scholarly journals Effect of Biochar Prepared from Food Waste through Different Thermal Treatment Processes on Crop Growth

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 276
Author(s):  
Hang Jia ◽  
Haoxi Ben ◽  
Fengze Wu

Biochar is generally accepted and increasingly valued in scientific circles as solid products in the thermochemical conversion of biomass, mainly because of its rich carbon content. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of biochar from different sources on wheat growth. In particular, this work focused on the effect of different preparation methods and raw material of biochar on the growth of wheat and aim to find a potential soil substitute that can be used for crop cultivation. Two synthetic methods were evaluated: hydrothermal conversion and pyrolysis. The characterization of biochar was determined to explore the impact of its microstructure on wheat growth. The results show that the yield of biochar produced from high-pressure reactor is significantly higher than that obtained by using microwave reactor. For example, the biochar yield obtained through the former is about six times that of the latter when using steamed bread cooked as biomass raw material. In addition, the growth trend of wheat indicates that biochar has different promoting effects on the growth of wheat in its weight and height. The pyrolyzed carbon is more suitable for wheat growth and is even more effective than soil, indicating that pyrolyzed biochar has more potential to be an alternative soil in the future. Moreover, this research tries to explore the reasons that affect crop growth by characterizing biochar (including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), biofilm electrostatic test (BET) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)). The results indicate that the biochar containing more pits and less hydroxyl functional are more suitable for storing moisture, which is one of the significant factors in the growth of crops. This study provides evidence of the effects of biochar on crop growth, both in terms of microstructure and macroscopic growth trends, which provides significant benefits for biochar to grow crops or plants.

Author(s):  
А. М. Grebennikov ◽  
А. S. Frid ◽  
V. P. Belobrov ◽  
V. А. Isaev ◽  
V. М. Garmashоv ◽  
...  

The article assesses the relationships between the morphological properties of agrochernozems and yield of peas on the plots, experience with different methods of basic treatment (moldboard plowing at the depth of 20 - 22, 25 - 27 and 14 - 16 cm, moldboard plowing to a depth of 14 - 16 cm, combined midwater moldboard, mid-water subsurface, surface to a depth of 6 - 8 cm and zero tillage) is inherent in V.V. Dokuchaev Research Institute of Agriculture of the Central Black Earth strip, in the fall of 2014. The research was conducted in 2015 - 2016, with the application of mineral fertilizers (N60Р60К60) and unfertilized background. The highest pea yields in the fertilized as the background, and without the use of fertilizers was observed in dumping plowing and especially in the variant with deep moldboard plowing, which creates in comparison with other ways of handling the best conditions for the growth and development of peas. The lowest yield of pea was obtained with zero processing. Apparently legalistic migrational-mizelial agrochernozems the Central Chernozem zone of minimum tillage in the cultivation of peas are not effective, what is evident already in the first year after the laying of experience with different basic treatments. As shown by the results of applying multifactor analysis of variance studied the mapping properties of the soil can have the same significant impact on the yield of agricultural crops, as options for the field experiments aimed at assessing the impact of various treatments on yield.


1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 1255-1264
Author(s):  
K. L. Martins

During treatment of groundwater, radon is often coincidentally removed by processes typically used to remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs)-for example, processes such as liquid-phase granular activated carbon (LGAC) adsorption and air stripping with vapor-phase carbon (VGAC). The removal of radon from drinking water is a positive benefit for the water user; however, the accumulation of radon on activated carbon may cause radiologic hazards for the water treatment plant operators and the spent carbon may be considered a low-level radioactive waste. To date, most literature on radon removal by water treatment processes was based on bench- or residential-scale systems. This paper addresses the impact of radon on municipal and industrial-scale applications. Available data have been used todevelop graphical methods of estimating the radioactivity exposure rates to facility operators and determine the fate of spent carbon. This paper will allow the reader to determine the potential for impact of radon on the system design and operation as follows.Estimate the percent removal of radon from water by LGAC adsorbers and packed tower air strippers. Also, a method to estimate the percent removal of radon by VGAC used for air stripper off-gas will be provided.Estimate if your local radon levels are such that the safety guidelines, suggested by USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency), of 25 mR/yr (0.1 mR/day) for radioactivity exposure may or may not be exceeded.Estimate the disposal requirements of the waste carbon for LGAC systems and VGAC for air stripper “Off-Gas” systems. Options for dealing with high radon levels are presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 874-881
Author(s):  
Laras Prasakti ◽  
Sangga Hadi Pratama ◽  
Ardian Fauzi ◽  
Yano Surya Pradana ◽  
Arief Budiman ◽  
...  

AbstractAs fossil fuels were depleting at an alarming rate, the development of renewable energy has become necessary. One of the promising renewable energy to be used is biodiesel. The interest in using third-generation feedstock, which is microalgae, is rapidly growing. The use of third-generation biodiesel feedstock will be more beneficial as it does not compete with food crop use and land utilization. The advantageous characteristic which sets microalgae apart from other biomass sources is that microalgae have high biomass yield. Conventionally, microalgae biodiesel is produced by lipid extraction followed by transesterification. In this study, combination process between hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and esterification is explored. The HTL process is one of the biomass thermochemical conversion methods to produce liquid fuel. In this study, the HTL process will be coupled with esterification, which takes fatty acid from HTL as raw material for producing biodiesel. Both the processes will be studied by simulating with Aspen Plus and thermodynamic analysis in terms of energy and exergy. Based on the simulation process, it was reported that both processes demand similar energy consumption. However, exergy analysis shows that total exergy loss of conventional exergy loss is greater than the HTL-esterification process.


Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 485
Author(s):  
Vera Schmid ◽  
Antje Trabert ◽  
Judith (Schäfer) Keller ◽  
Mirko Bunzel ◽  
Heike P. Karbstein ◽  
...  

Food by-products can be used as natural and sustainable food ingredients. However, a modification is needed to improve the technofunctional properties according to the specific needs of designated applications. A lab-scale twin-screw extruder was used to process enzymatically treated apple pomace from commercial fruit juice production. To vary the range of the thermomechanical treatment, various screw speeds (200, 600, 1000 min−1), and screw configurations were applied to the raw material. Detailed chemical and functional analyses were performed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the impact of the extrusion processing on apple pomace composition and technofunctional properties as well as structures of individual polymers. Extrusion at moderate thermomechanical conditions increased the water absorption, swelling, and viscosity of the material. An increase in thermomechanical stress resulted in a higher water solubility index, but negatively affected the water absorption index, viscosity, and swelling. Scanning electron microscopy showed an extrusion-processing-related disruption of the cell wall. Dietary fiber analysis revealed an increase of soluble dietary fiber from 12.6 to 17.2 g/100 g dry matter at maximum thermo-mechanical treatment. Dietary fiber polysaccharide analysis demonstrated compositional changes, mainly in the insoluble dietary fiber fraction. In short, pectin polysaccharides seem to be susceptible to thermo-mechanical stress, especially arabinans as neutral side chains of rhamnogalacturonan I.


Author(s):  
Anna Fajdek-Bieda ◽  
Agnieszka Wróblewska ◽  
Piotr Miądlicki ◽  
Jadwiga Tołpa ◽  
Beata Michalkiewicz

AbstractThis work presented the studies with the natural zeolite—clinoptilolite as the catalyst for the isomerization of geraniol. During the research, it turned out that the studied process is much more complicated, and not only isomerization takes place in it, but also dehydration, oxidation, dimerization, cyclization and fragmentation of the carbon chain. Geraniol is an organic raw material which can be obtained not only by a chemical synthesis but also from plants (renewable biomass) by distillation or extraction method, for example a source of geraniol can be a plant—geranium. Before catalytic tests clinoptilolite was characterized by the instrumental methods, such as: XRD, porosity studies—nitrogen adsorption at 77 K, SEM, EDXRF, and FT-IR. Gas chromatography analyses showed that the main products of geraniol isomerization process were 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol. The selectivity of 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol depended on the temperature, catalyst content and reaction time. These parameters were changed in the following ranges: 80–150 °C (temperature), 5–15 wt% (catalyst content) and 15–1440 min. (reaction time). The most favorable conditions for 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol obtaining were: temperature 140 ºC, catalyst content 12.5 wt% and reaction time 180 min. At these conditions, the conversion of geraniol amounted to 98 mol%, and the selectivities of 6,11-dimethyl-2,6,10-dodecatrien-1-ol and thumbergol amounted to 14 and 47 mol%, respectively.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Qing Zhang ◽  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Yongqiang Yu ◽  
Tingting Li ◽  
Lijun Yu

Responses of crop growth to climate warming are fundamental to future food security. The response of crops to climate change may be subtly different at their growing stages. Close insights into the differentiated stage-dependent responses of crops are significantly important in making adaptive adjustments of crops’ phenological optimization and cultivar improvement in diverse cropping systems. Using the Agro-C model, we studied the influence of past climate warming on crops in typical cropping systems in China. The results showed that while the temperature had increased distinctly from the 1960s to 2000s, the temperature frequency distributions in the growth season of crops moved to the high-temperature direction. The low temperature days during the crop growth periods that suppress crop growth decreased in the winter wheat area in North and East China, rice and maize areas in Northeast China, and the optimum temperature days increased significantly. As a result, the above ground biomass (AGB) of rice and maize in Northeast China and winter wheat in North and East China increased distinctly, while that of rice in South China had no significant change. A comparison of the key growth periods before and after heading (silking) showed that the warming before heading (silking) made a great contribution to the increase in the AGB, especially for winter wheat.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2741
Author(s):  
Pengcheng Lv ◽  
Ruihong Meng ◽  
Zhongyang Mao ◽  
Min Deng

In this study, the hydrated sodium aluminosilicate material was synthesized by one-step hydrothermal alkaline desilication using fly ash (FA) as raw material. The synthesized materials were characterized by XRD, XRF, FT-IR and SEM. The characterization results showed that the alkali-soluble desilication successfully had synthesized the sodium aluminosilicate crystalline (N-A-S-H) phase of sodalite-type (SOD), and the modified material had good ionic affinity and adsorption capacity. In order to figure out the suitability of SOD as an adsorbent for the removal of ammonium and phosphorus from wastewater, the effects of material dosing, contact time, ambient pH and initial solute concentration on the simultaneous removal of ammonium and phosphorus are investigated by intermittent adsorption tests. Under the optimal adsorption conditions, the removal rate of ammonium was 73.3%, the removal rate of phosphate was 85.8% and the unit adsorption capacity reached 9.15 mg/L and 2.14 mg/L, respectively. Adsorption kinetic studies showed that the adsorption of ammonium and phosphorus by SOD was consistent with a quasi-secondary kinetic model. The adsorption isotherm analysis showed that the equilibrium data were in good agreement with the Langmuir and Freundlich model. According to thermodynamic calculations, the adsorption of ammonium and phosphorus was found to be a heat-absorbing and spontaneous process. Therefore, the preparation of SOD by modified FA has good adsorption properties as adsorbent and has excellent potential for application in the removal of contaminants from wastewater.


Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1411
Author(s):  
José Luis P. Calle ◽  
Marta Ferreiro-González ◽  
Ana Ruiz-Rodríguez ◽  
Gerardo F. Barbero ◽  
José Á. Álvarez ◽  
...  

Sherry wine vinegar is a Spanish gourmet product under Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Before a vinegar can be labeled as Sherry vinegar, the product must meet certain requirements as established by its PDO, which, in this case, means that it has been produced following the traditional solera and criadera ageing system. The quality of the vinegar is determined by many factors such as the raw material, the acetification process or the aging system. For this reason, mainly producers, but also consumers, would benefit from the employment of effective analytical tools that allow precisely determining the origin and quality of vinegar. In the present study, a total of 48 Sherry vinegar samples manufactured from three different starting wines (Palomino Fino, Moscatel, and Pedro Ximénez wine) were analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The spectroscopic data were combined with unsupervised exploratory techniques such as hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), as well as other nonparametric supervised techniques, namely, support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF), for the characterization of the samples. The HCA and PCA results present a clear grouping trend of the vinegar samples according to their raw materials. SVM in combination with leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) successfully classified 100% of the samples, according to the type of wine used for their production. The RF method allowed selecting the most important variables to develop the characteristic fingerprint (“spectralprint”) of the vinegar samples according to their starting wine. Furthermore, the RF model reached 100% accuracy for both LOOCV and out-of-bag (OOB) sets.


Urban Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Yuejuan Yang ◽  
Hao Zhang ◽  
Xinquan Zhao ◽  
Zhizhang Chen ◽  
Aiguo Wang ◽  
...  

Ecosystem services are the material basis of economic and social development, and play essential roles in the sustainable development of ecosystems. Urbanization can remarkably alter the provision of ecosystem services. Most studies in this area have focused on densely populated metropolises with poor ecological environments, while comparatively few studies have focused on cities with low ecological pressures. Therefore, to avoid continuing to engage in the repetitive pattern of destroying first and rehabilitating later, quantitative analyses of urbanization and ecosystem services should be carried out in representative cities. In this study, based on partial least squares-discriminant analysis, kernel density estimation, and correlation analysis, we quantitatively evaluated the impact of urbanization on ecosystem services in Weifang city. The Data Center for Resources and Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research provided remote sensing data on land use, the gross domestic production (GDP), population data, and ecosystem services. The results were as follows: (1) The variation in population, GDP, and built-up areas consistently increased throughout the study period, whereas the ecosystem service values (ESVs) decreased; (2) food production, raw material production, nutrient cycle maintenance, and soil conservation were decisive ecosystem services that led to vast reductions in ESVs during the process of urbanization; and (3) the negative correlation coefficient between built-up areas and ecosystem services was greater than that between the population or GDP and ecosystem services, which indicated that the impacts of population and economic urbanization on ecosystem services lagged behind the impact of land urbanization. This study provides references for fully recognizing the ecological effects of urbanization, and make suggestions regarding the application of ecosystem services in sustainable development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10454
Author(s):  
Katarína Teplická ◽  
Martin Straka

This article summarizes the arguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of using mining machines and their life cycle. The main goal of the article is to investigate the impact of a combination of mobile and stationary mining machines and their optimal distribution in the mining process to increase the efficiency of mining and processing of raw materials. The following methods of research were focused on the use of technical indicators for the valuation efficiency of the mining process: a simulation method was used for the distribution of mining machines, comparison analysis was used for the real and past state of mining machines, and a decision tree was used as managerial instrument for optimal alternatives of mining machines. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that optimal distribution of mining machines and machine parks is very important for mining companies. The benefit of this research for the mining company was the new location of the machines and the combination of stationary production lines and mobile equipment. The optimal layout of the machines reduced the number of conveyor belts and improved the transfer of limestone processing to mobile devices, saving time, which was reflected in transport costs. The results can be useful for other mining companies seeking to create an optimal machine park.


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