T. Côto¹, I. Moura¹, A. de Sá^1,*, C. Vilarinho², A. V. Machado¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.7, pp. 688-696, 2018, DOI:10.32604/JRM.2018.00006

Abstract Biopolymers exhibit unique properties and can be produced from plants’ and crops’ wastes. Cellulose has been used for the production of sustainable materials, nevertheless due to the difficulty inherent to its extraction, several methods have been studied in order to optimize the process. Therefore, this paper reports the extraction of natural polymers from food sector agro-food wastes, including cellulose, following a green chemistry aproach. The cellulose extracted from pumpkin peel was acetylated and dispersed in a polylactic acid (PLA) matrix. The developed materials were characterized in terms of their structure, morphology and thermal stability. The results demonstrated the efficient chemical… More >

Ali Naqi, Jeong Gook Jang^*

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.21, No.1, pp. 5-5, 2019, DOI:10.32604/icces.2019.05299

Abstract Concrete construction industry is facing a sustainability issue for a variety of reasons. First, it consumes enormous amounts of natural resources. Second, the primary content in the binder of concrete is Portland cement, which production is one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions leading to global warming. Third, durability concerns of concrete structures. To overcome these issues cement is substituted with high volumes of more sustainable cementitious materials such as slag and fly ash. Slag is a by-product of an iron blast furnace while fly ash is a by-product of coal-fired power plants. Both these supplementary cementitious materials… More >

Galia Moreno, Karla Ramirez, Marianelly Esquivel, Guillermo Jimenez*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.4, pp. 362-369, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634167

Abstract Cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose and nanocellulose were prepared from three agricultural waste resources: pineapple leaf (PALF), banana rachis (BR), and sugarcane bagasse (SCB). Each waste resource was first converted into microcrystalline cellulose which was subsequently converted into cellulose nanoparticles by using mild (30% w/v) and strong (60% w/v) sulfuric acid concentrations for extraction. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to characterize each waste resource and extracted cellulosic materials. Furthermore, nanocelluloses were studied by zeta potential, size analysis, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cellulose nanowhiskers were successfully obtained and isolated with a 33% average… More >

Sijing Zhang^1*, Fengjiao Ao¹, Yongping Wang², Junxue Zhao³, Yongliang Ji¹, Shuangli Chen¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.1, pp. 102-116, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634154

Abstract A novel biosorbent was synthesized by grafting bisthiourea (BTU) on a silk sericin (SS) matrix. This biosorbent was denoted as BTU-SS and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), zeta potential measurements, elemental analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). As revealed by the adsorption experiments, both BTU-SS and SS showed low affinity towards coexisting base metallic ions in Ag(I)-Cu(II)-Zn(II)-Ni(II)-Pb(II) electronic waste leachate mixtures, while their adsorption capacities towards Ag(I) reached 30.5 and 10.4 mg·g–1 at a pH of 5.0, respectively. BTU-SS showed higher selectivity towards Ag(I) than SS, as revealed by the Ag(I) partition coefficients between the biosorbents and the… More >

Melissa Camacho¹, Yendry Regina Corrales Ureña^*,1, Mary Lopretti², Leonel Bustamante Carballo¹, Galia Moreno¹, Brian Alfaro¹, Jose Roberto Vega Baudrit^1,3

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.5, pp. 271-279, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634117

Abstract Pineapple peel biomass was used as raw material for nanocellulose extraction. The raw material is a residue from the Costa Rican fruit industry. The nanocellulose was obtained by a two-step hydrolysis process. Firstly, the cellulose was hydrolyzed with HCl to obtain microcrystalline cellulose. In the second step, the hydrolysis was carried out using H2SO4 to obtain smaller fragments and decrease the lignin content. A timedependent study was carried out to determine the particle size decrease depending on the contact time with the H2SO4. The chemical, thermal and morphological properties were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA),… More >

María Belén Colombo Migliorero, Valeria Palermo^*, Patricia Graciela Vázquez, Gustavo Pablo Romanelli

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.3-4, pp. 167-173, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634108

Abstract The utilization and valorization of industrial waste is an effective strategy for environmental protection. Since the juice industry generates a huge amount of citrus waste, we studied the application of thermally treated orange peel in catalysis. On the other hand, Keggin heteropolyacids are excellent oxidant catalysts used as a replacement for conventional oxidants; however, their solubility in polar solvents and the low specific area limit their use as heterogeneous catalysts. The utilization of treated orange peel as heteropolyacid support for the selective oxidation of sulfides is presented here. Firstly, orange peel was thermally treated, and then it was incorporated with… More >

F. Luzi¹, E. Fortunati^1*, A. Jiménez², D. Puglia¹, A. Chiralt², L. Torre¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.2, pp. 103-115, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2016.634135

Abstract Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) based nanocomposites reinforced with 1 wt% of surfactant-modified cellulose nanocrystals (s-CNC) extracted from Posidonia oceanica plant waste and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) at different concentrations (0.1 and 0.5 wt%) were prepared by solvent casting process. Their thermal, morphological, optical, mechanical and water vapor permeability properties were investigated. Tensile testing showed increased values for strength and deformation at break in PLA based formulations reinforced with s-CNC and ZnO NPs as a consequence of better nanofiller dispersion compared to binary films reinforced only with ZnO NPs. Moreover, the effect of s-CNC and ZnO NPs provoked an improvement of… More >

Purnendu, Soumitra Satapathi^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.2, pp. 96-102, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2016.634134

Abstract Graphene-based 3D porous xerogel was designed through molecular self-assembly of graphene oxide on chitosan matrix and its application in removal of different heavy metal ions from wastewater was investigated. The synthesized xerogel was characterized through FTIR, SEM, XRD and BET surface area analysis. Heavy metal ions, including Pb(II), Cd(II), and Hg(II), were removed from wastewater using this graphene-chitosan (GO-Cs) xerogel and the removal efficiency was monitored through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The effect of GO-Cs composition and pH on adsorption efficiency as well as the kinetics of adsorption was studied in detail. The study exhibited that this xerogel… More >

Heather L. Buckley^1*, Caitlin H. Touchberry², Jonathan P. McKinley², Zachary S. Mathe¹, Hurik Muradyan¹, Hannah Ling², Raj P. Fadadu¹, Martin J. Mulvihill¹, Susan E. Amrose²

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.1, pp. 1-13, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2016.634109

Abstract Waste cardboard is an underutilized resource that can be redirected for the creation of safer and higher quality building materials for low-income housing in the developing world, as well as to produce better materials for indoor environments in developed-world contexts. Using a renewable biobased binder and benign additives, we have improved the water resistance of a cardboard-based composite material, overcoming one of the major barriers to scaling and adoption of this class of materials. Resistance to water uptake was significantly increased with several additives and was increased over 900-fold in the best case. Strength and water uptake over time are… More >

F. Luzi, E. Fortunati^*, D. Puglia, R. Petrucci, J.M. Kenny, L. Torre

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.4, No.3, pp. 190-198, 2016, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2015.634134

Abstract In this research, the revalorization of Posidonia oceanica leaf sea waste was studied and the acid hydrolysis processing times were modulated in order to optimize the extraction of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). The obtained CNCs were deeply investigated. A two-step treatment was applied to extract cellulose nanocrystals from Posidonia oceanica leaves. First, a chemical treatment leads to the removal of lignin and production of holocellulose, while the second chemical process of acid hydrolysis allows the obtainment of cellulose nanocrystals in aqueous suspension. The unbleached and bleached leaves and cellulose nanocrystals were characterized by using thermogravimetric analysis, infrared spectroscopy and morphological investigation;… More >