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As a fast-growing food production industry, aquaculture is dealing with the need for intensification due to the global increasing demand for fish products. However, this also implies the use of more sustainable practices to reduce negative environmental impacts currently associated with this industry, including the use of wild resources, destruction of natural ecosystems, eutrophication of effluent receiving bodies, impacts due to inadequate medication practices, among others. Using multi-species systems, such as integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, allows to produce economically important species while reducing some of these aquaculture concerns, through biomitigation of aquaculture wastes and reduction of diseases outbreaks, for example. Applying mathematical models to these systems is crucial to control and understand the interactions between species, maximizing productivity, with important environmental and economic benefits. Here, the application of some equations and models available in the literature, regarding basic parameters, is discussed – population dynamics, growth, waste production, and filtering rate – when considering the description and optimization of a theoretical integrated multi-trophic aquaculture operation composed by three trophic levels.

Based on literature, we identify collaboration drivers and partner features for enhancing vertical and/or horizontal collaboration in the chemicals using industries. We further develop constructs for both types of collaboration. A survey-based analysis within the largest chemical cluster worldwide was carried out to verify and to test our literature-based constructs. Using our empirically based results, we develop and propose a framework for Advancing and Stimulating Collaboration (ASC) in the chemical industry. This framework can be used to increase collaborative arrangements within the chemical industry and thereby lead to more sustainable chemical product and process flows and management practices resulting in more sustainable chemical industrial parks.

This review gathers information about the current legal requirements related to the emission of ammonia and greenhouse gases from animal housing in 21 out of the 28 EU countries and in 5 non-EU countries. Overall the review shows that most of the included countries have established substantial procedures to limit ammonia emission and practically no procedures to limit greenhouse gas emission. The review can also be seen as an introduction to the substantial initiatives and decisions taken by the EU in relation to ammonia emission from animal housing, and as a notification on the absence of corresponding initiatives and decisions in relation to greenhouse gases. An EU directive on industrial emissions from 2010 and an implementation decision from 2017 are the main general instruments to reduce ammonia emission from animal housing in the EU. These treaties put limits to ammonia emissions from installations with more than 2000 places for fattening pigs, with more than 750 places for sows and with more than 40,000 places for poultry. As an example, the upper general limit for fattening pigs is 2.6 kg ammonia per animal place per year. This review indicates that the important animal producing countries in the EU have implemented the EU requirements, and, that only a few countries with a large pig population, in relation to their geographical size, have implemented requirements that are stricter than what is required by the EU.

The recent concept of microbial electrosynthesis (MES) has evolved as an electricity-driven production technology for chemicals from low-value carbon dioxide (CO2) using micro-organisms as biocatalysts. MES from CO2 comprises bioelectrochemical reduction of CO2 to multi-carbon organic compounds using the reducing equivalents produced at the electrically-polarized cathode. The use of CO2 as a feedstock for chemicals is gaining much attention, since CO2 is abundantly available and its use is independent of the food supply chain. MES based on CO2 reduction produces acetate as a primary product. In order to elucidate the performance of the bioelectrochemical CO2 reduction process using different operation modes (batch vs. continuous), an investigation was carried out using a MES system with a flow-through biocathode supplied with 20 : 80 (v/v) or 80 : 20 (v/v) CO2 : N2 gas. The highest acetate production rate of 149 mg L−1 d−1 was observed with a 3.1 V applied cell-voltage under batch mode. While running in continuous mode, high acetate production was achieved with a maximum rate of 100 mg L−1 d−1. In the continuous mode, the acetate production was not sustained over long-term operation, likely due to insufficient microbial biocatalyst retention within the biocathode compartment (i.e. suspended micro-organisms were washed out of the system). Restarting batch mode operations resulted in a renewed production of acetate. This showed an apparent domination of suspended biocatalysts over the attached (biofilm forming) biocatalysts. Long term CO2 reduction at the biocathode resulted in the accumulation of acetate, and more reduced compounds like ethanol and butyrate were also formed. Improvements in the production rate and different biomass retention strategies (e.g. selecting for biofilm forming micro-organisms) should be investigated to enable continuous biochemical production from CO2 using MES. Certainly, other process optimizations will be required to establish MES as an innovative sustainable technology for manufacturing biochemicals from CO2 as a next generation feedstock.

In Europe the demand of biomass for the whole bioeconomy is increasing year by year. In some cases, this biomass come from non-European countries. The EU is already a net importer of biomass for bioenergy and imports could be even more relevant in the near future. Therefore, it is important to guarantee that this biomass supply from outside the EU is being done in a sustainable way and that negative environmental and socio-economic impacts are minimised. The project BioTrade2020plus has the aim of providing guidelines for the development of a European Bioenergy Trade Strategy for 2020 and beyond. It has analyzed in depth the role of lignocellulosic biomass (woody resources, agricultural residues and cellulosic crops) imports from six selected sourcing regions: North America (Southeast United States), South America (Brazil, Colombia), East Europe (Ukraine), Southeast Asia (Indonesia) and East Africa (Kenya). It has considered availability and sustainability constrains as well as existing strategies in these sourcing regions. All this info is being integrated in an interactive tool available on the BioTrade2020plus webpage. Proceedings of the 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 June 2016, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 1356-1363

Recent scientific and technological advancements in bioelectrochemical system (BES) research have opened up several avenues for realizing the concept of bio-based economy. Current research within this area has been directed toward exploring their applicability to generate a wastewater biorefinery. Valorization of resources in the form of energy, nutrients, metals, and chemicals has been actively exhibited using this technology. This chapter highlights the fundamentals and technological aspects of bioelectrochemical resource recovery from wastes and wastewaters with detailed emphasis on the latest trends of bioelectrorecovery systems (BERSs). Several wastes and wastewater feedstocks are enlisted and classified based on their prospects for resource and energy recovery. Two representative case studies, existing challenges, and a brief overview of the relative advantages and disadvantages of BERSs over alternative resource recovery options are also included. Further, an outlook is given for realizing resource recovery using BESs as a sustainable technology in the domain of energy and resource management.

Bioavailability has been used as a key indicator in chemical risk assessment yet poorly quantified risk factor. Worldwide, the framework used to assess potentially contaminated sites is similar, and the decisions are based on threshold contaminant concentration. The uncertainty in the definition and measurement of bioavailability had limited its application to environment risk assessment and remediation. Last ten years have seen major developments in bioavailability research and acceptance. The use of bioavailability in the decision making process as one of the key variables has led to a gradual shift towards a more sophisticated risk-based approach. Now a days, many decision makers and regulatory organisations 'more readily accept' this concept. Bioavailability should be the underlying basis for risk assessment and setting remediation goals of those contaminated sites that pose risk to environmental and human health. This paper summarises the potential application of contaminant bioavailability and bioaccessibility to the assessment of sites affected by different contaminants, and the potential for this to be the underlying basis for sustainable risk assessment and remediation in Europe, North America and Australia over the coming decade.

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), defined here as coordinated business actions aimed at a more sustainable world, has always been fairly controversial, both from the perspective of academic discourse and from the perspective of corporate practice. In its most basic terms, questions have been asked about whether corporations can and should actually have social responsibilities and, if so, to what extent? (cf. Davis 1973; Moon et al. 2005). Reflecting on the social responsibilities of business, a scholarly debate has developed that has given rise to a multitude of conceptions on the roles and responsibilities of business in society. These conceptions roughly vary from Friedman’s position that the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits (Friedman 1970) to positions about CSR that reflect the principle of sustainable development as formulated in the well-known “Brundtland report” as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987: 204) and that now extend to and is operationalized through the Sustainable Development Goals. While different positions on the responsibilities of business in society remain to be held, partly motivated by political beliefs and worldviews, the question “what is a business for?” is nowadays answered in a way that aligns with a broader conception including taking into account the interests of and being accountable to a broader set of stakeholders than merely those with a financial or otherwise economic concern as well as society as a whole, nature and future generations. A survey among consumers from 10 of the world’s largest countries showed that some 81% thought that firms have responsibilities going (far) beyond creating shareholder value, with 31% thinking that firms should change the way they operate to align with greater social and environmental needs (Cone Communications/Echo 2013).

Abstract As the world races toward its urban future, the quantity of wastes, one of the vital by-products of an enhancement in the standards of living, is exponentially rising. The treatment of wastes employing plasma is an upcoming area of research and is globally used for the simultaneous processing of diverse wastes coupled with the recovery of energy and materials. Ground-breaking and cost-effective thermal plasma technologies with high efficiencies are a prerequisite for the growth of this technology. This paper delivers an evaluation of the fundamentals such as the generation and characteristics of the thermal plasma along with the various types of wastes treatable by thermal plasma and the related issues. Furthermore, the authors discuss different types of advanced technologies as well as the material and energy recovery techniques and their present status worldwide, at lab-scale and industrial scale. The application of different thermal plasma technologies is discussed as a means to promote this technology into alternative applications, which require higher flexibility and greater efficiency. Mathematical modeling studies are also assessed with an objective to derive ideal conditions and permissible limits for the reactors and to test a variety of waste materials. A strategy to improve the feasibility and sustainability of waste utilization is via technological advancement and the minimization of environmental effects and process economics. This paper sheds light on diverse areas of waste utilization via thermal plasma as a potentially sustainable and environmentally friendly technology.

Woody crops such as orchards and olive groves require annual pruning operations, which leave abundant residues on the ground. These must be removed both for disease control and for facilitating the following tending activities. The resulting biomass can be managed as a waste or a by-product, in both cases incurring in a cost for farmers. A harvester prototype for collecting and comminuting apple pruning residues was tested and compared to a traditional mulcher. In particular, the study aimed at: 1) quantifying productivity and costs of the two systems, 2) evaluating the possible influence of apple variety, tree age and machine type on the productivity per hectare, and 3) estimating and comparing the energy balance of the two working options.