CEReS -Co-processing of Coal Mine & Electronic Wastes: Novel Resources for a Sustainable Future

International audienceMany coal mines produce waste which causes acid mine drainage (AMD) potentially resulting in severe environmental damage. This drainage can be treated, but most wastes will continue to produce such drainage for hundreds of years. Therefore, longer term, permanent solutions are needed. At the same time, the pace of technological development means most electrical and electronic equipment becomes obsolete within a matter of years. This results in the generation of vast and growing quantities of electronic waste (e-waste) every year. Where this cannot be recycled, it must be discarded. CEReS was a 3.2 M€ RFCS-funded project comprising eight partners from five countries. It targeted the development of a co-processing approach to treat these waste streams to produce metals and other valuable products, while eliminating their environmental impact. This brings together two waste streams from opposite ends of the supply chain (for which no alternative treatment option exists); turning each into a novel resource in a single, coherent 'grave-to-cradle' process. This industrial ecology approach is key to supporting a circular economy while securing the sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The project successfully elaborated a novel co-processing flow-sheet comprising: (i) the accelerated weathering of AMD-generating coal production wastes to generate a biolixiviant; (ii) the pyrolysis and catalytic cracking of low-grade PCBs to produce hydrocarbon fuel, a halogen brine a Cu-rich char; (iii) the leaching of base metals from the char using the biolixiviant; (iv) the reuse of the stabilised coal wastes; and (v) the recovery of valuable metal while concentrating precious and critical metals into enriched substrates. These individual process units were demonstrated individually at lab-pilot scale. The data were then used to validate the entire flow-sheet in an integrated process simulator. Finally an LCA approach was used to demonstrate the environmental benefits of the CEReS process over the status quo

Predicting octane numbers relying on principal component analysis and artificial neural network

Measuring the Research Octane Number (RON) and the Motor Octane Number (MON) at a low price is currently not feasible, thus making the use of predictive methods essential to accomplish this task. Nevertheless, the latter rely on expensive data and linear by volume models cannot be applied for complex fuels. In this work, we have investigated 41 parameters from inexpensive tests to find the inherent link between these fuel properties and the RON and the MON. To achieve this objective, we first reduced the number of properties to only consider the principal ones relying on principal component analysis (PCA). Then, we applied artificial neural network (ANN) to identify the underlying links between the properties and the rRON/MON. The measurement of the distillation curve, the atomic mass fraction and the specific gravity are the primary properties required for the current method. The achieved mean squared error (MSE) is equal to 0.7 [ON2].SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

A Meta-analysis on the Effect of Kangaroo Mother Care on Preterm Mortality

Background. Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a low-cost but high-impact intervention for preterm and low birth weight (LBW) infants. Objectives. To determine the effect of KMC on in-hospital mortality among preterm and LBW infants, taking into consideration their gestational age, birth weight, income category of the country of birth, and medical stability. Materials and Methods. A comprehensive search of several databases, as well as local listings of research papers, was performed to look for randomized controlled studies with KMC as intervention, and mortality and length of hospitalization as outcome measures. The risk of bias and publication bias was assessed. We did subgroup analyses based on income category of the country of birth, gestational age, birth weight, and medical stability of the infants. Results. Sixteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with 1738 infants in the KMC group and 1674 infants in the control group were included. Based on the GRADE approach, although all the studies were RCTs, the evidence is assessed as moderate certainty due to the nature of the intervention (KMC) that prevented blinding. There was a 41% reduction in risk of dying among preterm and low birth weight infants who received KMC compared to conventional medical care (3.86%% vs 6.87%; RR = 0.59, 95% CI 0.44, 0.79; I2 = 0%; number needed to treat for additional benefit (NNTB) = 34; 16 RCTs; 3,412 infants). Furthermore, there were also reductions in the risk of dying among infants who were (KMC: 4.32% vs CMC: 8.17%, RR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.38, 0.79; I2 = 0%; NNTB = 26; 10 RCTs; 1795 infants), with birthweight of \u3e1500 g (KMC: 3.97% vs CMC: 6.83%, RR = 0.60; 95% CI 0.45, 0.82; I2 = 0%; NNTB = 35; 10 RCTs; 2960 infants), and born in low- and middle income countries (LMIC) (3.77% vs 6.95%; RR = 0.57, 95% CI 0.43, 0.77; I2 = 0%; NNTB = 32; 14 RCTs; 3281 infants). There was a significant reduction in mortality (KMC: 11.05% vs CMC: 20.94%; RR = 0.54; 95% CI 0.34, 0.87; I2 = 0%; NNTB = 11; 5 RCTs; 387 infants) even among medically unstable infants who received KMC compared to those who did not. The length of hospitalization did not significantly differ between the KMC and the control groups. Due to high heterogeneity, subgroup analyses were performed, which showed a trend towards a shorter length of hospital stay among preterm infants AOG, with birthweight ≥1500 g, medically unstable during admission, and belonging to LMIC but did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion. There was moderate certainty evidence that KMC can decrease mortality among preterm and LBW infants. Furthermore, KMC was beneficial among relatively more premature, bigger, medically unstable preterm infants and born in low to middle-income countries

Can UV absorbance rapidly estimate the chlorine demand in wash water during fresh-cut produce washing processes?

Free chlorine is used in industrial fresh-cut produce washing to avoid cross-contamination from pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, although chlorine dosing typically depends on feedback control. Control of free chlorine levels in fresh-cut produce wash water could be improved if chlorine demand (CLD) could be determined real-time, during processing. Previous research has shown that the CLD of non-chlorinated fresh produce wash water (CLDmax) correlates with UV absorbance (UVA) at 254 nm (UVA254). The goal of this study was to estimate CLD for produce wash conditions that are in-progress, i.e., when the chlorine concentration in water partially meets the CLD, as is the case during industrial, continuous produce washing. This was done for cabbage, carrot, green leaf lettuce and onion. UVA changed with both CLDmax and remaining CLD. Two wavelengths were necessary to predict the CLD:UVAmin, which changed minimally due to chlorination and had maximum correlation with CLDmax and UVAmax. The CLDmax and UVAmax changed maximally with chlorination and had maximum correlation with the fraction of the remaining CLD. Results showed that UVAmin and UVAmax were between 240–290 nm, and the exact wavelength depended on the vegetable. However, free chlorine itself influences UVA, and at a residual above 25 mg/L the chlorine interfered with the estimation of CLD. A case study on green leaf lettuce showed that CLD can be predicted by a model of the form f(UVAmin) x g(UVAmax /UVAmin). Using external validation data, optimal predictability of the model was obtained when both f and g were expressed as quadratic equations (SD/RMSE = 3.55; R² = 0.93). The described UVA method for predicting CLD shows promise for online application. Further studies should incorporate the possible variability in crop composition as well as other possible interferences with the UVA signal

Depletion of RIPK3 or MLKL blocks TNF-driven necroptosis and switches towards a delayed RIPK1 kinase-dependent apoptosis

In human cells, the RIPK1-RIPK3-MLKL-PGAM5-Drp1 axis drives tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced necroptosis through mitochondrial fission, but whether this pathway is conserved among mammals is not known. To answer this question, we analyzed the presence and functionality of the reported necroptotic axis in mice. As in humans, knockdown of receptor-interacting kinase-3 (RIPK3) or mixed lineage kinase domain like (MLKL) blocks TNF-induced necroptosis in L929 fibrosarcoma cells. However, repression of either of these proteins did not protect the cells from death, but instead induced a switch from TNF-induced necroptosis to receptor-interacting kinase-1 (RIPK1) kinase-dependent apoptosis. In addition, although mitochondrial fission also occurs during TNF-induced necroptosis in L929 cells, we found that knockdown of phosphoglycerate mutase 5 (PGAM5) and dynamin 1 like protein (Drp1) did not markedly protect the cells from TNF-induced necroptosis. Depletion of Pink1, a reported interactor of both PGAM5 and Drp1, did not affect TNF-induced necroptosis. These results indicate that in these murine cells mitochondrial fission and Pink1 dependent processes, including Pink-Parkin dependent mitophagy, apparently do not promote necroptosis. Our data demonstrate that the core components of the necrosome (RIPK1, RIPK3 and MLKL) are crucial to induce TNF-dependent necroptosis both in human and in mouse cells, but the associated mechanisms may differ between the two species or cell types.status: publishe