Effect of organic loading on anaerobic digestion of cow dung: Methane production and kinetic study.

Organic loading influences the effectiveness of producing biogas through anaerobic digestion. This study set out to investigate the effect of organic loading on the anaerobic mesophilic digestion of cow dung, the parameters involved in the digestion process and to evaluate the kinetics. Anaerobic digestion of cow dung at different organic loading (gVS/L) of 14 gVS/L, 18gVS/L, 22 gVS/L, 26 gVS/L and 30 gVS/L were investigated. Increasing the organic loading increased the methane yield of the cow dung. The highest cumulative methane yield was observed at 30 gVS/L with 63.42 mL CH4/gVS while the highest biogas yield was reported at 192.53 mL/gVS with the highest methane content of 89%. In addition, the modified Gompertz model equation with an R2 of 0.9980 demonstrated strong consistency and a good fit between predicted and experimental data. The high number of substrates added to the systems when increasing the organic loading increased the λ and slow down the nutrient transport and hydrolysis. This study provides current information on the effects of organic loading on the anaerobic digestion of cow dung in batch mode, including experimental conditions and operational parameters.

Biotechnological interventions in food waste treatment for obtaining value-added compounds to combat pollution.

Over the last few decades, the globe is facing tremendous effects due to the unnecessary piling of municipal solid waste among which food waste holds a greater portion. This practice not only affects the environment in terms of generating greenhouse gas emissions but when left dumped in landfills will also trigger poverty and malnutrition. This review focuses on the global trend in food waste management strategies involved in the effective utilization of food waste to produce various value-added products in a microbiology aspect, thereby diminishing the negative impacts caused by the unnecessary side effects of non-renewable energy sources. The review also detailed the efficiency of microorganisms in the production of various bio-energies as well. Further, recent attempts to the exploitation of genetically modified microorganisms in producing value-added products were enlisted. This also attempted to address food waste valorization techniques, the combined applications of various processes for an enhanced yield of different compounds, and addressed various challenges. Further, the current challenges involved in various processes and the effective measures to tackle them in the future have been addressed. Thus, the present review has successfully addressed the circular bio-economy in food waste valorization.

Biomass-derived carbon-based and silica-based materials for catalytic and adsorptive applications- An update since 2010.

Biomass, which defined as plant- or animal-based materials, is intriguing tremendous scientific attentions due to its renewable attribute in serving energy security. Amongst, the plant-based biomasses, particularly those that co-generated in the agriculture activities, are commonly regarded as fuel for burning, which overlooked their hidden potentials for high-end applications. Organically, the plant-based biomass constitutes of lignocellulose components, which can be served as promising precursors for functionalized carbon materials. Meanwhile, its inorganic counterpart made up of various minerals, with Si being the most concerned one. With the advancement of biomass technologies and material synthesis in recent years, numerous attempts were endeavoured to obtain valorised products from biomass. Particularly, syntheses of catalytic and adsorptive materials are actively researched in the field of biomass reutilization. Herein, our work systematically summarized the advancements of biomass-materials for these applications in recent 10 years (2010-2020), with a special focus on the carbon-based and Si-based catalytic/adsorptive materials. Significantly, the deriving steps, inclusive of both pre-treatment and post-treatment of such materials, are incorporated in the discussion, alongside with their significances revealed too. The performance of the as-obtained materials in the respective application is systematically correlated to their physicochemical properties, hence providing valuable insights to the readers. Challenges and promising directions to be explored are raised too at the end of the review, aiming to advocate better-usage of biomass while offering great opportunities to sustain catalysis and adsorption in the industrial scale.