Valorization of camelina oil to biobased materials and biofuels for new industrial uses: a review.

Global environmental pollution is a growing concern, especially the release of carbon dioxide from the use of petroleum derived materials which negatively impacts our environment's natural greenhouse gas level. Extensive efforts have been made to explore the conversion of renewable raw materials (vegetable oils) into bio-based products with similar or enhanced properties to those derived from petroleum. However, these edible plant oils, commonly used for human food consumption, are often not suitable raw materials for industrial applications. Hence, there is an increasing interest in exploring the use of non-edible plant oils for industrial applications. One such emerging oil seed crop is Camelina sativa, generally known as camelina, which has limited use as a food oil and so is currently being explored as a feedstock for various industrial applications in both Europe and North America. Camelina oil is highly unsaturated, making it an ideal potential AGH feedstock for the manufacture of lower carbon footprint, biobased products that reduce our dependency on petroleum resources and thus help to combat climate change. This review presents a brief description of camelina highlighting its composition and its production in comparison with traditional plant oils. The main focus is to summarize recent data on valorization of camelina oil by various chemical means, with specific emphasis on their industrial applications in biofuels, adhesives and coatings, biopolymers and bio-composites, alkyd resins, cosmetics, and agriculture. The review concludes with a discussion on current challenges and future opportunities of camelina oil valorization into various industrial products.

Impacts of COVID-19 Outbreak on the Municipal Solid Waste Management: Now and beyond the Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the municipal essential services, including municipal solid waste (MSW) management. This study has reviewed the literature on MSW and solid medical waste (SMW) management systems, waste management initiatives specific to this pandemic, as well as their impacts now and beyond. Waste segregation and separate treatment of waste streams play important roles in reducing the environmental, health, and social impacts of waste and waste management. The global warming potential of MSW and SMW were found to be varied from -0.64 to 520 kg CO2 equiv/tonne and -52.1 to 3730 kg CO2 equiv/tonne, respectively, which widely depend on the sterilization and disposal processes. Similarly, MSW and SMW disposal costs varied from 90 to $242/tonne and 12 to $1530.0/tonne, respectively. Various changes made to waste collection and management because of the COVID-19 pandemic affected waste segregation and recycling. Since the start of the pandemic, various sectors, including the food, waste management, and healthcare sectors, relied on the increased use of single-use plastics to prevent transmission of COVID-19. An environmentally friendly alternative (biodegradable/compostable) to widely used single-use plastics is desired for easing waste management problems. Although various initiatives are underway to manage growing volumes of MSW and SMW, while controlling the spreading of infectious diseases, the movable grate incineration technology coupled with an adequate disinfection process presents a potential solution in managing the COVID-19 waste challenges. The proper disinfection method and technological choices can mitigate the risk of spreading infections and can improve the waste management system's sustainability, especially the contaminated waste.

Hybrid biocomposites from polypropylene, sustainable biocarbon and graphene nanoplatelets.

Polypropylene (PP) is an attractive polymer for use in automotive parts due to its ease of processing, hydrophobic nature, chemical resistance and low density. The global shift towards eliminating non-renewable resource consumption has promoted research of sustainable biocarbon (BioC) filler in a PP matrix, but this material often leads to reduction in composite strength and requires additional fillers. Graphene nano-platelets (GnPs) have been the subject of considerable research as a nanofiller due to their strength, while maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MA-g-PP) is a commonly used compatibilizer for improvement of interfacial adhesion in composites. This study compared the thermo-mechanical properties of PP/BioC/MA-g-PP/GnP composites with varying wt.% of GnP. Morphological analysis revealed uniform dispersion of BioC, while significant agglomeration of GnPs limited their even dispersion throughout the PP matrix. In the optimal blend of 3 wt.% GnP and 17 wt.% BioC biocontent, tensile strength and modulus increased by ~19% and ~22% respectively, as compared to 20 wt.% BioC biocomposites. Thermal stability and performance enhancement occurred through incorporation of the fillers. Thus, hybridization of fillers in the compatibilized matrix presents a promising route to the enhancement of material properties, while reducing petroleum-based products through use of sustainable BioC filler in composite structures.