Life cycle assessment of spray dried soluble coffee and comparison with alternatives (drip filter and capsule espresso)

This paper aims to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with spray dried soluble coffee over its entire life cycle and compare it with drip filter coffee and capsule espresso coffee. It particularly aims to identify critical environmental issues and responsibilities along the whole life cycle chain of spray dried coffee. This life cycle assessment (LCA) specifically uses foreground data obtained directly from coffee manufacturers and suppliers. Aside from energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions, water footprint is also studied in detail, including regionalization of water impacts based on the ecological scarcity method 2006. Other impact categories are screened using the IMPACT 2002+ impact assessment method.The overall LCA results for a 1 dl cup of spray dried soluble coffee amounts approximately to 1 MJ of primary non-renewable energy consumption, to emissions of 0.07 kg of CO_2-eq, and between 3 and 10 l of non-turbined water use, depending on whether or not the coffee cultivation is irrigated and wet treated. When considering turbined water, use can be up to 400 l of water per cup. Pouch – and to a lesser extent metal can packaging alternatives – show lower environmental burdens than glass or sticks.On average, about one half of the environmental footprint occurs at a life cycle stage under the control of the coffee producer or its suppliers (i.e., during cultivation, treatment, processing, packaging up to distribution, along with advertising) and the other half at a stage controlled by the user (shopping, appliances manufacturing, use and waste disposal). Key environmental parameters of spray dried soluble coffee are the amount of extra water boiled and the efficiency of cup cleaning during use phase, whether the coffee is irrigated or not, as well as the type and amount of fertilizer used in the coffee field. The packaging contributes to 10% of the overall life cycle impacts.Compared to other coffee alternatives, spray dried soluble coffee uses less energy and has a lower environmental footprint than capsule espresso coffee or drip filter coffee, the latter having the highest environmental impacts on a per cup basis. This study shows that a broad LCA approach is needed to help industry to minimize the environmental burdens directly related to their products. Including all processes of the entire system is necessary i) to get a comprehensive environmental footprint of the product system with respect to sustainable production and consumption, ii) to share stakeholders responsibility along the entire product life cycle, and iii) to avoid problem shifting between different life cycle stages.     

连云港春季PM2.5中主要水溶性无机离子污染特征及来源解析

于2017年3月1日—5月31日监测分析了连云港市大气PM_(2.5)中主要水溶性无机离子质量浓度的日变化规律,以及与气象因子、PM10、PM_(2.5)相关性。结果表明,水溶性无机离子质量浓度与环境空气中NO_2、CO、PM_(10)、PM_(2. 5)显著相关,与气温、风速、能见度等呈负相关;日变化呈明显单峰型,峰值出现在08:00左右;水溶性无机离子季度均值为27. 2μg/m~3,占ρ(PM_(2.5))平均50%左右,ρ(NO_3~-)、ρ(SO_4~(2-))和ρ(NH_4~+)占ρ(水溶性无机离子)总85%以上;指出,SO_4~(2-)主要受远距离传输的影响,NO_3~-和NH_4~+主要受局地源的影响。     

Antioxidant and metabolism responses to polyphenol stress in cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

Three common polyphenol compounds Gallic Acid (GA), Pyrogallic Acid (PA) and Catechol (CA) are known to have allelochemical-exhibiting inhibitory effects on the growth of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa). Metabolism and antioxidant responses in M. aeruginosa were investigated to elucidate the mechanism by which the three polyphenols inhibit algal growth. The inhibition effects of polyphenols were in the order of CA > PA > GA. The GA and CA exposures increased protein contents, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity and soluble sugar, especially for exposure to GA of 25 mg L^?1. Soluble sugar content increased significantly especially when exposed to CA for 72 h. When exposed to PA, protein content, and SOD and CAT activities initially increased but over longer treatment time the activities decreased, in contrast to sugar content. Our results suggest that PA exposure for longer periods of time may inhibit catabolism action, while CA exposure could induce more oxide stress than GA or PA. The overall study showed that polyphenol-induced oxidative damage might be responsible for polyphenol inhibition on M. aeruginosa growth. The increases in cellular antioxidant enzymes and soluble sugar may have been to counteract the oxidative stress.     

Interference by the activated sludge matrix on the analysis of soluble microbial products in wastewater

The objective of this study was to demonstrate the effects of complex matrix effects caused by chemical materials on the analysis of key soluble microbial products (SMP) including proteins, humics, carbohydrates, and polysaccharides in activated sludge samples. Emphasis was placed on comparison of the commonly used standard curve technique with standard addition (SA), a technique that differs in that the analytical responses are measured for sample solutions spiked with known quantities of analytes. The results showed that using SA provided a great improvement in compensating for SMP recovery and thus improving measurement accuracy by correcting for matrix effects. Analyte recovery was found to be highly dependent on sample dilution, and changed due to extraction techniques, storage conditions and sample composition. Storage of sample extracts by freezing changed SMP concentrations dramatically, as did storage at 4 °C for as little as 1 d.     

Stress-70 as indicator of heavy metals accumulation in blue mussel Mytilus edulis

The induction of stress-70 (Hsp70) in the blue mussels Mytilus edulis from southern Baltic after exposure to cadmium, lead and copper, administrated individually and/or as a mixture, was investigated by means of standard Western blotting using a clone 3A3 monoclonal antibody. The general course of the stress-70 induction was found to be similar for all tested metals. It could be characterised by three main features: (1) The induction of stress-70 proteins was only slightly increased at low metal concentration. (2) Strong induction of stress-70 occurred at high concentration of metals. Combination of metals (Cd+Cu) was found to increase the stress-70 level more intensely than related concentrations of singularly applied metals. (3) Five weeks of long depuration had no effect on stress-70 levels. Experiments revealed different induction of stress-70 as a response to cadmium, lead and copper exposure and confirm that the applied technique might serve as a versatile tool to assess invertebrate stress reaction to environmentally relevant heavy metals.     

酵母提取物对葡萄糖发酵生产生物破乳菌Alcaligenes sp. S-XJ-1的影响

以从石油污染的土壤中筛选出1株生物破乳菌Alcaligenes sp.S-XJ-1为对象,考察了以葡萄糖为碳源时添加酵母提取物对生物破乳菌菌体性质、破乳性能以及菌体元素组成的影响.结果表明,酵母提取物的投加能够有效提高生物破乳菌产量,在酵母提取物浓度为5 g.L-1时,生物破乳菌产量达到3.0 g.L-1,此时葡萄糖利用率亦达到最大的58%.随着酵母提取物的投加浓度的增大,培养得到的菌体破乳性能提高,在投加浓度为10 g.L-1时,破乳率达到76%;而培养得到的菌体C/N有所降低,对其菌体表面蛋白进行提取测定发现菌体总蛋白含量升高,这与FTIR分析破乳菌菌体表面蛋白质类物质提高的结论一致.推测该生物破乳菌菌体蛋白含量的提高增强了菌体的破乳性能,菌体蛋白类物质是影响其破乳性能的关键组分之一.     

甘肃党参中蛋白质的提取分析

实验采用盐溶法提取甘肃党参中蛋白质,用饱和(NH4) 2SO4溶液进行分级盐析、透析、浓缩后用SDS- PAGE分析,测定不同提取液中主要蛋白质的分子量.结果表明,用pH为6.0的PB缓冲液提取并用饱和度在60％以上的(NH4)2SO4溶液盐析时蛋白提取效果最好;经SDS- PAGE电泳后,初步鉴定出所提取党参蛋白质亚基中最大分子量为68885Da,最小分子量为15570Da.