• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 2. Zero hunger close
• English close
• University of Minho close

A palmeira é uma cultivar usada na produção de óleos alimentares vegetais, cosméticos e encontra-se em crescente aplicação na produção de biodiesel. Há aumento da consciência que as cultivares são vulneráveis à possível prática criminosa pela introdução intencional de microrganismos patogênicos nas lavouras. De um modo geral, as palmeiras são propensas à degradação quando atacada pelo fungo Ganoderma, conhecido como fungo da podridão branca, por degradar a lignina. É de grande importância considerar este tipo de podridão da palmeira quando atacada pelos microrganismos em questão, de modo a ser estabelecido um controle efetivo.No entanto, na literatura são encontrados trabalhos que ressaltam a importância: (a) de estar-se atento ao modo de proliferação desta praga e (b) de conhecer-se a biologia molecular do Ganoderma. A alta humidade presente no solo litorâneo favorece o surgimento do fungo Ganoderma. A alta salinidade e o baixo pH do solo surge como um ambiente desfavorável para a proliferação deste tipo de microrganismo. Atualmente, o melhor método de controle do Ganoderma é a extinção dos campos de palmeiras por ele contaminados. A melhor estratégia para o futuro estaria no desenvolvimento de palmeiras tolerantes ao ataque das referidas pragas, sendo uma possibilidade a alteração da lignina produzida nas palmeiras. Desta forma, conclui-se que o Ganoderma da palmeira está se tornando em um problema cada vez maior e o seu controle levaria à resolução de questões como a podridão branca. Oil palm (OP) is a major crop for the production of vegetable oil used in foods, cosmetics and increasingly biodiesel. There is an increasing awareness that crops are vulnerable to nefarious introduction of pathogenic microorganisms. Oil palms are prone to a rot by the fungus Ganoderma. White rot fungi are capable of degrading lignin. It is necessary to consider this mode of attack for effective control. Nevertheless, the existing literature is concerned with the (a) mode of spread and (b) molecular biology of Ganoderma. The high moisture content of coastal soil favour Ganoderma. High salinity and low soil pH appear to discourage the disease. The optimum current method of control is to rid fields of decayed OP. The optimal future approach may be to develop tolerant OP and altering lignin in OP may be possible. In conclusion, Ganoderma of OP is becoming increasingly virulent and control would benefit from consideration of the process as one of white rot.

Sustainability assessment and rating systems are intended to foster more sustainable design, construction, operation, maintenance and disassembly/deconstruction promoting and making possible a better integration of environment, societal, and cost concerns with other traditional decision criteria. The use of improved and building technologies can contribute considerably to better environmental cycle and then to the sustainability of the constructions. It is widely recognised in the of Building Sustainability Assessment that Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a much preferable method for evaluating the environmental pressure caused by materials, Building assemblies and the whole life-cycle of a building. Nevertheless, LCA tools are not extensively used in building design and most of building sustainability assessment and systems are not comprehensive or consistently LCA-based. Reasons for this failure above all related to the huge variety and amount of material flows and processes of building’s Lifecycle and to the complexity of the stages of a LCA. This paper will present the difficulties and possible solutions to integrate more accurate environmental methods in rating systems. In this context, the paper will also present the work that is being carried out in the development of the Portuguese Building Sustainability Assessment system (SBTool PT)

In referring to the fashion system or business, we can address to a wide variety of approaches. On an economical and business analysis, fashion can be defined as a cycle that allows to some mature industries, such as clothing, footwear or even cars, to be dynamic and maintain certain profitability over the time. While our attention tends to focus solely on the finished products, we must understand that these are the result of a long chain of stages, activities and technologies whose interaction is largely responsible for the product’s success on the market. Sustainability arises as a main vector of differentiation for fashion brands in today’s world context. In a fast moving industry such as fashion, sustainability is a concept for designers to explore, breaking the grounds for the environmental impact of the production supply, considerations of end uses or the lifecycle of the product. One of the challenges that we can present to fashion brands nowadays is to deliver a blend of both sustainability and elegance in fashion. In an era dominated by economic and financial crises, how can fashion brands coop with this new reality and enhance their differentiation vectors in order to succeed? This paper intends to explore the sustainable business model and strategy for fashion brands towards a more responsible branding, facing the challenges that the new world places upon them. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

The building sector is one of the Europeâ s main energy consumer, making buildings an important target for a wiser energy use, improving indoor comfort conditions and reducing the energy consumption. To achieve the European Union targets for energy consumption and carbon reductions it is crucial to act in new, but also in existing buildings, which constitute the majority of the building stock. In existing buildings, the significant improvement of their efficiency requires important investments. Therefore, costs are a major concern in the decision making process and the analysis of the cost effectiveness of the interventions is an important path in the guidance for the selection of the different renovation scenarios. The Portuguese thermal legislation considers the simple payback method for the calculations of the time for the return of the investment. However, this method does not take into consideration inflation, cash flows and cost of capital, as well as the future costs of energy and the building elements lifetime as it happens in a life cycle cost analysis. In order to understand the impact of the economic analysis method used in the choice of the renovation measures, a case study has been analysed using simple payback calculations and life cycle costs analysis. Overall results show that less far-reaching renovation measures are indicated when using the simple payback calculations which may be leading to solutions less cost-effective in a long run perspective.

The energy efficiency of buildings is nowadays one of the main concerns of the construction market. But, Indoor Environmental Quality of Buildings (IEQ) should not be disregarded. To achieve an adequate quality of buildings it is necessary to consider a set of aspects that are interconnected and influence each other, not always in a favourable way. The selection of the most suitable construction solution and materials for the building elements must consider its contribution for the IEQ (thermal and acoustic comfort, daylight conditions and the indoor air quality) inside the buildings, its energy efficiency and its environmental impact (considering the embodied energy, for example), but also the weight of the solution and its effect on the structural project of the building. The solutions adopted in buildings, usually, only optimize no more than one of the necessary comfort requirements. In many cases, the best solutions to accomplish different comfort requirements are not compatible, especially in what concerns natural ventilation and lighting strategies and the acoustic and thermal performance. So, it is necessary to have an integrated approach to ensure the best overall behaviour taking into account all of the, sometimes incompatible, comfort and energy efficiency requirements. In this work the use of a multi-criteria analysis, to balance all these aspects on the design phase, in order to assist the designer in the selection of construction solutions and materials will be presented. The selection of the most adequate construction solutions will increase the buildings IEQ, energy performance and also its environmental impact.

Recently, environmental architecture and sustainable construction has been ranked on top of the worldâ s interests. Making use of natural resources helps in reducing energy consumption and costs associated with the operation of buildings. The current architectural approaches and designs in Palestine are far away from environmental concepts, copying and simulating abroad approaches, without taking into account the culture, climate, and inhabitant's needs. On the contrast, vernacular architecture has achieved environmental concepts and has given suitable approaches and samples - without any need to simulate or copy - which come from people and land. This paper discusses how the Palestinian socio-cultural context shaped the residential vernacular architecture in Palestine, taking the old city of Nablus as a case-study. The research concept depends on analysing and trying to understand the effect of the socio-cultural context on vernacular architecture and trying to reach some rules or understandings of how it works in order to reach a modern environmental dwelling that is suitable to this concept. The research method goes through analysing study cases from the traditional architecture models and the Nablus city is selected as a case study. This analytical and qualitative method can lead to deep understanding for how to benefit from vernacular architecture in Palestine in finding the future environmental residential construction. One of the main findings of this research is to set general and special rules for building sustainable buildings in Palestine from the socio-cultural point view, in order to be a reference for designers, stakeholders, ministry of planning, and municipalities.

Most of the existing buildings have high resources consumption and low indoor environmental quality, leading to the unsustainability of the built environment. Being aware of this reality and based in the European goal to achieve Nearly-Zero Energy consumption standard in buildings, it is urgent to define guidelines that could support the sustainable refurbishment design since the earlier stages. This paper intends to illustrate the process of sustainable building refurbishment, supported by different guidelines applied to a case study. To achieve this goal the definition and evaluation of a group of procedures to be implemented, and a cost-benefit analysis applied to a case study was performed, having as final goal its sustainability optimization.

The lactose in cheese whey (the main by‐product of dairy industries) is an interesting substrate for fermentation processes, particularly for the production of bulk commodities such as bioethanol, due to the large amounts of whey surplus produced globally. Whey fermentation yields potable ethanol that can be used not only for fuels but also in food and beverage industries. Since most lactose‐consuming microorganisms do not present physiological characteristics suitable for ethanol production bioprocesses, the construction of genetically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae (wild strains are lactose‐negative) strains able to ferment lactose has been envisaged. Our group has constructed a lactose‐fermenting S. cerevisiae strain expressing the LAC12 (permease) and LAC4 (beta‐galactosidase) genes of Kluyveromyces lactis, using a highly flocculent strain (NCYC869) as host for transformation. The properties of the original recombinant (T1) were further improved using evolutionary engineering approaches, which yielded an evolved strain (T1‐E) that fermented lactose faster with higher ethanol yield and with improved flocculation (Guimarães et al., 2008, Appl Environ Microbiol 74: 1748‐56). In shake‐flask fermentations with concentrated whey containing 150 g/L initial lactose, the evolved strain was unable to completely consume the lactose (lactose residual > 35 g/L) producing 6% (v/v) ethanol. Supplementation of the whey with 10 g/L of corn steep liquor (CSL) enhanced lactose consumption (residual 1.5 g/L/h. The evolved strain has further been tested in a 6 L air‐lift bioreactor, producing over 6% ethanol from concentrated whey (110‐120 g/L lactose) supplemented with 10 g/L CSL. Taking advantage of flocculation, yeast biomass was easily recycled by sedimentation for repeated‐batch operation, allowing accumulation of high cell densities in the bioreactor. The yeast biomass was active for over 5 consecutive fermentations during which viability (methylene blue staining) was > 95%. The ability of the evolved recombinant to ferment concentrated cheese whey lactose together with its flocculation characteristics have the potential to greatly enhance the economical viability of whey‐to‐ethanol conversion processes.

The development of new technologies for renewable energy production is crucial for decreasing the reliance in fossil fuels and improving global sustainability. Waste materials are valuable resources that can be used for the production of energy carriers. Organic wastes can be anaerobically digested to ultimately produce methane. Hydrogen can be recovered from this process, if methanogenesis is inhibited. These energy carriers can also be derived from recalcitrant materials in a two step-process combining waste gasification and subsequent syngas bioconversion. Research carried out at our group focuses on the study of anaerobic processes for the production of energy-carriers using a multidisciplinary approach that combines both microbiological and technological aspects. Important achievements have been made within the anaerobic digestion of lipid-rich wastes. From our research, it became clear that lipids and LCFA-rich wastewater anaerobic treatment can be feasible with efficient methane recovery. Additionally, wastes containing fats and proteins, such as wastes from poultry industry, slaughterhouse and meat-processing industry have been assessed for methane production. Hydrolysis of cellulolytic and proteinaceous materials in solid wastes was enhanced using physicochemical pre-treatments and bioaugmentation, which is auspicious for optimal methane production. Sugar-rich wastes were used for assessing biohydrogen production and allowed the identification of critical aspects for methanogenesis inhibition. Immobilization of hydrogen-producing microorganisms in high rate continuous reactors was performed with good hydrogen recovery. Currently, we are studying the utilization of latex bionanocoatings for the entrapment of hydrogen-producing microorganisms as a means to improve cell immobilization. Another research area of expansion in our group is syngas fermentation to methane. Studies have been conducted on gas-liquid mass transfer for evaluating the potential of bioprocesses for syngas conversion. Concurrently, the physiology and microbiology of syngas-converting mixed cultures is also being assessed.