Background: Shock is one of the most common severe syndromes requiring emergency treatment. Acute myocardial infarction guidelines, the surviving sepsis campaign, and low blood volume resuscitation guidelines indicate the prioritization of early identification of shock. APACHE II (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II), SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment), and MEWS (Modified Early Warning System) scores are used to predict mortality in ICU (intensive care unit) patients. However, similar to APACHE II, SOFA cannot be used for rapid assessment. Hence the need for a new scoring system that is simple, faster, and efficacious in predicting and preventing mortality among shock patients. The present study was conducted to evaluate a new MEWS scoring system for early identification and estimate mortality risk in patients with shock. Methods: A total of 170 patients with shock meeting the inclusion criteria who presented to the ICU of Ramaiah Hospitals from November 2019 to August 2021 were included in the study. Baseline variables, laboratory parameters, APACHE II score, SOFA score, MEWS score, and new MEWS score were compared between the two groups. Patients were followed up till mortality or discharge from ICU. Results: Among the 170 patients included in the study septic shock (69.4%) was the most common type of shock followed by cardiogenic (7.64%) and hypovolemic shock (7.64%). The requirement of inotropic support and mechanical ventilation was associated with significantly higher mortality (55.6% and 52.6% respectively). The AUROC (area under the curve) for SOFA in predicting mortality was 0.738 (p<0.001). The AUROC for APACHE II score in predicting mortality was 0.758 (p<0.001). The AUROC for MEWS score in predicting mortality was 0.655 (p=0.0002). The AUROC for the new MEWS score in predicting mortality was 0.684 which is more than that of the conventional MEWS score (p <0.001). Conclusion: New MEWS score is better than the MEWS score in predicting mortality. The new MEWS score is a simple, entirely clinical, inexpensive scoring system that can be done within a short time as a patient contact in an emergency. Hence, the new MEWS score can help in the quick identification of patients who are at high risk for developing shock and can be used as a better predictor of mortality.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a viable method for conversion of food waste and other organic materials into methane-rich biogas. However, when used at high organic loading rates, using only food waste can lead to an unstable process. Process instability is indicated by frequent changes in pH, and increase in ammonia and hydrogen sulfide concentration. These uncontrolled changes combined with over-production of organic acids can inhibit biogas production and ultimately lead to digester failure. Therefore, certain co-substrates produced as wastes in the regional food sector were tested as stabilizing agents for food waste digestion with an objective of achieving stable non-manure based digestion. The substrates tested were acid whey, bread, manure, caffeinated drink, paper napkins and apple pomace. The biogas production was increased by 12% in reactors containing bread, by 10% with acid whey, and by 12% when the co-substrate was caffeinated drink. The reactors containing paper and manure showed decreased biogas production by 6% and 12% respectively, but these changes are relatively small and thus not considered inhibitory. Co-digestion with apple pomace was found to be inhibitory and resulted in digester failure. This initial study has demonstrated that the stability of AD systems may be improved by strategically combining available food waste feedstocks.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is widely considered a more sustainable food waste management method than conventional technologies, such as landfilling and incineration. To improve economic performance while maintaining AD system stability at commercial scale, food waste is often co-digested with animal manure, but there is increasing interest in food waste-only digestion. We investigated the stability of anaerobic digestion with mixed cafeteria food waste (CFW) as the main substrate, combined in a semi-continuous mode with acid whey, waste bread, waste energy drinks, and soiled paper napkins as co-substrates. During digestion of CFW without any co-substrates, the maximum specific methane yield (SMY) was 363 mL gVS−1d−1 at organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.8 gVSL−1d−1, and reactor failure occurred at OLR of 3.5 gVSL−1d−1. Co-substrates of acid whey, waste energy drinks, and waste bread resulted in maximum SMY of 455, 453, and 479 mL gVS−1d−1, respectively, and it was possible to achieve stable digestion at OLR as high as 4.4 gVSL−1d−1. These results offer a potential approach to high organic loading rate digestion of food waste without using animal manure. Process optimization for the use of unconventional co-substrates may help enable deployment of anaerobic digesters for food waste management in urban and institutional applications and enable increased diversion of food waste from landfills in heavily populated regions.
Crude (i.e., unrefined) glycerol is the major by-product of biodiesel production, based on the homogeneous alkaline catalytic transesterification reaction. Currently, global biodiesel production capacity has been rising rapidly due to the overall growth of renewable energy demand. The amount of glycerol is increasing in parallel, and there is presently little market value for crude glycerol. In addition, disposing of this material via conventional methods becomes one of the major environmental issues and a burden for biodiesel manufacturers. Thus, utilization of purified glycerol in value-added applications such as food processing, cosmetics, soap and pharmaceuticals is critical to achieve economic scale of biodiesel production. In this paper, various pathways available to community-based biodiesel producers have been modeled to inform the decision-making process. A case study at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was selected to evaluate the proposed system. Different pathways of utilizing crude glycerol were investigated, and economic feasibility of each pathway was analyzed. Purification of crude glycerol from waste cooking oil-based-biodiesel production was performed at small bench scale. Various recipes with different raw materials and purified glycerol as an ingredient were created for different kinds of saponification processes and applications. The resulting data from this preliminary assessment showed that producing biodiesel and high-quality soap is the most profitable option for RIT.
Abstract Isolation of two keratinolytic bacterial strains from poultry soil as well as purification and properties of keratinase were investigated. Isolates were designated as KI8101 and KI8102 (KI, keratin isolates) and were identified as Bacillus subtilis and B. licheniformis respectively. The purified enzyme from KI8102 exhibited a high specific activity of 500 U/mg with 71‐fold purification and 41% yield. SDS‐PAGE analysis indicated that the purified keratinase had a molecular mass of 32 kDa. The optimum temperature and pH were 50°C and 7.5, respectively. Its K m was 83.3 μM and V max was 71.4 μmol/mL min. The bacterium could potentially degrade keratin waste such as human hair, nails, bovine hair and wool. Therefore, the enzyme could improve the nutritional value of meat and poultry‐processing waste containing keratin and could be a potential candidate for biotechnological processing involving keratin hydrolysis.
Academic institutions present a unique opportunity for anaerobic digestion (AD) projects in that they have a concentrated population that generates waste, utilizes heat and electrical power, and often are motivated to implement sustainability initiatives. However, implementation of AD on college campuses in the U.S. is only beginning to emerge and data required to size and operate digesters are limited. This paper provides formulae to estimate food waste generated at college and university campuses base upon data collected at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Bottom-up and top-down estimates are presented and results are compared to an extensive review of publicly available data from other colleges and universities. The bottom-up methodology resulted in a lower estimate (18 kg food waste/enrolled student) than the top-down estimate (29 kg/enrolled student). Both were significantly lower than the estimate previously reported in the literature (64 kg/enrolled student). Bench-scale co-digestion experiments of the food waste with dairy manure resulted in a methane yield of 437 ml CH4/g VS. Applying this methodology to only 4-year colleges in New York State has the potential to generate 27 million GJ of energy from food waste.
Sustainable management of food waste has become a global priority because of the significant environmental impacts associated with conventional disposal methods, including landfilling. Thermochemical processing is a food-waste-to-energy conversion technology in which food waste materials are converted to biofuel in a reduced O 2 environment at elevated temperatures. Another conversion technology is anaerobic digestion, in which microorganisms digest biodegradable material, producing biofuel and solid byproducts "digestate." We measured the physical properties of "biochar" produced by combining these approaches: digestate was used as feedstock for a commercial-scale thermochemical processing system. Magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) particles were produced during the food-waste-to-energy conversion process. This was particularly unexpected because none of the input materials were ferromagnetic, and no specific Fe precursors were introduced in the process. The Fe 3 O 4 was identified through a combination of X-ray fluorescence and dc magnetometry. Zero-field cooled magnetization-temperature curves reveal a Verwey transition at ~125 K across samples prepared under various conditions. Room temperature magnetization-field loops show a Langevin-like curve, technical saturation, and coercive fields of H C = 98-130 Oe across various samples. Clear Verwey transition, room temperature hysteresis, and an irreversibility temperature well above room temperature indicate that particles are multidomain. We attribute the presence of Fe 3 O 4 to the relatively high concentration of Fe naturally present in the solid digestate and the operating parameters of the thermochemical conversion process. High surface area magnetic biochar has a variety of potential applications, including the adsorption of heavy metals, wastewater treatment, supercapacitors, and conductive polymer composites.
'%3e%3ccircle r='20' fill='%23008'/%3e%3ccircle r='17.5' fill='%23fff'/%3e%3ccircle r='3.5' fill='%23008'/%3e%3cg id='d'%3e%3cg id='c'%3e%3cg id='b'%3e%3cg id='a' fill='%23008'%3e%3ccircle r='.875' transform='rotate(7.5 -8.75 133.5)'/%3e%3cpath d='M0 17.5.6 7 0 2l-.6 5L0 17.5z'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(15)'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23b' transform='rotate(30)'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23c' transform='rotate(60)'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23d' transform='rotate(120)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23d' transform='rotate(-120)'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)