of 12 bar, the flow ratio of 5, and the membrane length of both stages of 0.5 meter. The best water utilization was achieved at 65%

Comparison between pressure retarded osmosis model using batch and continuous water supply sources

Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is a novel renewable energy technology that generates electricity from two water sources. Due to the osmotic pressure difference, freshwater permeates across a membrane to the other side, where the high-pressure seawater flows and drives a turbine to generate power. Many mathematic models have been proposed to evaluate the performance of a PRO. However, it was found that most performance of the PRO that have been reported were performance by using freshwater with limited supply (batch) in the model. It is not accurate as, in practice, the supply of freshwater occurs in a continuous manner. In this work, the influence of batch and continuous supply of fresh water on the performance of PRO was demonstrated. The effect of flow direction, i.e., concurrent and counter-current flows, was also examined. The model simulation was performed by using MATLLAB program, and the performance of PRO is expressed in terms of average power density. The results revealed that the batch and continuous supplies of freshwater had a strong impact on the performance of the PRO. However, the performance of concurrent and counter-current flow were not significantly different

Preliminary Analysis of Hydrogen Production Integrated with Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an interesting option for electricity generation. However, the usage of pure hydrogen feeding to PEMFC faces many problems such as high price and gas storage capacity. On-board fuel processor integrated with PEMFC is therefore a more preferable option. Two hydrogen production processes from crude ethanol feed, a by-product of fermentation of corn stover, integrated with PEMFC were developed and proposed. They are steam reforming (SR) process integrated with PEMFC and steam reforming process coupled with a CO preferential oxidation (COPROX) reactor with PEMFC. The results showed that the optimal operating conditions for both processes were similar i.e. S/F ratio of 9, WGS reactor temperature of 250oC and membrane area of 0.6 m2. However, the optimal SR temperature of both processes were different i.e. 500oC and 460oC. Both processes produced pure hydrogen gas at 0.53 mol/s. The energy requirement of the SR process alone was higher than SR process coupled with a COPROX about 0.19 MW. The produced hydrogen gas entered PEMFC at current density of 1.1 A cm-2, generating the power at of 0.44 W cm-2

Development of Rigid Polyurethane Foam (RPUF) for Imitation Wood Blown by Distilled Water and Cyclopentane (CP)

Rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) used for imitation wood is typically prepared by using 1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane (HCFC-141b) as a blowing agent. However, this chemical is a hydrofluorocarbon which severely causes ozone depletion to the atmosphere. In this study, a more environmental-friendly RPUF was prepared by using distilled water and cyclopentane (CP) as alternative blowing agent. Several properties of the prepared RPUF were investigated and measured such as density (kg/m3), surface hardness (Durometer, type D), and glass transition temperature (°C) using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). It was found that when the amount of blowing agents decreased, the foam density was increased as well as the surface hardness. The developed RPUF with CP co-blown has higher surface hardness and glass transition temperature compare to pure water-blown RPUF at the same density (353 kg/m3). And the new RPUF produced has a good potential to substitute for a conventional RPUF

Improvement of Anthocyanin Stability in Butterfly Pea Flower Extract by Co-pigmentation with Catechin

Most of the food processing operations involve the use of heat which generally causes alteration, and degradation of natural pigments, resulting in lower stability. One of the stability enhancement methods is co-pigmentation. This study aimed to determine effect of catechin co-pigment on stability of anthocyanins in Clitoria ternatea (or butterfly pea flower) extract. Degradation kinetics of anthocyanins in the extract were evaluated at three temperatures (28, 60, and 90℃). The effect of co-pigment ratio (catechin: anthocyanins at 1:1, 50:1 and 100:1 by weight) on the stability of anthocyanin extract at 90℃ was determined by the pH differential method. It was found that anthocyanin degradation followed the zero- order kinetics at all temperatures; the degradation rate increased as the temperature increased. At a lower pH, anthocyanins became more stable. An increase in the co-pigment ratio significantly retarded the degradation anthocyanins at 90℃. In addition, co-pigmentation also intensified the color of butterfly pea extract. The highest anthocyanin stability was obtained at co-pigment ratio of 100:1