Trends in Biodiesel Production from Animal Fat Waste

© 2020 by the authors.The agro-food industry generates large amounts of waste that contribute to environmental contamination. Animal fat waste constitutes some of the most relevant waste and the treatment of such waste is quite costly because environmental regulations are quite strict. Part of such costs might be reduced through the generation of bioenergy. Biodiesel constitutes a valid renewable source of energy because it is biodegradable, non-toxic and has a good combustion emission profile and can be blended up to 20% with fossil diesel for its use in many countries. Furthermore, up to 70% of the total cost of biodiesel majorly depends on the cost of the raw materials used, which can be reduced using animal fat waste because they are cheaper than vegetable oil waste. In fact, 6% of total feedstock corresponded to animal fat in 2019. Transesterification with alkaline catalysis is still preferred at industrial plants producing biodiesel. Recent developments in heterogeneous catalysts that can be easily recovered, regenerated and reused, as well as immobilized lipases with increased stability and resistance to alcohol denaturation, are promising for future industrial use. This manuscript reviews the available processes and recent advances for biodiesel generation from animal fat waste.This research was funded by European Marie Curie project, grant number 614281 (HIGHVALFOOD) and European Regional Development Fund.Peer reviewe

Variability in the contents of pork meat nutrients and how it may affect food composition databases

Pork meat is generally recognised as a food with relevant nutritional properties because of its content in high biological value proteins, group B vitamins, minerals especially heme iron, trace elements and other bioactive compounds. But pork meat also contributes to the intake of fat, saturated fatty acids, cholesterol, and other substances that, in inappropriate amounts, may result in negative physiologically effects. However, there are relevant factors affecting the content of many of these substances and somehow such variability should be taken into consideration. So, genetics, age and even type of muscle have a relevant influence on the amount of fat and the contents in heme iron. Also the composition in fatty acids of triacylglycerols is very sensitive to the contents of cereals in the feed; for instance, polyunsaturated fatty acids may range from 10% to 22% in pork meat. The content of other nutrients, like vitamins E and A, are also depending on the type of feed. Some bioactive substances like coenzyme Q10, taurine, glutamine, creatine, creatinine, carnosine and anserine show a large dependence on the type of muscle. This manuscript describes the main factors affecting the composition of pork meat nutrients and how these changes may affect the general food composition databases. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Grant AGL2010-16305 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Madrid, Spain) and FEDER Funds and collaboration of Vaquero Foundation for R+D on Pork Meat (Madrid, Spain) are acknowledged. Grant PROMETEO/2012/001 from Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) is also acknowldeged. Work prepared within the Unidad Asociada IAD (UPV)-IATA (CSIC) framework.Reig Riera, MM.; Aristoy, M.; Toldra, F. (2013). Variability in the contents of pork meat nutrients and how it may affect food composition databases. Food Chemistry. 140(3):478-482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.11.085S478482140

The strategic behavior of firms with debt

We empirically study the strategic behavior of levered firms in competitive and noncompetitive environments. We find that regulation induces firms to increase leverage, and this reduces their ability to compete when deregulation occurs. Large and small levered firms adopt different strategies upon deregulation. Whereas more levered small firms charge higher prices to increase margins at the expense of market shares, highly levered large firms prey on their rivals by increasing output and reducing prices to increase their market shares. The difference in their behavior is due to differences in their probability of bankruptcy and their financing constraints.Toldrà-Simats thanks the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia for the financial support received (Grant ECO2012-36559) and Fundaci´on Ramon Areces for the research funding (Grant 2015/00442/001)

New insights into meat by-products utilization

Meat industry generates large volumes of by-products like blood, bones, meat trimmings, skin, fatty tissues, horns, hoofs, feet, skull and viscera among others that are costly to be treated and disposed ecologically. These costs can be balanced through innovation to generate added value products that increase its profitability. Rendering results in feed ingredients for livestock, poultry and aquaculture as well as for pet foods. Energy valorization can be obtained through the thermochemical processing of meat and bone meal or the use of waste animal fats for the production of biodiesel. More recently, new applications have been reported like the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates as alternative to plastics produced from petroleum. Other interesting valorization strategies are based on the hydrolysis of by-products to obtain added value products like bioactive peptides with relevant physiological effects as antihypertensive, antioxidant, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, etc. with promising applications in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry. This paper reports and discusses the latest developments and trends in the use and valorisation of meat industry by-products.Grant AGL2014-57367-R from MINECO (Spain) and FEDER funds, Grant GV/2015/138 from Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) and JAEDOC-CSIC, postdoctoral contract of L.M. co-funded by the European Social Fund are acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Peptidomics as a tool for quality control in dry-cured ham processing

Spanish dry-cured ham is a high quality product whose economic value is mainly given by its curing time. An intense proteolysis takes place throughout the dry-cured processing, which results in the generation of a high amount of peptides and free amino acids responsible for the final quality of dry-cured hams. In this work, a peptidomics approach has been used to study the evolution of peptides throughout the ham dry-curing process, identifying and quantifying the generated peptides in order to define potential quality biomarkers. For this purpose, dry-cured ham extracts at different processing times (0, 2, 3.5, 5, 6.5 and 9 months) were fractionated by size-exclusion chromatography and analysed by nanoliquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Differences obtained in the relative quantification of peptides by using a label-free methodology were useful to establish differences between processing times, being peptides generated by the degradation of myosin light chain 1 protein mainly responsible for the observed differences during the last stages of curing. In particular, APAPAPAPPKEEKI and PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPPKE, exclusively identified at 9 months of curing, would be potential markers to control the time of curing and thus the final quality of dry-cured hams.The FPI Scholarship BES-2011-046096 from MINECO (Spain) to M.G. and Grants AGL2013-47169-R from MINECO and FEDER funds are acknowledged. The research also received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG under Grant Agreement 614281 (HIGHVALFOOD). The JAEDOC-CSIC postdoctoral contract to L.M. co-funded by the European Social Fund is also acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Péptidos derivados de la troponina T generados en jamón curado

Comunicaciones a congreso

Surface Functionalization with Ni of Fe0.7Cr1.3O3/8YSZ Electrode in a Potentiometric Sensor To Selectively Detect C2H4

[EN] This work presents a multidevice potentiometric sensor consisting of Fe0.7Cr1.3O3/8YSZ//8YSZ//Pt to detect selectively C2H4 with a low cross-sensitivity to CO in diesel exhaust gases. The device has been designed as a multisensor to measure up to four channels at the same time. A dense 8YSZ disk is employed as oxide-ion conducting electrolyte where four rectangular-shape working electrodes (Fe0.7Cr13O3/8YSZ) are screen-printed in one face while one common cross-shape reference electrode (LSM/8YSZ) is screen printed in the back face. Two major improvements are proposed in this work: first, change the reference electrode from state-of-the-art Pt to LSM/8YSZ, inexpensive and more active to oxygen. And second, increase the catalytic activity of the working electrode to improve the response of the sensor under wet conditions. The surface activation by nickel and ruthenium nanoparticles deposition enables reduction of the cross-sensitivity toward CO even in wet atmospheres. Ni nanoparticles selectively boost the electrochemically driven oxidation to C2H4 with respect to CO oxidation, as inferred by impedance spectroscopy analysisFunding from Spanish Government (Grants AP-2003-03478, SEV-2016-0683, and ENE2014-57651) is kindly acknowledged. FPU scholarship to F.T.-R. from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport is also acknowledged.Toldrá-Reig, F.; Serra Alfaro, JM. (2018). Surface Functionalization with Ni of Fe0.7Cr1.3O3/8YSZ Electrode in a Potentiometric Sensor To Selectively Detect C2H4. ACS Applied Nano Materials. 1(12):6666-6673. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.8b014866666667311