Circular economy use of biomass residues to alleviate poverty, environment, and health constraints

Inadequate energy and water resources supply are major constraints contributing to poverty and poor health outcomes in developing economies. Low-income countries lack ready access to modern necessities such as electricity and potable water. On one hand, the scarcity of electricity and other clean energies compel reliance on traditional biomass for domestic fuels. On the other hand, harvesting firewood to meet energy needs leads to deforestation and environmental degradation. Furthermore, burning the wood for heat creates ecosystem perturbators such as toxicants, greenhouse gasses, and particulate matter. These pollutants portend adverse health concerns, including premature mortality. Globally, fine particulate matter air pollution alone causes about 3.3 million deaths annually. The contribution of this paper is to offer how circular economy targeted technologies could come to the rescue. In particular, utilizing biomass residues and wastes for briquette and pellet creation is highlighted. These densified fuel products could serve as green energies in domestic and industrial applications; and thus, help to attenuate poverty, and the adverse environmental and health consequences of traditional biomass

Combined impact of freezing and soaking times on different cowpea varieties' flour functionality and resultant gel strength, sensory and product yield of moi-moi

The preparation of moi-moi either from cowpea flour (processed by dry-milling) or paste (processed by wet-milling) has evolved from the indigenous processing methods. Feasibly, freezing should enhance the characteristics of the cowpea grain, and when combined with conventional processing, help to improve emergent products. In this current work, therefore, the combined impact of freezing with soaking times on different cowpea varieties' flour functionality and resultant gel strength, sensory and product yield of moi-moi were studied. Analysis of flour functionality involved the determinations of moisture content, bulk density, oil absorption capacity, swelling index and water absorption capacity, whereas those of moi-moi products involved gel strength, sensory and (product) yield. Across the cowpea flour samples, the functional attributes significantly differed (p 0.05), except for the aroma (p < 0.05). Moi-moi products' yield varied widely (p < 0.05) by different reconstituted water volumes. Overall, combining freezing with conventional processing that involved reconstituted water volumes of cowpea promises an enhanced moi-moi yield

Potentials of 3D extrusion‐based printing in resolving food processing challenges: A perspective review

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has promising application potentials in improving food product manufacturing, increasingly helping in simplifying the supply chain, as well as expanding the utilization of food materials. To further understand the current situation of 3D food printing in providing food engineering solutions with customized design, the authors checked recently conducted reviews and considered the extrusion-based type to deserve additional literature synthesis. In this perspective review, therefore, we scoped the potentials of 3D extrusion-based printing in resolving food processing challenges. The evolving trends of 3D food printing technologies, fundamentals of extrusion processes, food printer, and printing enhancement, (extrusion) food systems, algorithm development, and associated food rheological properties were discussed. The (extrusion) mechanism in 3D food printing involving some essentials for material flow and configuration, its uniqueness, suitability, and printability to food materials, (food material) types in the extrusion-based (3D food printing), together with essential food properties and their dynamics were also discussed. Additionally, some bottlenecks/concerns still applicable to extrusion-based 3D food printing were brainstormed. Developing enhanced calibrating techniques for 3D printing materials, and designing better methods of integrating data will help improve the algorithmic representations of printed foods. Rheological complexities associated with the extrusion-based 3D food printing require both industry and researchers to work together so as to tackle the (rheological) shifts that make (food) materials unsuitable.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio