No abstract

Waste or by-products produced during food processing can be used as a potential source of bioactive compounds including natural pigments. Natural pigments/colourants have numerous health benefits whereas the synthetic colourants have many negative effects on human health. Thus, there is a considerable interest worldwide in pigments extraction from natural sources. Conventional extractions such as soxhlet extraction, water distillation, and solvent extraction have many limitations such as large solvent consumption, long extraction time, and low extraction yields. Therefore, novel techniques such as high pressure, ultrasound, negative pressure and electric field have been employed to assist the pigment extraction process. The novel extraction methods are being developed with the primary aim of higher pigment yield, lower solvent consumption, minimised environmental effects and the convenience of extraction. With this perspective, the present review provides recent insights into the recovery of natural pigments from food wastes/by-products and the application of novel non-thermal technologies for their recovery.

No abstract

Metal-free porous activated carbon is an effective alternative to capture CO2 due to its high surface area and textural advantages. In this regard, the present research work explores a suitable method for producing activated porous carbon with a high specific surface area through a two-step reaction involving rice husk and KOH at 600 °C for 1 h to capture CO2. By varying the ratio of rice husk biomass to KOH, the texture and specific surface area of the activated porous carbon has been altered. A high surface area of ∼755 m2/g and a micropore volume of 0.243 cm3/g have been observed in the porous carbon produced with a KOH/biomass weight ratio of 3 (PAC2). Nitrogen contents in PAC1 and PAC2 were approximately 2.27 and 2.71 atom %, respectively. When compared with other materials, PAC2 has the highest CO2 adsorption capability, reaching up to 3.13 mmol/g at 0 °C and 1.55 mmol/g at 50 °C. The isosteric heat of adsorption confirms the presence of both physisorption and chemisorption. The materials turn out to be highly CO2/N2 selective, with the highest selectivity of 131, proving that the samples are potential materials for capturing CO2 from flue gases. These findings unequivocally show that porous activated carbon can be used to make CO2 adsorption efficient, inexpensive, and, more importantly, extremely effective.

No abstract