AbstractSupercritical water gasification (SCWG) is a very recent technology that allows conversion of organic wastewaters into a fuel gas with a high content of hydrogen and light hydrocarbons. SCWG involves the treatment of organic compounds at conditions higher than those that define the critical point of water (temperature of 374°C and pressure of 221 bar). This hydrothermal process, normally operated at temperatures from 400 to 650°C and pressures from 250 to 350 bar, produces a gas effluent with a high hydrogen content. SCWG is considered a promising technology for the efficient conversion of organic wastewaters, mainly wet biomass, into fuel gas. This technology has received extensive worldwide attention, and many research groups have studied the effect of operation conditions, reaction mechanisms, kinetics, etc. There are some recent reviews about the research works carried out in the last decades, but there is no information or analysis of almost 100 patents registered in relation with this new technology. A revision of the current status of SCWG patents and technologies has been completed based on the Espacenet patent database. The objective of this revision was to set down the new perspectives toward the improvement of this technology efficiency. Patents have been published with regard to process or device improvements as well as to the use of different catalysts. More than 71% of these patents were published since 2009, and a substantial climb in the number of patents on SCWG is expected in the coming years. One of the most important aspects where research is particularly interesting if the integration of renewable energy recovery systems with SCWG processes.

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The present work on the feeding ecology of Scorpaena porcus according to season, sex and size, is the first study carried out in the rocky intertidal in the NE Atlantic. Previous studies were carried out with fish collected in fishing grounds from Mediterranean areas. A total of 106 fish were caught in monthly samplings from April 2008 to July 2010 in three areas of the rocky intertidal zone in the Gulf of Cadiz. The diet composition varied with season, size and sex. Shrimps were the main diet resource during all year, but other prey were also important depending on the season. As the size of fish increased, predation on smaller crustaceans decreased and consumption of larger crustaceans and fish augmented. Females and males based their diet on shrimps, while indeterminate fish fed largely on amphipods. No significant differences were found between feeding intensity and season, size and sex. Nevertheless, the PERMANOVA results showed that the number of prey is affected by the interaction between sex and size class. Our results highlight that S. porcus is a stenophagic species that shows a gradual segregation in the use of resources as it grows, which indicates there is no intraspecific competition in the rocky intertidal.

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