Upcycling of Cereal Byproducts: A Sustainable Opportunity to Valorize Wasted Nutrients and Derive Bioactive Compounds for Humans and Animals Nutrition and Health.

With the global population projected to reach close to 10 billion by 2050, the escalating demand for cereals such as wheat, rice, corn, oat, and barley places significant pressure on production systems. These systems are increasingly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, threatening global food security. This article emphasizes the critical need to address these challenges and explores strategies for sustainable foodproduction, focusing on the opportunities that the upcycling of cereal byproducts offers for human and animal nutrition and health.

A Century's Breakthrough in Upcycling Lignocellulosic Biomass: Embion Technologies, Hard-tech Spin-off of the EPFL, Disrupts Nutrition Innovation with Sophisticated, Complex-prebiotics for Immunity.

Embion Technologies SA is a hard-tech spin-off of the EPFL, with a disruptive and novel platform technology that aims to enable the global transition to zero waste via the circular bioeconomy. Embion's initial focus is on transforming low-value food and agricultural industry byproduct streams to affordable next-generation prebiotics - nutrition for human and animal microbiome. We demonstrate here that the company's proprietary technology is simple and flexible and can be applied to a wide variety of feedstocks to extract tailored products with specific fingerprints.

Effect of thermo-chemical pretreatment on the saccharification and enzymatic digestibility of olive mill stones and their bioconversion towards alcohols.

The present study investigated the effect of thermo-chemical pretreatment on the enhancement of enzymatic digestibility of olive mill stones (OMS), as well as its possible valorisation via bioconversion of the generated free sugars to alcohols. Specifically, the influence of parameters such as reaction time, temperature, type and concentration of dilute acids and/or bases, was assessed during the thermo-chemical pretreatment. The hydrolysates and the solids remaining after pretreatment, as well as the whole pretreated slurries, were further evaluated as potential substrates for the simultaneous production of ethanol and xylitol via fermentation with the yeast Pachysolen tannophilus.

Efficient cleavage of aryl ether C-O linkages by Rh-Ni and Ru-Ni nanoscale catalysts operating in water.

Bimetallic Ru-Ni and Rh-Ni nanocatalysts coated with a phase transfer agent efficiently cleave aryl ether C-O linkages in water in the presence of hydrogen. For dimeric substrates with weaker C-O linkages, α--4 and β--4 bonds, low loadings of the precious metal (Rh or Ru) in the nanocatalysts quantitatively afford monomers, whereas for the stronger 4--5 linkage higher amounts of the precious metal are required to achieve complete conversion. Under the optimized, relatively mild operating conditions, the C-O bonds in a range of substituted ether compounds are efficiently cleaved, and mechanistic insights into the reaction pathways are provided.

Influence of the Anion on the Oxidation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural by Using Ionic-Polymer-Supported Platinum Nanoparticle Catalysts.

Invited for this month's cover are the groups of Prof. Paul J. Dyson at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland and Prof.

Influence of the Anion on the Oxidation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural by Using Ionic-Polymer-Supported Platinum Nanoparticle Catalysts.

Platinum nanoparticles stabilized by an imidazolium-based cross-linked polymer (with chloride as the counteranion) efficiently catalyzed the oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to form 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid in water under mild conditions with oxygen as the oxidant. This catalyst system is explored herein by varying the counteranion, that is, replacing chloride by BF , PF , bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, hexanoate, or laurate anions, in the cationic polymer. The counteranion influences the structure of the obtained platinum nanoparticles, the surface electronic properties, and their catalytic activity.

Direct Conversion of Mono- and Polysaccharides into 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Using Ionic-Liquid Mixtures.

Platform chemicals are usually derived from petrochemical feedstocks. A sustainable alternative commences with lignocellulosic biomass, a renewable feedstock, but one that is highly challenging to process. Ionic liquids (ILs) are able to solubilize biomass and, in the presence of catalysts, convert the biomass into useful platform chemicals.

Application of Ionic Liquids in the Downstream Processing of Lignocellulosic Biomass.

Chemical transformations of lignocellulosic substrates to valuable platform chemicals are challenging as lignin and cellulose have high thermal and chemical stabilities. However, certain ionic liquids are able to dissolve and deconstruct biomass and, in the presence of catalysts, convert the dissolved/deconstructed species into useful platform chemicals. Herein, we provide a concise overview of the role of ionic liquids in biomass processing.

Quantification of Conventional and Nonconventional Charge-Assisted Hydrogen Bonds in the Condensed and Gas Phases.

Charge-assisted hydrogen bonds (CAHBs) play critical roles in many systems from biology through to materials. In none of these areas has the role and function of CAHBs been explored satisfactorily because of the lack of data on the energy of CAHBs in the condensed phases. We have, for the first time, quantified three types of CAHBs in both the condensed and gas phases for 1-(2'-hydroxylethyl)-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([C2OHmim][OAc]).

Potential of cycloaddition reactions to generate cytotoxic metal drugs in vitro.

Severe general toxicity issues blight many chemotherapeutics utilized in the treatment of cancers, resulting in the need for more selective drugs able to exert their biological activity at only the required location(s). Toward this aim, we report the development of an organometallic ruthenium compound, functionalized through a η(6)-bound arene ligand with a bicyclononyne derivative, able to participate in strain-promoted cycloaddition reactions with tetrazines. We show that combination of the ruthenium compound with a ditetrazine in biological media results in the in situ formation of a dinuclear molecule that is more cytotoxic toward cancer cells than the starting mononuclear ruthenium compound and tetrazine components.

Enhanced conversion of carbohydrates to the platform chemical 5-hydroxymethylfurfural using designer ionic liquids.

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a key platform chemical that may be obtained from various cellulosic (biomass) derivatives. Previously, it has been shown that ionic liquids (ILs) facilitate the catalytic conversion of glucose into HMF. Herein, we demonstrate that the careful design of the IL cation leads to new ionic solvents that enhance the transformation of glucose and more complex carbohydrates into HMF significantly.