Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering Journal (Formally known as Biological and Natural Resources Engineering Journal)

AI-BASED WASTE MANAGEMENT OPTIMIZATION IN THE HALAL FOOD INDUSTRY OF MALAYSIA: A MINI REVIEW

Olla Abdalla — 2023-12-31

Solid waste management (SWM) has become a critical issue in Malaysia, with increasing amounts of waste generated every year and limited resources available to manage it effectively. Additionally, the halal food industry is rapidly growing and expanding globally due to the rising Muslim population, predicted to reach 2.2 billion by 2030 at an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent. This increasing production and consumption of halal food has an impact on the environment. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize solid waste management by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and optimizing waste management processes. This mini review provides an overview of the impact of AI on solid waste management in Malaysia, focusing on the current trends, challenges, and opportunities in the industry, particularly in the halal food sector. The review offers insights into the potential of AI in enhancing waste collection, optimizing waste management processes, improving resource recovery and recycling, and reducing waste to landfill. Additionally, the review explores the current initiatives, projects, and developments in the field of AI and solid waste management in Malaysia and identifies areas for future research and collaboration. The review concludes that AI has a significant role to play in improving solid waste management in Malaysia, and continued investment and development in this area is necessary to achieve sustainable waste management practices. Furthermore, its findings have the potential for wider applications and inspire future research in AI-based waste management solutions across various industries. The findings and recommendations of this review have the potential to be adapted and implemented in other industries facing similar waste management challenges.

TECHNO-ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF MELIPONICULTURE IN BUKIT SANDY, CIMENYAN, BANDUNG

Jessica Gita Adjani — 2023-12-31

Propolis produced by stingless bees has a high economic value in Indonesia. Bukit Sandy is a plantation area in Cimenyan, Bandung which is famous for citrus picking tourism and has the potential to be developed for meliponiculture. Currently, there are stingless bee colonies in Bukit Sandy, but the colonies are not growing well. This research aimed to examine environmental conditions and techno-economic analysis of meliponiculture in Bukit Sandy. This research used descriptive analysis, vegetation analysis, colony carrying capacity analysis, and techno-economic analysis methods. Based on the environmental description, conditions of the environmental in Bukit Sandy are suitable for meliponiculture. Dominant forage vegetation potential for stingless bees in Bukit Sandy are mahogany (tree), pine (pole), lemon (sapling), and paspalum (seedling). The estimated potential for production of honey in Bukit Sandy ranges from 2.25-30.21 kg/month and the carrying capacity of stingless bee colonies in Bukit Sandy is 4-54 colonies. This study proposed several scenarios for techno-economic analysis for cultivation of Heterotrigona itama; i) 4 colonies with raw propolis and honey as products, ii) 4 colonies with propolis extract, honey and propolis residue as products, iii) 4 colonies with raw propolis and honey as products, ii) 54 colonies with propolis extract, honey and propolis residue as products. Based on the techno-economic analysis, meliponiculture in Bukit Sandy is technically feasible and profitable for scenario 2 and 3, while scenario 1 is not profitable. Scenatio 2 is proposed for early stages of meliponiculture in Bukit Sandy and later transformed to scenario 3 for higher profit and benefits to the society

CARBON FIBER AEROGEL FROM NANOFIBRILLATED CELLULOSE OF SUGARCANE BAGASSE AND WASTE ENGINE OIL RESIDUE FOR OIL SORPTION

Syazana Ab Manaf — 2023-12-31

The oil adsorption method is one of the best approaches that can be used to treat an oil spillage on the water surface. The researchers have moved forwards in developing oil sorbent material that is very efficient for oil adsorption process, environmentally friendly, and very low cost. Following this, combination of two different wastes has been used as raw material to prepare oil sorbent material with such characteristic in this study. Nanofibrillated cellulose were extracted from sugarcane bagasse and were combined with carbon residue from waste engine oil to produce carbon fiber aerogel (CFA). Different ratio of cellulose to waste engine oil residue, WER (between 0.5 until 1.5) at different carbonization temperature (500 to 700?C) was used to develop CFA and the oil sorption capacity was investigated. It was observed that ratio of cellulose to WER 1.5 and carbonization temperature of 600 ?C achieved the highest oil sorption capacity of 5.47 g/g. The sample CFA possess highly fibrous and rough surface structure as observed by FESEM, low density (0.17 g/cm3) with high carbon content (C-C and C?C) as confirmed by the FTIR. This study stimulates an insight to utilize sustainable waste sources as the raw material for oil sorbent material development.

FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PUTATIVE LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY) GENE IN Stevia rebaudiana MS007 via IN SILICO ANALYSIS

Nurul Hidayah Samsulrizal — 2023-12-31

Stevia rebaudiana is a medicinal herb that has been known as a low-calorie sweetener. It has been recognised as an artificial sweetener that is 300 times sweeter than sucrose. It is a commercially important sweetener that has been consumed as food and medicine due to its ability to reduce blood sugar levels. Stevioside is one of the important compounds that give food a sweet taste. Previous studies showed a high amount of stevioside could be produced by delaying the flowering process of stevia. The aim of this study is to isolate and characterise the putative Late Elongated Hypocotyl (LHY) gene that is involved in the flowering process by using bioinformatics tools. Both analysis by using BLAST and domain search found that LHY gene involved in flowering process. These domains are SANT/Myb domain (IPR001005/SM000717), TEA domain (SM00426), Myb domain (IPR017930), and Myb domain plants (IPR006447). The phylogenetic tree was built using 20 out of 100 protein sequences from BLAST. The physico-chemical properties of putative LHY protein had been conducted through ProtParam and TMHMM showed the protein is globular protein. The phylogenetic tree construction indicated the common ancestor for the putative LHY protein, which is from the same family, i.e., Asteraceae. In summary, this study improves our knowledge of the Stevia MS007 LHY gene by in-silico analysis. Therefore, future research should focus on determining the precise function of the protein in regulating the blooming stage of the stevia plant.

A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF CLITORIA TERNATEA

Siti Najihah Yusof — 2023-12-31

Clitoria ternatea L. has gained more attention from the scientific community in the recent years due to its potential biological properties including antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. This explains the increment in the number of scientific studies done on the plant. However, there is no available paper found on the bibliometric analysis of C. ternatea specifying the important relationship between the content of the bioactive compounds, the types of research and the geographical diversity. Thus, this study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis on the research trends, spatial distribution and related bioactive compounds of the C. ternatea. Search term (“Clitoria ternatea”) OR (“Blue Butterfly Pea flower”) is used as the keyword in SCOPUS database and 598 publications were found within the period of 1954 until 2020. The growth of publications showed a sharp increase in 2011 and 2018 and keep growing throughout the years since then. The VOSviewer programme was used to analyze keywords, countries, bioactive compounds, medicinal benefits and authors through visual knowledge mapping to assess the research trends. However, only 43% of the publications were selected for further analysis subsequent to screening stage. Results on the relationship between C. ternatea and bioactive compounds showed that antioxidant was the most frequently encountered pharmaceutical potential and anthocyanin was the most frequently encountered biological properties. The geographical distribution analyses showed that most researches were originated from Southeast Asian countries. The bibliometric analysis performed in this study has identified trends in C. ternatea plant from 1954 to 2020, which will guide the future directions in this research field.

REPURPOSING NATURAL PRODUCTS AGAINST PLASMODIUM KNOWLESI LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE VIA IN SILICO APPROACH FOR ANTIMALARIAL DRUG DEVELOPMENT

Muhammad Aiman Arif Mazahari — 2023-12-31

Malaria cases have increased globally, which is due to the emergence of zoonotic malaria parasites that infect human, along with the existence of artemisinin-resistant parasites. Hence, there is an urgent need to find new therapeutics to counter these issues. As a vital enzyme in the glycolytic pathway that serves as the parasite's primary energy source during its intraerythrocytic stage in human, lactate dehydrogenase from Plasmodium knowlesi (Pk-LDH) can be a potential drug target. This project aims to screen for existing natural products that have progressed to preclinical or advanced drug development phases against Pk-LDH via ligand-based virtual screening (LBVS) and to evaluate the potentials of these bioactives as repurposed drugs by binding energy estimation through structure-based virtual screening (SBVS). The LBVS method, which was conducted via LiSiCA and ChemMine, are based on shape-based molecular similarity calculations to screen for analogues of the query molecules, which are lactate and pyruvate. Subsequently, PyRx simulation software were utilised for docking studies with the aid of PyMOL and PLIP software. This study discovered that Compound 7, ?-hydroxyisovaleric acid, and Compound 2, alpha-ketoisovalerate are structurally similar to compounds that directly involved in the metabolic pathways of P. knowlesi, lactate and pyruvate, with a similarity score of 0.75. Both compounds also formed strong interactions with Pk-LDH, resulting in strong binding affinities of -4.6 kcal mol^–1 and -4.3 kcal mol^–1, respectively. These findings open possibilities for using natural products in drug repurposing as anti-malarial agents.

ENHANCED HYBRID SYSTEM OF MEC-AD THROUGH MODIFIED ELECTRODES WITH MULTI-WALL CARBON NANOTUBES

Aseel Al-Daas — 2023-12-31

The hybrid system of microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) and anaerobic digester (AD) has been a promising approach for sustainable energy production and waste treatment. The integration of MEC and into the AD digester offers multiple advantages over conventional AD systems. The study was conducted on the modification of carbon felt (CF) anode, and stainless-steel mesh (SSTM) cathode with multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), to facilitate the biomethane production and upgrade within the hybrid system. The microbial attachment to the electrodes was analyzed, the substrate concentration, current density, and biogas composition and volume were monitored. The SEM imaging of the electrodes showed that the microbes followed a different growth behaviour in modified and unmodified electrodes. In addition, MWCNT modified SSTM showed a potential hydrogenotrophic growth selectivity, unlike unmodified SSTM, which had a more syntrophic microbial community. Stainless steel mesh-modified cathode showed the highest biogas and methane production with a value of 14.4 ml CH₄/g glucose. In addition, the carbon-felt modified electrodes showed a maximum substrate degradation value of 93% and a current density of 4.5 mA/m².