Pesticides residues in tobacco smoke: risk assessment study.

Pesticides are not only used on food but also on non-food crops, such as tobacco, to control a range of unwanted animal, plant, and microbial, fungal pests. The residue levels in tobacco leaves are expected to decline up to harvest, during drying, and when the leaves are further processed. Additional pesticides may also be applied to the finished product and residue levels may remain present even when the tobacco is burned.

Energetic, economic and environmental assessment for the anaerobic digestion of pretreated and codigested press mud.

This study investigates the feasibility of anaerobic digestion (AD) of press mud previously pretreated, using two methods: Liquid Hot Water (LHW) and Thermo-Alkaline (TA), from an economic, energetic and environmental point of view. Two scenarios, a sugar mill with and without distillery were studied, considering monodigestion and vinasse codigestion. The results have shown that the LHW and TA pretreatments are self-sufficient in terms of thermal requirements since they can recover heat from the biogas engine, but the maximum electric and thermal net energy (64 MWh d and 95 MWh d, respectively) was obtained during co-digestion with vinasse.

Anaerobic co-digestion of sugarcane press mud with vinasse on methane yield.

The conversion efficiency of high solids waste digestion as sugarcane press mud (P) may be limited due to hydrolysis step. The option of co-digestion with vinasse, main liquid waste generated from ethanol production, was investigated under batch regime at mesophilic conditions (37.5±1°C) and the best mixture was evaluated under semicontinuous regime in stirred-tank reactors.

Prokaryote community dynamics in anaerobic co-digestion of swine manure, rice straw and industrial clay residuals.

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the addition of rice straw and clay residuals on the prokaryote methane-producing community structure in a semi-continuously stirred tank reactor fed with swine manure. Molecular techniques, including terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and a comparative nucleotide sequence analyses of the prokaryotic 16S rRNA genes, were performed. The results showed a positive effect of clay addition on methane yield during the co-digestion of swine manure and rice straw.

Thermo-chemical pre-treatment to solubilize and improve anaerobic biodegradability of press mud.

Different pre-treatment severities by thermo-alkaline conditions (100°C, Ca(OH)2) on press mud were evaluated for different pre-treatment time and lime loading. COD solubilization and the methane yield enhancement were assessed. The biochemical methane potential was determined in batch assays under mesophilic conditions (37±1°C).