PULSE process: recovery of phosphorus from dried sewage sludge and removal of metals by solvent extraction.

Phosphorus (P) is an indispensable nutrient for agriculture. Recovery and recycling of phosphorus from waste streams is necessary to ensure a circular P economy and reduce dependence on disproportionately distributed mineral P resources. In this study, a new process called 'PULSE' is presented for the recovery of P from sewage sludge, which can handle high metal contents.

Joint optimization of land carbon uptake and albedo can help achieve moderate instantaneous and long-term cooling effects.

Both carbon dioxide uptake and albedo of the land surface affect global climate. However, climate change mitigation by increasing carbon uptake can cause a warming trade-off by decreasing albedo, with most research focusing on afforestation and its interaction with snow. Here, we present carbon uptake and albedo observations from 176 globally distributed flux stations.

Integration of whole-cell reaction and product isolation: Highly hydrophobic solvents promote in situ substrate supply and simplify extractive product isolation.

Product isolation from aqueous-organic reaction mixtures that contain high concentrations of whole cells constitutes a challenging task in bioprocessing. Stirring of the biphasic reaction media leads to the formation of solvent droplets coated by cells and other surface active components and an emulsion forms. We used an early focus on phase separation to simplify a whole-cell bioreduction.

Synthesis and application of carbonated fatty acid esters from carbon dioxide including a life cycle analysis.

Carbon dioxide can be used in various ways as a cheap C1 source. However, the utilization of CO2 requires energy or energy-rich reagents, which leads to further emissions, and therefore, diminishes the CO2-saving potential. Therefore, life cycle assessment (LCA) is required for each process that uses CO2 to provide valid data for CO2 savings.

Supporting debottlenecking of global human processes by applying appropriate balances.

Global balances form a fundamental framework for evaluating processes. Human activities can be viewed as global processes aiming at generating drinking water, food, and energy as main products. Obviously, these global processes need debottlenecking, since global process environment is no longer capable of sustainably supporting them.