Postharvest senescence of Consolida ajacis inflorescences

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a influência de inibidores da ação e síntese de etileno sobre a longevidade, respiração e produção de etileno em inflorescências de Consolida ajacis Nieuwl. As hastes foram colhidas e imediatamente condicionadas em 5% de sacarose e em 1 mM de tiossulfato de prata (STS) em combinação, ou não, com 5% de sacarose por 30 minutos, e pulverizadas com 0,5, 1,0, 1,5 e 2,0 mM de ácido aminooxiacético (AOA) e com 5, 10, 15 e 20 mM de ácido acetilsalicílico (AAS). A senescência da flor de C. ajacis foi caracterizada pela produção climatérica de etileno e CO2, que atingiu níveis máximos aos seis dias após a colheita, coincidentes com os estádios tardios da abscisão e murchamento das flores. A longevidade prolongou-se 2,46 vezes nas flores condicionadas com 1 mM de STS. Porém, a adição de 5% de sacarose ao STS reduziu a longevidade das flores. O condicionamento das hastes com 5% de sacarose ou pulverização com 2 mM de AOA e 20 mM de AAS não prolongou a longevidade ou inibiu a respiração e o etileno climatéricos. O STS foi efetivo em reduzir a respiração e a produção de etileno.This work had the objective of evaluating the influence of inhibitors of ethylene action and synthesis on the longevity, respiration and ethylene production of Consolida ajacis Nieuwl. inflorescences. The inflorescences were harvested and immediately pulsed with 5% sucrose, 1 mM silver thiosulfate (STS) combined or not with 5% sucrose for 30 minutes or sprayed with 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mM aminooxiacetic acid (AOA) and 5, 10, 15 and 20 mM acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). Flower senescence of C. ajacis was characterized by the presence of climacteric ethylene and CO2 production, reaching maximal evolution at the sixth day after harvest, which were coincident with the later phases of the flower abscission and wilting. Longevity of flowers pulsed with 1 mM STS increased by 2.46-fold compared to control flowers. However, when STS was mixed with 5% sucrose, a decrease on longevity was observed. Pulsing the flowers with 5% sucrose or spraying with 2 mM AOA or 20 mM ASA neither increased the longevity nor inhibited the climacteric respiration and ethylene production. The treatment with STS was effective in reducing the respiration and ethylene evolution by the flower

Biogas production from the landfilled easily degradable fraction of municipal solid waste: mining strategy for energy recovery

The growing demand for space and fnancial resources to manage current and new municipal solid waste (MSW) landflls has become a massive challenge for several countries. Additionally, landflls contribute to adverse environmental impacts such as pollution and CO2 (carbon dioxide) and CH4 (methane) emissions. This paper has analyzed the possibility of producing biogas from landflled MSW. An easily degradable fraction of landflled MSW with 8 years of landflling was mined and subjected to chemical characterization and elemental composition analysis. The abbreviation for the study sample was called ED8 – Mined. The low values of lignin (24.5%) and nitrogen content (0.7%) and high values of holocellulose (75.9%) and C/N (46.1%) on dry basis were obtained resulting in materials with the potential to be used for biogas generation. Recal‑citrant materials were found in greater amounts than easily biodegradable fresh MSW fractions. The reuse of energy from landflled MSW can contribute positively to the country’s environment and economy, reducing environmental liabilities and generating energy in a controlled way. In Delta A Sanitary Landfll, Southeastern Brazil, the recovery of the ED8 – Mined would refect a signifcant recovery of about 100,000 tonnes of landflled materials for annual MSW cells of about 450,000 tonnes, allowing recovery of materials and space expansion for rejects.Campus Lima Su

Macaúba’s world scenario: a bibliometric analysis

Macaúba is a tropical palm native in South and Central America, and its fruits present a high-quality oil for biodiesel production. Notwithstanding, macaúba's wastes and by-products are not usually repurposed as energy sources. This study shows a bibliometric analysis to assess macaúba's current applications and to investigate other energy recovery routes for its by-products. All the investigations focused on information about the main research fields related to macaúba. The study showed that only 397 articles and reviews were published from 1900 until 2021, and Brazil is the leading publisher. Although oleic and protein macaúba's by-products are applied as animal feed, some conversion routes related to the lignocellulosic contents, present in non-edible parts, were identified thermal conversion, combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, biochemical conversion, fermentation, esterification, and anaerobic digestion. From the agricultural perspective, plant characterization, germination, embryogenesis, and seed development were also found. From the bibliometric study, the different potential applications of macaúba for energy, pharmaceutical, and food purposes were listed to support the identification of a knowledge gap on its by-products revaluation

Nonanalytic behavior of the spin susceptibility in clean Fermi systems

The wavevector and temperature dependent static spin susceptibility, \chi_s(Q,T), of clean interacting Fermi systems is considered in dimensions 1\leq d \leq 3. We show that at zero temperature \chi_s is a nonanalytic function of |Q|, with the leading nonanalyticity being |Q|^{d-1} for 1<d<3, and Q^2\ln|Q| for d=3. For the homogeneous spin susceptibility we find a nonanalytic temperature dependence T^{d-1} for 1<d<3. We give qualitative mode-mode coupling arguments to that effect, and corroborate these arguments by a perturbative calculation to second order in the electron-electron interaction amplitude. The implications of this, in particular for itinerant ferromagnetism, are discussed. We also point out the relation between our findings and established perturbative results for 1-d systems, as well as for the temperature dependence of \chi_s(Q=0) in d=3.Comment: 12pp., REVTeX, 5 eps figures, final version as publishe

Green Extraction Processes for Complex Samples from Vegetable Matrices Coupled with On-Line Detection System: A Critical Review

The detection of analytes in complex organic matrices requires a series of analytical steps to obtain a reliable analysis. Sample preparation can be the most time-consuming, prolonged, and error-prone step, reducing the reliability of the investigation. This review aims to discuss the advantages and limitations of extracting bioactive compounds, sample preparation techniques, automation, and coupling with on-line detection. This review also evaluates all publications on this topic through a longitudinal bibliometric analysis, applying statistical and mathematical methods to analyze the trends, perspectives, and hot topics of this research area. Furthermore, state-of-the-art green extraction techniques for complex samples from vegetable matrices coupled with analysis systems are presented. Among the extraction techniques for liquid samples, solid-phase extraction was the most common for combined systems in the scientific literature. In contrast, for on-line extraction systems applied for solid samples, supercritical fluid extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, and pressurized liquid extraction were the most frequent green extraction techniques

Techno-economic evaluation of bioenergy production from anaerobic digestion of by-products from ethanol flex plants

Ethanol production implies in by-products generation, mainly vinasse and stillage, respectively generated from sugarcane and corn ethanol production in flex plants. Both by-products require efficient treatment routes to avoid environmental side-effects to support energy recovery. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to evaluate the techno-economic potential of bioenergy (electric and thermal energy) production from the anaerobic digestion (AD) of vinasse and stillage. Three scenarios were defined: (a) Scenario 1, AD of vinasse; (b) Scenario 2, AD of stillage; and (c) Scenario 3, AD of vinasse and stillage in an integrated process. From the results, the methane production was estimated at 3.8 x 106 m3 year-1 considering the AD of stillage and vinasse in Scenario 3. The electricity and thermal energy generation was estimated as 14.61 GWh year-1 and 1.37 x 105 GJ year-1, respectively. This energy would mitigate 1096.05 and 7659.27 ton CO2eq year-1 when replacing fossil fuel energy. The profitability analysis indicated a positive net present value in the scenarios evaluated, however, the highest value was achieved for Scenario 3 (7,890,407.44 USD). For the integrated process, an internal return rate of 86.87% and a payback of 0.68 year were observed. The sensitivity analysis showed that the project profitability is highly dependent on electricity and thermal energy selling prices. In conclusion, AD demonstrated to be a feasible alternative for vinasse and stillage management in an integrated process, being a sustainable technology to the circular economy transition and energy matrix decarbonization.T. Forster-Carneiro acknowledges the database support and samples of materials from NIPE/NIEPE-UNICAMP/UFMT, process numbers 91.752/01-P-17839-2019 and 91759/01-P-18069/2019. T. Forster-Carneiro acknowledges the financial support from the Sao Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP (2018/05999-0; 2018/14938-4) , and CNPq for the productivity grant (302473/2019-0) . L.S. Buller ac-knowledges the financial support from FAPESP (2020/10323-5) . W.G. Sganzerla acknowledges the financial support from FAPESP (2019/26925-7) . M. Tena acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness for her pre-doctoral contract (Call 2016)

Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Production: Combine Effluent Treatment with Energy Generation in UASB Reactor as Biorefinery Annex

The issue of residues and industrial effluents represents an unprecedented environmental challenge in terms of recovery, storage, and treatment. This work discusses the perspectives of treating effluents through anaerobic digestion as well as reporting the experience of using an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor as biorefinery annex in a pulp and paper industrial plant to be burned in the boilers. The performance of the reactors has shown to be stable under considerable variations in load and showed a significant potential in terms of biogas production. The reactors UASB treated 3600.00 m3 of effluent daily from a production of 150.00 tons. The biogas generation was 234.000 kg/year/mill, equivalent in combustible oil. The results of methane gas generated by the anaerobic system UASB (8846.00 kcal/m3) dislocate the equivalent of 650.0 kg of combustible oil (10000.00 kcal/kg) per day (or 234.000 kg/year). The production of 8846.00 Kcal/m3 of energy from biogas can make a run at industrial plant for 2 hours. This substitution can save US$128.700 annually (or US$ 550.0 of fuel oil/tons). The companies are invested in the use of the biogas in diesel stationary motors cycle that feed the boilers with water in case of storage electricity

Helicity Modulus and Fluctuating Type II Superconductors: Elastic Approximation and Numerical Simulations

We develop the helicity modulus as a criterion for superconducting order in the mixed phase of a fluctuating type II superconductor. We show that there is a duality relation between this helicity modulus and the superfluid density of a system of analog 2D bosons. We show that the vortex line lattice exhibits a perfect Meissner effect with respect to a shearing perturbation of the applied magnetic field, and this becomes our creterion for "longitudinal superconductivity" parallel to the applied field. We present arguments based on the 2D boson analogy, as well as the results of numerical simulations, that suggest that longitudinal superconductivity can persist into the vortex line liquid state for systems of finite thickness, comparable to those commonly found in experiments.Comment: 63 pages, 22 postscript figure

A review of research trends in the enhancement of biomass-to-hydrogen conversion

Different types of biomass are being examined for their optimum hydrogen production potentials and actual hydrogen yields in different experimental set-ups and through different chemical synthetic routes. In this review, the observations emanating from research findings on the assessment of hydrogen synthesis kinetics during fermentation and gasification of different types of biomass substrates have been concisely surveyed from selected publications. This review revisits the recent progress reported in biomass-based hydrogen synthesis in the associated disciplines of microbial cell immobilization, bioreactor design and analysis, ultrasound-assisted, microwave-assisted and ionic liquid-assisted biomass pretreatments, development of new microbial strains, integrated production schemes, applications of nanocatalysis, subcritical and supercritical water processing, use of algae-based substrates and lastly inhibitor detoxification. The main observations from this review are that cell immobilization assists in optimizing the biomass fermentation performance by enhancing bead size, providing for adequate cell loading and improving mass transfer; there are novel and more potent bacterial and fungal strains which improve the fermentation process and impact on hydrogen yields positively; application of microwave irradiation and sonication and the use of ionic liquids in biomass pretreatment bring about enhanced delignification, and that supercritical water biomass processing and dosing with metal-based nanoparticles also assist in enhancing the kinetics of hydrogen synthesis. The research areas discussed in this work and their respective impacts on hydrogen synthesis from biomass are arguably standalone. Thence, further work is still required to explore the possibilities and techno-economic implications of combining these areas for developing robust and integrated biomass-to-hydrogen synthetic schemes

Application of Anaerobic Co-digestion of Brewery by-Products for Biomethane and Bioenergy Production in a Biorefinery Concept

This study investigated the anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) of brewery by-products for biomethane and bioenergy recovery, focusing on operational performance evaluation, kinetic analysis, microbial metataxonomic, and metabolic function prediction. The biochemical methane potential was conducted under mesophilic (35 °C) and methanogenic conditions (pH 7.5) by mixing brewery wastewater and sludge from the brewery wastewater treatment plant (1:1, v/v), following the addition (2.5 – 12.5 %, w/v) of brewer’s spent grains (BSG). The results demonstrate that the highest methane yield (88.02 mL CH4/g TVS) was obtained with 12.5 % BSG, which was 20.66-fold higher than the control reactor operated with wastewater and sludge (4.26 mL CH4/g TVS). The bioenergy recovery from biomethane could generate electricity (0.348 kWh/kg TVS) and heat (1556 MJ/kg TVS), avoiding greenhouse gas emissions (0.114 kg CO2-eq/kg TVS). The microbial community dynamics revealed a predominance of Halobacterota, Chloroflexi, and Euryarchaeota phylum. The genera Methanosaeta and Methanobacterium, and the Anaerolineaceae family predominated in the AcoD process. The metabolic function prediction showed the presence of genes (K01895, K00193, K00625, and K00925) associated with the direct activation of acetate in the acetoclastic pathway and methane production. Finally, the data obtained provide a perspective on using brewery by-products for bioenergy production in a biorefinery concept, reducing the environmental impacts and contributing to the circular bioeconomy transition of the beer industry