Effect of urea and tmao on lipid bilayers

Abstract We study the effect of the osmolytes, Urea and trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) on POPE (1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3- phosphoethanolamine) lipid membranes using SAXS/WAXS and DSC. Their antagonist effect is observed with TMAO stabilizing and Urea destabilizing the lipid bilayer, as seen by others in earlier researches

The Critical Raw Materials Potential of Anthropogenic Deposits: Insights from Solid Residues of Municipal Waste Incineration

Due to the current and foreseen global growth of raw material demand, the sustainable supply of minerals and metals for high-tech applications, the so-called critical raw materials (Co, Cr, Ga, Nb, Rare Earth Elements, Sb, W, Platinum Group Elements), is of general concern. Industrial wastes have the potential to become an alternative source (flow) of strategic metals and, consequently, their valorisation can be seen as a move towards resources efficiency and circular economy. In this 3-years study I aimed to decipher the critical raw materials potential from solid residues produced by Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI), namely bottom and fly ashes. These solid residues, coming from different leading companies of MSWI in northern Italy, have been selected because they can be accounted for urban mining purposes and represent high elements flows, still poorly explored. In the present work I address the potential of MSWI solid residues as an alternative source of critical raw materials by studying the material chemistry, its resources flow and the evaluation of metals upgrading and recovery. Finally, I tackle some environmental and economic issues

Bioleaching for resource recovery from low-grade wastes like fly and bottom ashes from municipal incinerators: A SWOT analysis

Bioleaching (or microbial leaching) is a biohydrometallurgical technology that can be applied for metal recovery from anthropogenic waste streams. In particular, fly ashes and bottom ashes of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) can be used as a target material for biomining. Globally, approximately 46 million tonnes of MSWI ashes are produced annually. Currently landfilled or used as aggregate, these contain large amounts of marketable metals, equivalent to low-grade ores. There is opportunity to recover critical materials as the circular economy demands, using mesophile, moderately thermophile, and extremophile microorganisms for bioleaching. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis was developed to assess the potential of this biotechnology to recover critical metals from MSWI wastes. Bioleaching has potential as a sustainable technology for resource recovery and enhanced waste management. However, stakeholders can only reap the full benefits of bioleaching by addressing both the technical engineering challenges and regulatory requirements needed to realise and integrated approach to resource use

Recovery of Al, Cr and V from steel slag by bioleaching: batch and column experiments

Steel slag is a major by-product of the steel industry and a potential resource of technology critical elements. For this study, a basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel slag was tested for bacterial leaching and recovery of aluminium (Al), chromium (Cr), and vanadium (V). Mixed acidophilic bacteria were adapted to the steel slag up to 5% (w/v). In the batch tests, Al, Cr, and V were bioleached significantly more from steel slag than in control treatments. No statistical difference was observed arising from the duration of the leaching (3 vs 6 d) in the batch tests. Al and Cr concentrations in the leachate were higher for the smaller particle size of the steel slag (< 75 µm), but no difference was observed for V. In the column tests, no statistical difference was found for pH, Al, Cr and V between the live culture (one-step bioleaching) and the supernatant (two-step bioleaching). The results show that the culture supernatant can be effectively used in an upscaled industrial application for metal recovery. If bioleaching is used in the 170-250 million tonnes of steel slag produced per year globally, significant recoveries of metals (100% of Al, 84% of Cr and 8% of V) can be achieved, depending on the slag composition. The removal and recovery percentages of metals from the leachate with Amberlite®IRA-400 are relatively modest (< 67% and < 5%, respectively), due to the high concentration of competing ions (SO42-, PO43-) in the culture medium. Other ion exchange resins can be better suited for the leachate or methods such as selective precipitation could improve the performance of the resin. Further research is needed to minimise interference and maximise metal recovery

Opportunities and threats of selenium supply from unconventional and low-grade ores: A critical review

Research on selenium has increased in recent years due to its extensive use in electronic applications, solar cells, glass industry, photocopying, cosmetic industry, and as a dietary supplement. New data and discoveries on the importance of this metalloid in the fields of medical biotechnology and human health have further increased its commercial value. This paper identifies challenges associated with selenium recovery from geogenic ores and topical unconventional ores such as marine geo-resources and anthropogenic stocks. Emphasis is given on opportunities and challenges of non-commercial processes for selenium resource extraction that may be developed at full-scale soon. Characteristics and global uses of selenium are also described to help predicting future scenarios of alternate supply. Considering the scarcity of increasingly wanted selenium metal and the recent advancements that have been made in mining from alternative and urban ores, it is possible that selenium can be effectively recovered from other sources to secure a stable and diversified supply

Research Trends and Future Perspectives in Marine Biomimicking Robotics

Mechatronic and soft robotics are taking inspiration from the animal kingdom to create new high-performance robots. Here, we focused on marine biomimetic research and used innovative bibliographic statistics tools, to highlight established and emerging knowledge domains. A total of 6980 scientific publications retrieved from the Scopus database (1950–2020), evidencing a sharp research increase in 2003–2004. Clustering analysis of countries collaborations showed two major Asian-North America and European clusters. Three significant areas appeared: (i) energy provision, whose advancement mainly relies on microbial fuel cells, (ii) biomaterials for not yet fully operational soft-robotic solutions; and finally (iii), design and control, chiefly oriented to locomotor designs. In this scenario, marine biomimicking robotics still lacks solutions for the long-lasting energy provision, which presently hinders operation autonomy. In the research environment, identifying natural processes by which living organisms obtain energy is thus urgent to sustain energy-demanding tasks while, at the same time, the natural designs must increasingly inform to optimize energy consumption

Magnetic characterization of solid byproducts from Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators

The main objective of my visit to the IRM was to explore the magnetic properties of the solid by-products, i.e., bottom (BA) and fly ashes (FA), deriving from municipal solid waste incinerators. The goal of this project is to decipher the sources of the magnetic properties previously observed in the BA and FA (Funari et al., 2016), and estimate the concentration of SP grains

THE CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS POTENTIAL OF ANTHROPOGENIC DEPOSITS: INSIGHTS FROM SOLID RESIDUES OF MUNICIPAL WASTE INCINERATION

Industrial wastes have the potential to become an alternative source (flow) of strategic metals and, consequently, their valorization can be seen as a move towards resources efficiency and circular economy. This work aims to decipher the critical raw materials potential from solid residues produced by Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI), namely bottom and fly ashes. These solid residues, coming from different leading companies of MSWI in northern Italy, have been selected because they can be accounted for urban mining purposes and represent high elements flows, still poorly explored. In the present work I addressed the potential of MSWI solid residues as an alternative source of critical raw materials by studying the material chemistry, its resources flow and the evaluation of metals upgrading and recovery. Finally, I tackled some environmental and economic issues