Chlorogenic acid (CQA), the ester of caffeic acid with quinic acid, has been one of the most studied polyphenols due to its potential biological activity and usefulness in pharmaceutical treatment. We found that in an aqueous solution of each chlorogenic acid isomer, 3-, 4- and 5-CQA, its two complexes with water are formed. In the RP chromatographic system, these CQA-water derivatives differ in retention data from that of their precursors and do not decompose, which indicates their considerable stability. The formation of CQA-water complexes has not been reported yet. Comprehensive NMR research of CQA-water derivatives complexes shows that their significant stability results from the formation of hydrogen bonds between water and CQA isomer – e.g., between water and OH3, OH4 and ester groups of CQA molecule in the case of 5-CQA-water derivative. The existence of CQA-water derivatives in CQA containing food products was in the paper shown. It should be noted that the stable CQA-water complexes may exhibit a different biological activity than CQA. This issue requires separate biomedical research.

The food processing industry is one of the largest consumers of energy and water in the manufacturing sector. It is vital that conservation measures are taken to reduce the use of electricity, fuel, and water for producers to have long-term, sustainable growth. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) region includes some the largest food processers in the United States, particularly with products such as fruit and vegetable preserves, apples products, potato products, and milk. Energy and water consumption in PNW food processing facilities are quantified as well as techniques to increase efficiency and reduce waste. Mechanical drive systems and refrigeration consumes the most electricity in the industry and the implementation of energy management plans has the largest potential to save electricity in PNW facilities. Heating and cooling process needs are the largest consumers of energy in the food processing industry. Implementing cogeneration/trigeneration technology, replacing of older equipment, capturing waste heat, and reusing wastewater can have significant impacts on both energy and water consumption. Novel, emerging technologies such as membrane separation, high-pressure processing, microwave assist, ultrasound, pulsed high electric fields, ozone, and hydrogen/electricity generation have significant potential to benefit the food processing industry by increasing efficiency and allowing companies to stay competitive in an industry where sustainable practices are becoming increasingly important to the public.

The gasification of biomass in supercritical water is a promising technology for hydrogen production and the paper reports a thermodynamic analysis, based on minimization of Gibbs free energy, of the gasification with supercritical water of different biomass and agro-food residues: almond shells, digestate from wastewater treatment, algae and manure sludge. Numerical simulations were performed in order to assess the effect of temperature, pressure and biomass-to-water ratio on gas-phase yield and composition.A partial energy integration was also discussed, by considering the energy recovery from a turbine expansion of the gas-phase stream leaving the gasifier. The proposed thermodynamic approach allows predicting not only gasification efficiency of gasifier but also energy balance on the entire gasification process. Results showed that the dry substrates (almond shells and algae more than digestate and sludge) tend to form more carbon monoxide. Besides, data comparison revealed that the produced hydrogen comes from biomass and water for high process temperature, while when temperature decreases, the thermodynamic path tends to promote water formation from the hydrogen of the dry biomass.

In China, waste sorting practice is not strictly followed, plastics, especially food packaging, are commonly mixed in food waste. Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of unsorted food waste was conducted in this study, using model unsorted food waste by mixture of pure food waste and plastic. Different operating parameters including reaction temperature, residence time, and feedstock concentration were investigated. Moreover, the effect of three representative food additives namely NaCl, NaHCO₃ and Na₂CO₃ were tested in this work. Finally, comparative analysis about SCWG of unsorted food waste, pure food waste, and plastic was studied. It was found that higher reaction temperature, longer residence time and lower feedstock concentration were advantageous for SCWG of unsorted food waste. Within the range of operating parameters in this study, when the feedstock concentration was 5 wt%, the highest H₂ yield (7.69 mol/kg), H₂ selectivity (82.11%), total gas yield (17.05 mol/kg), and efficiencies of SCWG (cold gas efficiency, gasification efficiency, carbon gasification efficiency, and hydrogen gasification efficiency) were obtained at 480 °C for 75 min. Also, the addition of food additives with Na⁺ promoted the SCWG of unsorted food waste. The Na₂CO₃ showed the best catalytic performance on enhancement of H₂ and syngas production. This research demonstrated the positive effect of waste sorting on the SCWG of food waste, and provided novel results and information that help to overcome the problems in the process of food waste treatment and accelerate the industrial application of SCWG technology in the future.

Motivated by the increasing need for new solutions with less environmental impact, in this work we have investigated the benefits of depositing a wheat gluten (WG) coating on paperboard substrates intended for food packaging applications. To overcome the inherent moisture sensitivity of this protein, WG was combined with a silica network obtained by sol-gel chemistry. WG/silica hybrid coatings were characterized in terms of structural, thermal, morphological, surface, and water vapor barrier properties. Spectrometric analysis demonstrated that the organic and inorganic phases interacted primarily through hydrogen bonding. This was also supported by thermal experiments, which revealed a higher Tg measured for the hybrid materials with the higher silica content (114 ± 1 °C and 128 ± 2 °C, respectively) compared to the pure WG material (Tg = 89 ± 1 °C). Scanning electron microscopy showed that the surfaces of the coatings were very smooth, though the presence of pinholes, cracks, fractures, and voids was detected, especially for the silica-rich formulations. Upon deposition of the coatings, the wettability of the bare paperboard increased, as demonstrated by the lower water contact angle values. In addition, hybrid coatings exhibited a higher wettability over the pristine WG coating, which was due to a more intense spreading phenomenon. The deposition of the coatings led to a ∼ 4-fold reduction in water vapor transmission rate (WVTR ∼ 90 g m⁻² 24 h⁻¹ at 23 °C and 65% relative humidity) of the specific cellulosic substrate tested in this work (WVTR ∼ 350 g m⁻² 24⁻¹).

The increase in population coupled with rising per capita income and associated change in consumption habits will put unprecedented stress on food, energy and water (FEW) resources. Sustainable and reliable fresh water supply is central for life and also for all sectors that support our existence. Uncertainty on water security prompted interest in investigation of renewable energy driven desalination processes. One particularly promising option is to produce fresh water from the two most abundant resources on earth: solar energy and seawater. In this study, using Solar Electricity, Water, Food and Chemical (SEWFAC) process synthesis concept, we explore and identify synergistic integration alternatives of multi stage flash desalination, solar thermal power, and hydrogen production processes. The promising options have been analyzed by detailed process simulation and optimization using an integrated Aspen Plus and MATLAB modeling environment. The proposed process designs can meet the water and electricity demand with rather high conversion efficiencies. Furthermore, integration of solar hydrogen production and hydrogen-fired power plant can enable continuous production of fresh water and electricity in solar-rich water-poor regions. In addition to other metrics, we have evaluated the performance of the desalination process from power point of view with a new metric, Electricity Equivalent Water (EEW) to demonstrate the marginal energy penalty of desalination. Integration of thermal desalination processes with electricity and hydrogen production is a synergistic alliance and can play a pivotal role in approaching FEW nexus.

The gasification of some selected components of food wastes using H₂O₂ as the oxidant and in the presence of NaOH has been investigated under subcritical water conditions. Hydrogen production was enhanced when both NaOH and H₂O₂ were used compared to when either NaOH or H₂O₂ alone was used or in their absence. Results indicated that the H₂O₂ acted to partially oxidize the samples while NaOH significantly increased hydrogen gas yields by promoting the water-gas shift reaction with subsequent CO₂ capture. In the presence of NaOH, the main components were Na₂CO₃, CH₃COONa and CH₃COONa·3H₂O. Char and tar production were suppressed in the presence of NaOH.

An integrated two-phase AD with acidogenic off-gas diversion from a leach bed reactor to an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket was developed for improving methane production. However, this system had its own technical limitation such as mass transfer efficiency for solid-state treatment. In order to optimize the mass transfer in this two phase AD system, leachate recirculation with various water replacement rates regulating the total solids contents (TS) at 12.5%, 15%, and 17.5% was aim to investigate its effect on methane generation. The solubilization of food waste was increased with decreasing TS content, while the enzymatic hydrolysis showed the opposite trend. A TS contents of 15% presented the best acidogenic performance with the highest hydrogen yield of 30.3 L H₂/kg VSₐddₑd, which subsequently resulted in the highest methane production. The present study provides an easy approach to enhance food waste degradation in acidogenic phase and energy conversion in methanogenic phase simultaneously.

For the sustainable communities, there is a strong need to address the United Nations' sustainable development goals for communities, cities and countries. In this paper, we develop a unique hybrid energy system for cleaner productions of energy, fuel, food and water for an indigenous community by addressing the following goals, namely: zero hunger; clean water; affordable and clean energy; industry, innovation and infrastructure; sustainable cities and communities; and climate action. Also, the present sustainable system is investigated thermodynamically by considering energy and exergy criteria and evaluated through energy and exergy efficiencies. As a case study, the Saugeen First Nation indigenous community in the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada, is selected for meeting the demands of useful commodities where an integration of a newly developed multigenerational system with an existing nuclear reactor is achieved in order to provide food security, supply the freshwater for drinking purposes, and meet the community's electricity and heat demands. Moreover, to exploit the existing thermophysical properties of fluids in the nuclear system, a hydrogen generation unit is proposed. The novel integration is enhanced the current nuclear system and increased the variety of useful outputs. The overall system is analyzed according to the first and second laws of thermodynamics. A transient (time-dependent) analysis is carried out via hourly simulations with software packages and hourly sensitive meteorological data. The overall system performance results are obtained as 65.8% for energy efficiency and 40.1% exergy efficiency at average ambient conditions for a 126.04 mol/s hydrogen production rate.

The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus is interconnected and interdependent and provides a physical foundation for mankind. The production of safe food, renewable energy, and clean water through biological means, especially microbial bioconversion, has attracted an enormous attention worldwide. Recently, in vitro synthetic enzymatic biosystems (ivSEBs) comprised of numerous enzymes and coenzymes, as a disruptive biomanufacturing platform, has been proposed and demonstrated to address key challenges at the interface of the FEW nexus. Light, electricity, and hydrogen can provide energy to fix CO2 and produce food and biomass. Lignocellulose-derived cellulose can be converted to starch and biofuels. Starch can be further converted to bioenergy, including electricity, hydrogen and liquid fuels. These high-energy efficient bioprocesses lead to significantly less water usage and also can be used to reduce water pollution. In this review, the conceptual framework and latest advances of ivSEBs in the FEW nexus are summarized. Their limitations and future research directions on the design and improvement of ivSEBs are also discussed.