As an herbaceous perennial, Miscanthus has attracted extensive attention in bioenergy refinery and ecological remediation due to its high yield and superior environmental adaptability. This review summarizes current research advances of Miscanthus in several aspects including biological properties, biofuels production, and phytoremediation of contaminated soil. Miscanthus has relatively high biomass yield, calorific value, and cellulose content compared with other lignocellulosic bioenergy crops, which make it one of the most promising feedstocks for the production of second‐generation biofuels. Moreover, Miscanthus can endure soil pollutions caused by various heavy metals and survive in a variety of adverse environmental conditions. Therefore, it also has potential applications in ecological remediation of contaminated soil, and reclamation of polluted soil and water resources. Nevertheless, more endeavors are still needed in the genetic improvement and elite cultivar breeding, large‐scale cultivation on marginal land, and efficient conversion to biofuels, when utilizing Miscanthus as a bioenergy crop. Furthermore, more efforts should also be undertaken to translate Miscanthus into a bioenergy crop with the phytoremediation potential.

Miscanthus: a fast‐growing crop for environmental remediation and biofuel production

Influence of microwave hot-air flow rolling dry-blanching on microstructure, water migration and quality of pleurotus eryngii during hot-air drying

Morphology, compositions, thermal behavior and kinetics of pyrolysis of lint-microfibers generated from clothes dryer

Layered double-hydroxide (LDH) has been considered an important class of electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), but the adsorption-desorption behaviors of oxygen intermediates on its surface still remain unsatisfactory. Apart from transition-metal doping to solve this electrocatalytic problem of LDH, rare-earth (RE) species have sprung up as emerging dopants owing to their unique 4f valence-electronic configurations. Herein, the Er is chosen as a RE model to improve OER activity of LDH via constructing nickel foam supported Er-doped NiFe-LDH catalyst (Er-NiFe-LDH@NF). The optimal Er-NiFe-LDH@NF exhibits a low overpotential (191 mV at 10 mA cm-2 ), high turnover frequency (0.588 s-1 ), and low activation energy (36.03 kJ mol-1 ), which are superior to Er-free sample. Electrochemical in situ Raman spectra reveal the facilitated transition of Ni-OH into Ni-OOH for promoted OER kinetics through the Er doping effect. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the introduction of Er facilitates the spin crossover of valence electrons by optimizing the d band center of NiFe-LDH, which leads to the GO -GHO closer to the optimal activity of the kinetic OER volcano by balancing the bonding strength of *O and *OH. Moreover, the Er-NiFe-LDH@NF presents high practicability in electrochemical water-splitting devices with a low driving potential of and a well-extended driving period.

Improving the Oxygen Evolution Activity of Layered Double-Hydroxide via Erbium-Induced Electronic Engineering.

Significance The combined radical and nonradical reactions induced by peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation can promise deep mineralization and selective removal of micropollutants from complex wastewater. However, nonhomogeneous metal-based catalysts with single active sites lead to a low efficiency of electron cycling for both radical and nonradical generation. In this study, asymmetric Co–O–Bi sites were constructed to achieve rapid electron cycling while achieving site synergy, thus effectively activating PMS to generate radicals and nonradicals. The presence of asymmetric sites can tune and optimize the catalytic performance through structural modulation, which can effectively remove and mineralize micropollutants from organic and inorganic compounds under the environmental background.

Generating dual-active species by triple-atom sites through peroxymonosulfate activation for treating micropollutants in complex water

Developing non-noble catalysts with superior activity and durability for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media is paramount for hydrogen production from water. Still, challenges remain due to the inadequate activity and stability of the OER catalyst. Here, we report a cost-effective and stable manganese oxybromide (Mn7.5O10Br3) catalyst exhibiting an excellent OER activity in acidic electrolytes, with an overpotential of as low as 295 ± 5 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2. Mn7.5O10Br3 maintains good stability under operating conditions for at least 500 h. In situ Raman spectroscopy, X ray absorption near edge spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations confirm that a self-oxidized surface with enhanced electronic transmission capacity forms on Mn7.5O10Br3 and is responsible for both the high catalytic activity and long-term stability during catalysis. The development of Mn7.5O10Br3 as an OER catalyst provides crucial insights into the design of non-noble metal electrocatalysts for water oxidation. 

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Efficient and stable noble-metal-free catalyst for acidic water oxidation

The effect of microwave coupled hot air drying on rehydration ratio (RR) and total sugar content (TSC) of Chinese yam was investigated. Single factor test and response surface methodology were used for process parameter optimization with hot air temperature, hot air velocity, slice thickness, and microwave power density as variables and RR and TSC of dried products as responses. The effect of variables on RR followed the order: slice thickness > hot air temperature > microwave power density > hot air velocity. The effect of variables on TSC followed the order: slice thickness > microwave power density > hot air velocity > hot air temperature. The optimized process parameters were hot air velocity of 2.5 m/s, hot air temperature of 61.7 °C, slice thickness of 8.5 mm, and microwave power density of 5.9 W/g. Under the optimal conditions, the predicted values of RR and TSC were 1.90 g/g and 5.74 g/100 g, respectively, which is very close to corresponding actual values (1.83 g/g and 5.72 g/100 g). The desirability of 0.913 further validated the effectiveness of the model. The findings from this work may apply to other agricultural products.

https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/7/10/745/pdf

Optimization of Microwave Coupled Hot Air Drying for Chinese Yam Using Response Surface Methodology

Hot-air coupled microwave was employed to dry lotus root slices. The effects of lotus root slice thickness (5, 8, 11, 14, and 17 mm), hot-air velocity (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 m/s), hot-air temperature (50, 55, 60, 65, and 70 °C), and microwave power density (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 W/g) on drying characteristics and kinetics were studied. Results indicated that the drying process involved both the accelerating and decelerating periods but no constant rate period. The drying rate reached the maximum of 1.52 kg/kg when microwave power density was 8 W/g and reached the minimum of 0.02 kg/kg at the last stage of drying. In addition, the drying kinetics of lotus root slices were also investigated using eleven previously reported models. Among the models, the Verma et al. model was the most suitable for description of the drying behaviors of lotus root slices based on R 2, root-mean-square error, and chi-square. The moisture transfer from lotus root slices can be effectively described by Fick's diffusion model. Regardless of drying conditions, the effective diffusivity coefficients ranged from 8.23 × 10-7 to 7.08 × 10-6 m2/s, and their variations were mostly in agreement with those of moisture ratios. The activation energy of moisture diffusion related to lotus root slices was determined to be 13.754 kJ/mol.

Dan Liu

Papers

Efficient and stable noble-metal-free catalyst for acidic water oxidation

Optimization of Microwave Coupled Hot Air Drying for Chinese Yam Using Response Surface Methodology

Effects of Hot-Air Coupled Microwave on Characteristics and Kinetics Drying of Lotus Root Slices.

Enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation of corn stover liquor from magnesium oxide pretreatment without detoxification.

A study on the association between biomass types and magnesium oxide pretreatment.