Amit K. Jaiswal

A comprehensive review on pre-treatment strategy for lignocellulosic food industry waste: Challenges and opportunities

Lignocellulose is a generic term used to describe plant biomass. It is the most abundant renewable carbon resource in the world and is mainly composed of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses. Most of the food and food processing industry waste are lignocellulosic in nature with a global estimate of up to 1.3 billion tons/year. Lignocellulose, on hydrolysis, releases reducing sugars which is used for the production of bioethanol, biogas, organic acids, enzymes and biosorbents. However, structural conformation, high lignin content and crystalline cellulose hinder its use for value addition. Pre-treatment strategies facilitate the exposure of more cellulose and hemicelluloses for enzymatic hydrolysis. The present article confers about the structure of lignocellulose and how it influences enzymatic degradation emphasising the need for pre-treatments along with a comprehensive analysis and categorisation of the same. Finally, this article concludes with a detailed discussion on microbial/enzymatic inhibitors that arise post pre-treatment and strategies to eliminate them.

Enhancement of the antibacterial properties of silver nanoparticles using β-cyclodextrin as a capping agent

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesised by reducing silver salts using NaBH(4) followed by capping with varying concentrations of beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) and were physically characterised. Antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus was determined by a microtitre well method. The AgNPs were spherical under transmission electron microscopy, whilst dynamic light scattering showed average diameters of capped particles to be smaller (4-7 nm) than their uncapped equivalents (17 nm). Capped particles demonstrated superior photostability when exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation for 4h as well as significantly (P<0.05) higher (up to 3.5-fold) antibacterial activity. The influence of beta-CD concentration was seen to delay bacterial growth, indicating that a Trojan horse mechanism may be occurring owing to bacterial carbohydrate affinity, thereby enhancing silver ion absorption.

Exploitation of Food Industry Waste for High-Value Products

A growing global population leads to an increasing demand for food production and the processing industry associated with it and consequently the generation of large amounts of food waste. This problem is intensified due to slow progress in the development of effective waste management strategies and measures for the proper treatment and disposal of waste. Food waste is a reservoir of complex carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nutraceuticals and can form the raw materials for commercially important metabolites. The current legislation on food waste treatment prioritises the prevention of waste generation and least emphasises disposal. Recent valorisation studies for food supply chain waste opens avenues to the production of biofuels, enzymes, bioactive compounds, biodegradable plastics, and nanoparticles among many other molecules.

Growth Inhibition of Common Food Spoilage and Pathogenic Microorganisms in the Presence of Brown Seaweed Extracts

The possibility of using extracts from brown seaweed, Himanthalia elongata, as a natural antimicrobial agent for food preservation is presented. The effect of different concentrations of seaweed extract on the growth kinetics of four common food spoilage (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis) and food pathogenic microorganisms (Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella abony) was examined. Seaweed extract at a concentration of 6% inhibited the growth of all four of the studied organisms. Lower concentrations of seaweed extract prolonged the lag phase and reduced both the exponential growth rate and final population densities of the culture. Suitability of three kinetic models, Baranyi–Roberts, modified Gompertz and logistic, for describing the growth/survival of organisms in the presence of different concentrations of the extract, was evaluated. Root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (R2) were used to evaluate the model performance. The R2 value was greater than 0.95 for most of the cases indicating that the models could provide a good fitting to the experimental data. The RMSE and residual sum of squares were very low for all the three models, and no significant difference was observed in the goodness of fit between the three models as indicated by the F test.

Evaluation of ultrasound assisted potassium permanganate pre-treatment of spent coffee waste

In the present study, novel pre-treatment for spent coffee waste (SCW) has been proposed which utilises the superior oxidising capacity of alkaline KMnO4 assisted by ultra-sonication. The pre-treatment was conducted for different exposure times (10, 20, 30 and 40min) using different concentrations of KMnO4 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5%w/v) at room temperature with solid/liquid ratio of 1:10. Pretreating SCW with 4% KMnO4 and exposing it to ultrasound for 20min resulted in 98% cellulose recovery and a maximum lignin removal of 46%. 1.7 fold increase in reducing sugar yield was obtained after enzymatic hydrolysis of KMnO4 pretreated SCW as compared to raw. SEM, XRD and FTIR analysis of the pretreated SCW revealed the various effects of pretreatment. Thermal behaviour of the pretreated substrate against the native biomass was also studied using DSC. Ultrasound-assisted potassium permanganate oxidation was found to be an effective pretreatment for SCW, and can be a used as a potential feedstock pretreatment strategy for bioethanol production.

Blanching as a Treatment Process: Effect on Polyphenols and Antioxidant Capacity of Cabbage

Abstract Cabbage is considered an excellent source of polyphenols with substantial antioxidant properties associated with the alleviation of oxidative stress and the prevention of free-radical mediated diseases. Many cabbage varieties are typically blanched prior to consumption mainly to enhance associated sensory attributes. Conventional hot water (80–100°C) or steam blanching are the most industrially applied methods. Blanching causes adverse losses in the antioxidant capacity of cabbage with over 70% resulting within the first few minutes. Blanching time, water to cabbage ratio, and cabbage variety are the main determinants of the extent of antioxidant losses. The effect of the blanching temperature is of less significance particularly within 80–100°C. High temperatures and short blanching times would reduce antioxidants degradation in cabbage while also resulting in optimized sensory and quality attributes. The chapter concludes on the importance of antioxidant considerations when specifying time–temperature combinations for cabbage blanching.

Emerging Technologies for the Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass to overcome its intrinsic recalcitrant nature prior to the production of valuable chemicals has been studied for nearly 200 years. Research has targeted eco-friendly, economical and time-effective solutions, together with a simplified large-scale operational approach. Commonly used pretreatment methods, such as chemical, physico-chemical and biological techniques are still insufficient to meet optimal industrial production requirements in a sustainable way. Recently, advances in applied chemistry approaches conducted under extreme and non-classical conditions has led to possible commercial solutions in the marketplace (e.g. High hydrostatic pressure, High pressure homogenizer, Microwave, Ultrasound technologies). These new industrial technologies are promising candidates as sustainable green pretreatment solutions for lignocellulosic biomass utilization in a large scale biorefinery. This article reviews the application of selected emerging technologies such as ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, pulsed electrical field, ultrasound and high pressure as promising technologies in the valorization of lignocellulosic biomass.

A comparative analysis of pretreatment strategies on the properties and hydrolysis of brewers’ spent grain

In this study, brewers spent grain (BSG) was subjected to a range pretreatments to study the effect on reducing sugar yield. Glucose and xylose were found to be the predominant sugars in BSG. Brewers spent grain was high in cellulose (19.21g/100g of BSG) and lignin content (30.84g/100g of BSG). Microwave assisted alkali (MAA) pretreatment was found to be the most effective pretreatment for BSG, where the pretreatment was conducted at 400W for 60s. A maximum reducing yield was observed with high biomass loading (1g/10ml), cellulase (158.76μl/10ml), hemicellulase (153.3μl/10ml), pH (5.4) and an incubation time (120h). Upon enzymatic hydrolysis, MAA pretreated BSG yielded 228.25mg of reducing sugar/g of BSG which was 2.86-fold higher compared to native BSG (79.67mg/g of BSG); simultaneously BSG was de-lignified significantly. The changes in functional groups, crystallinity and thermal behaviour was studies by means of FTIR, XRD and DSC, respectively.

An Investigation into Spent Coffee Waste as a Renewable Source of Bioactive Compounds and Industrially Important Sugars

Conventional coffee brewing techniques generate vast quantities of spent espresso grounds (SEGs) rich in lignocellulose and valuable bioactives. These bioactive compounds can be exploited as a nutraceutical or used in a range of food products, while breakdown of lignocellulose generates metabolizable sugars that can be used for the production of various high-value products such as biofuels, amino acids and enzymes. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulose in SEGs following a hydrothermal pretreatment. A maximum reducing sugar yield was obtained at the following optimized hydrolysis conditions: 4.97 g of pretreated SEGs, 120 h reaction time, and 1246 and 250 µL of cellulase and hemicellulase, respectively. Industrially important sugars (glucose, galactose and mannose) were identified as the principal hydrolysis products under the studied conditions. Total flavonoids (p = 0.0002), total polyphenols (p = 0.03) and DPPH free-radical scavenging activity (p = 0.004) increased significantly after processing. A 14-fold increase in caffeine levels was also observed. This study provides insight into SEGs as a promising source of industrially important sugars and polyphenols.

Microbial Enzyme Production Using Lignocellulosic Food Industry Wastes as Feedstock: A Review

Enzymes are of great importance in the industry due to their substrate and product specificity, moderate reaction conditions, minimal by-product formation and high yield. They are important ingredients in several products and production processes. Up to 30% of the total production cost of enzymes is attributed to the raw materials costs. The food industry expels copious amounts of processing waste annually, which is mostly lignocellulosic in nature. Upon proper treatment, lignocellulose can replace conventional carbon sources in media preparations for industrial microbial processes, such as enzyme production. However, wild strains of microorganisms that produce industrially important enzymes show low yield and cannot thrive on artificial substrates. The application of recombinant DNA technology and metabolic engineering has enabled researchers to develop superior strains that can not only withstand harsh environmental conditions within a bioreactor but also ensure timely delivery of optimal results. This article gives an overview of the current complications encountered in enzyme production and how accumulating food processing waste can emerge as an environment-friendly and economically feasible solution for a choice of raw material. It also substantiates the latest techniques that have emerged in enzyme purification and recovery over the past four years.