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We would all agree that the role of sustainable development is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without compromising quality of life for future generations. We would agree that sustainable development relies on ending discrimination towards women and providing equal opportunities for education and employment. Gender equality has been conclusively shown to stimulate economic growth, which is crucial for low-income countries. We would also agree that there has been a lot of research in relation to sustainable development in engineering education, indicating that the subject of sustainability may help increase participation of women in engineering. But in reality, how can we teach our students sustainable development and promote the role of females in engineering, when the engineering education is so unsustainable for female academics? Academic women have long made the compromises in terms of the double burden of domestic and paid work, as well as to their personal life choices and well-being, yet academia and higher education institutions have simply not made the working environment a more just and sustainable space for women. During the pandemic, these inequities were exacerbated by the loss of educational provision, now delivered online and facilitated by, in the majority of cases, mothers. The precarity of childcare, now makes the question of the unsustainability of female academic’s lives unavoidable. Women have been literally and figuratively left holding the baby during this crisis. We are at a critical juncture where we have the opportunity as academics, to reimagine the post-pandemic community, and create a more socially just and sustainable balance in our lives. This issue exceeds academia; it is actually the culture that dictates women to be “good girls”; to comply with the patriarchal system. While there is nothing wrong about being a good person, the “good girl” label has a completely different meaning and impact on the life and career of women. “Good girl” is the one who cares about the others, seeks their approval, has no needs or ambitions, is quiet, kind, willing to please everyone, to get everything right the first time, is not allowed to make mistakes, has to sacrifice herself, and to be perfect and above all else, not to challenge the system or to call out all the specifically gendered ways in which the impact of the system marginalises and hurts women. The “good girl” culture has been a big burden for women in academia in general, having a detrimental impact to the career development of female academics in particular in the male dominated sector of engineering education. During the pandemic, it has been taken for granted that women would deliver on all fronts. It is well document that women’s work is often invisible, both in the domestic and public spheres [1]. Although common to all disciplines, the impacts of bias and stereotypes are particularly pronounced in engineering [2]. Female academics please their students, line managers, colleagues and family, leaving behind themselves, their research and other necessary elements for their progression. They are never considered equally good, impactful, and successful, as their male colleagues. As a matter of fact, women in engineering education experience more grade appeals and receive lower course evaluations than their white male counterparts [3], being discriminated by students, administrators and academics, while their efforts and ideas are being constantly discounted. There is nothing sustainable about this. This paper proposes effective actions to tackle the “good girl” expectations for female academics, enhancing sustainability, implementing a fit-for-purpose change of the culture system across school, with targeted and consistent actions, actively promoting the needs of female academics.

This paper describes the process undertaken prior to the commencement of a proposed tyre laboratory scale experiment carried out in University College Cork, Ireland to identify the hazards, assess the risks, change the design and implement control measures to manage the hazards of the experiment.

The application of edible coatings has been widely studied for horticultural products, while hardly explored for dairy products. In this work a novel galactomannan (extracted from Gleditsia triacanthos) edible coating was tested in a semi-hard goat and cow milk cheese - Regional cheese - during storage at two different temperatures (4 and 20 º;C - 50 % RH). The coating formulation has been optimized in previously work. Physical, chemical and microbiological analyses were performed in cheese samples during 21 days of storage. A 2^2 factorial experimental setup was performed and Pareto charts were used to define the parameters that have most influenced cheese shelf-life. The results show that the application of the coatings on cheese samples can be used to decrease the water loss in cheese samples and the colour change during the storage time (p, info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

A mathematical model was developed in order to describe the effect of temperature on the degradation process of shredded carrots. Shredded carrots were stored in an air flux system in the range of temperature 0 degrees-20 degrees C. Storage time varied with temperature to observe the complete decay of pH and colour over time. The experimental data collected at 10 degrees C were used to validate the model. The evolution of the pH over time was reasonably well describes by a Weibull equation, while a first order equation described the colour change. The rate constants of both models varied with temperature according to an Arrhenius - type relationship with activation energy equal to 71 +/- 2 KJ/mol for the pH, and 89 +/- 5 KJ/mol for the colour.

The primary purpose of this work was to provide robust tools for the design of perforated packaging based on rigorous mathematical methods. A dimensionless correlation was established based on the identification of the variables affecting mass transfer through perforations. It was proved that the diameter of the perforation is the most important parameter. Air velocity and temperature (via its effect on viscosity and density of air) and diffusivity of gases through air are also relevant to this analysis. The Buckingham π Theorem was applied to identify the dimensionless numbers that provide a dimensionless correlation availing of the principle of dynamic similarity to predict the mass transfer coefficients of both oxygen and water vapour through perforations. As films tend to be much more permeable to water than to oxygen, a study on the effect of water (humidity) on films was also performed. It was found that diffusion and hence permeability can be significantly affected by the water content of the films and therefore the humidity of the atmospheres that the films are exposed to on both sides. A methodology was applied combining the William, Landel and Ferry and the Gordon-Taylor equations with the isotherm of water sorption to obtain the correct effective permeability of films during storage depending on the relative humidity. A methodology was also developed to analyse leakage flow in sealed packages in order to identify the relevant parameters that influence their variability and provide the most robust sealing conditions. The results on this thesis provide substantial data and rigorous mathematical approaches for a more efficient and accurate packaging design to achieve maximum shelf life.

Cassava contributes significantly to biobased material development. Conventional approaches for its bio-derivative-production and application cause significant wastes, tailored material development challenges, with negative environmental impact and application limitations. Transforming cassava into sustainable value-added resources requires redesigning new approaches. Harnessing unexplored material source, and downstream process innovations can mitigate challenges. The ultimate goal proposed an integrated sustainable process system for cassava biomaterial development and potential application. An improved simultaneous release recovery cyanogenesis (SRRC) methodology, incorporating intact bitter cassava, was developed and standardized. Films were formulated, characterised, their mass transport behaviour, simulating real-distribution-chain conditions quantified, and optimised for desirable properties. Integrated process design system, for sustainable waste-elimination and biomaterial development, was developed. Films and bioderivatives for desired MAP, fast-delivery nutraceutical excipients and antifungal active coating applications were demonstrated. SRRC-processed intact bitter cassava produced significantly higher yield safe bio-derivatives than peeled, guaranteeing 16% waste-elimination. Process standardization transformed entire root into higher yield and clarified colour bio-derivatives and efficient material balance at optimal global desirability. Solvent mass through temperature-humidity-stressed films induced structural changes, and influenced water vapour and oxygen permeability. Sevenunit integrated-process design led to cost-effectiveness, energy-efficient and green cassava processing and biomaterials with zero-environment footprints. Desirable optimised bio-derivatives and films demonstrated application in desirable in-package O2/CO2, mouldgrowth inhibition, faster tablet excipient nutraceutical dissolutions and releases, and thymolencapsulated smooth antifungal coatings. Novel material resources, non-root peeling, zero-waste-elimination, and desirable standardised methodology present promising process integration tools for sustainable cassava biobased system development. Emerging design outcomes have potential applications to mitigate cyanide challenges and provide bio-derivative development pathways. Process system leads to zero-waste, with potential to reshape current style one-way processes into circular designs modelled on nature's effective approaches. Indigenous cassava components as natural material reinforcements, and SRRC processing approach has initiated a process with potential wider deployment in broad product research development. This research contributes to scientific knowledge in material science and engineering process design.

The development of a new bioprocess requires several steps from initial concept to a practical and feasible application. Industrial applications of fungal pigments will depend on: (i) safety of consumption, (ii) stability of the pigments to the food processing conditions required by the products where they will be incorporated and (iii) high production yields so that production costs are reasonable. Of these requirements the first involves the highest research costs and the practical application of this type of processes may face several hurdles until final regulatory approval as a new food ingredient. Therefore, before going through expensive research to have them accepted as new products, the process potential should be assessed early on, and this brings forward pigment stability studies and process optimisation goals. Only ingredients that are usable in economically feasible conditions should progress to regulatory approval. This thesis covers these two aspects, stability and process optimisation, for a potential new ingredient; natural red colour, produced by microbial fermentation. The main goal was to design, optimise and scale-up the production process of red pigments by Penicillium purpurogenum GH2. The approach followed to reach this objective was first to establish that pigments produced by Penicillium purpurogenum GH2 are sufficiently stable under different processing conditions (thermal and non-thermal) that can be found in food and textile industries. Once defined that pigments were stable enough, the work progressed towards process optimisation, aiming for the highest productivity using submerged fermentation as production culture. Optimum production conditions defined at flask scale were used to scale up the pigment production process to a pilot reactor scale. Finally, the potential applications of the pigments were assessed. Based on this sequence of specific targets, the thesis was structured in six parts, containing a total of nine chapters. Engineering design of a bioprocess for the production of natural red colourants by submerged fermentation of the thermophilic fungus Penicillium purpurogenum GH2.