Agro-industrial wastewater in a circular economy: Characteristics, impacts and applications for bioenergy and biochemicals.

The generation of agroindustrial byproducts is rising fast worldwide. The slaughter of animals, the production of bioethanol, and the processing of oil palm, cassava, and milk are industrial activities that, in 2019, generated huge amounts of wastewaters, around 2448, 1650, 256, 85, and 0.143 billion liters, respectively. Thus, it is urgent to reduce the environmental impact of these effluents through new integrated processes applying biorefinery and circular economy concepts to produce energy or new products. This review provides the characteristics of some of the most important agro-industrial wastes, including their physicochemical composition, worldwide average production, and possible environmental impacts. In addition, some alternatives for reusing these materials are addressed, focusing mainly on energy savings and the possibilities of generating value-added products. Finally, this review considers recent research and technological innovations and perspectives for the future.

Pulp improvement of oil palm empty fruit bunches associated to solid-state biopulping and biobleaching with xylanase and lignin peroxidase cocktail produced by Aspergillus sp. LPB-5.

Oil palm empty fruit bunches is a lignocellulosic feedstock with biotechnological potential and thousands of tons are generated in the world each year. Filamentous fungi producing xylanases and ligninases in biopulping to obtain cellulose is a pulp improvement alternative. The enzymatic cocktail was produced in solid-state biopulping by Aspergillus sp. LPB-5 with 54.32 U/g xylanase, 13.41 U/g lignin peroxidase and low cellulase activity. Biological, thermal and chemical pretreatments were compared and enzymatic biobleaching was applied to pretreated pulps. Biopulping and biobleaching combination had 36.80% lignin loss, 26.27% hemicellulose reduction, 74.36% pulp yield with 36.56% digestibility. Alkaline and biobleaching combination removed 81.97% hemicellulose and 93.89% lignin with 73.59% digestibility. Enzymatic biobleaching increased the pulp digestibility in all pretreatments. Finally, the development of a bio-pretreatment to remove hemicellulose and alter the lignin-carbohydrate complex interface presented a soft process with great eco-friendly potential, where mild pre-treatments would reduce the use of aggressive agents.

Recent Advances in Vaccines Against Leishmania Based on Patent Applications.

BACKGROUND: Leishmaniasis is caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania, and represents a group of chronic diseases with an epidemiological and clinical diversity. The disease is endemic in tropical regions, being found in 98 countries, affecting around 12 million people, with an estimated increase of 1.5 million per year. METHODS: The present review aims to analyze recent and most important patents regarding development of vaccines to improve immunization against leishmaniasis. For this purpose, the Web of Science - Derwent Innovations Index was consulted. There is also a short description of the licensed vaccines already on the market for commercialization, and a critical opinion on future developments. RESULTS: The data herein presented comprises national and international filings, thus considering the patent's country of origin, and can be used an indicator of a country's technological development regarding a specific field. Several types of vaccines against Leishmania were studied. The main classes comprise: vaccines using live cells (virulent or attenuated); dead cells; containing recombinant protein; using DNA of the parasite. United States (74 patents) leads the ranking of patent applications for vaccines against Leishmania, followed by Brazil (36 patents), which is an endemic region of leishmaniasis with 20,000 human cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis and over 3,000 cases of visceral form. CONCLUSION: This review showed that there is still a lot of space for development regarding the creation of a feasible, effective vaccine against leishmaniasis. The scientific community appears to be taking steps in the right direction, though.