Hydrogels for biomedical applications.

Rapid industrialization has provided comforts to mankind but has also impacted the environment harmfully. There has been severe increase in the pollution due to several industries, in particular due to dye industry, which generate huge quantities of wastewater containing hazardous chemicals. Although tremendous developments have taken place for the treatment and management of such wastewater through chemical or biological processes, there is an emerging shift in the approach, with focus shifting on resource recovery from such wastewater and also their management in sustainable manner. This review article aims to present and discuss the most advanced and state-of-art technical and scientific developments about the treatment of dye industry wastewater, which include advanced oxidation process, membrane filtration technique, microbial technologies, bio-electrochemical degradation, photocatalytic degradation, etc. Among these technologies, microbial degradation seems highly promising for resource recovery and sustainability and has been discussed in detail as a promising approach. This paper also covers the challenges and future perspectives in this field.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/21655979.2020.1863034

A critical review on advances in the practices and perspectives for the treatment of dye industry wastewater.

Chitin and Chitosan

Chitosan modifications for adsorption of pollutants - A review.

Chitin and its N-deacetylated derivative chitosan are two biological polymers that have found numerous applications in recent years, but their further deployment suffers from limitations in obtaining a defined structure of the polymers using traditional conversion methods. The disadvantages of the currently used industrial methods of chitosan manufacturing and the increasing demand for a broad range of novel chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) with a fully defined architecture increase interest in chitin and chitosan-modifying enzymes. Enzymes such as chitinases, chitosanases, chitin deacetylases, and recently discovered lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases had attracted considerable interest in recent years. These proteins are already useful tools toward the biotechnological transformation of chitin into chitosan and chitooligosaccharides, especially when a controlled non-degradative and well-defined process is required. This review describes traditional and novel enzymatic methods of modification of chitin and its derivatives. Recent advances in chitin processing, discovery of increasing number of new, well-characterized enzymes and development of genetic engineering methods result in rapid expansion of the field. Enzymatic modification of chitin and chitosan may soon become competitive to conventional conversion methods.

/pdf/enzymatic-modifications-of-chitin-chitosan-and-1dpl5yo3fv.pdf

Enzymatic Modifications of Chitin, Chitosan, and Chitooligosaccharides.

Modern seafood processing practices result in amassment of a large volume of waste products, i.e., skin, head, tails, shells, scales, backbones, etc. These waste products may often encompass several high-value products which are still untapped due to the dearth of appropriate management. Moreover, inadequate disposal of waste also has negative implications on both environment and human health. This seafood waste often contains a huge amount of chitin, a polysaccharide that exhibits exceptional inherent characteristics including biocompatibility, biodegradability, antimicrobial, antitumor and antioxidant activities. The present review summarizes the existing methods for recovery of chitin and its derivatives from marine waste. The preparation of chitin nanoparticles was discussed along with blending of chitin and chitosan with other biopolymers. The recent trends of the application of chitin and chitosan nanostructures in various sectors were explored. This review is an attempt to highlight the extraction methods of chitin and chitosan from marine waste resources and its transformation into valuable commercial products as a solution to waste management.

/pdf/seafood-waste-a-source-for-preparation-of-commercially-zj5mv8vwkv.pdf

Seafood waste: a source for preparation of commercially employable chitin/chitosan materials

Crop cultivation is crucial for the existence of human beings, as it fulfills our nutritional requirements. Crops and other plants are always at a high risk of being attacked by phytopathogens, especially pathogenic fungi. Although plants have a well-developed defense system, it can be compromised during pathogen attack. Chitinases can enhance the plant’s defense system as they act on chitin, a major component of the cell wall of pathogenic fungi, and render the fungi inactive without any negative impact on the plants. Along with strengthening plant defense mechanisms, chitinases also improve plant growth and yield. Chitinases in combination with recombinant technology can be a promising tool for improving plant resistance to fungal diseases. The applicability of chitinase-derived oligomeric products of chitin further augment chitinase prospecting to enhance plant defense and growth.

Chitinases—Potential Candidates for Enhanced Plant Resistance towards Fungal Pathogens

Insights into the genetic and metabolic engineering approaches to enhance the competence of microalgae as biofuel resource: A review.

Production of chitinase from thermophilic Humicola grisea and its application in production of bioactive chitooligosaccharides.

Growth of the industrial sector, a result of population explosion has become the root cause of environmental deterioration and has raised the concerns for efficient wastewater management and reuse. Photoautotrophic cultivation of microorganisms is a boon and considered as a potential biological treatment for remediation of wastewater as it sequesters CO2 during growth. Photoautotrophs viz. cyanobacteria, micro-algae and macro-algae can photosynthetically assimilate the excessive pollutants present in the wastewater. The present review emphasizes on the achievability of microorganisms to bestow wastewater as the nutrient source for biomass production, which can further be reused for feed, food and fertilizers. To support this, various case studies have been cited that prove phycoremediation as a cost-effective and sustainable process over conventional wastewater treatment processes that requires high chemical load and more energy inputs.

/pdf/photoautotrophic-microorganisms-and-bioremediation-of-3y82du51fx.pdf

Manish Kumar

Papers

Seafood waste: a source for preparation of commercially employable chitin/chitosan materials

Chitinases—Potential Candidates for Enhanced Plant Resistance towards Fungal Pathogens

Insights into the genetic and metabolic engineering approaches to enhance the competence of microalgae as biofuel resource: A review.

Production of chitinase from thermophilic Humicola grisea and its application in production of bioactive chitooligosaccharides.

Photoautotrophic microorganisms and bioremediation of industrial effluents: current status and future prospects