Algal cellulose, production and potential use in plastics: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract Phosphogypsum (PG) is a waste by-product (residue) originating from the production of phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilisers. PG contains chemical and radioactive impurities, which is why it is mostly stockpiled in controlled areas. Worldwide, only about 15 % of PG is recycled or reused. Today, policies and business strategies prioritise sustainable development through circular economy, which certainly includes PG. This provides new opportunities for Croatia to manage its PG and make an effort to use it as an additive in different industries, such as agriculture and construction. Due to its chemical and radiological properties, PG can potentially cause problems for the environment and human health. Hence, before using PG, detailed knowledge of potential hazards is necessary to protect people and the environment. The aim of this review is to summarise available data on Croatian PG, compare them with other countries, and to identify knowledge gaps and the lack of data on potential hazardous substances in PG in order to assess the opportunities of using PG in Croatia.

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Opportunities Surrounding the Use of Sargassum Biomass as Precursor of Biogas, Bioethanol, and Biodiesel Production

Frontiers in Marine Science ◽

10.3389/fmars.2021.791054 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Jorge Gabriel Orozco-González ◽

Fernando Amador-Castro ◽

Angela R. Gordillo-Sierra ◽

Tomás García-Cayuela ◽

Hal S. Alper ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brown Algae ◽

Value Added ◽

Local Economy ◽

Biodiesel Production ◽

Commercial Application ◽

Mexican Caribbean ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Multiple Value ◽

Potential Use ◽

Value Added Products

Climate change (along with other factors) has caused an increase in the proliferation of brown algal mats floating freely along the Atlantic Ocean since 2011. These brown algae mats are composed of sea plants from the Sargassum genus. The gargantuan agglomeration of biomass flows alongside currents and lands in beaches belonging to the Eastern coasts of the Mexican Caribbean and several other countries in the region. These events, dubbed golden tides, harm the local economy and environment. Current elimination approaches involve the mechanical harvesting of the Sargassum and ultimate landfill disposal. However, explorations into the commercial application of other brown algae have elucidated the potential of Sargassum as a feedstock for valorization. This review informs the trends, challenges, and opportunities presented by the coastal invasion of this biomass. Primarily, the potential use of this material is as a precursor in biorefineries where multiple value-added products are generated concurrent with the ultimate production of biofuels.

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Natural Products: A Potential Source of Malaria Transmission Blocking Drugs?

Pharmaceuticals ◽

10.3390/ph13090251 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 251

Author(s):

Phanankosi Moyo ◽

Grace Mugumbate ◽

Jacobus N. Eloff ◽

Abraham I. Louw ◽

Vinesh J. Maharaj ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Natural Products ◽

Mosquito Vector ◽

Blocking Drug ◽

Transmission Blocking ◽

Antimalarial Agents ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Sexual Stages ◽

Derivatives Of ◽

Effective Transmission ◽

Potential Use

The ability to block human-to-mosquito and mosquito-to-human transmission of Plasmodium parasites is fundamental to accomplish the ambitious goal of malaria elimination. The WHO currently recommends only primaquine as a transmission-blocking drug but its use is severely restricted by toxicity in some populations. New, safe and clinically effective transmission-blocking drugs therefore need to be discovered. While natural products have been extensively investigated for the development of chemotherapeutic antimalarial agents, their potential use as transmission-blocking drugs is comparatively poorly explored. Here, we provide a comprehensive summary of the activities of natural products (and their derivatives) of plant and microbial origins against sexual stages of Plasmodium parasites and the Anopheles mosquito vector. We identify the prevailing challenges and opportunities and suggest how these can be mitigated and/or exploited in an endeavor to expedite transmission-blocking drug discovery efforts from natural products.

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Applying remote health monitoring to understand users’ QoE in multisensory applications in real-time

10.5753/sensoryx.2021.15685 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jordano R. Celestrini ◽

Estêvão B. Saleme ◽

Niall Murray ◽

Rodrigo V. Andreão ◽

Celso A. S. Santos

Keyword(s):

Physiological Data ◽

Remote Patient Monitoring ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Sensory Effects ◽

Objective Metrics ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Remote Patient ◽

Potential Use ◽

Remote Health

User’s Quality of Experience (QoE) understanding from objective metrics has been increasingly explored in multisensory research. However, capturing physiological data adds a degree of difculty to an already complex environment composed of software to reproduce content and actuators to deliver sensory eﬀects. In this paper, we introduce the potential use of remote patient monitoring (RPM) systems to monitor users’ QoE through a specifc tool named HealthDash. We aim to raise discussion around them in digital multisensory experiences, their application, advantages and disadvantages, and challenges and opportunities.

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The growth of mica polytypes as studied by conventional and high-resolution TEM

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100074690 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

pp. 174-177

Author(s):

A. Baronnet ◽

M. Amouric

Keyword(s):

Water Pressure ◽

Point Of View ◽

Temperature Fields ◽

Natural Occurrence ◽

Growth Mechanisms ◽

Long Period ◽

High Resolution Tem ◽

Layer Stacking ◽

Experimental Works ◽

Potential Use

The origin of mica polytypes has long been a challenging problem for crystal- lographers, mineralogists and petrologists. From the petrological point of view, interest in this field arose from the potential use of layer stacking data to furnish further informations about equilibrium and/or kinetic conditions prevailing during the crystallization of the widespread mica-bearing rocks. From the compilation of previous experimental works dealing with the occurrence domains of the various mica "polymorphs" (1Mr, 1M, 2M1, 2M2 and 3T) within water-pressure vs temperature fields, it became clear that most of these modifications should be considered as metastable for a fixed mica species. Furthermore, the natural occurrence of long-period (or complex) polytypes could not be accounted for by phase considerations. This highlighted the need of a more detailed kinetic approach of the problem and, in particular, of the role growth mechanisms of basal faces could play in this crystallographic phenomenon.

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An atomic-resolution microscope study of Al contracts on GaAs

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100145005 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 726-727

Author(s):

Z. Liliental-Weber ◽

C. Nelson ◽

R. Ludeke ◽

R. Gronsky ◽

J. Washburn

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Schottky Contacts ◽

Detailed Knowledge ◽

The Past ◽

Semiconductor Interfaces ◽

Deposited Metal ◽

Microwave Applications ◽

Free Interfaces ◽

Potential Use

The properties of metal/semiconductor interfaces have received considerable attention over the past few years, and the Al/GaAs system is of special interest because of its potential use in high-speed logic integrated optics, and microwave applications. For such materials a detailed knowledge of the geometric and electronic structure of the interface is fundamental to an understanding of the electrical properties of the contact. It is well known that the properties of Schottky contacts are established within a few atomic layers of the deposited metal. Therefore surface contamination can play a significant role. A method for fabricating contamination-free interfaces is absolutely necessary for reproducible properties, and molecularbeam epitaxy (MBE) offers such advantages for in-situ metal deposition under UHV conditions

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Continuous hydrogenolysis of acetal-stabilized lignin in flow

Green Chemistry ◽

10.1039/d0gc02928a ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Wu Lan ◽

Yuan Peng Du ◽

Songlan Sun ◽

Jean Behaghel de Bueren ◽

Florent Héroguel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Steady State ◽

Challenges And Opportunities

We performed a steady state high-yielding depolymerization of soluble acetal-stabilized lignin in flow, which offered a window into challenges and opportunities that will be faced when continuously processing this feedstock.

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