Institutional and technological innovations to transform informal milk markets in the eastern and central Africa region: preliminary lessons from action research

This paper discusses preliminary lessons from action research to promote institutional and technological innovations aimed at transforming informal milk markets in East and Central African countries. Regulations affecting the dairy sectors in five selected countries were reviewed and factors limiting cross-border dairy trade documented. Dialogue among dairy experts and regulatory authorities was then undertaken to arrive at minimum standards of competence, build consensus on a regional guideline and curriculum to certify informal dairy traders and ensure cross-border recognition of certification by counterpart regulatory authorities and freer trade. The consultative process has fostered sharing of valuable experiences in improving the quality of informally marketed milk, and has helped influence changes in mindset among regulatory stakeholders, who are now more willing to support the development of informal milk markets. Generic work plans will be developed to facilitate the required actions

Insights on butyl levulinate bio-blendstock: From model sugars to paper mill waste cellulose as feedstocks for a sustainable catalytic butanolysis process

Butyl levulinate (BL) represents a novel diesel bio-blendstock and a versatile intermediate and solvent. The onepot acid-catalyzed conversion of C6-feedstocks, employing n-butanol as the solvent/reagent, implies the upgrading of low-cost or, even better, waste biomasses for developing prompt process intensification. In this paper, the one-pot butanolysis process has been studied, moving from model glucose and microcrystalline cellulose to a waste cellulose feedstock deriving from a real papermaking process. The performances obtained with this waste biomass have been optimized, achieving BL yields up to 46 mol %, adopting a high-gravity approach, in the presence of diluted sulfuric acid as the catalyst. The optimization was carried out also in the perspective of minimizing the alcohol etherification to dibutyl ether, and the feedstock carbonization to char by-product, whose characterization was performed to identify its suitable applications. The combined production of both BL as a valuable bio-fuel and char as an exploitable carbonaceous bio-material can pave the way to the development of the one-pot butanolysis of real cellulosic or lignocellulosic biomasses in an environmentally sustainable and integrated perspective, in agreement with the principles of the circular bio-economy