BACKGROUND: There is not adequate literature on effects of seaweed extracts (SWE) on yield and nutritional status of olive trees as well as olive oil quality. In this work, a study of the effects of a seaweed extract applied foliarly (0.5% v/v) in addition to soil application of N (500 g NH 4 NO 3 per tree) and B (150 g borax per tree) on productivity, fruit parameters, nutritional status and olive oil quality of a Greek olive cultivar was performed.

The potential of on-purpose ethylene production, in parallel with CO 2 conversion to CO, is of great interest. Iron oxide-based catalysts supported on mixed oxides zNiOÀ MgOÀ ZrO 2 , z = 0-10 wt%, are active for the CO 2 -assisted oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane at 873 K and 101.3 kPa. Enhanced control of their selectivity towards CÀ H bond cleavage and not towards CÀ C bond cleavage can be achieved by adjusting the Ni/Fe ratio. Fine tuning Ni/Fe molar ratio results in stable catalytic performance, with selectivity towards C 2 H 4 > 65 % and C 2 H 6 conversion > 20 %. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show a significant enhancement in activity due to decrease in the oxygen-vacancy formation energy and the increase in hydrogen adsorption energy at the Ni oxide-Fe oxide interface. The latter interface is the potential active site responsible for the enhanced performance that was experimentally exemplified for the Fe oxide/zNiOÀ MgOÀ ZrO 2 catalysts vs Fe oxide/

Iron oxide-based catalysts can selectively covert CO 2 to added-value CO in parallel with on-purpose ethylene production via ethane dehydrogenation (CO 2 -EDH). The 5Fe/10NiMgZr catalyst, calcined at 700 °C for 5 h, reached 90% selectivity, at a single-pass C 2 H 6 conversion of ∼23.3%, during CO 2 -EDH at 650 °C. X-ray characterization techniques (XRD, XPS, XAS, and XRS), along with structural modeling were used to elucidate the nature of highly selective active sites toward C−H bond scission. Under reaction conditions, Fe atoms are incorporated into the support lattice, as it was exemplified by XRS at Mg L 2,3 -and O K-edges. The dynamic structural modifications, occurring during CO 2 -EDH, highlighted the pivotal role of the support, reaching an ethylene yield of 21%. Mg coordination altered from octahedral to tetrahedral. The latter was accompanied by an electronic modification, which had a strong impact on the catalyst acidity, based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy combined with in situ adsorption of pyridine, resulting in an unpresented ethylene selectivity for Fe oxide-based catalysts.