• SDSN - Greece

Abstract Background Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage worldwide. In the manufacture of beer, various by-products and residues are generated, and the most abundant (85% of total by-products) are spent grains. Thanks to its high (hemi)cellulose content (about 50% w/w dry weight), this secondary raw material is attractive for the production of second-generation biofuels as butanol through fermentation processes. Results This study reports the ability of two laccase preparations from Pleurotus ostreatus to delignify and detoxify milled brewer’s spent grains (BSG). Up to 94% of phenols reduction was achieved. Moreover, thanks to the mild conditions of enzymatic pretreatment, the formation of other inhibitory compounds was avoided allowing to apply the sequential enzymatic pretreatment and hydrolysis process (no filtration and washing steps between the two phases). As expected, the high detoxification and delignification yields achieved by laccase pretreatment resulted in great saccharification. As a fact, no loss of carbohydrates was observed thanks to the novel sequential strategy, and thus the totality of polysaccharides was hydrolysed into fermentable sugars. The enzymatic hydrolysate was fermented to acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) by Clostridium acetobutilycum obtaining about 12.6 g/L ABE and 7.83 g/L butanol within 190 h. Conclusions The applied sequential pretreatment and hydrolysis process resulted to be very effective for the milled BSG, allowing reduction of inhibitory compounds and lignin content with a consequent efficient saccharification. C. acetobutilycum was able to ferment the BSG hydrolysate with ABE yields similar to those obtained by using synthetic media. The proposed strategy reduces the amount of wastewater and the cost of the overall process. Based on the reported results, the potential production of butanol from the fermentation of BSG hydrolysate can be envisaged.

The impact of brown carbon (BrC) on climate has been widely acknowledged but remains uncertain, because either its contribution to absorption is being ignored in most climate models or the associated mixed emission sources and atmospheric lifetime are not accounted for. In this work, we propose positive matrix factorization as a framework to apportion the contributions of individual primary and secondary organic aerosol (OA) source components of BrC absorption, by combining long-term aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) data with concurrent ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy measurements. The former feature time-depend ent factor contributions to OA mass, and the latter consist of wavelength-dependent absorption coefficients. Using this approach for a full-year case study, we estimate for the first time the mass absorption efficiency (MAE) of major light-absorbing water soluble OA components in the atmosphere. We show that secondary biogenic OA contributes negligibly to absorption despite dominating the mass concentration in the summer. In contrast, primary and secondary wood burning emissions are highly absorbing up to 500 nm. The approach allowed us to constrain their MAE within a confined range consistent with previous laboratory work, which can be used in climate models to estimate the impact of BrC from these emissions on the overall absorption. The impact of brown carbon (BrC) on climate has been widely acknowledged but remains uncertain, because either its contribution to absorption is being ignored in most climate models or the associated mixed emission sources and atmospheric lifetime are not accounted for. In this work, we propose positive matrix factorization as a framework to apportion the contributions of individual primary and secondary organic aerosol (OA) source components of BrC absorption, by combining long-term aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) data with concurrent ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy measurements. The former feature time-depend ent factor contributions to OA mass, and the latter consist of wavelength-dependent absorption coefficients. Using this approach for a full-year case study, we estimate for the first time the mass absorption efficiency (MAE) of major light-absorbing water soluble OA components in the atmosphere. We show that secondary biogenic OA contributes negligibly to absorption despite dominating the mass concentration in the summer. In contrast, primary and secondary wood burning emissions are highly absorbing up to 500 nm. The approach allowed us to constrain their MAE within a confined range consistent with previous laboratory work, which can be used in climate models to estimate the impact of BrC from these emissions on the overall absorption. Peer reviewed

International audience; A model and data toolbox is presented to assess risks from combined exposure to multiple chemicals using probabilistic methods. The Monte Carlo Risk Assessment (MCRA) toolbox, also known as the EuroMix toolbox, has more than 40 modules addressing all areas of risk assessment, and includes a data repository with data collected in the EuroMix project. This paper gives an introduction to the toolbox and illustrates its use with examples from the EuroMix project. The toolbox can be used for hazard identification, hazard characterisation, exposure assessment and risk characterisation. Examples for hazard identification are selection of substances relevant for a specific adverse outcome based on adverse outcome pathways and QSAR models. Examples for hazard characterisation are calculation of benchmark doses and relative potency factors with uncertainty from dose response data, and use of kinetic models to perform in vitro to in vivo extrapolation. Examples for exposure assessment are assessing cumulative exposure at external or internal level, where the latter option is needed when dietary and non-dietary routes have to be aggregated. Finally, risk characterisation is illustrated by calculation and display of the margin of exposure for single substances and for the cumulation, including uncertainties derived from exposure and hazard characterisation estimates.

The production of renewable liquid fuels for transport has attracted international research and market interest in line with the ambitious 2020 and 2030 energy and climate targets set by the European Union (EU) policy, considering the increasing global demand for their fossil counterparts and the resulting environmental impact. Toward this direction, the utilization of non-food/feed biomass is promoted, while the most promising bio-chemical and thermo-chemical value chains for biofuels production have been prioritized by the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative (EIBI), launched under the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan, listing pyrolysis among them. In this frame, the study investigates refinery-compatible entry points to directly co-feed bio-based refinery intermediates and further co-process them in existing petroleum crude oil refineries. The studied pyrolysis bio-oil has been produced via ablative fast pyrolysis and upgraded via mild hydrotreatment (HDT) in order to fulfill refineries’ specifications and become a “drop-in” biofuel in compatible refinery “location”. The properties of HDT-Bio-oil as well as fossil-based refinery intermediates were compared, and five fossil-based refinery intermediates have been concluded as potential candidates for co-processing. The analysis was based on mapping several petroleum fractions’ quality properties (i.e., boiling curve, gravity/density, overall elemental composition, viscosity, surface tension) within a conventional refinery. Based on the comparative assessment, the following refinery streams have been identified as potential candidates for co-processing with HDT-Bio-oil: Straight Run Distillate Diesel (SRGO), Atmospheric Gasoil (GASOIL), Light cycle oil (FCC LCO), Heavy cycle oil (FCC HCO) and Light vacuum gas oil (LVGO). Furthermore, the miscibility of the aforementioned renewable and conventional fuel intermediates has been investigated via light microscopy. In particular, the five mixtures of bio-oil/refinery intermediates were observed under Nikon ECLIPSE TE2000- S optical microscope. Among all refinery streams, Fluid Catalytic Cracking Light Cycle Oil (FCC LCO) and secondly Light Vacuum Gas Oil (LVGO) have been concluded to be the most promising candidates for coprocessing, resembling HDT-Bio-oil’s properties. The study is part of the “BioMates” Horizon2020 research and innovation EU project, aspiring in combining innovative 2nd generation biomass conversion technologies for the cost-effective production of reliable bio-based intermediates that can be further upgraded in existing oil refineries as renewable and reliable co-feedstocks. Therefore, the current miscibility study acts as a prescreening of candidate feedstocks for the targeted hydroprocessing study that will follow.

Scope:\ud The use of biomarkers in the objective assessment of dietary intake is a high priority in nutrition research. The aim of this study was to examine pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) as biomarkers of dairy foods intake.\ud Methods and results:\ud The data used in the present study were obtained as part of the Food4me Study. Estimates of C15:0 and C17:0 from dried blood spots and intakes of dairy from an FFQ were obtained from participants (n=1,180) across 7 countries. Regression analyses were used to explore associations of biomarkers with dairy intake levels and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to evaluate the fatty acids. Significant positive associations were found between C15:0 and total intakes of high-fat dairy products. C15:0 showed good ability to distinguish between low and high consumers of high-fat dairy products.\ud Conclusion:\ud C15:0 can be used as a biomarker of high-fat dairy intake and of specific high-fat dairy products. Both C15:0 and C17:0 performed poorly for total dairy intake highlighting the need for caution when using these in epidemiological studies.

The work describes the contribution of SAFESTRIP EU project technology to the implementation of the Dynamic Local Map used by C-ITS safety applications. The road strips developed in SAFESTRIP are able to detect and estimate the longitudinal and lateral position of detected vehicle at lane level. This is exploited by many existing and new C-ITS applications. Here a Coorperative Intersection Support application is described and used as example to explain the concept and highlight the benefit put forward by the road strips informations.

This deliverable contains the test report of the 3D sensor.