Recycling food and agriculture by-products to mitigate climate change: a review

Food loss and waste is a major issue affecting food security, environmental pollution, producer profitability, consumer prices, and climate change. About 1.3 billion tons of food products are yearly lost globally, with China producing approximately 20 million tons of soybean dregs annually. Here, we review food and agricultural byproducts with emphasis on the strategies to convert this waste into valuable materials. Byproducts can be used for animal and plant nutrition, biogas production, food, extraction of oils and bioactive substances, and production of vinegar, wine, edible coatings and organic fertilizers. For instance, bioactive compounds represent approximately 8–20% of apple pomace, 5–17% of orange peel, 10–25% of grape seeds, 3–15% of pomegranate peel, and 2–13% of date palm seeds. Similarly, the pharmaceutical industry uses approximately 6.5% of the total output of gelatin derived from fish bones and animal skin. Animals fed with pomegranate peel and olive pomace improved the concentration of deoxyribonucleic acid and protein, the litter size, the milk yield, and nest characteristics. Biogas production amounts to 57.1% using soybean residue, 53.7% using papaya peel, and 49.1% using sugarcane bagasse.

     

Mitochondrial toxicity and in vitro biological effects of ambient PM2.5 from an urban site in China

Abstract

The roles of PM_2.5-induced mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress on mast cell degranulation were examined in vitro. Mast cells were treated with suspensions of PM_2.5 in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium at concentrations from 25 to 200?mg/L in the absence or presence of 10?mmol/L N-acetyl-L-cysteine. Biological effects and mitochondrial function were assessed by determining cell viability, β-hexosaminidase release, interleukin-4 secretion, reactive oxygen species generation, adenosine triphosphate production, potential alteration of mitochondrial membrane, and activities of mitochondrial electron transport chain complexes I and III. Exposure of mast cells to PM_2.5 induced reduction of adenosine triphosphate production, collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential, and inhibition of the activity of complex III. Co-treatment of mast cells exposed to PM_2.5 with N-acetyl-L-cysteine attenuated cytotoxicity and the production of reactive oxygen species, and decreased the release of β-hexosaminidase and interleukin-4. Evidently, PM_2.5-induced oxidative stress plays an essential role in mitochondrial toxicity and mast cell activation.     

A comparative study of pre-aeration effects on hydraulic jump air–water flow properties at high Froude numbers

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - A hydraulic jump forming in the stilling basin at the base of a high-head dam spillway is often characterized by high Froude number and inflow pre-aeration...     

我国腈纶废水物化预处理方法的研究进展

结合我国腈纶废水的特征,系统归纳了近年来我国腈纶废水常用物化预处理方法的研究进展。物化预处理方法包括内电解法、混凝法、Fenton氧化法、电解法、臭氧氧化法、光催化氧化法、微波法等。这些方法普遍存在高成本、高能耗、实际运行费用大等问题。对未来物化预处理方法的研究方向提出了建议。最后指出,腈纶废水的处理应朝着节能高效和资源化的方向发展,推动我国腈纶废水处理技术的不断进步和完善。     

Manganese-modified biochar for highly efficient sorption of cadmium

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In this study, corn stalk was modified by manganese (Mn) before (MBC1) and after (MBC2) pyrolysis at different temperatures (400~600 °C)...     

Recovery of silicon powder from kerf loss slurry waste using superconducting high gradient magnetic separation technology

A major challenge in recycling of silicon powder from kerf loss slurry waste is the complete removal of metal particles. The traditional acid leaching method is costly and not green. In this paper, a novel approach to recover high-purity Si from the kerf loss slurry waste of solar grade silicon was investigated. The metal impurities were removed with superconducting high gradient magnetic separation technology. The effects of process parameters such as magnetic flux density, slurry density, and slurry flow velocity on the removal efficiency were investigated, and the parameters were optimized. In one lot of control experiments, the silicon content was increased from 90.91 to 95.83%, iron content reduced from 3.24 to 0.57%, and aluminum content from 2.44 to 1.51% under the optimum conditions of magnetic flux density of 4.0 T, slurry density of 20 g/L, and slurry flow velocity of 500 mL/min. The result indicates that the superconducting high gradient magnetic separation technology is a feasible purifying method, and the magnetic separation concentrate could be used as an intermediate product for high-purity Si powder.

     

Metabolic uncoupler, 3,3′,4′,5-tetrachlorosalicylanilide addition for sludge reduction and fouling control in a gravity-driven membrane bioreactor

• Effects of metabolic uncoupler TCS on the performances of GDMBR were evaluated. • Sludge EPS reduced and transformed into dissolved SMP when TCS was added. • Appropriate TCS increased the permeability and reduced cake layer fouling. • High dosage aggravated fouling due to compact cake layer with low bio-activity. The gravity-driven membrane bioreactor (MBR)system is promising for decentralized sewage treatment because of its low energy consumption and maintenance requirements. However, the growing sludge not only increases membrane fouling, but also augments operational complexities (sludge discharge). We added the metabolic uncoupler 3,3′,4′,5-tetrachlorosalicylanilide (TCS) to the system to deal with the mentioned issues. Based on the results, TCS addition effectively decreased sludge ATP and sludge yield (reduced by 50%). Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS; proteins and polysaccharides) decreased with the addition of TCS and were transformed into dissolved soluble microbial products (SMPs) in the bulk solution, leading to the break of sludge flocs into small fragments. Permeability was increased by more than two times, reaching 60–70 L/m²/h bar when 10–30 mg/L TCS were added, because of the reduced suspended sludge and the formation of a thin cake layer with low EPS levels. Resistance analyses confirmed that appropriate dosages of TCS primarily decreased the cake layer and hydraulically reversible resistances. Permeability decreased at high dosage (50 mg/L) due to the release of excess sludge fragments and SMP into the supernatant, with a thin but more compact fouling layer with low bioactivity developing on the membrane surface, causing higher cake layer and pore blocking resistances. Our study provides a fundamental understanding of how a metabolic uncoupler affects the sludge and bio-fouling layers at different dosages, with practical relevance for in situ sludge reduction and membrane fouling alleviation in MBR systems.     

Monitoring land cover change detection with NOAA-AVHRR and MODIS remotely sensed data in the North and West of Africa from 1982 to 2015

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Mapping land cover changes (LCC) cover three decades over North and West Africa regions provides critical insights for the climate research that...     

银川活动断层卫星遥感图像解译

采用对地表具有一定穿透能力的合成孔径雷达数据（ENVISAT ASAR）和光谱信息丰富的常规光学遥感数据（Landsat-7 ETM）作为主要数据源,综合了雷达遥感与光学遥感的成像优势,利用图像预处理、图像增强处理与多源遥感信息融合突出了银川研究区的活动断裂遥感影像特征。根据活动断层遥感解译标志,共解译出8条主要活动断层,分别为银川-平罗断裂、芦花台断裂、镇北堡断裂、黄河-灵武断裂、贺兰山东麓断裂带、黎家新庄-南泉子断裂、三关口断裂与青铜峡断裂,并对其影像特征与空间分布规律进行详细分析。银川活动断裂的解译分析为该地区的地震安全性评价与地震活动性分析奠定了基础。