Engineering next-generation bioinks with nanoparticles: moving from reinforcement fillers to multifunctional nanoelements

The application of additive manufacturing in the biomedical field has become a hot topic in the last decade owing to its potential to provide personalized solutions for patients. Different bioinks have been designed trying to obtain a unique concoction that addresses all the needs for tissue engineering and drug delivery purposes, among others. Despite the remarkable progress made, the development of suitable bioinks which combine printability, cytocompatibility, and biofunctionality is still a challenge. In this sense, the well-established synthetic and functionalization routes to prepare nanoparticles with different functionalities make them excellent candidates to be combined with polymeric systems in order to generate suitable multi-functional bioinks. In this review, we briefly discuss the most recent advances in the design of functional nanocomposite hydrogels considering their already evaluated or potential use as bioinks. The scientific development over the last few years is reviewed, focusing the discussion on the wide range of functionalities that can be incorporated into 3D bioprinted constructs through the addition of multifunctional nanoparticles in order to increase their regenerative potential in the field of tissue engineering.Authors acknowledge financial support from the ERC Grant CoG MagTendon nr 772817; FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia for the PhD grant of SMB (PD/BD/129403/2017), for the contract to MGF (CEECIND/01375/2017); and for project SmarTendon (PTDC/NAN-MAT/30595/2017). AP is grateful to Xunta de Galicia for his postdoctoral grant ED481B2019/025. Some figures were created with BioRender.com

Towards a circular economy: sustainability assessment of biorefineries for green energy and polyphenolic production from biomass

Pomace is a waste stream that is generated during fruit processing and is regarded as highly polluting due to its high moisture content, biological instability and acidic properties. To facilitate pomace management, the current study has applied the biorefinery concept to develop systems that facilitate value extraction. In this regard, alternative scenarios for the production of polyphenolic compounds and electricity from apple pomace were investigated using ASPEN Plus for process simulations. Scenarios enabling the production of polyphenols using green solvents of subcritical water (scenario (a)) and ethanol (scenario (b)), while also co-producing electricity, were compared to scenario (c) in which the pomace was employed in only electricity production. Comparisons of profitabilities and environmental performances were achieved via a consideration of the net present values (NPVs) and potential environmental impacts (PEIs) respectively, of all scenarios. The study was able to show that scenario (a) constituted the only economically viable strategy, with an NPV of US$19.86 million, while scenarios (b) and (c) were determined to have NPVs of US$-88.12 million and US$-4.05 million respectively. Scenario (b) was also determined to have the poorest environmental performance with a PEI of 148 kPEI/h. Notably, although scenario (c) (PEI of 0.21 kPEI/h) was determined to present a better environmental performance than scenario (a) (PEI of 47 kPEI/h), its economic infeasibility indicated that it will be impractical to consider it as a viable pomace strategy in a future scaled-up system. The present study therefore proposed that scenario (a) may constitute a preferred pomace valorization strategy provided technological innovations i.e. use of renewable energy and gas filters are explored and integrated to reduce the major existing challenge of greenhouse gas emissions. This study provides information regarding the sustainability implications of executing the proposed biorefinery scenarios for pomace management in the fruit processing industry

Technoeconomic and Environmental Assessment of Alternative Biorefineries for Bioenergy and Polyphenolic Production from Pomace Biomass

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Towards a circular economy: sustainability assessment of biorefineries for green energy and polyphenolic production from biomass

Pomace is a waste stream that is generated during fruit processing and is regarded as highly polluting due to its high moisture content, biological instability and acidic properties. To facilitate pomace management, the current study has applied the biorefinery concept to develop systems that facilitate value extraction. In this regard, alternative scenarios for the production of polyphenolic compounds and electricity from apple pomace were investigated using ASPEN Plus for process simulations. Scenarios enabling the production of polyphenols using green solvents of subcritical water (scenario (a)) and ethanol (scenario (b)), while also co-producing electricity, were compared to scenario (c) in which the pomace was employed in only electricity production. Comparisons of profitabilities and environmental performances were achieved via a consideration of the net present values (NPVs) and potential environmental impacts (PEIs) respectively, of all scenarios. The study was able to show that scenario (a) constituted the only economically viable strategy, with an NPV of US$19.86 million, while scenarios (b) and (c) were determined to have NPVs of US$-88.12 million and US$-4.05 million respectively. Scenario (b) was also determined to have the poorest environmental performance with a PEI of 148 kPEI/h. Notably, although scenario (c) (PEI of 0.21 kPEI/h) was determined to present a better environmental performance than scenario (a) (PEI of 47 kPEI/h), its economic infeasibility indicated that it will be impractical to consider it as a viable pomace strategy in a future scaled-up system. The present study therefore proposed that scenario (a) may constitute a preferred pomace valorization strategy provided technological innovations i.e. use of renewable energy and gas filters are explored and integrated to reduce the major existing challenge of greenhouse gas emissions. This study provides information regarding the sustainability implications of executing the proposed biorefinery scenarios for pomace management in the fruit processing industry.</jats:p