Ozone-Based Decolorization of Food Colorants: Characterization and Application to Fruit Leather Recycling

The commercial production of fruit leathers results in some material that is not to specification. Although this product remains edible and contains valuable ingredients such as fruit pulp, sugars and acidulates, it is not salable and its disposal is costly. Because these products are typically highly colored, recovery of fruit leather for recycling into the product requires colorant removal to avoid an unappetizing brownish color from the mixture of colorants. This research introduces a novel approach utilizing ozonation for color removal. The treatment was first applied to pure solutions of the commonly used food colorants 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid (Red 40), tartrazine (Yellow 5), and erioglaucine (Blue 1). Color removal was measured by UV/Vis spectrometer, and a Hunter colorimeter. Byproducts from ozone-based colorant decomposition were identified and quantified with SPME-GC-MS. Removal of Yellow 5, Red 40 and Blue 1 was about 65%, 80% and 90% complete, respectively, with 70 g ozone applied to 1 kg aqueous fruit leather suspension solution. Given the known structures of these dyes, a concern with this approach is the potential formation of toxic ozonolysis byproducts. In initial work, carbonyl compounds were identified as major byproducts. Among these, benzaldehyde, 2-furfural, ethanal and hexanal were identified as byproducts of known toxicity at levels sufficient for concern. A head-space solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method with on-fiber derivatization using o-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl)hydroxylamine hydrochloride (PFBHA) was optimized for detection and quantification of carbonyl compounds in ozonated fruit leather suspensions. Ethanal, hexanal, furfural and benzaldehyde were quantified with the newly developed method, and detection limits were in the range of 0.016 - 0.030 yg/L. For furfural, the ozonolysis byproduct noted in the literature as having the highest median lethal dose value, the maximum amount generated was determined to be under the detection limit, 0.016 yg/L of 100% fruit leather solution/suspension, while hexanal was the most abundantly generated, at 80.0 y 22.0 mg/L. A conservative risk assessment based on published toxicity information for the main ozonolysis products generated in this study suggests the acceptability of ozone-based decolorization in fruit leather recycling. A preliminary cost estimate suggests a potential $0.25 million annual profit on recycling a 1,000 tons of waste fruit leathers per year

Mitigation of Livestock Odors Using Black Light and a New Titanium Dioxide-Based Catalyst: Proof-of-Concept

Concentrated livestock feeding operations have become a source of odorous gas emissions that impact air quality. Comprehensive and practical technologies are needed for a sustainable mitigation of the emissions. In this study, we advance the concept of using a catalyst for barn walls and ceilings for odor mitigation. Two catalysts, a new TiO2-based catalyst, PureTi Clean, and a conventional Evonik (formerly Degussa, Evonik Industries, Essen, Germany) P25 (average particle size 25 nm) catalyst, were studied for use in reducing simulated odorous volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions on a laboratory scale. The UV source was black light. Dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), diethyl disulfide (DEDS), dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS), butyric acid, p-cresol, and guaiacol were selected as model odorants. The effects of the environmental parameters, the presence of swine dust covering the catalyst, the catalyst type and layer density, and the treatment time were tested. The performance of the PureTi catalyst at 10 µg/cm2 was comparable to that of P25 at 250 µg/cm2. The odorant reduction ranged from 100.0% ± 0.0% to 40.4% ± 24.8% at a treatment time of 200 s, simulating wintertime barn ventilation. At a treatment time of 40 s (simulating summertime barn ventilation), the reductions were lower (from 27.4% ± 8.3% to 62.2% ± 7.5%). The swine dust layer on the catalyst surface blocked 15.06% ± 5.30% of UV365 and did not have a significant impact (p \u3e 0.23) on the catalyst performance. Significant effects of relative humidity and temperature were observed

Particle-Attached and Free-Living Archaeal Communities in the Benthic Boundary Layer of the Mariana Trench

The benthic boundary layer (BBL) is the part of the water column that is situated near to the sediment surface, where active oceanic biogeochemical cycling occurs. Archaea play an important role in mediating this cycling, however, their composition and diversity in the BBL remain largely unknown. We investigated the community composition and abundance of both particle-attached (PA) and free-living (FL) archaea in the BBL on the slopes of the Mariana Trench using Illumina sequencing and quantitative PCR (qPCR), at both the DNA and RNA levels. Our results showed that Thaumarchaeota (>90%) and Woesearchaeota (1–10%) dominated in all the BBL samples, and that the former was composed mainly of Marine Group I (MGI). A clear separation of PA and FL samples was observed, and they showed a high level of similarity to the subsurface sediments and the water column, respectively. No significant differences were detected in the archaeal communities located in the southern and northern slopes of the Mariana Trench, or between the levels of DNA and RNA. However, lower RNA/DNA ratios (estimated by qPCR) were found in the PA samples than in the FL samples, indicating higher transcriptional activities in the FL fractions. A distinct archaeal community structure was found in the middle of the trench when compared with samples collected at the same depth at other stations along the trench slopes. This indicates that a dynamic deep current might affect the distribution of organic matter on the slopes. Our study provides direct information regarding the archaeal communities in the BBL of the Mariana Trench. We suggest that this might promote further exploration of the ecological roles and microbial processes of such communities located in deep-sea ecosystems

Dark structures in sunspot light bridges

We present unprecedented high-resolution TiO images and Fe I 1565 nm spectropolarimetric data of two light bridges taken by the 1.6-m Goode Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory. In the first light bridge (LB1), we find striking knot-like dark structures within the central dark lane. Many dark knots show migration away from the penumbra along the light bridge. The sizes, intensity depressions and apparent speeds of their proper motion along the light bridges of 33 dark knots identified from the TiO images are mainly in the ranges of 80$\sim$200~km, 30\%$\sim$50\%, and 0.3$\sim$1.2~km~s$^{-1}$, respectively. In the second light bridge (LB2), a faint central dark lane and striking transverse intergranular lanes were observed. These intergranular lanes have sizes and intensity depressions comparable to those of the dark knots in LB1, and also migrate away from the penumbra at similar speeds. Our observations reveal that LB2 is made up of a chain of evolving convection cells, as indicated by patches of blue shift surrounded by narrow lanes of red shift. The central dark lane generally corresponds to blueshifts, supporting the previous suggestion of central dark lanes being the top parts of convection upflows. In contrast, the intergranular lanes are associated with redshifts and located at two sides of each convection cell. The magnetic fields are stronger in intergranular lanes than in the central dark lane. These results suggest that these intergranular lanes are manifestations of convergent convective downflows in the light bridge. We also provide evidence that the dark knots observed in LB1 may have a similar origin.Comment: 6 figure

Long-term effects of restoration on the links between above-and belowground biodiversity in degraded Horqin sandy grassland, Northern China

Long-term ecological restoration plays an important role in the sustainable development of degraded grassland ecosystem. In this study, the levels of species diversity, genetic diversity and soil microbial diversity in restored grassland were measured by vegetation survey, DNA barcoding and soil microbial high-throughput sequencing technology, so as to explore the relationship between above- and belowground biodiversity and its driving factors in Horqin sandy grassland. In this study, the results found that herb are dominated in restoration grassland types. Plant species richness (SR) from post-non-grazing restoration plot (NGR) communities was significantly higher than other restoration communities (10 ± 1.1, p = 0.004). Genetic diversity indices of dominant plant species in chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), were remarkable greater than nuclear DNA (nrDNA) in each recovering sandy grassland plots (amplitude of difference was 44.8%–70.5% in allelic richness (AR), 81.9%–128.1% in expected heterozygosity (HE)). The soil bacterial and fungal richness from natural mobile dune grassland (NM) communities was notably lower than that from recovering grassland types (1641.9 ± 100.4, p < 0.001; 533 ± 16.6, p < 0.001). In this study, heterogeneous levels of genetic variability among different recovering sandy grassland types were detected. Correlation analyses revealed that there were positive correlations between species diversity and genetic diversity (SR & AR: r = 0.56, R2 = 0.31, p < 0.001; SR & HE: r = 0.33, R2 = 0.11, p = 0.045) and a negative correlation between soil microbial diversity and genetic diversity (r = -0.44, R2 = 0.19, p = 0.005). The final structural equation model explained 38% of the variance in SR, 57% in AR, 52% in soil microbial diversity (SD), 49% in aboveground biomass (AGB), 87% in soil organic carbon (SOC), 47% in soil alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (SAN) and 69% in soil available phosphorus (SOP). Long-term ecological restoration had significant direct positive effects on AGB, SOC, SAN, SOP, AR, SR and SD. There was a negative correlation between above- and belowground biodiversity and biological and abiotic factors. The results of this study have clarified the above- and underground biodiversity levels of sandy grassland and the relationship with driving factors under long-term ecological restoration measures, and will provide effective support for the management and sustainable development of sandy grassland

Quantification of Carbonyl Compounds Generated from Ozone-Based Food Colorants Decomposition Using On-Fiber Derivatization-SPME-GC-MS

Fruit leathers (FLs) production produces some not-to-specification material, which contains valuable ingredients like fruit pulp, sugars and acidulates. Recovery of FL for product recycling requires decolorization. In earlier research, we proved the efficiency of an ozone-based decolorization process; however, it produces carbonyls as major byproducts, which could be of concern. A headspace solid-phase microextraction with on-fiber derivatization followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was developed for 10 carbonyls analysis in ozonated FL solution/suspension. Effects of dopant concentration, derivatization temperature and time were studied. The adapted method was used to analyze ozonated FL solution/suspension samples. Dopant concentration and derivatization temperature were optimized to 17 mg/mL and 60 °C, respectively. Competitive extraction was studied, and 5 s extraction time was used to avoid non-linear derivatization of 2-furfural. The detection limits (LODs) for target carbonyls ranged from 0.016 and 0.030 µg/L. A much lower LOD (0.016 ppb) for 2-furfural was achieved compared with 6 and 35 ppb in previous studies. Analysis results confirmed the robustness of the adapted method for quantification of carbonyls in recycled process water treated with ozone-based decolorization. Ethanal, hexanal, 2-furfural, and benzaldehyde were identified as byproducts of known toxicity but all found below levels for concern

Visualize Before You Write: Imagination-Guided Open-Ended Text Generation

Recent advances in text-to-image synthesis make it possible to visualize machine imaginations for a given context. On the other hand, when generating text, human writers are gifted at creative visualization, which enhances their writings by forming imaginations as blueprints before putting down the stories in words. Inspired by such a cognitive process, we ask the natural question of whether we can endow machines with the same ability to utilize visual information and construct a general picture of the context to guide text generation. In this work, we propose iNLG that uses machine-generated images to guide language models (LM) in open-ended text generation. The experiments and analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of iNLG on open-ended text generation tasks, including text completion, story generation, and concept-to-text generation in few-shot scenarios. Both automatic metrics and human evaluations verify that the text snippets generated by our iNLG are coherent and informative while displaying minor degeneration

Ozonation-Based Decolorization of Food Dyes for Recovery of Fruit Leather Wastes

Commercial manufacture of fruit leathers (FL) usually results in a portion of the product that is out of specification. The disposition of this material poses special challenges in the food industry. Because the material remains edible and contains valuable ingredients (fruit pulp, sugars, acidulates, etc.), an ideal solution would be to recover this material for product rework. A key practical obstacle to such recovery is that compositing of differently colored wastes results in an unsalable gray product. Therefore, a safe and scalable method for decolorization of FL prior to product rework is needed. This research introduces a novel approach utilizing ozonation for color removal. To explore the use of ozonation as a decolorization step, we first applied it to simple solutions of the commonly used food colorants 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid (Red 40), tartrazine (Yellow 5), and erioglaucine (Blue 1). Decolorization was measured by UV/vis spectrometry at visible wavelengths and with a Hunter colorimeter. Volatile and semivolatile byproducts from ozone-based colorant decomposition were identified and quantified with solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS). Removal of Yellow 5, Red 40 and Blue 1 of about 65%, 80%, and 90%, respectively, was accomplished with 70 g of ozone applied per 1 kg of redissolved and resuspended FL. Carbonyl compounds were identified as major byproducts from ozone-induced decomposition of the food colorants. A conservative risk assessment based on quantification results and published toxicity information of potentially toxic byproducts, determined that ozone-based decolorization of FL before recycling is acceptable from a safety standpoint. A preliminary cost estimate based on recycling of 1000 tons of FL annually suggests a potential of $275,000 annual profit from this practice at one production facility alone