Sustainability, Peak oil

none4openDe leo Federica, Pier paolo Miglietta, Stefania Massari, Marcello RubertiDE LEO, Federica; Miglietta, PIER PAOLO; Massari, Stefania; Ruberti, Marcell

The distribution of standard deviations applied to high throughput screening

High throughput screening (HTS) assesses compound libraries for “activity” using target assays. A subset of HTS data contains a large number of sample measurements replicated a small number of times providing an opportunity to introduce the distribution of standard deviations (DSD). Applying the DSD to some HTS data sets revealed signs of bias in some of the data and discovered a sub-population of compounds exhibiting high variability which may be difficult to screen. In the data examined, 21% of 1189 such compounds were pan-assay interference compounds. This proportion reached 57% for the most closely related compounds within the sub-population. Using the DSD, large HTS data sets can be modelled in many cases as two distributions: a large group of nearly normally distributed “inactive” compounds and a residual distribution of “active” compounds. The latter were not normally distributed, overlapped inactive distributions – on both sides –, and were larger than typically assumed. As such, a large number of compounds are being misclassified as “inactive” or are invisible to current methods which could become the next generation of drugs. Although applied here to HTS, it is applicable to data sets with a large number of samples measured a small number of times

Production of biofuels and biomolecules in the framework of circular economy: A regional case study

peer reviewedFaced to the economic and energetic context of our society, it is widely recognised that an alternative to fossil fuels and oil-based products will be needed in the nearest future. In this way, development of urban biorefinery could bring many solutions to this problem. Study of the implementation of urban biorefinery highlights two sustainable configurations that provide solutions to the Walloon context by promoting niche markets, developing circular economy and reducing transport of supply feedstock. First, autonomous urban biorefineries are proposed, which use biological waste for the production of added value molecules and/or finished products and are energetically self-sufficient. Second,integrated urban biorefineries, which benefit from an energy supply from a nearby industrial activity. In the Walloon economic context, these types of urban biorefineries could provide solutions by promoting niche markets, developing a circular economy model, optimise the transport of supply feedstock and contribute to the sustainable development

Diesel engine performance and emission study using soybean biodiesel blends with fossil diesel

Azad, M ORCiD: 0000-0001-8258-6057; Rasul, M ORCiD: 0000-0001-8159-1321Biodiesel is an ecofriendly and renewable source of energy which can be used as a sustainable alternative fuel for diesel engine. The study investigated engine performance and emission using soybean biodiesel blends with fossil diesel. The physiochemical fuel properties of the biodiesel were determined using ASTM and EN standards. The biodiesel was blended in different proportions like 5% biodiesel and 95% diesel (by volume) denoted as B5, similarly B10, B20 and B50. The biodiesel blends were tested in a multicylinder, diesel engine coupled with electromagnetic dynamometer, under ISO 8178–4 test procedure. The study found that the biodiesel blends produce less brake power, brake torque and relatively higher brake-specific fuel consumption compared with diesel fuel. However, these fuels significantly reduce exhaust gases, namely, CO, CO2 and HC but emit a bit more NOx compared with diesel. The reduction in emissions were different for each biodiesel blend. The study concluded that both B5 and B10 blends are the optimum blends that produce more consistent and expected results compared with other blends