This paper presents a comparison of commercial fluidized bed gasifiers and combustors used to recover energy from municipal solid wastes and biomass. The work reported here is excerpted from four case studies prepared for the International Energy Agency’s Bioenergy Agreement, under Task 23 (Energy from Thermal Conversion of MSW and RDF, 1998-2000) and Task 36 (Energy from Integrated Solid Waste...

Microalgal biomass production offers a number of advantages over conventional biomass production including, higher productivities, use of otherwise non­ productive land, reuse and recovery of waste nutrients, use of saline or brackish waters, and reuse of CO2 from power-plant flue-gas or similar sources. Microalgal biomass production and utilization offers potential for greenhouse gas (GHG) avo...

This paper aimed to compare household waste, separated pig solids, food waste, pig slaughterhouse sludge and green algae regarding processes ruling nitrogen dynamic during composting. For each waste, three composting simulations were performed in parallel in three similar reactors (300 L), each one under a constant aeration rate. The aeration flows applied were comprised between 100 and 1100 L/...

Dairy waste is a complex mixture of nutrients requiring an integrated strategy for valorization into various products. The present work adds insights into the conversion of fat-rich dairy products into biomass, glycerol, and fatty acids via submerged cultivation with edible filamentous fungi. The pH influenced fat degradation, where Aspergillus oryzae lipase was more active at neutral than acid...

This review summarizes the potential of starch agroindustrial residues as substrate for biohydrogen production. Types of potential starch agroindustrial residues, recent developments and bio-processing conditions for biohydrogen production will be discussed. Biohydrogen is a clean energy source with great potential to be an alternative fuel, because it releases energy explosively in heat engine...

Chestnut shells (CS) are an agronomic waste generated from the peeling process of the chestnut fruit, which contain 2.7–5.2% (w/w) phenolic compounds and approximately 36% (w/w) polysaccharides. In contrast with current shell waste burning practices, this study proposes a CS biorefinery that integrates biomass pretreatment, recovery of bioactive molecules, and bioconversion of the lignocellulos...

Aspergillus niger F7 isolated from soil was found to be the potent producer of cellulase and xylanase. The residue of forest species Toona ciliata, Celtris australis, Cedrus deodara and Pinus roxburghii was selected as substrate for biodegradation study due to its easy availability and wide use in industry. It was subjected to alkali (sodium hydroxide) treatment for enhancing its degradation. B...

Gasification was chosen as one of the more conventional methods for conversion of biomass due to some important reasons such as space consideration, flexibility of fuels used, reducing the volume of solid waste and recovery of energy. Essentially, the process of gasification involves partial combustion of the organic part of the fuels to combustible gas rich in carbon monoxide, hydrogen and som...

Research posted today on ES&T’s Research ASAP website (10.1021/es0509836) describes how, in one elegant step, selected bacteria can recover precious metals from industrial waste solutions and deposit them as nanocrystal catalysts on their cell surfaces. By using the metal-covered biomass to clean up toxic chromium wastes, the researchers demonstrated the approach’s potential as a sustainable te...

Mary E H Mandels, who spearheaded the US Army's national bioconversion studies for four decades and was an early proponent of conversion of waste biomass to readily bioconvertible sugars for the production of chemicals and transportation fuels such as ethanol, died 17 February 2008 at Natick, MA, USA. She was 90.