Hospitals have a responsibility to link human health and the environment, but food waste in hospitals has traditionally been much higher than in other areas of food supply. The cause of this situation has many negative impacts on health, economy, society, and environment. As a result, food waste has become a topic of discussion in hospital food departments. Part of this problem is plate waste, the served food that remains uneaten by patients. Given the magnitude of the food problem, this systematic review is aimed to identify the most common measures used to reduce plate waste in hospitals. PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases were comprehensively searched to identify food waste studies worldwide using related search terms. Many approaches have been recommended to increase patient food intake and minimise plate waste in hospitals. Up to date, the four most common include flexible portion sizes, increased food choices through selective menus, additional nutritional support and a better ordering and delivery system. Among them, the most used and effective are flexible portion sizes which may increase the ability of patients choosing their menus and upgrade ordering and delivery system by electronic format. In most studies, plate waste covers the most significant percentage of food waste produced in hospitals, while more than one approach is recommended to minimise it. In this aspect, further well‐design, multicenter, clinical studies are strongly required to highlight and establish novel and effective approaches for improving food waste management in hospitals by reducing plate waste.

No abstract

Zeolite, hematite, modified zeolite and commercial activated charcoal were examined for their ability to remove methylene blue (MB) and methyl red (MR) from their aqueous solutions. Modified zeolite and hematite were produced according to the Schwertmann and Cornell method while zeolite and commercial activated charcoal were obtained from S&B and Fluka AG companies, respectively. Adsorption experiments were conducted at three different adsorbent-to-solution ratios, namely 8, 16 and 24 g/L under environmental conditions and continuous stirring. Equilibrium isotherms of MB and MR were studied at different initial concentrations (from 5 × 10(-4) to 5 × 10(-3) g/L). MB adsorption kinetics were also studied. The maximum adsorption of MB and MR from their aqueous solutions was achieved at 24 g/L (adsorbent-to-dye solution ratio) after 1 h and was equal to 100% (MB) on modified zeolite and 99% (MR) on commercial activated charcoal, respectively. All the other materials achieved intermediate values of dye adsorption. From the applied kinetic models, the pseudo-second-order equation best described the adsorption of MB and MR. Consequently, modified zeolite showed the highest adsorption capacity for MB, while commercial activated charcoal showed the highest adsorption capacity of MR. The studied adsorbents can be used as filters to remove dyes from wastewaters.

Mixtures of novolac resin and olive stone biomass (20/80 and 40/60 w/w) were cured, pyrolyzed up to 1,000 °C and activated with CO2 under a continuous flow operation (named N20B-cCa and N40B-cCa respectively). Commercial activated charcoal was similarly re-activated with CO2 and used for comparison reasons (AC-a). The characterization of these materials was performed by Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis and their specific surface area was determined according to DIN 66132. The materials were tested for their adsorption abilities at different temperatures (298, 333 K) and initial dye concentrations (0.01-0.35 g/L) using 1 L of methylene blue (MB) solution in 10 g of activated carbon. MB adsorption kinetic was also studied. The FTIR spectra of all activated carbons show absorption peaks which correspond to -OH, -CH, -C-O-C- groups and to aromatic ring. The presence of the absorption peak at about 1,400 cm(-1) for N20B-cCa, N40B-cCa indicates more acidic groups on them compared to the commercial AC-a. The specific surface area of N20B-cCa, N40B-cCa and AC-a has values equal to 352, 342 and 760 m(2)/g respectively. From the applied kinetic models, pseudo-second-order equation could best describe MB adsorption. Consequently, such adsorbents can be used as filters to adsorb dyes from wastewaters.

In the present paper, a comparative study of five different non-isothermal kinetic analysis methods for the determination of the mechanism of the thermal decomposition of dolomite from thermogravimetric experiments, is presented. The experiments were carried out in a thermogravimetric analyser under a nitrogen atmosphere from 50 to 1100uC under non-isothermal conditions at five different heating rates, i.e. 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 K min 21 . By applying each of these methods, the kinetic parameters of the reaction were evaluated and the discrimination of the conversion function (kinetic model) that best verifies the experimental data was attempted. From a comparative study of the results of the above methods, it was concluded that the heating rate affects the activation energy values. For the model free methods, the activation energy was calculated at 242?5 kJ mol 21 and the pre-exponential factor ln (A, s 21 ) at 20?6. The phase boundary reaction model of zero order was found to best represent dolomite decomposition.