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Algae have been consumed for millennia in several parts of the world as food, food supplements, and additives, due to their unique organoleptic properties and nutritional and health benefits. Algae are sustainable sources of proteins, minerals, and fiber, with well-balanced essential amino acids, pigments, and fatty acids, among other relevant metabolites for human nutrition. This review covers the historical consumption of algae in Europe, developments in the current European market, challenges when introducing new species to the market, bottlenecks in production technology, consumer acceptance, and legislation. The current algae species that are consumed and commercialized in Europe were investigated, according to their status under the European Union (EU) Novel Food legislation, along with the market perspectives in terms of the current research and development initiatives, while evaluating the interest and potential in the European market. The regular consumption of more than 150 algae species was identified, of which only 20% are approved under the EU Novel Food legislation, which demonstrates that the current legislation is not broad enough and requires an urgent update. Finally, the potential of the European algae market growth was indicated by the analysis of the trends in research, technological advances, and market initiatives to promote algae commercialization and consumption.

Food and market waste (FMW) is one of the most abundant unrecycled products which poses waste management issues and negative environmental impacts. Thermo-catalytic reforming (TCR) is a pyrolysis based technology which can convert a wide range of biomass wastes into energy vectors bio-oil, syngas, and char. This paper investigates the conversion potential of FMW into sustainable biofuels. The FMW was processed using a laboratory scale 2 kg/h TCR reactor. The process produced 7 wt % organic bio-oil, 53 wt % permanent gas, and 22 wt % char. The bio-oil higher heating value (HHV) was found to be 36.72 MJ/kg, comparable to biodiesel, and contained a low oxygen content (<5%) due to cracking of higher molecular weight organics. Naphthalene was detected to be the most abundant aromatic compound within the oil, with relative abundance of 12.95% measured by GC-MS. The total acid number of the oil (TAN) and viscosity were 11.7 mg KOH/g and 6.3 cSt, respectively. The gross calorific value of the produced biochar was 23.64 MJ/kg, while the permanent gas showed a higher heating value of approximately 17 MJ/Nm 3 . Methane (CH 4 ) was found to be the largest fraction in the permanent gases reaching over 23%. This resulted either due to the partial methanation of biosyngas over the catalytically active FMW biochar or the hydrogenation of coke deposited on the biochar in the post reforming stage.

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Stormwater runoff carries pollutants from urban areas to rivers and has the potential to be a main contributing source of microplastics (MPs) to the ecosystem. Stormwater detention reservoirs (SDRs) differ from ponds and lakes in that SDRs retain most particulate matter and they are emptied after storm events. This paper investigates the occurrence of MPs in the SDR of the Alto-Tietê catchment area, Itaim stream in Poá city, São Paulo, Brazil. The MPs found were classified in different categories: shapes (fragment, line/fibre, film/sheet and pellet); size (<0.5 mm, between 0.5 mm and 1 mm and >1 mm); and polymer composition. Results have shown that most of the MPs found in the samples are fragments (57%), followed by pellets (27%), fibres/lines (9%), and then films/sheets (6%). Small particles (<0.5 mm) represented 89% of the total MPs, and this category mainly included fragments (62%) and pellets (30%). MPs were found in a vast variety of shapes and colours, which shows a likely variety of sources. Besides the occurrence of MPs in the stormwater samples, the potential of SDRs as a first sanitary barrier to retain MPs before they reach the ecosystem has been speculated.

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