Publications by authors named "Morteza Hassanpour"

Anthocyanin is an important flavonoid with antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory properties. This research investigates the anthocyanin content of Cavendish banana inflorescence, a by-product often discarded as agricultural waste. The study employs two drying methods, namely oven-drying and freeze-drying, followed by accelerated solvent extraction using acidified water and methanol.

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Flexible photonic materials derived from cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) have attracted significant attention, particularly in multifunctional sensors, intelligent detection, and anti-counterfeiting applications. However, the major bottleneck with traditional CNC photonic materials is the provision of flexibility and multifunctional properties which often comes with compromises in optical properties. To address these challenges, we incorporated organosolv lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) into CNC films.

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This study investigates the production of lignin/silica hybrid nanoparticles (LSNPs) from rice husks, an abundant agricultural waste, and their capacity to stabilize Pickering emulsions for biocatalysis. Lignin extracted from rice husks under alkaline conditions was co-precipitated with silica to produce LSNPs in the presence or absence of ethanol as a co-solvent. Characterization of LSNPs revealed that ethanol played a key role in forming uniform, spherical nanoparticles and minimizing aggregation.

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In this study, a FeCl-assisted hydrothermal treatment (HTT) process under mild conditions (90 °C-130 °C) was developed for deep dewatering of anaerobically digested sludge. HTT of sludge at 90 °C-130 °C with 4%-6% Fe ions loading based on total sludge solids followed by mechanical dewatering reduced sludge water content from 82% to 38%-53% and sludge weight by 62%-72%. The treatment increased the flowability of sludge through reduction of apparent viscosity and disintegration of colloidal forces between sludge particles.

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Sludge is a nutrient-rich organic waste generated from wastewater treatment plants. However, the application of sludge as a nutrient source is limited by its high contents of water and pollutants. In this study, the effects of biomass type on nutrient recovery and heavy metal removal from digested sludge by hydrothermal treatment (HTT) were investigated.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explored the effects of acid-catalyzed alcohol pretreatment on sugarcane bagasse for producing lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) with customized properties.
  • AG-LCNF had the highest lignin content but low hydrophobicity, while AE-LCNF had lower lignin content but higher hydrophobicity, highlighting the influence of the pretreatment solvent.
  • NMR analyses demonstrated how alcohols modify lignin, impacting LCNF properties and their potential applications in polymer composites and emulsions.
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Unlabelled: In this study, a mild-temperature two-step dilute acid and alkaline pretreatment (DA-AL) process was developed to generate highly digestible cellulose pulp from sugarcane bagasse for producing fermentable sugars by novel thermophilic cellulases derived from SC 04. First, DA pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse at 2% (w/v) HSO and 121 °C for 71 min, followed by AL pretreatment at 2.2% (w/v) NaOH and 110 °C for 100 min led to the pulp containing 86% cellulose.

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Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) can be used as feed prebiotics, but are limited by high production costs. In this study, low-cost sugarcane molasses was used to produce whole-cell biocatalysts containing transfructosylating enzymes by Aureobasidium pullulans FRR 5284, followed by FOS production from molasses using the whole-cells of A. pullulans.

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Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are a type of important prebiotics and produced by transfructosylating enzymes. In this study, sugarcane molasses was used as the substrate for production of transfructosylating enzymes by Aureobasidium pullulans FRR 5284. NaNO was a superior nitrogen source to yeast extract for production of transfructosylating enzymes by A.

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Acid-catalysed crude glycerol (ACG) pretreatment was carried out at 110 °C and 130 °C for mild fractionation of sugarcane bagasse into fermentable sugars and high-quality lignin. ACG pretreatment at 110 °C led to sugar yields of 71%-74%, comparable to those with acid-catalysed reagent-grade glycerol (AG). ACG pretreatment removed more lignin (53%-75%) than AG pretreatment (38%-49%), likely due to the presence of organic impurities in ACG.

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Two-step dilute acid and acid-catalysed glycerol pretreatment was developed to maximise sugar yield from sugarcane bagasse. At the laboratory scale, dilute acid pretreatment at 130 °C followed by acid-catalysed glycerol pretreatment at 170 °C led to a total sugar (C5 + C6) yield of 82%, 31% higher than that from one-step acid-catalysed glycerol pretreatment. At the pilot scale, the two-step dilute acid and acid-catalysed glycerol pretreatment led to a maximum sugar yield of 74%, 13% higher than that from one-step pretreatment with 52% reduction in glycerol usage.

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Acidified glycerol pretreatment is very effective to deconstruct lignocellulosics for producing glucose. Co-utilization of pretreated biomass and residual glycerol to bioproducts could reduce the costs associated with biomass wash and solvent recovery. In this study, a novel strain RP 15, isolated from sugarcane bagasse, was selected and tested for coconversion of pretreated biomass and residual glycerol to microbial oils.

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Electrochemical approaches have played crucial roles in bio sensing because of their Potential in achieving sensitive, specific and low-cost detection of biomolecules and other bio evidences. Engineering the electrochemical sensing interface with nanomaterials tends to new generations of label-free biosensors with improved performances in terms of sensitive area and response signals. Here we applied Silicon Nanowire (SiNW) array electrodes (in an integrated architecture of working, counter and reference electrodes) grown by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) system with VLS procedure to electrochemically diagnose the presence of breast cancer cells as well as their response to anticancer drugs.

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This study presents gravimetric enrichment of mixed culture to screen starch and lipid producing species separately in a sequencing batch reactor. In the enriched starch-producing mixed culture photobioreactor, the starch content at the end of steady state batch became 3.42 times the beginning of depletion.

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