Tyrosol-Enriched Tomatoes by Diffusion across the Fruit Peel from a Chitosan Coating: A Proposal of Functional Food

Chitosan is receiving increasing attention from the food industry for being a biodegradable, non-toxic, antimicrobial biopolymer able to extend the shelf life of, and preserve the quality of, fresh food. However, few studies have investigated the ability of chitosan-based coatings to allow the diffusion of bioactive compounds into the food matrix to improve its nutraceutical quality. This research is aimed at testing whether a hydrophilic molecule (tyrosol) could diffuse from the chitosan-tyrosol coating and cross the tomato peel. To this end, in vitro permeation tests using excised tomato peel and an in vivo application of chitosan-tyrosol coating on tomato fruit, followed by tyrosol quantification in intact fruit, peel and flesh during a seven-day storage at room temperature, were performed. Both approaches demonstrated the ability of tyrosol to permeate across the fruit peel. Along with a decreased tyrosol content in the peel, its concentration within the flesh was increased, indicating an active transfer of tyrosol into this tissue. This finding, together with the maintenance of constant tyrosol levels during the seven-day storage period, is very promising for the use of chitosan formulations to produce functional tomato fruit

LFR "Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor"

The main purpose of this paper is to present the current status of development of the Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) in Generation IV (GEN IV), including the European contribution, to identify needed R&D and to present the corresponding GEN IV International Forum (GIF) R&D plan [1] to support the future development and deployment of lead-cooled fast reactors. The approach of the GIF plan is to consider the research priorities of each member country in proposing an integrated, coordinated R&D program to achieve common objectives, while avoiding duplication of effort. The integrated plan recognizes two principal technology tracks: (1) a small, transportable system of 10-100 MWe size that features a very long refuelling interval, and (2) a larger-sized system rated at about 600 MWe, intended for central station power generation. This paper provides some details of the important European contributions to the development of the LFR. Sixteen European organizations have, in fact, taken the initiative to present to the European Commission the proposal for a Specific Targeted Research and Training Project (STREP) devoted to the development of a European Lead-cooled System, known as the ELSY project; two additional organizations from the US and Korea have joined the project. Consequently, ELSY will constitute the reference system for the large lead-cooled reactor of GEN IV. The ELSY project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of designing a competitive and safe fast power reactor based on simple technical engineered features that achieves all of the GEN IV goals and gives assurance of investment protection. As far as new technology development is concerned, only a limited amount of R&D will be conducted in the initial phase of the ELSY project since the first priority is to define the design guidelines before launching a larger and expensive specific R&D program. In addition, the ELSY project is expected to benefit greatly from ongoing lead and lead-alloy technology development already being carried out in different institutes participating in this STREP. This is particularly true in Europe where a large R&D program associated with the development of Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS) is being actively pursued. The general objective of the ELSY project is to design an innovative lead-cooled fast reactor complemented by an analytical effort to assess the existing knowledge base in the field of lead-alloy coolants (i.e., lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) and also lead/lithium) in order to extrapolate this knowledge base to pure lead. This analysis effort will be complemented with some limited R&D activities to acquire missing or confirmatory information about fundamental topics for ELSY that are not sufficiently covered in the ongoing European ADS program or elsewhere

Life cycle assessment of different bioenergy production systems including perennial and annual crops

Energy crops are expected to greatly develop in a very short-term bringing to significant social and environmental benefits. Nevertheless, a significant number of studies report from very positive to negative environmental implications from growing and processing energy crops, thus great uncertainty still remains on this argument. The present study focused on the cradle-to-grave impact assessments of alternative scenarios including annual and perennial energy crops for electricity/heat or first and second generation transport fuels, giving special emphasis to agricultural practices which are frequently surprisingly neglected in Life Cycle Assessment studies despite a not secondary relevance on final outcomes. The results show that cradle-to-farm gate impacts, i.e. including the upstream processes, may account for up to 95% of total impacts, with dominant effects on marine water ecotoxicity

Environmental assessment of tropical oil crops for biodiesel purposes

Secure and sustainable energy supply is an urgent need worldwide. Renewable energy sources fit both goals. Among them, biodiesel is set to match several socio-economic goals for developing countries, and seems to be less impacting on food prices than bioethanol derived from cereals or other grain feedstocks. Recent studies on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of bioenergy chains based on dedicated crops showed that biodiesel scenarios are generally less impacting than other possible energy chains, but, on the other hand, the same studies pointed out that both in biodiesel and in BTL diesel, upstream processes and subsequent agricultural phases represent the largest sources of environmental pollution in the whole production chain. In order to reduce the uncertainty on such issues, six oil crops, suitable in tropical and sub-tropical areas, were compared on the base of different impact categories using a dedicated software (SimaPro7.0). The impact was calculated according to LCA methodology (ISO 14040-43), using two different functional units: hectare (ha) and energy (GJ). On hectare basis, the most impacting scenario was sunflower, in all considered categories, and in general both annual crops (sunflower and soybean) showed similar results. All perennials (castorbean, oil palm, coconut palm, Jatropha) showed significant environmental benefits with respect to annuals (Jatropha was clearly the lowest impacting crop). On energy basis, the most impacting scenario was again sunflower under all impact categories, whereas perennials still showed high benefits with respect to annuals (72 to 90% lower emissions). The energy ranking among perennials was quite different compared to the hectare based analysis, being oil palm the top yielding crop. Results in annual crops showed high levels of impact due to fertilization and tillage/sowing operations; the latter item is even more impacting than fertilization on human toxicity, because of the high direct (i.e. at farm) fuel consumption. In perennials, being establishment operations spread over plant lifespan, the most impacting step is clearly represented by fertilization above all categories. Family farming systems, reducing mechanical cropping operations and fertilization inputs (due to the lower expected yield), lead to lower environmental loads, thus the impact per ha is clearly lower if compared with large scale farming. Impact per energy unit in family farming is not so lower than in large-scale farming, as it is per land unit (hectare). Results showed that the greatest environmental benefit was obtained with organic fertilizer and reduced mechanization (50 to 90% less than reference scenario, according to impact categories)

Life Cycle Assessment of Switchgrass under Variable Scenarios from \u201cCradle to Farm Gate\u201d

It can be concluded that under M (in North only) and L scenarios switchgrass may lead to environmental benefits than conventional crop rotations. Comparing inputs levels, H was clearly more impacting than L (+174%) and M (+36%), with the two last scenarios significantly differing only in South. In general, irrigation strongly affected the environmental impact, with differences ranging from 3% to 42% Between North and South

Environmental sustainability of advanced biofuels

Economic and policy incentives for biofuel development differ in the USA and the EU, but indicators of environmental sustainability that have emerged from recent scientifi c literature transcend political boundaries. We classifi ed these indicators according to six dimensions of environmental sustainability that have been previously identifi ed, providing a description of each, and relating them to proposed international standards for advanced biofuels

A new methodological study to allocate energy crops at different scale levels: a multidirectional approach

Generally, the land allocation scenarios for biomass crops are based on crop requirements and environmental characteristics, mostly including climate and soil variables, whereas the backward crop effect on the same environment have been poorly considered or totally ignored. Nonetheless, despite the crop performance can be considerable under specific conditions, the environmental vulnerability to a crop-specific impact could lead to negative consequences. A crop could be in fact well adapted to a given environment in term of productivity, yet it could be highly risky for that environment, e.g. in the case of proximity of a river or a lake with crops having high leaching rates. It follows that the high potential productivity is not sufficient to establish the environmental suitability of a crop. LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) defines several indicators of the environmental impacts which could be used to classify the risk associated to a crop under specific conditions. Therefore, in the present article GIS maps on soil vulnerability to certain crop impacts (eutrophication) for a case study area were presented with the aim at identifying an LCA-GIS integrated method for decision support systems and illustrate the outlines of a bidirectional environment-to-crop oriented procedure

Bioenergy in Mediterranean Region: Environment and sustainability

Pedoclimatic effects on bioenergy systems are described focusing on biomass crops for termochemical processes and mixtures between renewable and conventional fossil fuels. Sustainability of farming systems towards energy crops are also described