Challenges and opportunities in the application of bioinspired engineered nanomaterials for the recovery of metal ions from mining industry wastewater.

Heavy-metal-bearing wastewater is among the most formidable challenges the mining industry currently faces in maintaining its social license to operate. Amongst the technologies available for metal ion adsorption, bioinspired engineering nanomaterials have emerged as one which exhibits great promise. However, current processes used for the preparation of adsorbents (including nanoscale activated carbon and biochar) represent a source of adverse impacts on the environment. In contrast, the application of biogenic-nanoparticles, i.e., those derived from processes catalysed by microbiota, has received significant attention in the last few years. Coupled with this, the use of naturally occurring reagents is of major importance for the sustainability of this emerging industry. This paper analyses the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the synthesis of adsorbents derived from agricultural wastes. Moreover, rather than simply recovering the ecotoxic metals from wastewater, the potential to valorise dissolved metals into high-value metallic nanoparticle products is discussed. LCA analysis revealed that the adsorbent had some adverse impact on the environment. The agricultural wastes contributed 27.86% to global warming, 54.64% to ozone formation, 33.06% to fine particles, and 98.24% to marine eutrophication. Mining wastewater is an important, and largely currently unexploited, source of metal value. However, the often-low concentration of such metals dictates that their conversion into high-value products (such as engineered nanoparticles) is an important new research frontier. Within this the use of biosynthesis methods has emerged as having great potential due to a range of beneficial attributes, including low cost, high efficacy and/or environmental compatibility.

Microbial fuel cell systems; developments, designs, efficiencies, and trends: A comparative study between the conventional and innovative systems.

The microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has appeared in the late 20th century and received considerable attention over the last decade due to its multiple and unique potential in converting the substrates into electricity and valuable productions. Extensive efforts have been paid to improve the MFCs performance, leading to the publication of a massive amount of research that developed various aspects of these systems. Most of these improvements have focused on optimization parameters, which is currently inappropriate to provide an innovational developing vision for MFC systems. The convergent results in most of the previous conventional studies (12,643 studies according to the WOS database) have reduced the value of MFCs by drawing an incomplete image for the performance of the systems. Therefore, this paper aimed to provide a comprehensive comparison between the highly reliable studies that innovatively developed the MFC systems and the conventional MFCs studies. The current paper discusses the novel MFCs development history, designs, efficiency, and challenges compared to conventional MFCs. The discussion has displayed the high efficiency of the novel MFCs in removing over 90% of substrates and generating power of 800 mW m-2. The paper also analyzed the literature trends, history and suggested recommendations for future studies. This is the first paper highlighting the substantial differences between the innovative and conventional MFC systems, nominating it to be a vital reference for novel MFCs studies in the future.

Green approach and strategies for wastewater treatment using bioelectrochemical systems: A critical review of fundamental concepts, applications, mechanism, and future trends.

Millions of litters of multifarious wastewater are directly disposed into the environment annually to reduce the processing costs leading to eutrophication and destroying the clean water sources. The bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) have recently received significant attention from researchers due to their ability to convert waste into energy and their high efficiency of wastewater treatment. However, most of the performed researches of the BESs have focused on energy generation, which created a literature gap on the utilization of BESs for wastewater treatment. The review highlights this gap from various aspects, including the BESs trends, fundamentals, applications, and mechanisms. A different review approach has followed in the present work using a bibliometric review (BR) which defined the literature gap of BESs publications in the degradation process section and linked the systematic review (SR) with it to prove and review the finding systematically. The degradation mechanisms of the BESs have been illustrated comprehensively in the current work, and various suggestions have been provided for supporting future studies and cooperation.

Potential of Anti-Cancer Activity of Secondary Metabolic Products from Marine Fungi.

The promising feature of the fungi from the marine environment as a source for anticancer agents belongs to the fungal ability to produce several compounds and enzymes which contribute effectively against the cancer cells growth. L-asparaginase acts by degrading the asparagine which is the main substance of cancer cells. Moreover, the compounds produced during the secondary metabolic process acts by changing the cell morphology and DNA fragmentation leading to apoptosis of the cancer cells. The current review has analyed the available information on the anticancer activity of the fungi based on the data extracted from the Scopus database. The systematic and bibliometric analysis revealed many of the properties available for the fungi to be the best candidate as a source of anticancer drugs. Doxorubicin, actinomycin, and flavonoids are among the primary chemical drug used for cancer treatment. In comparison, the most anticancer compounds producing fungi are Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus A. oryzae, A. flavus, A. versicolor, A. terreus, Penicillium citrinum, P. chrysogenum, and P. polonicum and have been used for investigating the anticancer activity against the uterine cervix, pancreatic cancer, ovary, breast, colon, and colorectal cancer.

Bio-inspired ZnO NPs synthesized from Citrus sinensis peels extract for Congo red removal from textile wastewater via photocatalysis: Optimization, mechanisms, techno-economic analysis.

Textile industry is one of the most environmental unfriendly industrial processes due to the massive generation of colored wastewater contaminated with dyes and other chemical auxiliaries. These contaminants are known to have undesirable consequences to ecosystem. The present study investigated the best operating parameters for the removal of congo red (CR, as the model for dye wastewater) by orange peels extract biosynthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) via photocatalysis in an aqueous solution. The response surface methodology (RSM) with ZnO NPs loadings (0.05-0.20 g), pH (3.00-11.00), and initial CR concentration (5-20 ppm) were used for the optimization process. The applicability of ZnO NPs in the dye wastewater treatment was evaluated based on the techno-economic analysis (TEA). ZnO NPs exhibited hexagonal wurtzite structure with = C-H, C-O, -C-O-C, CC, O-H as the main functional groups. The maximum degradation of CR was more than 96% with 0.171 g of ZnO NPs, at pH 6.43 and 5 ppm of CR and 90% of the R2 coefficient. The specific cost of ZnO NPs production is USD 20.25 per kg. These findings indicated that the biosynthesized ZnO NPs with orange peels extract provides alternative method for treating dye wastewater.

Enhanced Pharmaceutically Active Compounds Productivity from Streptomyces SUK 25: Optimization, Characterization, Mechanism and Techno-Economic Analysis.

The present research aimed to enhance the pharmaceutically active compounds' (PhACs') productivity from Streptomyces SUK 25 in submerged fermentation using response surface methodology (RSM) as a tool for optimization. Besides, the characteristics and mechanism of PhACs against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were determined. Further, the techno-economic analysis of PhACs production was estimated. The independent factors include the following: incubation time, pH, temperature, shaker rotation speed, the concentration of glucose, mannitol, and asparagine, although the responses were the dry weight of crude extracts, minimum inhibitory concentration, and inhibition zone and were determined by RSM. The PhACs were characterized using GC-MS and FTIR, while the mechanism of action was determined using gene ontology extracted from DNA microarray data. The results revealed that the best operating parameters for the dry mass crude extracts production were 8.20 mg/L, the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) value was 8.00 µg/mL, and an inhibition zone of 17.60 mm was determined after 12 days, pH 7, temperature 28 °C, shaker rotation speed 120 rpm, 1 g glucose /L, 3 g mannitol/L, and 0.5 g asparagine/L with R2 coefficient value of 0.70. The GC-MS and FTIR spectra confirmed the presence of 21 PhACs, and several functional groups were detected. The gene ontology revealed that 485 genes were upregulated and nine genes were downregulated. The specific and annual operation cost of the production of PhACs was U.S. Dollar (U.S.D) 48.61 per 100 mg compared to U.S.D 164.3/100 mg of the market price, indicating that it is economically cheaper than that at the market price.