scholarly journals Prospects of Microalgae for Biomaterial Production and Environmental Applications at Biorefineries

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3063
Author(s):  
Lourdes Orejuela-Escobar ◽  
Arleth Gualle ◽  
Valeria Ochoa-Herrera ◽  
George P. Philippidis
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Environmental Applications ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Microalgal Biomass ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Agricultural Industries ◽  
Adsorptive Properties

Microalgae are increasingly viewed as renewable biological resources for a wide range of chemical compounds that can be used as or transformed into biomaterials through biorefining to foster the bioeconomy of the future. Besides the well-established biofuel potential of microalgae, key microalgal bioactive compounds, such as lipids, proteins, polysaccharides, pigments, vitamins, and polyphenols, possess a wide range of biomedical and nutritional attributes. Hence, microalgae can find value-added applications in the nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, personal care, animal food, and agricultural industries. Microalgal biomass can be processed into biomaterials for use in dyes, paints, bioplastics, biopolymers, and nanoparticles, or as hydrochar and biochar in solid fuel cells and soil amendments. Equally important is the use of microalgae in environmental applications, where they can serve in heavy metal bioremediation, wastewater treatment, and carbon sequestration thanks to their nutrient uptake and adsorptive properties. The present article provides a comprehensive review of microalgae specifically focused on biomaterial production and environmental applications in an effort to assess their current status and spur further deployment into the commercial arena.

scholarly journals Microalgal Biomass Generation via Electroflotation: A Cost-Effective Dewatering Technology

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 9053
Author(s):  
Jaison Jeevanandam ◽  
Mohd Razif Harun ◽  
Sie Yon Lau ◽  
Divine D. Sewu ◽  
Michael K. Danquah
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Electrode System ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Separation Processes ◽  
Microalgal Biomass ◽  
Microalgae Culture ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Agricultural Industries ◽  
Cell Densities

Microalgae are an excellent source of bioactive compounds for the production of a wide range of vital consumer products in the biofuel, pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, and agricultural industries, in addition to huge upstream benefits relating to carbon dioxide biosequestration and wastewater treatment. However, energy-efficient, cost-effective, and scalable microalgal technologies for commercial-scale applications are limited, and this has significantly impacted the full-scale implementation of microalgal biosystems for bioproduct development, phycoremediation, and biorefinery applications. Microalgae culture dewatering continues to be a major challenge to large-scale biomass generation, and this is primarily due to the low cell densities of microalgal cultures and the small hydrodynamic size of microalgal cells. With such biophysical characteristics, energy-intensive solid–liquid separation processes such as centrifugation and filtration are generally used for continuous generation of biomass in large-scale settings, making dewatering a major contributor to the microalgae bioprocess economics. This article analyzes the potential of electroflotation as a cost-effective dewatering process that can be integrated into microalgae bioprocesses for continuous biomass production. Electroflotation hinges on the generation of fine bubbles at the surface of an electrode system to entrain microalgal particulates to the surface. A modification of electroflotation, which combines electrocoagulation to catalyze the coalescence of microalgae cells before gaseous entrainment, is also discussed. A technoeconomic appraisal of the prospects of electroflotation compared with other dewatering technologies is presented.

scholarly journals The Role of Heterotrophic Microalgae in Waste Conversion to Biofuels and Bioproducts

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1090
Author(s):  
Teresa Lopes da Silva ◽  
Patrícia Moniz ◽  
Carla Silva ◽  
Alberto Reis
Keyword(s):  
Unsaturated Fatty Acids ◽  
Waste Treatment ◽  
Culture Media ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Algal Growth ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Microalgal Biomass ◽  
Heterotrophic Microalgae ◽  
Wide Range

In the last few decades, microalgae have attracted attention from the scientific community worldwide, being considered a promising feedstock for renewable energy production, as well as for a wide range of high value-added products such as pigments and poly-unsaturated fatty acids for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, food, and cosmetic markets. Despite the investments in microalgae biotechnology to date, the major obstacle to its wide commercialization is the high cost of microalgal biomass production and expensive product extraction steps. One way to reduce the microalgae production costs is the use of low-cost feedstock for microalgae production. Some wastes contain organic and inorganic components that may serve as nutrients for algal growth, decreasing the culture media cost and, thus, the overall process costs. Most of the research studies on microalgae waste treatment use autotrophic and mixotrophic microalgae growth. Research on heterotrophic microalgae to treat wastes is still scarce, although this cultivation mode shows several benefits over the others, such as higher organic carbon load tolerance, intracellular products production, and stability in production all year round, regardless of the location and climate. In this review article, the use of heterotrophic microalgae to simultaneously treat wastes and produce high value-added bioproducts and biofuels will be discussed, critically analyzing the most recent research done in this area so far and envisioning the use of this approach to a commercial scale in the near future.

scholarly journals Integration of Algal Biofuels With Bioremediation Coupled Industrial Commodities Towards Cost-Effectiveness

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gurpreet Kaur Nagi ◽  
Amritpreet Kaur Minhas ◽  
Suchitra Gaur ◽  
Priyanshu Jain ◽  
Shovon Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Process Development ◽  
Animal Feed ◽  
Crop Protection ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Algal Biofuel ◽  
Microalgal Biomass ◽  
By Products

Microalgae offer a great potential to contribute significantly as renewable fuels and documented as a promising platform for algae-based bio refineries. They provide solutions to mitigate the environmental concerns posed by conventional fuel sources; however, the production of microalgal biofuels in large scale production system encounters few technical challenges. High quantity of nutrients requirements and water cost constrain the scaling up microalgal biomass to large scale commercial production. Crop protection against biomass losses due to grazers or pathogens is another stumbling block in microalgal field cultivation. With our existing technologies, unless coupled with high-value or mid-value products, algal biofuel cannot reach the economic target. Many microalgal industries that started targeting biofuel in the last decade had now adopted parallel business plans focusing on algae by-products application as cosmetic supplements, nutraceuticals, oils, natural color, and animal feed. This review provides the current status and proposes a framework for key supply demand, challenges for cost-effective and sustainable use of water and nutrient. Emphasis is placed on the future industrial market status of value added by products of microalgal biomass. The cost factor for biorefinery process development needs to be addressed before its potential to be exploited for various value-added products with algal biofuel.

scholarly journals Biomass-derived nanocarbon materials for biological applications: challenges and prospects

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (42) ◽  
pp. 9668-9678
Author(s):  
H. Enis Karahan ◽  
Mengdi Ji ◽  
José Luis Pinilla ◽  
Xiaoxing Han ◽  
Abdelrhman Mohamed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wound Care ◽  
Microbial Inactivation ◽  
Environmental Applications ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Biological Applications ◽  
Electrochemical Systems ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Nanocarbon Materials ◽  
Future Potential ◽  
Microbial Electrochemical Systems

This review discusses the current status and future potential of biomass-derived nanocarbons for a wide range of biomedical/environmental applications, including bioimaging, microbial inactivation, wound care, and microbial electrochemical systems.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT OF BIO-ECONOMY IN THE FOOD AND TOURISM INDUSTRY

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1681-1684
Author(s):  
Georgi Toskov ◽  
Ana Yaneva ◽  
Stanko Stankov ◽  
Hafize Fidan
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Small Companies ◽  
Food Sector ◽  
Strategic Development ◽  
Innovation Potential ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Foreign Brands ◽  
Value Added Products

The European Commission defines the bioeconomy as "the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. Its sectors and industries have strong innovation potential due to their use of a wide range of sciences, enabling and industrial technologies, along with local and implied knowledge." The Bulgarian food industry faces a lot of challenges on the local and national level, which have direct influence on the structure of the production companies. Most of the enterprises from the food sector produce under foreign brands in order to be flexible partners to the large Bulgarian retail chains. The small companies from the food sector are not able to develop as an independent competitive producer on the territory of their local markets. This kind of companies rarely has a working strategy for positioning on new markets. In order to consolidate their already built positions for long period of time, the producers are trying to optimize their operations in a short term. However, the unclear vision of the companies for the business segment does not allow them to fully develop. Tourism in Bulgaria is a significant contributor to the country's economy.

Ethnomedicinal uses, Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Aspects of the Genus Berberis Linn: A Comprehensive Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roohi Mohi-ud-din ◽  
Reyaz Hassan Mir ◽  
Prince Ahad Mir ◽  
Saeema Farooq ◽  
Syed Naiem Raza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Constituents ◽  
Pharmacological Activities ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Anti Cancer ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Ethnomedicinal Uses

Background: Genus Berberis (family Berberidaceae), which contains about 650 species and 17 genera worldwide, has been used in folklore and various traditional medicine systems. Berberis Linn. is the most established group among genera with around 450-500 species across the world. This comprehensive review will not only help researchers for further evaluation but also provide substantial information for future exploitation of species to develop novel herbal formulations. Objective: The present review is focussed to summarize and collect the updated review of information of Genus Berberis species reported to date regarding their ethnomedicinal information, chemical constituents, traditional/folklore use, and reported pharmacological activities on more than 40 species of Berberis. Conclusion: A comprehensive survey of the literature reveals that various species of the genus possess various phytoconstituents mainly alkaloids, flavonoid based compounds isolated from different parts of a plant with a wide range of pharmacological activities. So far, many pharmacological activities like anti-cancer, anti-hyperlipidemic, hepatoprotective, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory both in vitro & in vivo and clinical study of different extracts/isolated compounds of different species of Berberis have been reported, proving their importance as a medicinal plant and claiming their traditional use.

Current Status and Future Perspective for Research on Medicinal Plants with Anticancerous Activity and Minimum Cytotoxic Value

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 1227-1243
Author(s):  
Hina Qamar ◽  
Sumbul Rehman ◽  
D.K. Chauhan
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Anticancer Agents ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Psidium Guajava ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Future Perspective ◽  
Wide Range

Cancer is the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although chemotherapy and radiotherapy enhance the survival rate of cancerous patients but they have several acute toxic effects. Therefore, there is a need to search for new anticancer agents having better efficacy and lesser side effects. In this regard, herbal treatment is found to be a safe method for treating and preventing cancer. Here, an attempt has been made to screen some less explored medicinal plants like Ammania baccifera, Asclepias curassavica, Azadarichta indica, Butea monosperma, Croton tiglium, Hedera nepalensis, Jatropha curcas, Momordica charantia, Moringa oleifera, Psidium guajava, etc. having potent anticancer activity with minimum cytotoxic value (IC50 >3μM) and lesser or negligible toxicity. They are rich in active phytochemicals with a wide range of drug targets. In this study, these medicinal plants were evaluated for dose-dependent cytotoxicological studies via in vitro MTT assay and in vivo tumor models along with some more plants which are reported to have IC50 value in the range of 0.019-0.528 mg/ml. The findings indicate that these plants inhibit tumor growth by their antiproliferative, pro-apoptotic, anti-metastatic and anti-angiogenic molecular targets. They are widely used because of their easy availability, affordable price and having no or sometimes minimal side effects. This review provides a baseline for the discovery of anticancer drugs from medicinal plants having minimum cytotoxic value with minimal side effects and establishment of their analogues for the welfare of mankind.

Therapeutic Properties of Several Chemical Compounds from Salvia officinalis L. in Alzheimer’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgiana Uță ◽  
Denisa Ștefania Manolescu ◽  
Speranța Avram
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Natural Compounds ◽  
Salvia Officinalis ◽  
Chemical Structures ◽  
In Silico Studies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Salvia Officinalis L

Background.: Currently, the pharmacological management in Alzheimer's disease is based on several chemical structures, represented by acetylcholinesterase and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor ligands, with still unclear molecular mechanisms, but severe side effects. For this reason, a challenge for Alzheimer's disease treatment remains to identify new drugs with reduced side effects. Recently, the natural compounds, in particular certain chemical compounds identified in the essential oil of peppermint, sage, grapes, sea buckthorn, have increased interest as possible therapeutics. Objectives.: In this paper, we have summarized data from the recent literature, on several chemical compounds extracted from Salvia officinalis L., with therapeutic potential in Alzheimer's disease. Methods.: In addition to the wide range of experimental methods performed in vivo and in vitro, also we presented some in silico studies of medicinal compounds. Results. Through this mini-review, we present the latest information regarding the therapeutic characteristics of natural compounds isolated from Salvia officinalis L. in Alzheimer's disease. Conclusion.: Thus, based on the information presented, we can say that phytotherapy is a reliable therapeutic method in a neurodegenerative disease.

scholarly journals Current status of vascular access in Japan—from Dialysis Access Symposium 2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 38-44
Author(s):  
Mizuya Fukasawa
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Access ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Good Survival ◽  
Chronic Glomerulonephritis ◽  
Dialysis Access ◽  
Dialysis Patients ◽  
Survival Prognosis ◽  
Access Methods ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Wide Range

At the second Dialysis Access Symposium held in Nagoya, Japan, a proposal was made to investigate the differences in vascular access methods used in different countries. In this article, we describe the management of vascular access in Japan. The Japanese population is rapidly aging, and the proportion of elderly patients on dialysis is also increasing. There were 325,000 dialysis patients in Japan at the end of 2015, of whom 65.1% were aged 65 years or above. The number of patients with diabetic nephropathy or nephrosclerosis as the underlying condition is also increasing, whereas the number with chronic glomerulonephritis is steadily decreasing. The Japanese health insurance system enables patients to undergo medical treatment at almost no out-of-pocket cost. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty suffers from a severe device lag compared with other countries, but although there are limitations on permitted devices, the use of those that have been authorized is covered by medical insurance. One important point that is unique to Japan is that vascular access is performed and managed by doctors involved in dialysis across a wide range of disciplines, including nephrologists, surgeons, and urologists. This may be one factor contributing to the good survival prognosis of Japanese dialysis patients.

scholarly journals Recent progress in materials development for CO2 conversion: issues and challenges

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sourav Ghosh ◽  
Arindam Modak ◽  
Arnab Samanta ◽  
Kanika Kole ◽  
Subhra Jana
Keyword(s):  
Recent Progress ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Advanced Materials ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Co2 Conversion ◽  
Technical Feasibility ◽  
Materials Development

A comprehensive and critical in-depth discussion on the development and prospect of several advanced materials for conversion of CO2 to value added chemicals is provided, together with their current status, technical feasibility and future opportunities.

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