The human demand for protein-rich food is everincreasing which contributes to the expansion of mushroom industry in the world. Statistically, the word production of mushroom industry has reached a level greater than 25 million tons (Yang et al., 2015). In spite of many advantages, the production of mushrooms generates large volumes of solid waste products (called spent mushroom substrate) which...

Agricultural waste fibers have been found to be suitable as reinforcement in cement-based composites, but studies on oil palm fiber as reinforcement in gypsum-cement wall panels are scarce. A mixture of two equal weights of gypsum and cement, with water-binder ratios of 0.45 and 0.55 were prepared. In each mix a varying percentage of fiber contents of 2%, 3% and 4% by weight of the binders were...

Waste palm dates were subjected to analysis for composition and enzymatic hydrolysis of their flesh fibers. The fruit contained 32% glucose and 30% fructose, while the water-insoluble fibers of its flesh consisted of 49.9% lignin and 20.9% polysaccharides. Water-insoluble fibers were settled to 55% of its initial volume in 12 h. The presence of skin and flesh colloidal fibers results in high vi...

Cellulose is one of the most abundant non-degradable organic compound on earth. Near about half of the municipal and agricultural solid wastes contain cellulose or their derivatives. Saccharification or enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic wastes liberates glucose. In the present work, cellulase from Cellulomonas uda was extracted, partially purified by dialysis and immobilized on an organic supp...

Activated carbon is an adsorbent in the separation and purification industries. The adsorption capacity of activated carbon depends on porosity and its surface chemistry. In this review the production of activation carbon from a large number of abundant and low-cost materials and agricultural waste such as Camellia oleifera shell, bamboo, cherry stones, waste tea, and Paulownia flower are discu...

Backyard gardens, dump heaps, and kitchen middens are thought to have provided important venues for early crop domestication via generation of hybrids between otherwise isolated plant species. However, this process has rarely been demonstrated empirically. For the majority of polyploid crops, it remains uncertain to what extent hybridization and polyploidization preceded domestication or were p...

Lignocellulosic biomass such as agricultural and forestry residues and dedicated crops provides a low-cost and uniquely sustainable resource for production of many organic fuels and chemicals that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy security, improve the economy, dispose of problematic solid wastes, and improve air quality. A technoeconomic analysis of biologically processing li...

Composting is a biological decomposition process where microorganisms convert raw organic materials into relatively stable humus-like material. During decomposition, microorganisms assimilate complex organic substances and release inorganic nutrients. An adequate composting process kills pathogens and stabilizes compost organic carbon before the material is land-applied. In 1997, 27.2 million m...