Search results for: gas and oil separation plant

Authors: Lucia Steenkamp, Chris V. D. Westhuyzen, Kgama Mathiba

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Ambergris, and more specifically its oxidation product (–)-ambrafuran, is a scarce, valuable, and sought-after perfumery ingredient. The material is used as a fixative agent to stabilise perfumes in formulations by reducing the evaporation rate of volatile substances. Ambergris is a metabolic product of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephatus L.), resulting from intestinal irritation. Chemically, (–)-ambrafuran is produced from the natural product sclareol in eight synthetic steps – in the process using harsh and often toxic chemicals to do so. An overall yield of no more than 76% can be achieved in some routes, but generally, this is lower. A new 'green' route has been developed in our laboratory in which sclareol, extracted from the Clary sage plant, is converted to (–)-ambrafuran in two steps with an overall yield in excess of 80%. The first step uses a microorganism, Hyphozyma roseoniger, to bioconvert sclareol to an intermediate diol using substrate concentrations up to 50g/L. The yield varies between 90 and 67% depending on the substrate concentration used. The purity of the diol product is 95%, and the diol is used without further purification in the next step. The intermediate diol is then cyclodehydrated to the final product (–)-ambrafuran using a zeolite, which is not harmful to the environment and is readily recycled. The yield of the product is 96%, and following a single recrystallization, the purity of the product is > 99.5%. A preliminary LC-MS study of the bioconversion identified several intermediates produced in the fermentation broth under oxygen-restricted conditions. Initially, a short-lived ketone is produced in equilibrium with a more stable pyranol, a key intermediate in the process. The latter is oxidised under Norrish type I cleavage conditions to yield an acetate, which is hydrolysed either chemically or under lipase action to afford the primary fermentation product, an intermediate diol. All the intermediates identified point to the likely CYP450 action as the key enzyme(s) in the mechanism. This invention is an exceptional example of how the power of biocatalysis, combined with a mild, benign chemical step, can be deployed to replace a total chemical synthesis of a specific chiral antipode of a commercially relevant material.

Keywords: ambrafuran, biocatalysis, fragrance, microorganism

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Authors: Anjali Sidhu, Anju Bala, Amit Kumar

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Metal nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize the agriculture owing to sizzling interdisciplinary nano-technological application domain. Numerous patents and products incorporating engineered nanoparticles (NPs) entered into agro-applications with the collective goal to promote proficiency as well as sustainability with lower input and generating meager waste than conventional products and approaches. Loose smut of wheat caused by Ustilago segetum tritici is an internally seed-borne pathogen. It is dormant in the seed unless the seed germinates and its symptoms are expressed at the reproductive stage of the plant only. Various seed treatment agents are recommended for this disease but due to the inappropriate methods of seed treatments used by farmers, each and every seed may not get treated, and the infected seeds escape the fungicidal action. The antimicrobial potential and small size of nanoparticles made them the material of choice as they could enter each seed and restrict the pathogen inside the seed due to the availability of more number of nanoparticles per unit volume of the nanoformulations. Nanoparticles of diverse nature known for their in vitro antimicrobial activity viz. ZnO, MgO, CuS and AgNPs were synthesized, surface modified and characterized by traditional methods. They were applied on infected wheat seeds which were then grown in pot conditions, and their mycelium was tracked in the shoot and leaf region of the seedlings by microscopic staining techniques. Mixed responses of inhibition of this internal mycelium were observed. The time and method of application concluded to be critical for application, which was optimised in the present work. The results implicated that there should be field trails to get final fate of these pot trails up to commercial level. The success of their field trials could be interpreted as a revolution to replace high dose organic fungicides of high residue behaviour.

Keywords: metal nanoparticles, nanopriming, seed borne pathogen, Ustilago segetum tritici

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: M. Baratieri, M. Beccali, S. Corradino, B. Di Pietra, C. La Grassa, F. Monteleone, G. Morosinotto, G. Puglisi

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The energy renovation of existing buildings represents an important opportunity to increase the decarbonization and the sustainability of urban environments. In this context, the work carried out has the objective of demonstrating the technical and economic feasibility of an energy renovate of a public building destined for offices located on the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. By applying the Italian transpositions of European Directives 2010/31/EU and 2009/28/EC, the building has been renovated from the current energy requirements of 111.7 kWh/m² to 16.4 kWh/m². The result achieved classifies the building as nZEB (nearly Zero Energy Building) according to the Italian national definition. The analysis was carried out using in parallel a quasi-stationary software, normally used in the professional field, and a dynamic simulation model often used in the academic world. The proposed interventions cover the components of the building’s envelope, the heating-cooling system and the supply of energy from renewable sources. In these latter points, the analysis has focused more on assessing two aspects that affect the supply of renewable energy. The first concerns the use of advanced logic control systems for air conditioning units in order to increase photovoltaic self-consumption. With these adjustments, a considerable increase in photovoltaic self-consumption and a decrease in the electricity exported to the Island's electricity grid have been obtained. The second point concerned the evaluation of the building's energy classification considering the real efficiency of the heating-cooling plant. Normally the energy plants have lower operational efficiency than the designed one due to multiple reasons; the decrease in the energy classification of the building for this factor has been quantified. This study represents an important example for the evaluation of the best interventions for the energy renovation of buildings in the Mediterranean Climate and a good description of the correct methodology to evaluate the resulting improvements.

Keywords: heat pumps, HVAC systems, nZEB renovation, renewable energy sources

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Authors: Ahmad Kayvani Fard, Yehia Manawi

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Qatar’s primary source of fresh water is through seawater desalination. Amongst the major processes that are commercially available on the market, the most common large scale techniques are Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF), Multi Effect distillation (MED), and Reverse Osmosis (RO). Although commonly used, these three processes are highly expensive down to high energy input requirements and high operating costs allied with maintenance and stress induced on the systems in harsh alkaline media. Beside that cost, environmental footprint of these desalination techniques are significant; from damaging marine eco-system, to huge land use, to discharge of tons of GHG and huge carbon footprint. Other less energy consuming techniques based on membrane separation are being sought to reduce both the carbon footprint and operating costs is membrane distillation (MD). Emerged in 1960s, MD is an alternative technology for water desalination attracting more attention since 1980s. MD process involves the evaporation of a hot feed, typically below boiling point of brine at standard conditions, by creating a water vapor pressure difference across the porous, hydrophobic membrane. Main advantages of MD compared to other commercially available technologies (MSF and MED) and specially RO are reduction of membrane and module stress due to absence of trans-membrane pressure, less impact of contaminant fouling on distillate due to transfer of only water vapor, utilization of low grade or waste heat from oil and gas industries to heat up the feed up to required temperature difference across the membrane, superior water quality, and relatively lower capital and operating cost. To achieve the objective of this study, state of the art flat-sheet cross-flow DCMD bench scale unit was designed, commissioned, and tested. The objective of this study is to analyze the characteristics and morphology of the membrane suitable for DCMD through SEM imaging and contact angle measurement and to study the water quality of distillate produced by DCMD bench scale unit. Comparison with available literature data is undertaken where appropriate and laboratory data is used to compare a DCMD distillate quality with that of other desalination techniques and standards. Membrane SEM analysis showed that the PTFE membrane used for the study has contact angle of 127º with highly porous surface supported with less porous and bigger pore size PP membrane. Study on the effect of feed solution (salinity) and temperature on water quality of distillate produced from ICP and IC analysis showed that with any salinity and different feed temperature (up to 70ºC) the electric conductivity of distillate is less than 5 μS/cm with 99.99% salt rejection and proved to be feasible and effective process capable of consistently producing high quality distillate from very high feed salinity solution (i.e. 100000 mg/L TDS) even with substantial quality difference compared to other desalination methods such as RO and MSF.

Keywords: membrane distillation, waste heat, seawater desalination, membrane, freshwater, direct contact membrane distillation

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Authors: Jamil Hijazi, Stirling Howieson

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Over one-quarter of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s total oil production (2.8 million barrels a day) is used for electricity generation. The built environment is estimated to consume 77% of the total energy production. Of this amount, air conditioning systems consume about 80%. Apart from considerations surrounding global warming and CO2 production it has to be recognised that oil is a finite resource and the KSA like many other oil rich countries will have to start to consider a horizon where hydro-carbons are not the dominant energy resource. The employment of hybrid ground cooling pipes in combination with black body solar collection and radiant night cooling systems may have the potential to displace a significant proportion of oil currently used to run conventional air conditioning plant. This paper presents an investigation into the viability of such hybrid systems with the specific aim of reducing carbon emissions while providing all year round thermal comfort in a typical Saudi Arabian urban housing block. At the outset air and soil temperatures were measured in the city of Jeddah. A parametric study then was carried out by computational simulation software (Design Builder) that utilised the field measurements and predicted the cooling energy consumption of both a base case and an ideal scenario (typical block retro-fitted with insulation, solar shading, ground pipes integrated with hypocaust floor slabs/ stack ventilation and radiant cooling pipes embed in floor).Initial simulation results suggest that careful ‘ecological design’ combined with hybrid radiant and ground pipe cooling techniques can displace air conditioning systems, producing significant cost and carbon savings (both capital and running) without appreciable deprivation of amenity.

Keywords: energy efficiency, ground pipe, hybrid cooling, radiative cooling, thermal comfort

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Chao-Yang Huang, Rwey-Hua Cherng, Chung-Lin Fu, Yuan-Lung Lo

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Solar energy is one of the replaceable choices to reduce the CO2 emission produced by conventional power plants in the modern society. As an island which is frequently visited by strong typhoons and earthquakes, it is an urgent issue for Taiwan to make an effort in revising the local regulations to strengthen the safety design of photovoltaic systems. Currently, the Taiwanese code for wind resistant design of structures does not have a clear explanation on photovoltaic systems, especially when the systems are arranged in arrayed format. Furthermore, when the arrayed photovoltaic system is mounted on the rooftop, the approaching flow is significantly altered by the building and led to different pressure pattern in the different area of the photovoltaic system. In this study, L-shape arrayed photovoltaic system is mounted on the ground of the wind tunnel and then mounted on the building rooftop. The system is consisted of 60 PV models. Each panel model is equivalent to a full size of 3.0 m in depth and 10.0 m in length. Six pressure taps are installed on the upper surface of the panel model and the other six are on the bottom surface to measure the net pressures. Wind attack angle is varied from 0° to 360° in a 10° interval for the worst concern due to wind direction. The sampling rate of the pressure scanning system is set as high enough to precisely estimate the peak pressure and at least 20 samples are recorded for good ensemble average stability. Each sample is equivalent to 10-minute time length in full scale. All the scale factors, including timescale, length scale, and velocity scale, are properly verified by similarity rules in low wind speed wind tunnel environment. The purpose of L-shape arrayed system is for the understanding the pressure characteristics at the corner area. Extreme value analysis is applied to obtain the design pressure coefficient for each net pressure. The commonly utilized Cook-and-Mayne coefficient, 78%, is set to the target non-exceedance probability for design pressure coefficients under Gumbel distribution. Best linear unbiased estimator method is utilized for the Gumbel parameter identification. Careful time moving averaging method is also concerned in data processing. Results show that when the arrayed photovoltaic system is mounted on the ground, the first row of the panels reveals stronger positive pressure than that mounted on the rooftop. Due to the flow separation occurring at the building edge, the first row of the panels on the rooftop is most in negative pressures; the last row, on the other hand, shows positive pressures because of the flow reattachment. Different areas also have different pressure patterns, which corresponds well to the regulations in ASCE7-16 describing the area division for design values. Several minor observations are found according to parametric studies, such as rooftop edge effect, parapet effect, building aspect effect, row interval effect, and so on. General comments are then made for the proposal of regulation revision in Taiwanese code.

Keywords: aerodynamic force coefficient, ground-mounted, roof-mounted, wind tunnel test, photovoltaic

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Magdy Danial Riad

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Introduction: The ability of our world to support the expanding population after 2050 is at risk due to the food system's global role in poor health, climate change, and resource depletion. Healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems must be achieved from the point of production through consumption in order to meet several of the sustainable development goals (SDG) targets. There is evidence that changing the local food environment can effectively change dietary habits in a community. The purpose of this article is to outline the policy initiatives taken by local governments to support environmentally friendly eating habits. Methods: Five databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles that described local government authorities' implementation of environmentally sustainable eating habits, were located in cities that had signed the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, were published after 2015, were available in English, and described policy interventions. Data extraction was a two-step approach that started with extracting information from the included study and ended with locating information unique to policies in the grey literature. Results: 45 papers that described a variety of policy initiatives from low-, middle-, and high-income countries met the inclusion criteria. A variety of desired dietary behaviors were the focus of policy action, including reducing food waste, procuring food locally and in season, boosting breastfeeding, avoiding overconsumption, and consuming more plant-based meals and fewer items derived from animals. Conclusions: In order to achieve SDG targets, local governments are under pressure to implement evidence-based interventions. This study can help direct local governments toward evidence-based policy measures to improve regional food systems and support ecologically friendly eating habits.

Keywords: meals, planet, poor health, eating habits

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Authors: Matheus Müller, Delma Vidal

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The present paper aims to expose two techniques of dewatering for sludge, analyzing its operations and dewatering processes, aiming at improving the conditions of disposal of residues with high liquid content. It describes the field tests performed on two geotextile systems, a closed geotextile tube and an open geotextile drying bed, both of which are submitted to two filling cycles. The sludge used in the filling cycles for the field trials is from the water treatment plant of the Technological Center of Aeronautics – CTA, in São José dos Campos, Brazil. Data about volume and height abatement due to the dewatering and consolidation were collected per time, until it was observed constancy. With the laboratory analysis of the sludge allied to the data collected in the field, it was possible to perform a critical comparative study between the observed and the scientific literature, in this way, this paper expresses the data obtained and compares them with the bibliography. The tests were carried out on three fronts: field tests, including the filling cycles of the systems with the sludge from CTA, taking measurements of filling time per cycle and maximum filling height per cycle, heights against the abatement by dewatering of the systems over time; tests carried out in the laboratory, including the characterization of the sludge and removal of material samples from the systems to ascertain the solids content within the systems per time and; comparing the data obtained in the field and laboratory tests with the scientific literature. Through the study, it was possible to perceive that the process of densification of the material inside a closed system, such as the geotextile tube, occurs faster than the observed in the drying bed system. This process of accelerated densification can be brought about by the pumping pressure of the sludge in its filling and by the confinement of the residue through the permeable geotextile membrane (allowing water to pass through), accelerating the process of densification and dewatering by its own weight after the filling with sludge.

Keywords: consolidation, dewatering, geotextile drying bed, geotextile tube

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Authors: E.Tskitisvili, L. Jgenti, I. Eliava, T. Tskitishvili, N. Bagathuria, M. Gigolashvili

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The fight against dangerous nematode diseases that have world economic importance requires accurate data about the prevalence of these pests. In the point of view of the International Convention on Biological Diversity, the identification of the plant invasion causing dangerous pathogen in the early stages of invasion on new territory is the most important part of the program, which aims to monitor the Bio-Agro Coenosis and Bio-Control. Citrus nematode-specific belongs to the pathogen species, which can cause epiphytotics particularly for large areas and cause irreparable damage to citrus plantations. This paper provides a brief tour of the spread of citrus nematodes on the Black Sea coast (Adjara and Abkhazia). Also the bio-ecological monitoring data to detect the potential sources of invasion for evaluating the current conditions of the citrus nematodes prevalence. Through 2006-2010, the material was gained by structural monitoring system during the citrus vegetation period on tangerines, lemon and oranges from nine points of the study area. Mature forms of Tylenchulus semipenetrans Cobb, 1913 were observed in almost all of the samples of the root system, the peak of larvae was observed in late spring and outumn. 92 forms of nematode has been detected in the rhizosphere belonging to 8 Orders: Areolaimida, Dorylaimida, Enoplida, Mononchida, Tylenshida, Monshysterida, Rhabditida, Aphelenchida, 23 families and 40 genera. 75 forms are identified as species. It is estimated the number of nematodes fauna and ecological groups. To detect possible sources of invasion we obtained additional materials in 2013-2014 from citrus plantations planted in 2011, where is planted tangerine trees introduced from Spain and Japan. The fauna of rhizosphere is identified and Tylenchulus semipenetrans Cobb, 1913 is not detected.

Keywords: Citrus nematodes, infection, bioecological monitoring, epiphytotics

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Hui-Chen Tsai, Chien-Jen Ho, Bo-Wei Power Liang, Ying Shen, Yi-Hsin Lai

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Former Taiwan Metal Mining Corporation and its associated 3 wasted flue gas tunnels, hereinafter referred to as 'TMMC', was contaminated with heavy metals, Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPHs) in soil. Since the contamination had been exposed and unmanaged in the environment for more than 40 years, the extent of the contamination area is estimated to be more than 25 acres. Additionally, TMMC is located in a remote, mountainous area where almost no residents are residing in the 1-km radius area. Thus, it was deemed necessary to conduct an ecological risk assessment in order to evaluate the details of future contaminated site management plan. According to the winter and summer, ecological investigation results, one type of endangered, multiple vulnerable and near threaten plant was discovered, as well as numerous other protected species, such as Crested Serpent Eagle, Crested Goshawk, Black Kite, Brown Shrike, Taiwan Blue Magpie were observed. Ecological soil screening level (Eco-SSLs) developed by USEPA was adopted as a reference to conduct screening assessment. Since all the protected species observed surrounding TMMC site were birds, screening ecological risk assessment was conducted on birds only. The assessment was assessed mainly based on the chemical evaluation, which the contamination in different environmental media was compared directly with the ecological impact levels (EIL) of each evaluation endpoints and the respective hazard quotient (HQ) and hazard index (HI) could be obtained. The preliminary ecological risk assessment results indicated HI is greater than 1. In other words, the biological stressors (birds) were exposed to the contamination, which was already exceeded the dosage that could cause unacceptable impacts to the ecological system. This result was mainly due to the high concentration of arsenic, metal and lead; thus it was suggested the above mention contaminants should be remediated as soon as possible or proper risk management measures should be taken.

Keywords: screening, ecological risk assessment, ecological impact levels, risk management

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Jyoti Manandhar Shrestha, Saurab Raj Joshi, Maya Shrestha, Prashanna Shrestha, Kshitij Chaulagain

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Background: The widespread use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs has increased the incidence of ulcer and serious complications, such as perforation and bleeding. Although, the H2 receptor blockers and proton pump inhibitors decrease the acid secretion and promote healing of ulcer, their value in preventing relapse, recurrence, “acid rebound” after cessation of therapy and associated long term adverse effects limit their utility. So to minimize this, the herbal plant Aloe vera having anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, mucus secreting, cyto-protective and healing property is believed to cure the peptic ulcer. Objectives: To observe whether oral treatment with Aloe vera gel can prevent peptic ulcer. Indomethacin and ethanol were used to induce gastric ulcers. Thirty six albino rats of either sex were randomly allotted to six groups of six animals each. The negative control was pretreated with normal saline, the positive controls received ranitidine (20 mg/kg) and the test group received Aloe vera gel (300 mg/kg) orally for eight days. Then, after a 24 hour fast Indomethacin (20 mg/kg) or 80% ethanol (2ml) was administered orally to induce ulceration. At the end of the study, the rats were sacrificed, their stomachs opened, the ulcer index studied and tissues sent for histopathological examination. Results: It was observed that, in indomethacin treated group, the ulcer index in control group was 8.167 ± 1.72.In the Aloe vera pretreated animals, the ulcer index was 2.83 ± 1.72 and the standard ranitidine pretreated group ulcer index was 1.67 ± 1.36. In ethanol treated group, the ulcer index in control group was 7.5 ± 2.73. In the Aloe vera pretreated animals, the ulcer index was 2.67 ± 1.75 and the standard ranitidine pretreated group ulcer index was 1.33±1.21. Both ranitidine and Aloe vera gel significantly prevented stomach from gastric ulceration induced by indomethacin and ethanol. Conclusion: The results indicated that Aloe vera gel is effective against indomethacin and ethanol mediated gastric ulcer.

Keywords: Aloe vera gel, ethanol, indomethacin, peptic ulcer, ranitidine

Procedia PDF Downloads 444

Authors: Davaakhuu Vandannyam, Amarsaikhan Dashtseren, Oyungoo Badamdorj

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Background: Shift work and extended working hours are increasing in many industries and organization's in the world. Over a 24 hour period, the circadian clock regulates sleep/wake patterns, body temperature, hormone levels, digestion and many other functions. Depending on the time of day or night, the human body is programmed for periods of wakefulness and sleep, high and low body temperature, high and low digestive activity and so on. Shift work is highly prevalent in industrialized societies (>20%) but, when it includes night work, it has pronounced negative effects on sleep, subjective and physiological sleepiness, performance, accident risk, as well as on health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and certain forms of cancer. Method: In this cross-sectional field study, 634 shift work and day work nurses from a plant were involved, with participation rate of 100% (634 nurses). The general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and RLS, ESS, ISI, FSS were used to evaluate the level of insomnia, sleepiness, fatigue and restless legs syndrome, respectively. Results: As a result of research on some indicators of health risks caused from work shift, it was proven that prevalence of restless legs syndrome was at 5.5% and 25.9% are in risk of becoming sick, 42.3% are in fatigue, 3.5% in high stage of insomnia and 27.4% are sleepy on duty. Insomnia of nurses mainly affected from long-hour shift, dissatisfaction, workload, lose of focus and use of coffee. There is sleepiness lies in the workplace due to number of shifts, unsatisfactory performance and emergency calls between shifts. It has been determined that risk of sickness influenced by number of shifts in a month and long hour shift, dissatisfaction and use of coffee and divisions are causing restless legs syndrome. Conclusions: Among the nurses, it was found that the prevalence of insomnia is 31.6%, sleepiness 27.4%, fatigue 42.3%, restless legs syndrome 35% and stress 25.9%. These factors of shift work affecting health tend to go up as working hours increase and more common among shift work nurses.

Keywords: shiftwork, insomnia, sleepiness, restless

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Authors: Dalma Varga, Nora Hubayne H.

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Nowadays, among the measures taken to offset the consequences of climate change, water resources management is one of the key tools, which can include excess water management. As a result of climate change’s effects and as a result of the frequent inappropriate landuse, more and more areas are affected by the excess water inundation. Hungary is located in the deepest part of the Pannonian Basin, which is exposed to water damage – especially lowland areas that are endangered by floods or excess waters. The periodical presence of excess water creates specific habitats in a given area, which have ecological, functional, and aesthetic values. Excess water inundation affects approximately 74% of Hungary’s lowland areas, of which about 46% is also under nature protection (such as national parks, protected landscape areas, nature conservation areas, Natura 2000 sites, etc.). These data prove that areas exposed to excess water inundation – which are predominantly characterized by agricultural land uses – have an important ecological role. Other research works have confirmed the presence of numerous rare and endangered plant species in drainage canals, on grasslands exposed to excess water, and on special agricultural fields with mud vegetation. The goal of this research is to define and analyze ecosystem services of areas exposed to excess water inundation. In addition to this, it is also important to determine the quantified indicators of these areas’ natural and landscape values besides the presence of protected species and the naturalness of habitats, so all in all, to analyze the various nature protections related to excess water. As a result, a practice-orientated assessment method has been developed that provides the ecological water demand, assimilates to ecological and habitat aspects, contributes to adaptive excess water management, and last but not least, increases or maintains the share of the green infrastructure network. In this way, it also contributes to reduce and mitigate the negative effects of climate change.

Keywords: ecosystem services, landscape architecture, excess water management, green infrastructure planning

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Authors: Shang-Hsin Ou, Yang-Chun Lin, Ke-Hao Cheng

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The year 2021 marked a historic drought in Taiwan, posing unprecedented challenges due to record-low rainfall and inadequate reservoir storage. The central region experienced water scarcity, leading to the implementation of "Groundwater Utilization at Construction Sites" for drought-resilient livelihood water supply. This study focuses on the establishment process of temporary groundwater treatment plants at construction sites in Taichung City, serving as a reference for future emergency response and the utilization of construction site groundwater. To identify suitable sites for groundwater reuse projects, site selection operations were carried out based on relevant water quality regulations and assessment principles. Subsequently, the planning and design of temporary water treatment plants were conducted, considering the water quality, quantity, and on-site conditions of groundwater wells associated with construction projects. The study consolidates the major water treatment facilities at each site and addresses encountered challenges during the establishment process. Practical insights gained from operating temporary groundwater treatment plants are presented, including improvements related to stable water quality, water quantity, equipment operation, and hydraulic control. In light of possible future droughts, this study provides an outlook and recommendations to expedite and improve the setup of groundwater treatment plants at construction sites. This includes considering on-site water abstraction, treatment, and distribution conditions. The study's results aim to offer practical guidelines for effectively establishing and managing such treatment plants, while offering experiences and recommendations for other regions facing similar emergencies, water shortages, and drought situations. These endeavors contribute to ensuring sustainable water supply for drought-resilient livelihoods and maintaining societal stability.

Keywords: drought resilience, groundwater treatment, construction site, water supply

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Authors: Ifeanyichukwu Edeh, Tim Overton, Steve Bowra

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Currently biodiesel is produced from plant oils or animal’s fats by a liquid-phase catalysed transesterification process at low temperature. Although biodiesel is renewable and to a large extent sustainable, inherent properties such as poor cold flow, low oxidation stability, low cetane value restrict application to blends with fossil fuels. An alternative to biodiesel is renewable diesel produced by catalytic hydrotreating of oils and fats and is considered a drop in fuel because its properties are similar to petroleum diesel. In addition to developing alternative productions routes there is continued interest in reducing the cost of the feed stock, waste cooking oils and fats are increasingly used as the feedstocks due to low cost. However, use of oils and fat are highly adulterated resulting in high free fatty acid content which turn impacts on the efficiency of FAME production. Therefore, in light of the need to develop, alternative lipid feed stocks and related efficient catalysis the present study investigates the potential of producing renewable diesel from the lipids-extracted from activated sludge, a waste water treatment by-product, through catalytic hydrothermal decarboxylation. The microbial lipids were first extracted from the activated sludge using the Folch et al method before hydrothermal decarboxylation reactions were carried out using palladium (Pd/C) and platinum (Pt/C) on activated carbon as the catalysts in a batch reactor. The impact of three temperatures 290, 300, 330 °C and residence time between 30 min and 4hrs was assessed. At the end of the reaction, the products were recovered using organic solvents and characterized using gas chromatography (GC). The principle products of the reaction were pentadecane and heptadecane. The highest yields of pentadecane and heptadecane from lipid-extract were 23.23% and 15.21%, respectively. These yields were obtained at 290 °C and residence time 1h using Pt/C. To the best of our knowledge, the current work is the first investigation on the hydrothermal decarboxylation of lipid-extract from activated sludge.

Keywords: activated sludge, lipid, hydrothermal decarboxylation, renewable diesel

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Authors: Sunglim Lee, Susumu Fujii, Koji Okamura

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Smart grid is a new approach for electric power grid that uses information and communications technology to control the electric power grid. Smart grid provides real-time control of the electric power grid, controlling the direction of power flow or time of the flow. Control devices are installed on the power lines of the electric power grid to implement smart grid. The number of the control devices should be determined, in relation with the area one control device covers and the cost associated with the control devices. One approach to determine the number of the control devices is to use the data on the surplus power generated by home solar generators. In current implementations, the surplus power is sent all the way to the power plant, which may cause power loss. To reduce the power loss, the surplus power may be sent to a control device and sent to where the power is needed from the control device. Under assumption that the control devices are installed on a lattice of equal size squares, our goal is to figure out the optimal spacing between the control devices, where the power sharing area (the area covered by one control device) is kept small to avoid power loss, and at the same time the power sharing area is big enough to have no surplus power wasted. To achieve this goal, a simulation using landscape ecology method is conducted on a sample area. First an aerial photograph of the land of interest is turned into a mosaic map where each area is colored according to the ratio of the amount of power production to the amount of power consumption in the area. The amount of power consumption is estimated according to the characteristics of the buildings in the area. The power production is calculated by the sum of the area of the roofs shown in the aerial photograph and assuming that solar panels are installed on all the roofs. The mosaic map is colored in three colors, each color representing producer, consumer, and neither. We started with a mosaic map with 100 m grid size, and the grid size is grown until there is no red grid. One control device is installed on each grid, so that the grid is the area which the control device covers. As the result of this simulation we got 350 m as the optimal spacing between the control devices that makes effective use of the surplus power for the sample area.

Keywords: landscape ecology, IT, smart grid, aerial photograph, simulation

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Authors: M. Shivakumar, S. R. Somashekhar, C. V. Raju

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Secondary salinization of agricultural lands in any command areas of the world is the major issue in the recent past. Currently, it is estimated that the 954 mh of saline and alkaline soil is present in the world. Thousands of hectares of land, getting added every year. Argentina, Bangladesh and Australia are most affected countries. In India, out of 142.80 million hectare (mh) cropped area, 56 mh is irrigated area. Of which, more than 9 mh (about 16.%) of land is found to be alkaline/saline. Due to continuous utilization of same land for same agricultural activities, excessive usage of fertilizers and water, most of the soils have become alkaline, saline or water logged. These lands are low productive and at times totally unfit for agricultural activities. These soils may or may not posses good physical condition, but plants may suffer from its inability to absorb water from salty solution. Plants suffer from dehydration and loose water to the soil, shrink, resulting death of plant. This process is called plasmolysis. It is the fact that soil is an independent, organic body of nature that acquires properties in accordance with forces which act upon it. Aquaculture is one of the solutions to utilize such problematic soils for food production. When the impoundments are constructed in an area 10-15% of the affected areas, the excess water along with the salts gets into impoundments and management of salt is easier in water than in the soil. Due to high organic input in aquaculture such as feed, manure and continuous deposition of fecal matter, pH of the soil gets reduced and over the period of time such soils can be put back into the original activity. Under National Agricultural Development Program (NADP), the project was implemented in 258 villages of Mandya District, Karnataka State, India and found that these lands can be effectively utilized for fish culture and increase the proteinacious food production by many folds while conserving the soils. The findings of the research can be adopted and up scaled in any country.

Keywords: saline and alkaline soils, Aquaculture, Problematic soils, Reclamation

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Authors: Diana Karina Baigts Allende, Mariana Gonzalez Diaz, Luis Antonio Chel Guerrero, Mukthar Sandoval Peraza

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Poverty and food insecurity are still incident problems in the developing countries, where population´s diet is based on cereals which are lack in protein content. Nevertheless, during last years the use of native plants has been studied as an alternative source of protein in order to improve the nutritional intake. Chaya crop also called Spinach tree, is a prehispanic plant native from Central America and South of Mexico (Mayan culture), which has been especially valued due to its high nutritional content particularly protein and some medicinal properties. The aim of this work was to study the effect of protein isolation processing from Chaya leaf harvest in Yucatan, Mexico on its structure quality in order: i) to valorize the Chaya crop and ii) to produce low-cost and high-quality protein. Chaya leaf was extruded, clarified and recovered using: a) acid precipitation by decreasing the pH value until reach the isoelectric point (3.5) and b) thermal coagulation, by heating the protein solution at 80 °C during 30 min. Solubilized protein was re-dissolved in water and spray dried. The presence of Fraction I protein, known as RuBisCO (Rubilose-1,5-biphosfate carboxylase/oxygenase) was confirmed by gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) where molecular weight bands of 55 KDa and 12 KDa were observed. The infrared spectrum showed changes in protein structure due to the isolation method. The use of high temperatures (thermal coagulation) highly decreased protein solubility in comparison to isoelectric precipitated protein, the nutritional properties according to amino acid profile was also disturbed, showing minor amounts of overall essential amino acids from 435.9 to 367.8 mg/g. Chaya protein isolate obtained by acid precipitation showed higher protein quality according to essential amino acid score compared to FAO recommendations, which could represent an important sustainable source of protein for human consumption.

Keywords: chaya leaf, nutritional properties, protein isolate, protein structure

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Authors: Jyun-Huei Huang, Ting-I Lee

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Urban heat island effect is derived from the reduction of vegetative cover by urban development. Because plants can improve air quality and microclimate, green walls have been applied as a sustainable design approach to cool building temperature. By using plants to green vertical surfaces, they decrease room temperature and, as a result, decrease the energy use for air conditioning. Based on their structures, green walls can be divided into two categories, green façades and living walls. A green façade uses the climbing ability of a plant itself, while a living wall assembles planter modules. The latter one is widely adopted in public space, as it is time-effective and less limited. Although a living wall saves energy spent on cooling, it is not necessarily cost-effective from the perspective of a lifecycle analysis. The Italian study shows that the overall benefit of a living wall is only greater than its costs after 47 years of its establishment. In Taiwan, urban greening policies encourage establishment of green walls by referring to their benefits of energy saving while neglecting their low performance on cost-effectiveness. Thus, this research aims at understanding the perception of appliers and consumers on the cost-effectiveness of their living wall products from the lifecycle viewpoint. It adopts semi-structured interviews and field observations on the maintenance of the products. By comparing the two results, it generates insights for sustainable urban greening policies. The preliminary finding shows that stakeholders do not have a holistic sense of lifecycle or cost-effectiveness. Most importantly, a living wall well maintained is often with high input due to the availability of its maintenance budget, and thus less sustainable. In conclusion, without a comprehensive sense of cost-effectiveness throughout a product’s lifecycle, it is very difficult for suppliers and consumers to maintain a living wall system while achieve sustainability.

Keywords: case study, maintenance, post-occupancy evaluation, vertical greening

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Authors: Young Nam Chun, Soo Hyuk Yun, Byeo Ri Jeong

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The recent gradual increase in the energy demand is mostly met by fossil fuel, but the research on and development of new alternative energy sources is drawing much attention due to the limited fossil fuel supply and the greenhouse gas problem. Biomass is an eco-friendly renewable energy that can achieve carbon neutrality. The conversion of the biomass sludge wastes discharged from a wastewater treatment plant to clean energy is an important green energy technology in an eco-friendly way. In this NRF study, a new type of microwave thermal treatment was developed to apply the biomass-CCS technology to sludge wastes. For this, the microwave dielectric heating characteristics were examined to investigate the energy conversion mechanism for the combined drying-pyrolysis/gasification of the dewatered wet sludge. The carbon dioxide gasification was tested using the CO2 captured from the pre-combustion capture process. In addition, the results of the pyrolysis and gasification test with the wet sludge were analyzed to compare the microwave energy conversion results with the results of the use of the conventional heating method. Gas was the largest component of the product of both pyrolysis and gasification, followed by sludge char and tar. In pyrolysis, the main components of the producer gas were hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and there were some methane and hydrocarbons. In gasification, however, the amount of carbon monoxide was greater than that of hydrogen. In microwave gasification, a large amount of heavy tar was produced. The largest amount of benzene among light tar was produced in both pyrolysis and gasification. NH3 and HCN which are the precursors of NOx, generated as well. In microwave heating, the sludge char had a smooth surface, like that of glass, and in the conventional heating method with an electric furnace, deep cracks were observed in the sludge char. This indicates that the gas obtained from the microwave pyrolysis and gasification of wet sewage sludge can be used as fuel, but the heavy tar and NOx precursors in the gas must be treated. Sludge char can be used as solid fuel or as a tar reduction adsorbent in the process if necessary. This work supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2015R1R1A2A2A03003044).

Keywords: microwave heating, pyrolysis gasification, precombustion CCS, sewage sludge, biomass energy

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Authors: Amèdédjihundé H. J. Hounnou, Frédéric Dubas, François-Xavier Fifatin, Didier Chamagne, Antoine Vianou

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This paper presents the techno-economic evaluation of run-of-river small-hydropower plants. In this regard, a multi-objective optimization procedure is proposed for the optimal sizing of the hydropower plants, and NSGAII is employed as the optimization algorithm. Annual generated energy and investment cost are considered as the objective functions, and number of generator units (n) and nominal turbine flow rate (Q_T) constitute the decision variables. Site of Yeripao in Benin is considered as the case study. We have categorized the river of this site using its environmental characteristics: gross head, and first quartile, median, third quartile and mean of flow. Effects of each decision variable on the objective functions are analysed. The results gave Pareto Front which represents the trade-offs between annual energy generation and the investment cost of hydropower plants, as well as the recommended optimal solutions. We noted that with the increase of the annual energy generation, the investment cost rises. Thus, maximizing energy generation is contradictory with minimizing the investment cost. Moreover, we have noted that the solutions of Pareto Front are grouped according to the number of generator units (n). The results also illustrate that the costs per kWh are grouped according to the n and rise with the increase of the nominal turbine flow rate. The lowest investment costs per kWh are obtained for n equal to one and are between 0.065 and 0.180 €/kWh. Following the values of n (equal to 1, 2, 3 or 4), the investment cost and investment cost per kWh increase almost linearly with increasing the nominal turbine flowrate while annual generated. Energy increases logarithmically with increasing of the nominal turbine flowrate. This study made for the Yeripao river can be applied to other rivers with their own characteristics.

Keywords: hydropower plant, investment cost, multi-objective optimization, number of generator units

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Authors: Neway Adele, Adey Feleke

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Access to clean drinking water is a basic human right. However, an estimated 1.2 billion people across the world consume unclean water daily. Interest has been growing in natural coagulants as the health and environmental concerns of conventional chemical coagulants are rising. Natural coagulants have the potential to serve as alternative water treatment agents. In this study, Lupinus albus, Moringa stenopetala, Trigonella foenum-graecum and Vicia faba protein extracts were evaluated as natural coagulants for water treatment. The protein extracts were purified from crude extracts using a protein purifier, and protein concentrations were determined by the spectrophotometric method. Small-volume coagulation efficiency tests were conducted on raw water taken from the Legedadi water treatment plant. These were done using a completely randomized design (CRD) experiment with settling times of 0 min (initial time), 90 min, 180 min and 270 min and protein extract doses of 5 mg/L, 10 mg/L, 15 mg/L and 20 mg/L. Raw water as negative control and polyelectrolyte as positive control were also included. The optical density (OD) values were measured for all the samples. At 270 min and 20 mg/L, the coagulation efficiency percentages for Lupinus albus, Moringa stenopetala, Trigonella foenum-graecum and Vicia faba protein extracts were 71%, 89%, 12% and 67% in the water sample collected in April 2019 respectively. Similarly, Lupinus albus, Moringa stenopetala and Vicia faba achieved 17%, 92% and 12% at 270 min settling times and 5 mg/L, 20 mg/L and 10 mg/L concentration in the water sample collected from August 2019, respectively. Negative control (raw water) and polyelectrolyte (positive control) were also 6 − 10% and 89 − 94% at 270 min settling time in April and August 2019, respectively. Among the four protein extracts, Moringa stenopetala showed the highest coagulation efficiency, similar to polyelectrolyte. This study concluded that Moringa stenopetala protein extract could be used as a natural coagulant for water purification in both sampling times.

Keywords: coagulation efficiency, extraction, natural coagulant, protein extract

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Authors: Aldé Belgard Tchicaya Loemba, Baraka Kichonge, Thomas Kivevele, Juma Rajabu Selemani

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Plants used for medicinal purposes are extremely perishable, owing to moisture-enhanced enzymatic and microorganism activity, climate change, and improper handling and storage. Experiments have shown that drying the medicinal plant without affecting the active nutrients and controlling the moisture content as much as possible can extend its shelf life. Different traditional and modern drying techniques for preserving medicinal plants have been developed, with some still being improved in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, many of these methods fail to address the most common issues encountered when drying medicinal plants, such as nutrient loss, long drying times, and a limited capacity to dry during the evening or cloudy hours. Heat pump drying is an alternate drying method that results in no nutritional loss. Furthermore, combining a heat pump dryer with a solar energy storage system appears to be a viable option for all-weather drying without affecting the nutritional values of dried products. In this study, a solar-assisted heat pump dryer integrated with thermal energy storage is developed for drying moringa leaves. The study also discusses the performance analysis of the developed dryer as well as the proximate analysis of the dried moringa leaves. All experiments were conducted from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to assess the dryer's performance in “daytime mode”. Experiment results show that the drying time was significantly reduced, and the dryer demonstrated high performance in preserving all of the nutrients. In 5 hours of the drying process, the moisture content was reduced from 75.7 to 3.3%. The average COP value was 3.36, confirming the dryer's low energy consumption. The findings also revealed that after drying, the content of protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber, and ash greatly increased.

Keywords: heat pump dryer, efficiency, moringa leaves, proximate analysis

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Authors: Raudone Lina, Raudonis Raimondas, Gaivelyte Kristina, Pukalskas Audrius, Janulis Valdimaras, Viskelis Pranas

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Sorbus L. species are widely distributed in the Northern hemisphere and have been used for medicinal purposes in various traditional medicine systems and as food ingredients. Various Sorbus L. raw materials, fruits, leaves, inflorescences, barks, possess diuretic, anti-inflammatory, hypoglycemic, anti-diarrheal and vasoprotective activities. Phenolics, to whom main pharmacological activities are attributed, are compounds of interest due to their notable antioxidant activity. The aim of this study was to determine the antioxidant profiles of fruits and leaves of selected Sorbus L. species (S. anglica, S. aria f. latifolia, S. arranensis, S. aucuparia, S. austriaca, S. caucasica, S. commixta, S. discolor, S. gracilis, S. hostii, S. semi-incisa, S. tianschanica) and to identify the phenolic compounds with potent contribution to antioxidant activity. Twenty two constituents were identified in Sorbus L. species using ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadruple and time-of-flight mass spectrometers (UPLC–QTOF–MS). Reducing activity of individual constituents was determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to post-column FRAP assay. Signicantly greatest trolox equivalent values corresponding up to 45% of contribution to antioxidant activity were assessed for neochlorogenic and chlorogenic acids, which were determined as markers of antioxidant activity in samples of leaves and fruits. Characteristic patterns of antioxidant profiles obtained using HPLC post-column FRAP assay significantly depend on specific Sorbus L. species and raw materials and are suitable for equivalency research of Sorbus L. fruits and leaves. Selecting species and target plant organs with richest phenolic composition and strongly expressed antioxidant power is the first step in further research of standardized extracts.

Keywords: FRAP, antioxidant, phenolic, Sorbus L., chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid

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Authors: Mojo Mengistu Gelasso

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The tropical forest is considered the most important forest ecosystem for mitigating climate change by sequestering a high amount of carbon. The potential carbon stock of the forest can be influenced by many factors. Therefore, studying these factors is crucial for understanding the determinants that affect the potential for woody carbon storage in the forest. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential for woody carbon stock and how it varies based on plant community types, as well as along altitudinal, slope, and aspect gradients in the Munessa dry Afromontane forest. Vegetation data was collected using systematic sampling. Five line transects were established at 100 m intervals along the altitudinal gradient between two consecutive transect lines. On each transect, 10 quadrats (20 x 20 m), separated by 200 m, were established. The woody carbon was estimated using an appropriate allometric equation formulated for tropical forests. The data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA in R software. The results showed that the total woody carbon stock of the Munessa forest was 210.43 ton/ha. The analysis of variance revealed that woody carbon density varied significantly based on environmental factors, while community types had no significant effect. The highest mean carbon stock was found at middle altitudes (2367-2533 m.a.s.l), lower slopes (0-13%), and west-facing aspects. The Podocarpus falcatus-Croton macrostachyus community type also contributed a higher woody carbon stock, as larger tree size classes and older trees dominated it. Overall, the potential for woody carbon sequestration in this study was strongly associated with environmental variables. Additionally, the uneven distribution of species with larger diameter at breast height (DBH) in the study area might be linked to anthropogenic factors, as the current forest growth indicates characteristics of a secondary forest. Therefore, our study suggests that the development and implementation of a sustainable forest management plan is necessary to increase the carbon sequestration potential of this forest and mitigate climate change.

Keywords: munessa forest, woody carbon stock, environmental factors, climate mitigation

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Authors: Mengistu Gelasso Mojo

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The tropical forest is considered the most important forest ecosystem for mitigating climate change by sequestering a high amount of carbon. The potential carbon stock of the forest can be influenced by many factors. Therefore, studying these factors is crucial for understanding the determinants that affect the potential for woody carbon storage in the forest. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential for woody carbon stock and how it varies based on plant community types, as well as along altitudinal, slope, and aspect gradients in the Munessa dry Afromontane forest. Vegetation data was collected using systematic sampling. Five line transects were established at 100 m intervals along the altitudinal gradient between two consecutive transect lines. On each transect, 10 quadrats (20 x 20 m), separated by 200 m, were established. The woody carbon was estimated using an appropriate allometric equation formulated for tropical forests. The data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA in R software. The results showed that the total woody carbon stock of the Munessa forest was 210.43 ton/ha. The analysis of variance revealed that woody carbon density varied significantly based on environmental factors, while community types had no significant effect. The highest mean carbon stock was found at middle altitudes (2367-2533 m.a.s.l), lower slopes (0-13%), and west-facing aspects. The Podocarpus falcatus-Croton macrostachyus community type also contributed a higher woody carbon stock, as larger tree size classes and older trees dominated it. Overall, the potential for woody carbon sequestration in this study was strongly associated with environmental variables. Additionally, the uneven distribution of species with larger diameter at breast height (DBH) in the study area might be linked to anthropogenic factors, as the current forest growth indicates characteristics of a secondary forest. Therefore, our study suggests that the development and implementation of a sustainable forest management plan is necessary to increase the carbon sequestration potential of this forest and mitigate climate change.

Keywords: munessa forest, woody carbon stock, environmental factors, climate mitigation

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Authors: Chevonne Reynolds, Res Altwegg, Andrew Balmford, Claire N. Spottiswoode

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Modern agriculture has revolutionised the planet’s capacity to support humans, yet has simultaneously had a greater negative impact on biodiversity than any other human activity. Balancing the demand for food with the conservation of biodiversity is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Biodiversity-friendly farming (‘land sharing’), or alternatively, separation of conservation and production activities (‘land sparing’), are proposed as two strategies for mediating the trade-off between agriculture and biodiversity. However, there is much debate regarding the efficacy of each strategy, as this trade-off has typically been addressed by short term studies at fine spatial scales. These studies ignore processes that are relevant to biodiversity at larger scales, such as meta-population dynamics and landscape connectivity. Therefore, to better understand species response to agricultural land-use and provide evidence to underpin the planning of better production landscapes, we need to determine the merits of each strategy at larger scales. In South Africa, a remarkable citizen science project - the South African Bird Atlas Project 2 (SABAP2) – collates an extensive dataset describing the occurrence of birds at a 5-min by 5-min grid cell resolution. We use these data, along with fine-resolution data on agricultural land-use, to determine which strategy optimises the agriculture-biodiversity trade-off in a southern African context, and at a spatial scale never considered before. To empirically test this trade-off, we model bird species population density, derived for each 5-min grid cell by Royle-Nicols single-species occupancy modelling, against both the amount and configuration of different types of agricultural production in the same 5-min grid cell. In using both production amount and configuration, we can show not only how species population densities react to changes in yield, but also describe the production landscape patterns most conducive to conservation. Furthermore, the extent of both the SABAP2 and land-cover datasets allows us to test this trade-off across multiple regions to determine if bird populations respond in a consistent way and whether results can be extrapolated to other landscapes. We tested the land sparing/sharing trade-off for 281 bird species across three different biomes in South Africa. Overall, a higher proportion of species are classified as losers, and would benefit from land sparing. However, this proportion of loser-sparers is not consistent and varies across biomes and the different types of agricultural production. This is most likely because of differences in the intensity of agricultural land-use and the interactions between the differing types of natural vegetation and agriculture. Interestingly, we observe a higher number of species that benefit from agriculture than anticipated, suggesting that agriculture is a legitimate resource for certain bird species. Our results support those seen at smaller scales and across vastly different agricultural systems, that land sparing benefits the most species. However, our analysis suggests that land sparing needs to be implemented at spatial scales much larger than previously considered. Species persistence in agricultural landscapes will require the conservation of large tracts of land, and is an important consideration in developing countries, which are undergoing rapid agricultural development.

Keywords: agriculture, birds, land sharing, land sparing

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Authors: Jesryl B. Paulite, Eixer Niel V. Enesco

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Lettuce is not well known in the lowland locality in the tropical countries like Philippines. Farmers thought that this crop is not adaptable to the climate that we have in lowland. But some new varieties can tolerate warmer conditions. The massive use of pesticides in lettuce production might chronically affect human health and environment. The move of the Philippine government is toward organic. One of the organic material is vermicompost. It is an organic fertilizer that serves as soil conditioner and enhances soil fertility and promotes vigorous and healthy crop growth and Supplementation of 19-19-19+M.E. will make it better since it contains N-P-K and selected microelements to meet the nutritive requirements of the crop. The experiment was conducted at Purok 3, Brgy. Tiburcia, Kapalong, Davao del Norte from February 6, 2014 to March 4, 2014. The study was conducted to determine the effect of varying frequency application of vermicast as supplemented with 19-19-19+M.E. in lettuce. Specifically, this aimed to 1.) Identify the agronomic performance of lettuce as affected by varying frequency application of vermicast as supplemented with 19-19-19+M.E.; 2.) Assess the economic profitability of lettuce as applied with vermicast as supplemented with 19-19-19+M.E. The study was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four treatments and three replications. The treatments were as follow: T1 – Untreated, T2 - Weekly Application, T3- Bi-weekly Application, and T4- Monthly Application. The data on percent (%) mortality were transformed using square root of transformation before Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Results revealed not significant in terms of percent mortality in weekly and monthly application of the treatment having a mean of 1.76 % and 3.09 %. However, Significant differences were observed in agronomic performances such as; plant height with a mean of 10.63 cm in weekly application and 6.40 cm for the untreated, leaf width with a mean of 10.80 cm for the weekly application and 6.03 for the untreated, fresh weight with a mean of 25.67 g for the weekly application and 6.83 g for the untreated, and yield with a mean of 1,208.33 kg/ha for the weekly application and 327.08 kg/ha for the untreated, respectively. Results further exposed that profitability of lettuce in terms of Return of Production Cost (RPC) were; bi-weekly with 91.01 %, monthly with 68.20 %, weekly with 25.34 % and untreated (control) with 16.69 %.

Keywords: agronomic performance, economic profitability, vermicast, percent mortality, 19-19-19+ME

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Authors: Shaibu Baanni Azumah, William Adzawla

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Rice is an important staple crop, with current demand higher than the domestic supply in Ghana. This has led to a high and unfavourable import bill. Therefore, recent policies and interventions in the agricultural sub-sector aim at promoting various improved agricultural technologies in order to improve domestic production and reduce the importation of rice. In this study, we examined the effect of the adoption of Urea Deep Placement (UDP) technology by rice farmers on the position of the production frontier. This involved 200 farmers selected through a multi stage sampling technique in the Northern region of Ghana. A Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier model was fitted. The result showed that the adoption of UDP technology shifts the output frontier outward and also move the farmers closer to the frontier. Farmers were also operating under diminishing returns to scale which calls for redress. Other factors that significantly influenced rice production were farm size, labour, use of certified seeds and NPK fertilizer. Although there was an opportunity for improvement, the farmers were highly efficient (92%), compared to previous studies. Farmers’ efficiency was improved through increased education, household size, experience, access to credit, and lack of extension service provision by MoFA. The study recommends the revision of Ghana’s agricultural policy to include the UDP technology. Agricultural Extension officers of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) should be trained on the UDP technology to support IFDC’s drive to improve adoption by rice farmers. Rice farmers are also encouraged to expand their farm lands, improve plant population, and also increase the usage of fertilizer to improve yields. Mechanisms through which credit can be made easily accessible and effectively utilised should be identified and promoted.

Keywords: efficiency, rice farmers, stochastic frontier, UDP technology

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Authors: Fatima Arrutia, Francisco Amador Riera

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The meat industry generates large volumes of blood as a result of meat processing. Several industrial procedures have been implemented in order to treat this by-product, but are focused on the production of low-value products, and in many cases, blood is simply discarded as waste. Besides, in addition to economic interests, there is an environmental concern due to bloodborne pathogens and other chemical contaminants found in blood. Consequently, there is a dire need to find extensive uses for blood that can be both applicable to industrial scale and able to yield high value-added products. Blood has been recognized as an important source of protein. The main blood serum protein in mammals is serum albumin. One of the top trends in food market is functional foods. Among them, bioactive peptides can be obtained from protein sources by microbiological fermentation or enzymatic and chemical hydrolysis. Bioactive peptides are short amino acid sequences that can have a positive impact on health when administered. The main drawback for bioactive peptide production is the high cost of the isolation, purification and characterization techniques (such as chromatography and mass spectrometry) that make unaffordable the scale-up. On the other hand, membrane technologies are very suitable to apply to the industry because they offer a very easy scale-up and are low-cost technologies, compared to other traditional separation methods. In this work, the possibility of obtaining bioactive peptide fractions from serum albumin by means of a simple procedure of only 2 steps (hydrolysis and membrane filtration) was evaluated, as an exploratory study for possible industrial application. The methodology used in this work was, firstly, a tryptic hydrolysis of serum albumin in order to release the peptides from the protein. The protein was previously subjected to a thermal treatment in order to enhance the enzyme cleavage and thus the peptide yield. Then, the obtained hydrolysate was filtered through a nanofiltration/ultrafiltration flat rig at three different pH values with two different membrane materials, so as to compare membrane performance. The corresponding permeates were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry technology in order to obtain the peptide sequences present in each permeate. Finally, different concentrations of every permeate were evaluated for their in vitro antihypertensive and antioxidant activities though ACE-inhibition and DPPH radical scavenging tests. The hydrolysis process with the previous thermal treatment allowed achieving a degree of hydrolysis of the 49.66% of the maximum possible. It was found that peptides were best transmitted to the permeate stream at pH values that corresponded to their isoelectric points. Best selectivity between peptide groups was achieved at basic pH values. Differences in peptide content were found between membranes and also between pH values for the same membrane. The antioxidant activity of all permeates was high compared with the control only for the highest dose. However, antihypertensive activity was best for intermediate concentrations, rather than higher or lower doses. Therefore, although differences between them, all permeates were promising regarding antihypertensive and antioxidant properties.

Keywords: bioactive peptides, bovine serum albumin, hydrolysis, membrane filtration

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