Valorization of strawberry extrudate waste: Recovery of phenolic compounds by direct-hydrothermal treatment and subsequent methane production by mesophilic semi-continuous anaerobic digestion.

Strawberry extrudate (SE) is an underused by-product from strawberry industry. Recovery of the phenolic compounds present in SE would represent a very interesting valorisation option. Two main challenges need to be solved, firstly, the solubilisation and recovery of the phenolic compounds contained in SE, and, after that, the stabilisation of the resulted de-phenolized SE. The present research evaluates the potential of a biorefinery process combining a hydrothermal pre-treatment, followed by a phenolic extraction process and, finally, the anaerobic digestion of the remaining SE for producing energy that will contribute to compensate the energy requirements of the whole system. Following the hydrothermal pre-treatment at 170 °C for 60 min, an extraction of 0.6 ± 0.1 g of gallic acid per kilogram of SE was achieved using an adsorbent resin, representing a recovery rate of 64 %. Long-term semi-continuous anaerobic digestion of de-phenolized SE was evaluated at different organic loading rates to evaluate the stability of the process. The anaerobic digestion of pre-treated SE achieved a stable methane production value of 243 ± 34 mL CH4·g volatile solids-1·d-1 at an organic loading rate (ORL) of 1.25 g volatile solids·L-1·d-1. During the operation at this ORL, the control parameters including pH, alkalinity, soluble chemical organic demand (sCOD), and volatile fatty acid (VFA) remained stable and consistently constant. Specifically, the VFA in the reactor during this stable period achieved a value of 102 ± 128 mg O2/L. Also, an economic balance showed that the minimal price of the generated phenolic extract for having benefited from the proposed biorefinery system was 0.812 €·(g of gallic acid equivalents)-1, a price within the range of phenolic compounds used in the food industry.

Enhanced wastewater bioremediation by a sulfur-based copolymer as scaffold for microalgae immobilization (AlgaPol).

In recent years, there has been an increasing concern related to the contamination of aqueous ecosystems by heavy metals, highlighting the need to improve the current techniques for remediation. This work intends to address the problem of removing heavy metals from waterbodies by combining two complementary methodologies: adsorption to a copolymer synthesized by inverse vulcanization of sulfur and vegetable oils and phytoremediation by the microalga Chlorella sorokiniana to enhance the metal adsorption. After studying the tolerance and growth of Chlorella sorokiniana in the presence of the copolymer, the adsorption of highly concentrated Cd2+ (50 mg L-1) by the copolymer and microalgae on their own and the combined immobilized system (AlgaPol) was compared. Additionally, adsorption studies have been performed on mixtures of the heavy metals Cd2+ and Cu2+ at a concentration of 8 mg L-1 each. AlgaPol biofilm is able to remove these metals from the growth medium by more than 90%. The excellent metal adsorption capacity of this biofilm can be kinetically described by a pseudo-second-order model.

Effect of metals on mesophilic anaerobic digestion of strawberry extrudate in batch mode.

According to recent studies, the anaerobic digestion of strawberry extrudate is a promising option with potential in the berry industry biorefinery. However, the lack and/or unbalance of concentrations of metals in some agro-industrial residues could hamper methane production during the anaerobic digestion of these kinds of wastes. In this study, a fractional factorial design was applied to screen the supplementation requirements regarding six metals (Co, Ni, Fe, Cu, Mn, and Zn) for methane production from strawberry extrudate (SE). The logistic model was used to fit the experimental data of methane production-time. It allowed identifying two different stages in the anaerobic process and obtaining the kinetic parameters for each step. Maximum methane production obtained in the first (Bmax) kinetic stage, the methane production in the second stage (P), and the maximum methane production rates (Rmax) concluded a statistically significant effect for Ni and Zn. The second set of experiments was carried out with Ni and Zn through a central composite design to study the concentration effect in the anaerobic digestion process of the strawberry extrudate. The parameters P and Rmax demonstrated a positive interaction between Ni and Zn. Although, Bmax did not prove a statistically significant effect between Ni and Zn.

Effect of harvesting time in the methane production on the anaerobic digestion of microalgae.

Microalgae are being proposed as excellent substrates for different biorefinery processes. Anaerobic digestion process of microalgae is one of these interesting processes but has some limitations in deleting cell walls. For this reason, many studies proposed different types of pre-treatments, entailing energy, operation, and investment costs. This work aims to optimize the anaerobic digestion of the microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana and Chlorella sorokiniana (strain S12/S13/S16) without any pre-treatment by selecting the optimal harvesting time. The greatest influence is seen at 5:00 PM in methane production for both microalgae. For Chlorella sorokiniana, it is the most optimal moment for anaerobic digestion, whereas Chlorella sorokiniana (strain S12/S13/S16) is the least optimal. In the other harvesting times, both microalgae present a similar methane production, i.e. 173 ± 12 mL CH4/g of total volatile solids. The highest methane production rate values were obtained during peak sunlight, 1:00 PM and 8:00 AM, respectively, and lower overnight.

Assessment of different mechanical treatments for improving the anaerobic biodegradability of residual raspberry extrudate.

Mechanical treatments can be simple and feasible methods for enhancing the anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic substrates. This work aims to relate the direct effect of five different mechanical treatments, i.e., variation in the size and number of particles, with the variations in the chemical composition and, subsequently, the effect over the anaerobic digestion of residual raspberry extrudate, which was used as a model substrate. A high variation in the number of particles and the particle size distribution was achieved depending on the mechanical treatment applied, reaching the highest number of particles for the treatments with knife mills and mortar (around 8000 particles per gram). The higher number of particles was related to higher solubilisation, including phenolic compounds and sugars. The combination of knife mills and mortar pretreatment, which presented the highest number of particles, resulted in a 66% more of polyphenols in comparison to the raw substrate. However, the presence of anthocyanins was higher in mechanical treatments with less effect. The enhancement of the anaerobic digestion was clearly related to the increment in the number of particles of small size after the mechanical treatments. The highest methane yield coefficient (236 ± 11 mL CH4/g volatile solids) was achieved for the raspberry extrudate treated with knife mills.

Mesophilic Semi-Continuous Anaerobic Digestion of Strawberry Extrudate Pretreated with Steam Explosion.

The production of strawberry concentrate produces a side stream after extrusion that is commonly landfilled. This strawberry extrudate (SE), of lignocellulosic character, contains valuable bioactive compounds such as sugars and phenols. Thermal treatments, such as steam explosion, are currently used for the valorisation of agricultural lignocellulosic wastes due to their ability to impact the structure of the lignocellulose and hemicellulose present in these wastes, favouring the disruption of fibrous material. Steam explosion has already been shown as a promising technology for phenol recovery from SE. Biogas is an additional valuable resource that might be produced from thermally pretreated and de-phenolised SE. This study assessed the influence of a steam-explosion pretreatment and the subsequent recovery of phenolic compounds from the long-term operation of a semi-continuous anaerobic digester of pretreated SE. The anaerobic digestion of SE steam exploded at 220 °C for 5 min and de-phenolised was stable at an OLR of 0.5 g of volatile solids (VS)/(L·d), which permitted a specific production rate of 135 ± 11 mL of CH4/(g of VS·d). The system was not able to operate at an OLR of 1 g of VS/(L·d), which resulted in a failure of the process. Despite the inhibition threshold of phenolic compounds not being achieved, the inhibition of the anaerobic digestion process at an OLR of 1 g of VS/(L·d) was most likely due to the overloading of the system. This was indicated by the accumulation of soluble organic matter and volatile fatty acids. The increase in the propionic acid concentration up to 1300 mg/L when operating at OLRs higher than 0.5 g of VS/(L·d) could be the main factor responsible for the inhibition. An economic evaluation showed that the proposed approach (steam explosion, phenol recovery, and anaerobic digestion) would offer positive benefits, taking into account the high phenolic recovery (0.90 g of gallic acid equivalents/kg of extrudate) and the low sales price of the phenol extract, i.e., EUR 0.610/g of gallic acid equivalents, needed to reach zero net profit.

Biogas Potential of the Side Streams Obtained in a Novel Phenolic Extraction System from Olive Mill Solid Waste.

The olive oil production is an important industrial sector in many Mediterranean areas, but it is currently struggled by the necessity of a proper valorisation of the olive mill solid waste or alperujo. The alperujo is the main by-product generated during the two-phase olive oil extraction, accounting for up to 80% of the initial olive mass. The alperujo is a source of valuable compounds, such as the pomace olive oil or highly interesting phenolic compounds. In the present research, a novel biorefinery approach has been used for phenolic compounds recovery. However, the extraction of these valuables compounds generates different exhausted phases with high organic matter content that are required to be managed. This study consists of the evaluation of the anaerobic biodegradability of the different fractions obtained in a novel biorefinery approach for the integral valorisation of alperujo. The results show that the different phases obtained during the biorefinery of the alperujo can be effectively subjected to anaerobic digestion and no inhibition processes were detected. The highest methane yield coefficients were obtained for the phases obtained after a two-months storages, i.e., suspended solids and liquid phase free of suspended solids, which generated 366 ± 7 mL CH4/g VS and 358 ± 6 mL CH4/g VS, respectively. The phenol extraction process reduced the methane yield coefficient around 25% due to the retention of biodegradable compounds during the extraction process. Regardless of this drop, the anaerobic digestion is a suitable technology for the stabilization of the different generated residual phases, whereas the high market price of the extracted phenols can largely compensate the slight decrease in the methane generation.

High-Value-Added Compound Recovery with High-Temperature Hydrothermal Treatment and Steam Explosion, and Subsequent Biomethanization of Residual Strawberry Extrudate.

This study was on the comparison of hydrothermal treatments at 170 °C (steam injection) and 220 °C (steam explosion) to solubilize the organic matter contained in residual strawberry extrudate, focusing on phenolic compounds that were susceptible to be extracted and on sugars. After the extraction step, the remaining strawberry extrudate phases were subjected to anaerobic digestion to generate biogas that would compensate the energy requirements of the suggested hydrothermal treatments and to stabilize the remaining waste. Hydrothermal treatment at 220 °C allowed the recovery of 2053 mg of gallic acid eq. per kg of residual strawberry extrudate. By contrast, after hydrothermal treatment at 170 °C, only 394 mg of gallic acid eq. per kg of residual strawberry extrudate was recovered. Anaerobic digestion processes were applied to the de-phenolized liquid phase and the solid phase together, which generated similar methane productions, i.e., around 430 mL CH4/g volatile solids, after both 170 °C and 220 °C hydrothermal treatments. Considering the latest observation, hydrothermal treatment at 220 °C is a preferable option for the valorization of residual strawberry extrudate (RSE) due to the high solubilization of valuable phenolic compounds that can be recovered.