Fruits are among the most important commodities in global trading due to its fundamental nutritional values. In 2012, the fruits supply was 115 kg/person/year, however, only 50 % of the fruits reached their consumers and the rest ended up as waste during the long fruit supply chain. The waste from fruits is mostly dumped or burned, creating a serious environmental problem. A more sustainable handling of the waste is therefore highly desirable. One of them is conversion of the fruits wastes into biogas through anaerobic digestion. One challenge with the conversion of fruits wastes into biogas is the presence of antimicrobial compounds in the fruits, which reduce the biogas yield or even cause a total failure of the process. Fruit flavors have been reported to have antimicrobial activity against several microorganisms and being responsible for the defense system in the fruits. However, there is only scarce information about the effect of fruit flavors on anaerobic digesting microbia. The objectives of the present thesis were: 1) to investigate the inhibitory activity of the fruit flavors on anaerobic digestion; 2) to remove the flavor compound by pretreatment; and 3) to protect the cell from the flavor compounds using a membrane bioreactor. The inhibitory activity of the fruit flavors was examined from different groups of flavors by adding a single flavor compound into the batch anaerobic digesting system, at three different concentrations. Among the flavors added, myrcene and octanol were found to exhibit a strong inhibitory activity, with 50 % reduction of the methane production at low concentrations, ca. 0.005–0.05 %. These flavors can be found in oranges, strawberries, grapes, plums, and mangoes. The other flavors tested showed moderate and low inhibitory activity, which might not affect the anaerobic digestion of the fruits wastes. In order to overcome the inhibitory effects of the fruit flavor, two approaches were proposed in this thesis, namely, fruit flavor removal by leaching pretreatment and cell protection from fruit flavor using a membrane bioreactor. Orange peel waste and D-limonene were used as a model of fruit waste and inhibitor, respectively. The leaching pretreatment uses solvent to extract the limonene from the orange peel. The methane yield increased by 356 % from 0.061 Nm3/kg VS to 0.217 Nm3/kg VS, by pretreating the peel using hexane with peel and a hexane ratio of 1:12 at room temperature for 10 min. Alternative to limonene removal, the cells were encased in a hydrophilic membrane, which is impermeable to hydrophobic limonene. This method yielded more than six times higher methane yield, compared to the free cell. At the highest organic loading rate, examined in this work, 3 g VS/L/day, the methane yield of the reactor containing the free cell was only 0.05 Nm3/kg VS, corresponding to 10 % of the theoretical yield, whereas 0.33 Nm3/kg VS methane yield was achieved using a membrane bioreactor corresponding to 75 % of the theoretical yield. / <p>Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Borås to be publicly defended on November 27th 2014, 10.00 a.m. in room E310, University of Borås, Allégatan 1, Borås.</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:01:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 KatiaCB_DISSERT.pdf: 2815552 bytes, checksum: 5538a2db54454e17355a1ea7d2b7b8e5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-15 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / Fruits are rich sources of bioactive compounds, including phenolic compounds. Tropical fruit cultivation is an important productive segment in Brazilian Northeast. Its industrialization generates solid wastes as co-products, with potential environmental impact. Considering the recognized bioactive content of fruit and its derivatives, this research has the objective of investigating acerola (Malpighia glabra L.), caj?-umbu (Spondia ssp), jambolan (Syzygium cumini) and pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) dried wastes obtained by spouted bed drier. It was analyzed the physical-chemical composition, solubility and microphotographic aspect of these dried wastes. Besides this, it was also evaluated the bioactive content, antioxidant activity and inhibitory activity against aamylase and a-glycosidase enzymes of water and ethanol (70%, 80% e 100% v/v) extracts prepared from fruit dried wastes, as well as their possible correlations. The dried fruit wastes showed high phenolic (606.04 to 3074.6 mg GAE eq/100 g sample), anthocyanin (478.7 mg/100 g for jambolan) and ascorbic acid (2748.03 mg/100 g for acerola) contents, as well as high antioxidant DPPH activity (14.27 a 36.30 mg Trolox eq/g sample). The extracts exhibited moderate to high a-amylase inhibition (23.97% a 76.58%) and high &#945;-glycosidase inhibition, which 99.32% peak was reached for ethanol 70% pitanga extracts. It was also observed great positive correlation between phenolic content and DPPH activity (0.97 for acerola), anthocyanin (0.95 for jambolan) and &#945;- glycosidase inhibition (0.98 for acerola). The &#945;-glycosidase inhibition also correlated well with the antioxidant activity for all fruit extracts. The results show that these dried fruit wastes are valuable material for further applications as functional ingredients / As frutas possuem importantes compostos bioativos, dentre eles os compostos fen?licos. O cultivo de frutas tropicais ? um importante segmento produtivo do Nordeste Brasileiro, mas sua industrializa??o gera res?duos s?lidos como c?-produtos da atividade, pass?veis de gerar impacto ambiental. Tendo em vista o reconhecido conte?do bioativo de frutas e seus c?-produtos, objetivou-se estudar o baga?o desidratado da acerola (Malpighia glabra L.), caj?-umbu (Spondia ssp), jambol?o (Syzygium cumini) e pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) obtidos em secador de leito de jorro. A partir disso, foi analisada a composi??o f?sico-qu?mica, solubilidade e aspecto microfotogr?fico dos baga?os secos. Al?m disso, foi avaliada a concentra??o de compostos bioativos, atividade antioxidante e atividade inibit?ria contra as enzimas &#945;-amilase e &#945;-glicosidase do extrato aquoso e extratos etan?licos (70%, 80% e 100% v/v) preparados a partir dos baga?os desidratados, bem como suas correla??es. Os p?s de fruta apresentaram elevado teor de compostos fen?licos (606,04 a 3074,6 mg GAE eq/100 g amostra), antocianinas (478,7 mg/100 g para jambol?o) e ?cido asc?rbico (2748,03 mg/100 g), bem como expressiva atividade antioxidante medida pelo m?todo DPPH (14,27 a 36,30 &#956;g Trolox eq/g amostra). Os extratos foram capazes de expressar inibi??o da &#945;-amilase de moderada a alta (23,97% a 76,58%) e expressiva inibi??o da &#945;-glicosidase, cujo m?ximo de 99,32% foi alcan?ado pelos extratos etan?licos 70% da pitanga. Foi observada correla??o positiva entre o teor fen?lico e atividade antioxidante (0,97 para acerola), antocianinas (0,95 para jambol?o), inibi??o da &#945;-amilase (0,99 para jambol?o) e inibi??o da &#945;-glicosidase (0,93 para pitanga) e dessas duas ?ltimas com a atividade antioxidante para todos os frutos estudados. Os dados apresentados demonstram que os res?duos desidratados constituem valioso material de estudo para aplica??es como ingredientes funcionais