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The palm oil industry has been one of the major economic contributors for Malaysia over the last decade. While contributing to the country's economic growth, the industry has inevitably produced a significant amount of waste materials which are harmful to the environment. Oil palm boiler ashes (OPBA) generated from boiler in mills are disposed in open landfills which are easily carried away by the wind. The disposed ash pollutes the air while spent earth, when left in landfills, produce a pungent odour. The present work investigated the possibility of refining palm oil with raw OPBA and pelletized OPBA as alternate bleaching adsorbents. The performance of different types OPBA (raw, enhanced and pelletized) was investigated to determine their bleaching efficiencies on carotenoid removal at various operating conditions. Crude palm oil samples were refined with these OPBA and compared with commercial bleaching earth to investigate the final refined oil colours. A final refined oil colour of 4.0R was obtained using 0.05 wt% of enhanced OPBA when bleached at 110 °C for 45 min under constant agitation (300 rpm) and subsequently deodorized at 265 °C for 1 h. This study has indicated that the use of enhanced OPBA which could achieve more than high removal of carotenoid could substitute commercial bleaching earths to produce a comparable final refined oil colour rating. The successful substitution of OPBA to replace the conventional bleaching earth in oil refining could significantly reduce the production cost. This is also a sustainable solution for the edible oil processing industries to mitigate the solid waste and contributes to a cleaner environment.

Biocarriers are pivotal in enhancing the reusability of biocatalyst that would otherwise be less economical for industrial application. Ever since the induction of enzymatic technology, varied materials have been assessed for their biocompatibility with enzymes of distinct functionalities. Herein, cellulase was immobilized onto polymethacrylate particles (ICP) as the biocarrier grafted with ethylenediamine (EDA) and glutaraldehyde (GA). Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was used as a model substrate for activity assay. Enzyme immobilization loading was determined by quantifying the dry weight differential of ICP (pre-& post-immobilization). Cellulase was successfully demonstrated to be anchored upon ICP and validated by FTIR spectra analysis. The optimal condition for cellulase immobilization was determined to be pH 6 at 20 °C. The maximum CMCase activity was achieved at pH 5 and 50 °C. Residual activity of ∼50% was retained after three iterations and dipped to ∼18% on following cycle. Also, ICP displayed superior pH adaptability as compared to free cellulase. The specific activity of ICP was 65.14 ± 1.11% relative to similar amount of free cellulase.

Aptamers are single stranded nucleic acids with specific target-binding functionalities, biophysical and biochemical properties. The binding performance of aptamers to their cognate targets is influenced by the physicochemical conditions of the binding system particularly in relation to biomolecular charge distribution and hydrodynamic conformations in solution. Herein, we report the use of zeta potential measurements to characterise the surface charge distribution, biomolecular hydrodynamic size and the binding performance of a 15-mer thrombin binding aptamer (TBA) to thrombin under various physicochemical conditions of pH, temperature, monovalent (K + ) and divalent (Mg 2+ ) cation concentrations. Charge distribution analysis demonstrated time dependence in the formation of stable TBA-thrombin and TBA-thrombin-metal ion complexes. TBA was characterised to be most stable in pH above 9. The presence of monovalent and divalent metal ions reduced the electronegativity of TBA through electrostatic interactions, and this demonstrated to improve binding characteristics. TBA-thrombin complexes generated under different physicochemical conditions showed varying surface charge distributions. The stability of TBA-thrombin complex investigated using Scatchard analysis showed that the presence of K + increased the binding performance by displaying a positive cooperativity relationship. The presence of Mg 2+ showed a concave upward trend, potentially caused by heterogeneity in binding.

Bleaching is a vital step in crude palm oil (CPO) processing due to its importance for both decolourisation and removal of impurities present in the oil. The commonly used material for CPO bleaching is bleaching earth. However, there are associated environmental issues due to its disposal without pre-treatment, and the retention of significant quantities of oil during the bleaching process. It is therefore imperative to research into viable alternative bleaching materials which are economical, readily available and able to undergo successive regeneration while minimizing oil loss. The present work probed the performance of enhanced oil palm ash (OPA), as an alternate bleaching adsorbent. The performance of the bleaching process was investigated by engineering critical process parameters such as stirring speed, adsorbent dosage, regenerability and ash particle sizes. The effective particle size of OPA was determined to be 212–300 μm, resulting in a maximum bleaching efficiency of 97.3%. A stirring speed of 800 rpm was optimal irrespective of the adsorbent particle size. In addition, a high adsorbent-to-CPO dosage ratio was identified to be effective for successive numbers of regeneration with less retention of oil. Indications from this analyses are that a higher bleaching performance can be obtained by optimizing relevant process conditions of OPA as an adsorbent.

Bioavailability of bioactive peptides (BAPs) represents the amount of peptides absorbed through normal pathways, after oral intake, and distributed in target tissues to exhibit bioactive properties. The small intestine is the primary location of the gastrointestinal tract where peptide absorption mainly occurs. BAPs are beneficial to health upon reaching their physiological sites of action without structural changes. Despite the rapid and dynamic evolvement of research into food peptides, there is still a knowledge gap regarding their bioaccessibility and bioavailability for systemic circulation to targeted organs. Beside the digestive actions of endogenous proteases and peptidases, chemical and nutritional compositions of the food matrix and their physical forms (e.g., liquid, puree, gel, solid) are also critical factors that can influence the interactions, digestibility, bioaccessibility and bioavailability of BAPs. Detailed understanding of such food matrix factors can be explored for enhancing the bioavailability of BAPs and achieving their positive health effects.

Even though considerable strides have been made in the development of effective technologies for the production of different biofuels in some commercial quantities, global consumer patronage in biofuel utilisation has been discouraging. This has triggered significant inquisitions and research into different key aspects of the biofuel supply chain some of which are; techno-economic innovations targeted at reducing production cost, product marketing and packaging, and sustainable resources for biomass generation. This paper seeks to investigate biofuel marketing modalities beyond the current scope of a majority public sector industry to aid the development and promotion of biofuels to commercial and public sectors. The need for marketing in the biofuel industry is explored to identify innovative strategies, trending capacities, and key success factors to revolutionise marketing schemes with the potential to predict future trends. Scholarly positions on effective strategies using well-known marketing paradigms are discussed to suit the need of the industry. A proposal for the application of a strategic marketing framework built on sustainability precept is put forward, concluding that sustainable marketing (green and social marketing) could be used concurrently and continuously to improve growth and development through increased sales and competitive scoping.