Biorefineries and Processes for Agricultural Waste Valorization

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 April 2022) | Viewed by 3896

Special Issue Editors

Biorefinery Processes Group, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Europa 1, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Interests: biomass conversion; green technology; lignocellulosic conversion; lignin; oligosaccharides; biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Biorefinery Processes Group, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Europa 1, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Interests: Biorefinery processes; solvents recovery; energy consumption; green chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In our current and future society, agriculture is one of the few essential activities carried out worldwide. The great spread of this activity provokes the generation of a large volume of residues that can produce important environmental problems if they are not correctly disposed of. In this sense, in the last several decades, research has been focused on the valorization of these residues under a biorefinery perspective for obtaining added-value products. Their valorization by environmentally sustainable chemical or physical processes could provide economic benefits apart from reducing the problems of their inadequate disposal.

In this context, this Special Issue aims to cover recent advances in the valorization of agricultural residues by innovative processes, the employment of unexploited residues, and the obtainment of new added-value products, among others. Aspects related to the future implantation of biorefineries, as well as techno-economic and/or environmental analyses will also be considered in this Special Issue. We welcome the submission of full research articles, short communications, and review articles on topics including but not limited to:

  • Valorization of unexploited agricultural residues;
  • New and/or intensified processes for the valorization of agricultural residues;
  • Innovative application of the added-value products obtained from the residues;
  • Production of biomaterials;
  • Technological, economic, and/or environmental analysis of biorefineries.

Dr. Izaskun Dávila
Prof. María González Alriols
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • biorefinery
  • green chemistry
  • fractionation
  • pretreatment
  • agricultural residues
  • added-value products
  • biomaterials
  • simulation
  • life cycle analysis

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 1362 KiB  
Article
Antioxidant, Antifungal and Phytochemical Investigations of Capparis spinosa L.
by Ilhem Rajhi, Fabio Hernandez-Ramos, Manef Abderrabba, Med Taieb Ben Dhia, Sameh Ayadi and Jalel Labidi
Agriculture 2021, 11(10), 1025; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture11101025 - 19 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2856
Abstract
The antioxidant and antifungal activities of crude hydro-ethanolic extract from Capparis spinosa L. (Capparidaceae) leaves and their fractions, obtained by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) using solvents with increasing polarity (hexane, diethyl ether, ethyl acetate, butanol, and water), were investigated. The crude extract and the [...] Read more.
The antioxidant and antifungal activities of crude hydro-ethanolic extract from Capparis spinosa L. (Capparidaceae) leaves and their fractions, obtained by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) using solvents with increasing polarity (hexane, diethyl ether, ethyl acetate, butanol, and water), were investigated. The crude extract and the obtained fractions were characterized by colorimetric analysis, pyrolysis-gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectroscopy (MS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, and their antioxidant and antifungal capacity were determined. It was observed that the ethyl acetate fraction was enriched in polyphenols, the butanol fraction resulted in purified from proteins and the residual aqueous fraction contains more hydrophobic compounds. The evaluation of the antioxidant activity revealed that the ethyl acetate fraction possesses an interesting capacity 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH) radical scavenging with a percentage of inhibition of 84.02% at a concentration of 2 mg/mL and better ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) 4.275 ± 0.011 mmol/g of dry sample than the other fractions tested. Regarding the antifungal activity, the diethyl ether fraction showed the highest activity against Aspergillus niger with 58.78% of inhibition. The results obtained in this work showed the relevance of the valorization of the leaves of Capparis spinosa L., given its richness in bioactive molecules can be regarded as a natural source of antioxidant and antifungal and may be considered in the future to replace synthetic preservatives in food, pharmaceutic products and cosmetic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biorefineries and Processes for Agricultural Waste Valorization)
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