Oxidative environment causes molecular remodeling in embryonic heart—a metabolomic and lipidomic fingerprinting analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Environmental factors including pollution affect human health, and the unifying factor in determining toxicity and pathogenesis for a wide array of...     

Ecofriendly lime and sulfide free enzymatic dehairing of skins and hides using a bacterial alkaline protease

The ever-increasing attention to the environmental impact of leather industry has necessitated the development of enzyme-based processes as potent alternatives to pollution causing chemicals. In this study, a hair saving process is developed for dehairing of skins and hides using a bacterial alkaline protease preparation, completely eliminating the use of lime and sulfide. To evaluate the efficacy of the enzymatic process, comparative studies have been carried out with two controls; a conventional lime-sulfide process and enzyme-assisted process using commercial dehairing enzyme with reduced quantities of lime and sulfide. The developed process requires a shorter duration of 6h for complete dehairing of skins and hides than control groups and also, it avoids the use of silicate carriers since the enzymatic dehairing is carried out by dip method. Histological and scanning electron microscopic analyses of the dehaired pelts obtained from enzymatic process reveal complete removal of hair and epidermis with moderate opening up of fiber structure in both dermis and corium. Moreover, the collagen is not damaged and resulting in a leather of good quality. The developed process has resulted in a remarkable reduction of effluent load in terms of biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total dissolved solids and total suspended solids. Physicochemical studies conclusively show that the leathers produced by enzymatic process are equivalent to or better than that obtained by control systems. Thus, the developed enzymatic process offers immense potential for greener mode of dehairing of skins and hides in leather industry coupled with environmental excellence.     

A prototype of proposed treatment plant for sago factory effluent

Sago processing industries discharge wastewater, which poses a threat to water bodies due to their higher organic loading. Concerns about pollution related problems in the global scenario are persuading all the processing industries to adopt cleaner manufacturing practices. Hence, this study was aimed at developing a cost-effective and eco-friendly treatment plant based on microbial system to treat the sago factory effluent effectively in order to reuse the water for industrial purposes. The experimental results showed that, anaerobic treatment with mixed inoculum for 10 days followed by 6 days of fungal treatment was found to be effective in effluent treatment. The fusant showed a higher efficiency in the treatment of sago factory effluent than the parental strains.     

Exploitation of Trichoderma harzianum mycelial waste for the removal of rhodamine 6G from aqueous solution

The harvested mycelial waste of Trichoderma harzianum was used as an adsorbent for the removal of rhodamine 6G and was studied in batch mode. The effects of agitation time and initial dye concentration, adsorbent dosage and pH were examined. The study revealed that the amount of dye adsorbed (mgg(-1)) increased with increase in agitation time and reached equilibrium after 120 min, for dye concentrations of 10-50 mg L(-1). The adsorbent dosage of 1.0 g/50 mL and pH of 8.0 were found to be optimum for maximum dye removal. The batch mode adsorption data followed both the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The pseudo first- and second-order rate kinetics were applied to the adsorbent system. The adsorption kinetics of rhodamine 6G showed that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model provided the best correlation of the equilibrium data. The study implies that it is possible to develop a dye removal system by using T. harzianum biomass, which occurs as sludge in waste stream of fermentation industries.     

Deployment of Trichoderma harzianum WL1 laccase in pulp bleaching and paper industry effluent treatment

The ability of Trichoderma harzianum WL1 crude laccase and the fungal system for the biobleaching of wastepaper pulp and treatment of paper industry effluent was investigated. Three different modes of treatment, enzyme, enzyme-alkali and enzyme-EDED were employed for the bleaching of wastepaper pulp. The process parameters such as treatment period, pulp consistency, temperature and enzyme charge had a great influence on the quality of paper pulp. The paper industry effluent was subjected to eight different treatments via. aerobic, anaerobic, fungal and combination of these treatments. Fungal followed by anaerobic treatment was found to be effective in paper industry effluent treatment.     

Role of nano-additive blended biodiesel on emission characteristics of the research diesel engine

The current experimental study is aimed to analyze the influence of single-walled Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT) on the emission characteristics of neem biodiesel-fueled (NBD-fueled) diesel engine and the results compared with conventional diesel. Experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder, 4-stroke, diesel engine with an eddy current dynamometer at a constant speed of 1500 rpm. Two samples of CNT are characterized and dispersed into 100% of the NBD in a mass fraction of 50 and 100 ppm using ultrasonicator, and the physicochemical properties were measured. Experimental results indicated that by adding CNT nanoparticles in NBD reduces its NO_x, HC, CO, and smoke emission by 9.2%, 6.7%, 5.9%, and 7.8%, respectively, at all load conditions.     

Emission study of a diesel engine fueled with higher alcohol-biodiesel blended fuels

This work examines the effect of butanol (higher alcohol) on the emission pattern of neat neem oil biodiesel (NBD100) fueled diesel engine. Single-cylinder, 4-stroke, research diesel engine was employed to conduct the trial. Blends comprising the mixture of biodiesel and higher alcohol were prepared by employing an ultrasonic agitator. Four test fuels such as neat neem oil biodiesel, diesel, and two blends of higher alcohol/neem oil biodiesel: 10% and 20% (by volume). Experimental result showed that increasing alcohol content to biodiesel brought down the various emissions such as Smoke, NO_x, HC, and CO by 6.8%, 10.4%, 8.6%, and 5.9%, respectively, at all loads. It was also concluded from the trail that a 20% higher alcohol/neem oil biodiesel blends show the promising signs in reducing all the emissions associated with biodiesel fuelled diesel engine.     

Mechanism of enzymatic dehairing of skins using a bacterial alkaline protease

In the conventional dehairing process of leather manufacture, animal skins are subjected to a drastic chemical treatment using lime and sodium sulfide. Sulfide reduces disulfide bonds in keratin present in hair and epidermis and thereby detaches them from skin. Lime, being an alkali, contributes to opening up of collagen fiber structure by cleaving a major portion of the glycosaminoglycans from proteoglycans, the interfibrillar elements of skin connective tissue. Currently, as an alternative to chemical dehairing, enzyme based dehairing processes using proteases avoiding the use of lime and sulfide are being developed because of their environmental benefits. Though both chemical as well as enzymatic dehairing processes are aimed at removing noncollagenous proteins and proteoglycans in addition to fiber opening, the mechanism of enzymatic process is distinct from that of the chemical process. In this study, we attempt to study in detail the mechanism of hair saving enzymatic dehairing process for skins using a bacterial protease against the customary hair burn chemical dehairing process. Quantitative analysis shows that the collagen content remains unaffected in both treatments but there is a marked reduction of proteoglycan constituents from dehaired pelts in the enzymatic process when compared to lime-sulfide process. This is further substantiated by histochemical examination of the sections of dehaired pelts using different stains as well as immunohistochemical studies on the removal of decorin. HPLC profile shows that decorin is extensively degraded by the bacterial protease. This study conclusively demonstrates that proteolytic degradation of decorin and subsequent removal of proteoglycan aggregates play an important role in the opening up of the collagen fiber bundles during enzymatic dehairing.     

Intensity of hospital waste generation and disposal in the selected hospitals in Kerala,India: an analysis based on hospital ownership

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Management of hospital wastes has been considered as an integral part of hospital hygiene and infection control, which in turn depends on the...