Brewer's spent grain, coffee grounds, burdock, and willow-four examples of biowaste and biomass valorization through advanced green extraction technologies

This paper explores the transformation of biowastes from food industry and agriculture into high-value products through four examples. The objective is to provide insight into the principles of green transition and a circular economy. The first two case studies focus on the waste generated from the production of widely consumed food items, such as beer and coffee, while the other two examine the potential of underutilized plants, such as burdock and willow, as sources of valuable compounds. Phenolic compounds are the main target in the case of brewer's spent grain, with p-coumaric acid and ferulic acid being the most common. Lipids are a possible target in the case of spent coffee grounds with palmitic (C16:0) and linoleic (C18:2) acid being the major fatty acids among those recovered. In the case of burdock, different targets are reported based on which part of the plant is used. Extracts rich in linoleic and oleic acids are expected from the seeds, while the roots extracts are rich in sugars, phenolic acids such as chlorogenic, caffeic, o-coumaric, syringic, cinnamic, gentisitic, etc. acids, and, interestingly, the high-value compound epicatechin gallate. Willow is well known for being rich in salicin, but picein, (+)-catechin, triandrin, glucose, and fructose are also obtained from the extracts. The study thoroughly analyzes different extraction methods, with a particular emphasis on cutting-edge green technologies. The goal is to promote the sustainable utilization of biowaste and support the green transition to a more environmentally conscious economy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Valuable biomolecules from nine North Atlantic red macroalgae:Amino acids, fatty acids, carotenoids, minerals and metals

In modern society, novel marine resources are scrutinized pursuing compounds of use in the medical, pharmaceutical, biotech, food or feed industry. Few of the numerous marine macroalgae are currently exploited. In this study, the contents of nutritional compounds from nine common North Atlantic red macroalgae were compared: the lipid content was low and constant among the species, whereas the fatty acid profiles indicated that these species constitute interesting sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The dominating essential and non-essential amino acids were lysine and leucine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and arginine, respectively. The amino acid score of the nine algae varied from 44% to 92%, the most commonly first limiting amino acid being histidine. Lutein, β-carotene, and zeaxanthin were the identified carotenoids. Contents of all macro and trace minerals, with the exception of phosphorus, were higher than those described for conventional food. Low sodium/potassium ratios (0.08 - 2.54) suggested a potential for using the ash fraction for sodium salt replacement. The algae constituted rich sources of carbohydrates (40% to 71% of DM) which show their potential for a broader commercial exploitation. In some species, the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, and lead exceeded limit values for application in food or feed. In conclusion, the nine algae represent promising potential sources of health promoting additives for human and animal diets, in whole or in a biorefinery concept

Application of aquaporin-based forward osmosis membranes for processing of digestate liquid fractions

[EN] Forward osmosis is a low-energy water treatment emerging technology, which has demonstrated improved solute rejection and low fouling propensity. In this study, the applicability of aquaporin-based forward osmosis membranes during separation of biogas digestate liquid fractions was investigated. The results showed that Total Ammonia-Nitrogen rejection was higher than 95.5% in all experiments, independently of the type of draw solution (NaCl and hide preservation effluents), experimental period and the use of feed acidification. The results also confirmed that high draw osmotic pressures (i.e. 3.5¿M sodium chloride and hide preservation wastewater) combined with feed acidification had a negative effect on the membrane water permeability. Membrane rinsing after fouling was also successful in recovering the membrane initial water flux as well as removing the remaining foulants on the membrane surface. The membrane inspection results from Scanning-Electron Microscope, Energy-Dispersive X-Ray analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared¿Attenuated Total Reflectance showed that fouling in this application was mild and reversible after membrane rinsing. The applicability of aquaporin-based forward osmosis membranes during separation of biogas digestate liquid fractions has been demonstrated. The results showed the potential of this technology to achieve enhanced ammonia-nitrogen rejections and low-fouling propensity.The authors thank the tannery factory in the region of Murcia (Spain) for providing the wastewater samples as well as Depuración de Aguas del Mediterráneo (DAM, Spain) for funding the forward osmosis project. Thanks to August Bonmatí from IRTA GIRO Joint Research Unit IRTA-UPC, for providing the digestate liquid fractions, to Rebeca Vidal-Pérez as student assistant during the chemical analysis and to the Electron Microscopy Service from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV, Spain). The authors further acknowledge funding from People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/under REA grant agreement n° [289887].Camilleri-Rumbau, MDLS.; Soler-Cabezas, JL.; Christensen, KV.; Norddahl, B.; Mendoza Roca, JA.; Vincent Vela, MC. (2019). Application of aquaporin-based forward osmosis membranes for processing of digestate liquid fractions. Chemical Engineering Journal. 371:583-592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.02.029S58359237

Exploring the structure-properties relationships of novel polyamide thin film composite membranes

Polysulfone (PSf) is a traditional material widely used for manufacturing microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) process. However, the hydrophobic nature of PSf makes the membranes prone to protein fouling. In order to create non fouling surfaces and further decrease the pore size, the membrane pores can be modified by different strategies as atom transfer radical polymerization [1]. However, these strategies are not adopted by industry due to either cost or technical challenges. This contribution presents the preparation of asymmetric membranes by in situ interfacial polymerization (IP) of thin films (TF) on the PSf support surface in order to form a new polyamide (PA) layer [2]. The new PA is hydrophilic and negatively charged, and has prospects in application such as removal of bacteria and heavy metal ions from waste water. The pore size of the barrier layer can be controlled by adjusting the cross-linking degree and chemical composition of the PA network. This work is an attempt to prepare a new PA TF composite membrane and investigate the effect of different amines’ structures on the final membrane properties. Characterization of the PA surface morphology and chemical structure includes scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and streaming potential measurements. Rhodamine B cannot stain the TF composite membrane surface unlike the virgin PSf surface. Furthermore, the water flux decreases from 220 L/h/m²/bar for the PSf membrane to 1.5 L/h/m²/bar for the TF composite membrane. It is therefore concluded that a dense PA TF forms on the porous PSf support after the IP. In order to confirm the antifouling properties, bovine serum albumin/phosphate-bufered saline solution was tested as a model solution to measure flux recovery. References[1] Han-Bang Dong, You-Yi Xu, Zhuan Yi, Jun-Li Shi, Modification of polysulfone membranes via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization, Applied Surface Science, 255, (2009), 8860-8866.[2] Yu Jun Song, Patricia Sun, Lawrence L. Henry, Benhui Sun, Mechanism of structure and performance controlled thin film composite membrane formation via interfacial polymerization process, Journal of Membrane Science, 251, (2005) 67-79