Wastewater (WW) treatment using microalgae has become a growing trend due the economic and environmental benefits of the process. As microalgae need CO2, nitrogen, and phosphorus to grow, they remove these potential pollutants from wastewaters, making them able to replace energetically expensive treatment steps in conventional WW treatment. Unlike traditional sludge, biomass can be used to produce biofuels, biofertilizers, high value chemicals, and even next-generation growth media for “organically” grown microalgal biomass targeting zero-waste policies and contributing to a more sustainable circular bioeconomy. The main challenge in this technology is the techno-economic feasibility of the system. Alternatives such as the isolation of novel strains, the use of native consortia, and the design of new bioreactors have been studied to overcome this and aid the scale-up of microalgal systems. This review focuses on the treatment of urban, industrial, and agricultural wastewaters by microalgae and their ability to not only remove, but also promote the reuse, of those pollutants. Opportunities and future prospects are discussed, including the upgrading of the produced biomass into valuable compounds, mainly biofuels.
Agricultural waste has been a prominent environmental concern due to its significant negative impact on the environment when it is incinerated, disposed of in landfills, or burned. These scenarios promoted innovations in the food packaging sector using renewable resources, namely agri-food waste and by-products such as bagasse, pulps, roots, shells, straws, and wastewater for the extraction and isolation of biopolymers that are later transformed into packaging materials such as bioplastics, biofilms, paper, and cardboards, among others. In this context, the circular bioeconomy (CBE) model is shown in the literature as a viable alternative for designing more sustainable production chains. Moreover, the biorefinery concept has been one of the main links between the agri-food chain and the food packaging industry. This review article aimed to compile recent advances in the food packaging field, presenting main industrial and scientific innovations, economic data, and the challenges the food packaging sector has faced in favor of sustainable development.
The aim of this work was to study the effect of UV-C radiation on ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE) of cherry tomato bioactive compounds. Cherry tomatoes were exposed to two UV-C radiation doses (0.5 and 1.0 J cm −2 ) and stored at 20 ± 0.5 o C for 7 days. Next, they were lyophilized, and the bioactive compounds were extracted by UAE at 20 KHz. To evaluate the effectiveness of the extraction process of the bioactive compounds, a CCRD (central composite rotational design) was used together with RSM (response surface methodology), for extraction times from 4 to 12 minutes and concentrations (g of lyophilized product / L of ethanol) of 1:10, 1:20 and 1:30. The extracts obtained from the irradiated tomatoes presented 5.8 times more lycopene content than the controls and higher antioxidant activity was obtained for 4 and 8 min, in the concentrations 1:10 and 1:20 (m v −1 ). Through numerical model optimization, optimal extraction conditions were obtained. The results demonstrated that by previously irradiating tomatoes with UV-C light, the UAE yielded considerably higher amounts of lycopene and other bioactives.
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