Pigs’ husbandry as case study to test effects of vegetable residues’ hydrolysates on animals

Soluble biopolymers (SBO) are research products obtained from alkaline hydrolysis of municipal and agriculture bio-residues. They contain a mix of soluble macromolecules with different C types and functional groups. These features make SBO multipurpose products for the chemical industry, agriculture and animal husbandry. As such, they may contribute to the development of bio-based circular economy by recycling renewable carbon over urban and agriculture environments. To foster production and commercialization, assessment of SBO’s compliance with countries’ regulations is mandatory. The authors performed the present in vivo pigs study to investigate quality, safety, and efficacy of SBO’s as animal feed supplement. Total 106 male and female piglets were fed 42 days with protein-based diets containing 0.1 and 0.2 % SBO. Pigs grew from average 7.7 to 26 kg. Average mortality rate was 3.9 %. Relatively to control diets with no added SBO, the diets containing 0.1 and 0.2 % SBO evidenced no significant effects on pigs’ growth, mortality, and anatomy and pathology of dead animals. A previous rabbit study reported similar results for SBO supplemented diets. The authors discuss the economic and environmental implications of the results in relation to SBO potential marketability

Application of soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) as photocatalysts for wastewater treatment: Sensitizing effect and photo-Fenton-like process

Soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) isolated from urban biorefuses have been investigated in photocatalytic processes for wastewater treatment using a cationic dye, namely crystal violet (CV) as target compound. The SBO have been found to enhance the photobleaching of CV solutions with an optimal SBO concentration of ca. 20 mg L-1. Mechanistic investigation based on chemical probes and changes in the absorption spectrum of CV in the presence of SBO seems to indicate that a complex formed between sensitizer and substrate plays a major role in the process. SBO have also been tested for the implementation of photo-Fenton processes at circumneutral media: the observed pseudo first order rate constants for CV decoloration was higher for UV/SBO/Fe(II)/H2O2 (5.5 x 10(-3) min(-1)) than for UV/Fe(II)/H2O2 (1.5 x 10(-3) min(-1)). A modified mechanism, in which HO center dot are less relevant that at the acidic medium, is in agreement with results of experiments carried out with chemical probes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Gomis Vicens, J.; Vercher Pérez, RF.; Amat Payá, AM.; Martire, DO.; Gonzalez, MC.; Prevot, AB.; Montoneri, E.... (2013). Application of soluble bio-organic substances (SBO) as photocatalysts for wastewater treatment: Sensitizing effect and photo-Fenton-like process. Catalysis Today. 209:176-180. doi:10.1016/j.cattod.2012.08.036S17618020

Chemical modeling of acid-base properties of soluble biopolymers derived from municipal waste treatment materials

This work reports a study of the proton-binding capacity of biopolymers obtained from different materials supplied by a municipal biowaste treatment plant located in Northern Italy. One material was the anaerobic fermentation digestate of the urban wastes organic humid fraction. The others were the compost of home and public gardening residues and the compost of the mix of the above residues, digestate and sewage sludge. These materials were hydrolyzed under alkaline conditions to yield the biopolymers by saponification. The biopolymers were characterized by 13C NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis and potentiometric titration. The titration data were elaborated to attain chemical models for interpretation of the proton-binding capacity of the biopolymers obtaining the acidic sites concentrations and their protonation constants. The results obtained with the models and by NMR spectroscopy were elaborated together in order to better characterize the nature of the macromolecules. The chemical nature of the biopolymers was found dependent upon the nature of the sourcing materials

Photoinduced transformation of waste-derived soluble bio-based substances

[EN] Waste-derived, soluble bin-based substances (SBO), are effective low-cost photosensitizers that could find application in pollutant photodegradation. For this reason, it is important to understand if and to what extent irradiation could modify their properties. The exposure of SBO to simulated sunlight induced important spectral and structural modifications. Both the whole material and its acid-soluble fraction were characterized, highlighting several properties in common with humic and fulvic substances, including absorption spectra, specific absorbance and fluorescence behavior. The latter was described with a three-component model using PARAFAC analysis. Irradiation induced SBO photobleaching, but the absorbance of the acid-soluble fraction increased with irradiation. This finding suggests a progressive photochemical solubilization of SBO, which is confirmed by the increase of the carboxylic groups. In addition to absorbance, the fluorescence of whole SBO was also decreased by irradiation, thereby suggesting that both chromophores and fluorophores were photodegraded. The increasingly hydrophilic character given to SBO by irradiation also accounted for the photoinduced decrease of the surfactant properties of the material. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was funded by the 7thFP IRSES-2010-269128-EnvironBos Marie Curie Action and by Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali (Agrienergia project). The authors are grateful to the following private and/or public Italian institutions: (a) Acea Pinerolese Spa in Pinerolo (TO) for supplying the SBO sourcing materials; (b) Studio Chiono ed Associati in Rivarolo Canavese (TO) for making available pilot equipment and services for the production of the SBO.Avetta, P.; Berto, S.; Bianco Prevot, A.; Minella, M.; Montoneri, E.; Persico, D.; Vione, D.... (2015). Photoinduced transformation of waste-derived soluble bio-based substances. Chemical Engineering Journal. 274:247-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2015.03.126S24725527

Use of biosurfactants from urban wastes compost in textile dyeing and soil remediation

A compost isolated humic acid-like (cHAL) material was pointed out in previous work for its potential as auxiliary in chemical technology. Its potential is based on its relatively low 0.4 g L-1 critical micellar concentration (cmc) in water, which enables cHAL to enhance the water solubility of hydrophobic substances, like phenanthrene, when used at higher concentrations than 0.4 g L-1. This material could be obtained from a 1:1 v/v mixture of municipal solid and lignocellulosic wastes composted for 15 days. The compost, containing 69.3% volatile solids, 39.6% total organic C and 21 C/N ratio, was extracted for 24 h at 65 °C under N2 with aqueous 0.1 mol L-1 NaOH and 0.1 mol L-1 Na4P2O7, and the solution was acidified to separate the precipitated cHAL in 12% yield from soluble carbohydrates and other humic and non-humic substances. In this work two typical applications of surfactants, i.e., textile dyeing (TD) and soil remediation by washing (SW), were chosen as grounds for testing the performance of the cHAL biosurfactant against the one of sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), which is a well established commercial synthetic surfactant. The TD trials were carried out with nylon 6 microfiber and a water insoluble dye, while the SW tests were performed with two soils contaminated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) for several decades. Performances were rated in the TD experiments based on the fabric colour intensity (ΔE) and uniformity (σΔE), and in the SW experiments based on the total hydrocarbons concentration (CWPAH) and on the residual surfactant (Cre) concentrations in the washing solution equilibrated with the contaminated soils. The results show that both cHAL and SDS exhibit enhanced performance when applied above their cmc values. However, while in the TD case a significant performance effect was observed at the surfactants cmc value, in the SW case the required surfactants concentration values were equivalent to 25-125 × cmc for cHAL and to 4-22 × cmc for SDS. The vis-a-vis comparison of the two surfactants gave the following results: in the TD case the cHAL biosurfactant at 0.4 g L-1 yields good colour intensity and equal colour uniformity as SDS at 5 g L-1, in the SW case cHAL was found to enhance CWPAH by a factor of 2-4 relative to SDS with one soil, whereas with the other soil the two surfactants behaved similarly. The Cre data, however, showed that both soils absorbed by far more SDS (68-95%) than cHAL (12-54%). The results point out intriguing technological and environmental perspectives deriving from the use of compost isolated biosurfactants in the place of synthetic surfactants