The palm oil mill effluent (POME) from palm milling oil activities is discharged into various water bodies which poses several environmental problems including turbidity, increases COD and BOD, adds oil and grease, increases total nitrogen, and other pollutants. Therefore, it requires effective treatment to remove the pollutants before disposal. The objective was to critically discuss the performance of POME pretreatments along with their limitations. To offer a coverage on the present less efficient technologies, the opportunities and challenges of advanced pretreatments that combine magnetic materials and natural composites as adsorbents are comprehensively reviewed here. Moreover, potential of various magnetic materials for POME pretreatment has been described. Several existing pretreatment methods such as physical pretreatments, chemical pretreatments, coagulation-flocculation, and adsorption can remove pollutant content from POME with certain limitations and the use of magnetic composite adsorbents can enhance the treatment efficiency.
Microalgae have emerged as an effective dual strategy for bio-valorisation of food processing wastewater and food waste hydrolysate which favours microalgae cultivation into producing value-added by products mainly lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins to the advantages of bioplastic production. Moreover, various microalgae have successfully removed high amount of organic pollutants from food processing wastewater prior discharging into the environment. Innovation of microalgae cultivating in food processing wastewater greatly reduced the cost of wastewater treatment compared to conventional approach in terms of lower carbon emissions, energy consumption, and chemical usage while producing microalgae biomass which can benefit low-cost fertilizer and bioplastic applications. The study on several microalgae species has all successfully grown on food waste hydrolysates showing high exponential growth rate and biomass production rich in proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and fatty acids. Multiple techniques have been implemented for the extraction of food wastes to be incorporate into the bioplastic production.
The increase in solid waste has become a common problem and causes environmental pollution worldwide. A green approach to valorise solid waste for sustainable development is required. Agricultural residues are considered suitable for conversion into profitable products through solid-state fermentation (SSF). Agricultural wastes have high organic content that is used as potential substrates to produce value-added products through SSF. The importance of process variables used in solid-phase fermentation is described. The applications of SSF developed products in the food industry as flavouring agents, acidifiers, preservatives and flavour enhancers. SSF produces secondary metabolites and essential enzymes. Wastes from agricultural residues are used as bioremediation agents, biofuels and biocontrol agents through microbial processing. In this review paper, the value addition of agricultural wastes by SSF through green processing is discussed with the current knowledge on the scenarios, sustainability opportunities and future directions of a circular economy for solid waste utilisation.
Aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) strategy was applied in sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to accumulate polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) in aerobic granules. The aerobic granules were able to remove 90% of the COD from palm oil mill effluent (POME). The volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in the POME are the sole source of the PHA accumulation. In this work, 100% removal of propionic and butyric acids in the POME were observed. The highest amount of PHA produced in aerobic granules was 0.6833mgPHA/mgbiomass. The PHA formed was identified as a P (hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) P (HB-co-HV).
The present study investigates the formation of aerobic granular sludge in sequencing batch reactor (SBR) fed with palm oil mill effluent (POME). Stable granules were observed in the reactor with diameters between 2.0 and 4.0mm at a chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading rate of 2.5 kg COD m(-3) d(-1). The biomass concentration was 7600 mg L(-1) while the sludge volume index (SVI) was 31.3 mL g SS(-1) indicating good biomass accumulation in the reactor and good settling properties of granular sludge, respectively. COD and ammonia removals were achieved at a maximum of 91.1% and 97.6%, respectively while color removal averaged at only 38%. This study provides insights on the development and the capabilities of aerobic granular sludge in POME treatment.
With inoculum sludge from a conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment plant, three sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) fed with synthetic wastewater were operated at different high temperatures (30, 40 and 50±1°C) to study the formation of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) for simultaneous organics and nutrients removal with a complete cycle time of 3h. The AGS were successfully cultivated with influent loading rate of 1.6CODg(Ld)(-1). The COD/N ratio of the influent wastewater was 8. The results revealed that granules developed at 50°C have the highest average diameter, (3.36mm) with 98.17%, 94.45% and 72.46% removal efficiency observed in the system for COD, ammonia and phosphate, respectively. This study also demonstrated the capabilities of AGS formation at high temperatures which is suitable to be applied for hot climate conditions.
The accumulation of conventional petroleum-based polymers has increased exponentially over the years. Therefore, algae-based biopolymer has gained interest among researchers as one of the alternative approaches in achieving a sustainable circular economy around the world. The benefits of microalgae biopolymer over other feedstock is its autotrophic complex to reduce the greenhouse gases emission, rapid growing ability with flexibility in diverse environments and its ability to compost that gives greenhouse gas credits. In contrast, this review provides a comprehensive understanding of algae-based biopolymer in the evaluation of microalgae strains, bioplastic characterization and bioplastic blending technologies. The future prospects and challenges on the algae circular bioeconomy which includes the challenges faced in circular economy, issues regard to the scale-up and operating cost of microalgae cultivation and the life cycle assessment on algal-based biopolymer were highlighted. The aim of this review is to provide insights of algae-based biopolymer towards a sustainable circular bioeconomy.
Algae biomass comprises variety of biochemicals components such as carbohydrates, lipids and protein, which make them a feasible feedstock for biofuel production. However, high production cost mainly due to algae cultivation remains the main challenge in commercializing algae biofuels. Hence, extraction of other high value-added bioproducts from algae biomass is necessary to enhance the economic feasibility of algae biofuel production. This paper is aims to deliberate the recent developments of conventional technologies for algae biofuels production, such as biochemical and chemical conversion pathways, and extraction of a variety of bioproducts from algae biomass for various potential applications. Besides, life cycle evaluation studies on microalgae biorefinery are presented, focusing on case studies for various cultivation techniques, culture medium, harvesting, and dewatering techniques along with biofuel and bioenergy production pathways. Overall, the algae biorefinery provides new opportunities for valorisation of algae biomass for multiple products synthesis.
Biofuels are viewed as promising alternatives to conventional fossil fuels because they have the potential to eliminate major environmental problems created by fossil fuels. Among the still developing biofuel technologies, biodiesel production from algae offers a greater prospect for large-scale practical use, as algae are capable of producing much more yield than other biofuels. While research on algae-based biofuel is still in its developing stage, extensive work on laboratory- and pilot-scale algae harvesting systems with promising prospects has been reported. This paper presented a discussion of the literature review on recent advances in algae separation, harvesting and drying for biofuel production. The review and discussion focus on destabilization of algae, algae harvesting technologies and algae drying processes. Challenges and prospects of algae harvesting are also outlined.
This study evaluated the use of alginate-immobilized bentonite to remove Cu(II) as an alternative to mitigate clogging problems. The adsorption efficacy (under the influence of time, pH and initial Cu(II) concentration) and reusability of immobilized-bentonite (1% w/v bentonite) was tested against plain alginate beads. Results revealed that immobilized bentonite demonstrated significantly higher sorption efficacy compared to plain alginate beads with 114.70 and 94.04 mg Cu(II) adsorbed g(-1) adsorbent, respectively. Both sorbents were comparable in other aspects where sorption equilibrium was achieved within 6 h, with optimum pH between pH 4 and 5 for adsorption, displayed maximum adsorption capacity at initial Cu(II) concentrations of 400 mg l(-1), and demonstrated excellent reusability potential with desorption greater than 90% throughout three consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles. Both sorbents also conformed to Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic model. Immobilized bentonite is therefore recommended for use in water treatments to remove Cu(II) without clogging the system.
Microalgae are rich in valuable biomolecules and grow on non-arable land with rapid growth rate, which has a host of new possibility as alternative protein sources. In the present study, extraction of proteins from Chlorella vulgaris via an efficient technique, Liquid Triphasic Flotation (LTF) system, was studied. The optimized conditions in LTF system were 70% v/v of t-butanol, 40% w/v of salt solution, 0.5% w/v of biomass, pH 5.54, 1:1 of salt to t-butanol solution, and 10 min of air flotation time to attain 87.23% of protein recovery and 56.72% of separation efficiency. Besides, the study on recycling t-butanol has demonstrated that only one run was sufficient to maintain the performance of system. The efficiency of LTF in extracting protein has performed better than just Three Phase Partitioning (TPP) system. LTF system is hence an effective protein extraction and purification method with minimum operation unit and processing time.
The thermal characteristics of Actinobacillus succinogenes (AS) from pyrolysis, torrefaction, and combustion are analyzed to evaluate the potential of this biomass as a renewable fuel. AS pyrolysis can be classified into four stages, and its main decomposition zone is at 200-500 °C. The solid yield of AS after 60 min torrefaction is over 60 wt%, and the torrefaction severity index map indicates that a high torrefaction temperature with a short duration has a more profound influence on its decomposition. The Py-GC/MS analysis of AS suggests that the volatile products from 500 °C pyrolysis are similar to microalgae-derived pyrolysis bio-oils. The combustibility index (S) of AS is 4.07 × 10-7 which is much higher than that of lignite coal (0.39 × 10-7) and bituminous coal (0.18 × 10-7), and close to those of biochar and bio-oil. The obtained results are conducive to the development of microorganisms as fuel to achieve a circular bioeconomy.
Biohydrogen as one of the most appealing energy vector for the future represents attractive avenue in alternative energy research. Recently, variety of biohydrogen production pathways has been suggested to improve the key features of the process. Nevertheless, researches are still needed to overcome remaining barriers to practical applications such as low yields and production rates. Considering practicality aspects, this review emphasized on anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) for biological hydrogen production. Recent advances and emerging issues associated with biohydrogen generation in AnMBR technology are critically discussed. Several techniques are highlighted that are aimed at overcoming these barriers. Moreover, environmental and economical potentials along with future research perspectives are addressed to drive biohydrogen technology towards practicality and economical-feasibility.
The discovery of anammox process has provided eco-friendly and low-cost means of treating ammonia rich wastewater with remarkable efficiency. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that the possibility of operating the anammox process under low temperatures and high organic matter contents broadening the application of the anammox process. However, short doubling time and extensive levels of sensitivity towards nutrients and environmental alterations such as salinity and temperature are the limitations in practical applications of the anammox process. This review article provides the recent yet comprehensive viewpoint on anammox bacteria and the key perspectives in applying them as an efficient strategy for wastewater treatment.
Deep Eutectic Solvents (DESs) have recently emerged as a new generation of ionic liquids for lignocellulose pretreatment. However, DESs contain salt components which tend to inactivate cellulase in the subsequent saccharification process. To alleviate this problem, it is necessary to evaluate the applicability of the DESs-Cellulase system. This was accomplished in the present study by first studying the stability of cellulase in the presence of selected DESs followed by applicability evaluation based on glucose production, energy consumption and kinetic performance. Results showed that the cellulase was able to retain more than 90% of its original activity in the presence of 10% (v/v) for glycerol based DES (GLY) and ethylene glycol based DES (EG). Furthermore, both DESs system exhibited higher glucose percentage enhancement and lower energy consumption as compared to diluted alkali system. Among the two DESs studied, EG showed comparatively better kinetic performance.
Microalgae is a sustainable alternative source to traditional proteins. Existing pretreatment methods for protein extraction from microalgae still lack scalability, are uneconomical and inefficient. Herein, high shear mixing (HSM) was applied to disrupt the rigid cell walls and was found to assist in protein release from microalgae. This study integrates HSM in liquid biphasic system with seven parameters being investigated on extraction efficiency (EE) and protein yield (Y). The highest EE and Y obtained are 96.83 ± 0.47 % and 40.98 ± 1.27 %, respectively, using 30% w/v K3PO4 salt, 60 % v/v alcohol, volume ratio of 1:1 and 0.5 % w/v biomass loading under shearing rate of 16,000 rpm for 1 min.
Machine learning (ML) applications have become ubiquitous in all fields of research including protein science and engineering. Apart from protein structure and mutation prediction, scientists are focusing on knowledge gaps with respect to the molecular mechanisms involved in protein binding and interactions with other components in the experimental setups or the human body. Researchers are working on several wet-lab techniques and generating data for a better understanding of concepts and mechanics involved. The information like biomolecular structure, binding affinities, structure fluctuations and movements are enormous which can be handled and analyzed by ML. Therefore, this review highlights the significance of ML in understanding the biomolecular interactions while assisting in various fields of research such as drug discovery, nanomedicine, nanotoxicity and material science. Hence, the way ahead would be to force hand-in hand of laboratory work and computational techniques.
Oil and gas field wastewater or produced water is a significant waste stream in the oil and gas industries. In this study, the performance of a membrane sequencing batch reactor (MSBR) and membrane sequencing batch reactor/reverse osmosis (MSBR/RO) process treating produced wastewater were investigated and compared. The MSBR was operated in different hydraulic residence time (HRT) of 8, 20 and 44 h. Operation results showed that for a HRT of 20 h, the combined process effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC) and oil and grease (O&G) removal efficiencies were 90.9%, 92% and 91.5%, respectively. The MSBR effluent concentration levels met the required standard for oil well re-injection. The RO treatment reduced the salt and organic contents to acceptable levels for irrigation and different industrial re-use. Foulant biopsy demonstrated that the fouling on the membrane surface was mainly due to inorganic (salts) and organic (microorganisms and their products, hydrocarbon constituents) matters.
This study presented a novel methodology to predict microalgae chlorophyll content from colour models using linear regression and artificial neural network. The analysis was performed using SPSS software. Type of extractant solvents and image indexes were used as the input data for the artificial neural network calculation. The findings revealed that the regression model was highly significant, with high R2 of 0.58 and RSME of 3.16, making it a useful tool for predicting the chlorophyll concentration. Simultaneously, artificial neural network model with R2 of 0.66 and low RMSE of 2.36 proved to be more accurate than regression model. The model which fitted to the experimental data indicated that acetone was a suitable extraction solvent. In comparison to the cyan-magenta-yellow-black model in image analysis, the red-greenblue model offered a better correlation. In short, the estimation of chlorophyll concentration using prediction models are rapid, more efficient, and less expensive.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a family of biodegradable and renewable biopolymers show a huge potential as an alternative to conventional plastics. Extractive bioconversion (in situ product recovery) is a technique that integrates upstream fermentation and downstream purification. In this study, extractive bioconversion of PHAs from Cupriavidus necator H16 was performed via a thermo-separating aqueous two-phase system to reduce the cost and environmental impacts of PHAs production. Key operating parameters, such as polymer concentration, temperature, and pH, were optimized. The strategy achieved a yield and PF of 97.6% and 1.36-fold, respectively at 5% EOPO 3900 concentration, 30 °C fermentation temperature and pH 6. The PHAs production process was also successfully scaled up in a 2 L bioreactor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on extractive fermentation of PHAs from Cupriavidus necator utilizing a thermo-separation system to achieve a better productivity and purity of the target product.