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Study background: Traditional fermented foods are the source of probiotic bacteria which can be envisaged as formulation ingredients in various food and beverages. Scope and approach: The present research aimed to explore one of the Indian traditional recipes, “Tarvaani,” for nutritional and probiotic potential as a part of its healthy perspectives. Main findings and conclusion: The traditional recipe was found to contain the lactic acid bacteria and isolated. The isolated product showed prominent curdling activity after 48 h, and bacterial growth was seen in all the pH (pH 3–7) tested. The antibiotic susceptibility test found that streptomycin, vancomycin, and kanamycin were resistant to the bacterial culture, and imipenem, gentamycin, rifampicin, and tetracycline were found to be resistant susceptible to the bacterial culture according to zone diameter interpretative criteria given in ICMR SOP 2015. A clear halo zone around the tested colony was obtained in the amylase test, which indicated that starch was degraded and α-amylase was produced. The culture also showed prominent antimicrobial action and inhibited the growth of the pathogenic strains tested by a well-diffusion assay. Moreover, the isolates only showed no haemolysis activity after incubation at 30 ◦C for 24 h under anaerobic conditions. Overall, the present research findings showcase the nutritional and probiotic potential of Lactobacillus sp. of “Tarvaani” as a viable option as a formulation ingredient in traditional-based functional foods Universidade de Vigo/CISUG

Biofuels/Bioenergy is renewable in nature by mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions despite rapid economic growth and energy demand. Biodiesel and bioethanol production from renewable sources are gaining much attention but unable to translate the technologies into commercially ventures. Several technical challenges like the screening of algae/yeast for higher lipid accumulation/ethanol production, separation and purification of microalgae from contaminants, harvesting of microalgae, improving transesterification efficiency with meager solvent consumption, energy and time have been addressed using microfluidic devices. Besides, it has shown promising results in microbial fuel cell domain. Microfluidics and microreactors offer miniaturization of experiments by a very little expense of solvents, energy and time with higher precision results. Moreover, it provides 19.2% higher surface to volume ratio when compared with Petri dish (35 mm diameter) and microchannel (50 µm tall, 50 µm wide, and 30 mm long). Higher surface to volume ratio is helpful in the integration of the whole laboratory (i.e., lab-on-a-chip), where efficient screening of ethanol/lipid producer, higher transesterification efficiency could be ascertained. Due to the overwhelming potential of microfluidics in biofuel and bioenergy sectors, the present review article illustrated several examples to depict the importance of microfluidics towards high-throughput analysis of screening the potent microbial/microalgal strain, fabrication of microfluidic bioreactor, quality analysis of biofuel and bioenergy products.

Lignocellulose biorefinery encompasses process engineering and biotechnology tools for the processing of lignocellulosic biomass for the manufacturing of bio-based products (such as biofuels, bio-chemicals, biomaterials). While, lignocellulose biorefinery offers clear value proposition, success at industrial level has not been vibrant for the commercial production of renewable chemicals and fuels. This is because of high capital and operating expenditures, irregularities in biomass supply chain, technical process immaturity, and scale up challenges. As a result, commercial production of biochemicals and biofuels with right economics is still lagging behind. To hit the market place, efforts are underway by bulk and specialty chemicals producing companies like DSM (Succinic acid, Cellulosic ethanol), Dow-DuPont (1,3-Propanediol, 1,4-Butanediol), Clariant-Global bioenergies-INEOS (bio-isobutene), Braskem (Ethylene, polypropylene), Raizen, Gran-bio and POET-DSM (Cellulosic ethanol), Amyris (Farnesene), and several other potential players. This paper entails the concept of lignocellulose biorefinery, technical challenges for industrialization of renewable fuels and bulk chemicals and future directions.

Waste to the product approach was proposed for tuning environ-threat soybean husk towards lipolytic enzyme by integrating the invasive weed optimization with biomass and product dynamics study. The invasive weed optimization constitutes based on the non-linear regression model results in a 47 % enhancement in lipolytic enzyme using the optimization parameters of 7% Sigma Final, 9% exponent; Smax of 5 with a population size of 35 and Max. generations of 99. The biomass dynamic study showcases the dynamic parameters of 0.0239 µmax, 8.17 XLimst and 0.852 RFin values. The product dynamic studies reveal the kinetic parameters of kst, kdiv, PFin, which seem to be equal to −0.0338, 0.0896 and 68.1, respectively. Overall, the present study put forth the zero-waste (soybean husk) to the product (lipolytic enzyme) approach by introducing the novel “Invasive Weed Optimization” coupled with “Biomass and product dynamics” to the bioprocessing field.

Electronic waste or e-waste is one of the global rising problems in developing countries like India and developed countries. E-waste comprises material that is valuable as well as toxic and has shoddier health and environment impact. This review paper presents an overview of global e-waste stats, health concerns of e-waste components along with the waste management, recycling, legislative polices and recommendations related to e-waste. Existing and future initiatives of e-waste management have been addressed by explaining the developed countries initiatives towards e-waste management. The key to success in terms of e-waste management such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) initiatives have been presented in a lucid manner. E-waste arena is a platform for business initiative for energy production (hydrogen and electricity) and precise metal recovery (gold, silver and platinum) through biotechnological approaches.

The present research evaluates the efficiency of transesterified Olax scandens oil for bio-additive to petroleum diesel. The extracted Olax oil was degummed and esterified to reduce the acid value for the transesterification reaction's suitability. The transesterification process was critically assessed by considering the effect of methanol concentration, reaction time, temperature and alkali concentration on FAME's (Fatty Acid Methyl Esters) yield. The fuel properties have been determined and engine performance tests have been executed for probable usage as bioadditive. The transesterified Olax oil blends showcased better engine performance studies flashed better runtime with load (more than 120% relative performance), lubricating and emission efficiency with lowered CO, CO2, and NOx over the intact petrodiesel.

The present research is mainly focusing on the characterization of X-ray developer solution and its toxic tolerance studies with Desmodesmus armatus towards the phycoremediation studies for removal of pollutants, silver, and concomitant lipid production. The characterization results suggested the presence of 1.229 ± 0.004 g/l BOD, 27.29 ± 0.230 g/l COD with a silver content of 0.01791 ± 0.000 g/l. The tolerance and toxicity limits of with X-ray developer solution reveals the remarkable growth of microalgae in 3:1.dilution ratio of BBM in the X-ray developer solutions. The phycoremediation with 19 days period shown the noticeable results with a relative BOD (20.86%), COD (13.88%), with 57.10% corresponding total phosphorous removal. The phycoremediation also has proven better relative silver removal potential of 44.06% on the 19th day with concomitant 1.392% lipid production. Overall, the present study shows the potential phycoremediation strategy of hazardous X-ray developer solutions with possible concurrent lipid production through a sustainable approach.

Lignin is the second most abundant polymer, which comprises15-30% (dry weight) of total lignocellulosic biomass. Recent studies focused on the effective utilization of lignin biopolymer into a myriad of products such as lignin micro and nanocapsules, biosensors, platform chemicals, pharmaceutical compounds, biopolymers, electrodes in electrochemistry, re-useable adsorbent, resins and biodiesel production through oleaginous microbes. The development of eco-friendly and cost-effective techniques is need-of-the-hour, which can be addressed through the circular economy approach. In this review, the emphasis is laid on integrating bioethanol and biodiesel production and valorizing lignin into various useful products. Besides, prospects of lignin biorefinery coupled with economic policies to be deployed along with the practical implications, have been discussed. Adopting these new pragmatic technologies and policies enables not only the development of inexpensive technologies but also boosts the economic growth of lignocellulosic biorefinery.

Bioelectrochemical system represents a novel technology where the microbial catalytic reaction occurs at bioanode and results in bioelectricity generation from waste and renewable biomass. At the current stage, fossil-based fuel is depleting, so newly sustainable form of renewable energy resources is required, where algal-based biofuel generation provides a new source of energy along with sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which in turn decreases the global warming issues. This review emphasizes the potential applications of microalgae-based bioelectrochemical systems for renewable power generation, wastewater treatment, CO2 sequestration and value-added products. Moreover, this critical review also highlights the current developments in microalgal MFC integrated systems by discussing the current potential challenges and drawbacks.

Short chain aliphatic esters have immense applications as flavors in fruit juices, cheeses, baked goods, candies, beverages and ice creams. Two such flavor esters ( n -butyl acetate and n -propyl acetate) were synthesized enzymatically by transesterification of vinyl acetate with alcohols namely n -butanol and n -propanol, respectively, in solvent-free systems. These two synthesized esters occur naturally in various fruits like apple, strawberry, pear, etc. Lipase from Rhizopus oligosporus NRRL 5905 immobilized onto cross-linked silica gel was used for synthesis of the esters. The process parameters (reaction time, enzyme amount, additional water and shaking speed) were studied to achieve the highest yield of the esters. Maximum conversion of n -butyl acetate (50%) and n -propyl acetate (56%) were achieved after 24 h of reaction at 30 °C, at an enzyme concentration of 25% (w/v) of reaction mixture. This process was further optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) based on a three-level, four-variable central composite design (CCD). The optimum molar conversion of 54.6% using 27.5% enzyme concentration at 215 rpm and 26.5 °C for 28 h and 56.5% molar conversion using 29.8% enzyme concentration at 101 rpm and 28.2 °C for 28 h were achieved for n -butyl and n -propyl acetates, respectively. Immobilized lipase could be used for three cycles for synthesis of n -butyl acetate and n -propyl acetate, respectively, with almost 100% retention of molar conversion. The K m and V max values were determined to be 227 mM and 322 μmol/(g-h), respectively, for n -butyl acetate while for n -propyl acetate the respective values were 222 mM and 385 μmol/(g-h).