Antonio Luiz Fantinel

1. Global food systems face increasing pressure to provide safe, nutritious, and sustainable protein sources while meeting the demands of a growing population. Animal-derived proteins currently acc...

El uso de aceite de cocina usado como materia prima para biodiesel sigue los principios de la economía circular, al reducir costos y aumentar la eficiencia de la producción, aprovechando residuos y disminuyendo la dependencia de aceites vírgenes. Este estudio analiza los costos de producción de biodiesel utilizando la metodología de Custeo Basado en Actividades (ABC), con tres procesos de transesterificación alcalina realizados en una biorrefinería a pequeña escala. La viabilidad económica y financiera de la biorrefinería, con una capacidad de 540 toneladas por año en Santa María, se evaluó utilizando indicadores como el Valor Presente Neto (VPN), la Tasa Interna de Retorno (TIR) y el payback descontado. El costo de producción fue de US$ 0,25 por litro, con la transesterificación representando el 60% de los costos. El aceite de cocina usado representó solo el 21% del costo total. El análisis indicó viabilidad económica para cooperativas y empresas del sector energético, ofreciendo una alternativa sostenible que contribuye a la reducción de desperdicios y al uso de recursos no alimentarios.

A produtividade da soja é frequentemente impactada por períodos de estiagem, que geram perdas significativas. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a predição do déficit hídrico na cultura da soja por meio de dados espectrais, investigando o efeito de diferentes lâminas de irrigação sobre a produtividade. Duas cultivares de soja, BAYER 2606 e PIONEER 95R31, foram submetidas a três níveis de irrigação (0, 50 e 100% da ETo). A reflectância hiperespectral foi medida com um espectrorradiômetrohiper-hiperespectral em diferentes estádios fenológicos da cultura. As bandas espectrais foram utilizadas para a geração de índices de vegetação, posteriormente comparados com a produtividade. Os dados de produtividade foram analisados pelo teste de Tukey a 5%, e a correlação de Spearman foi aplicada para verificar a relação entre os índices de vegetação e o rendimento. A lâmina de 100% (L100) resultou em maior vigor vegetativo, maior teor de água nas folhas e maior produtividade para ambas as cultivares. A cultivar PIONEER 95R31 destacou-se pela resiliência ao estresse hídrico e pelo elevado potencial produtivo em todos os níveis de irrigação.

Despite the acknowledged relevance of renewable energy sources, biofuel production supported by food-related agriculture has faced severe criticism. One way to minimize the considered negative impacts is the use of sources of non-food biomass or wastes. Synthetic biology (SB) embraces a promising complex of technologies for biofuel production from non-edible and sustainable raw materials. Therefore, it is pertinent to identify the global evolution of investments, concepts, and techniques underlying the field in support of policy formulations for sustainable bioenergy production. We mapped the SB scientific knowledge related to biofuels using software that combines information visualization methods, bibliometrics, and data mining algorithms. The United States and China have been the leading countries in developing SB technologies. The Technical University of Denmark and Tsinghua University are institutions with higher centrality and have played prominent roles besides UC Los Angeles and Delft University Technology. We identified six knowledge clusters under the terms: versatile sugar dehydrogenase, redox balance principle, sesquiterpene production, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, recombinant xylose-fermenting strain, and Clostridium saccharoperbutylacetonicum N1-4. The emerging trends refer to specific microorganisms, processes, and products. Yarrowia lipolytica, Oleaginous yeast, E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Phaeodactylum tricornutum, and Microalgae are the most prominent microorganisms, mainly from the year 2016 onward. Anaerobic digestion, synthetic promoters, and genetic analysis appear as the most relevant platforms of new processes. Improved biofuels, bioethanol, and N-butanol are at the frontier of the development of SB-derived products. Synthetic biology is a dynamic interdisciplinary field in environmentally friendly bioenergy production pushed by growing social concerns and the emergent bioeconomy.

The resurgence of biofuels in the recent past has brought new perspectives for renewable energy sources. Gradually the optimistic scenarios were being challenged by the competition for raw materials dedicated to direct or indirect human food. Second-generation biorefineries have emerged as technological alternatives to produce biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass. The third generation of biorefineries uses alternative raw materials like algae and microalgae. Despite the technical feasibility, these biorefineries were indebted for their economic performance. Synthetic biology has provided new microbial platforms that are increasingly better adapted to industrial characteristics to produce biofuels and fine chemicals. Synthetic biology bioengineers microorganisms to take advantage of the low-cost and less-noble raw materials like lignocellulosic biomass, carbon dioxide, and waste as a sustainable alternative for bioenergy generation using bio-substrates. In this chapter, we analyze the innovations in synthetic biology as applied to cellulosic ethanol production based on registered patents issued over the last twenty years (1999–2019). Using Questel-Orbit Intelligence, we recovered a total of 298 patent families, from which we extracted the key concepts and technology clusters, the primary technological domains and applications, the geographical distribution of patents, and the leading patents assignees. Besides, we discuss the perspectives for future research and innovations and the market and policy opportunities for innovation in this technological field. We conclude that the patented technologies serve as a proxy for the development of synthetic biotechnology applied in cellulosic ethanol production by the fourth generation of biorefineries.

The research carried out intended to analyze the panorama of patents related to welfare in cattle. To this end, a search was carried out on the worldwide Questel Orbit patent registration database oriented toward the existence of terms associated with welfare in cattle in the documents of patent families. The investigation corresponded to the period from the beginning of the registrations in 1967 until August 2019. In this way, an initial portfolio was created of 272 registrations. Of these, 77 documents were related to cattle, with direct or indirect interventions in the optimization of the welfare. Data analysis took place in a quantitative way and through the classification of patent families in seven categories: nutrition, health, management, genetics, infrastructure/facilities, physiological and behavioral indicators, and traceability/certification. The largest number of patent families corresponded to the areas of rural facilities, animal nutrition, health, and new physiological and behavioral indicators, totaling 73%. The temporal distribution of these records shows that the interest of researchers in promoting technological innovations focused on well-being began in 1995, with expressiveness from 2013. It should also be noted that the largest registration of patent families comes from China (51%), followed by European countries, which account for 23%, and the United States (19%), while Brazil represents only 6% of the total documents. Despite the recent patent registrations related to cattle, there has been an increase in recent years, denoting the growth of efforts for technological innovation of this productive chain regarding animal welfare.

The cellular agriculture is been considered as a mechanism to minimize future negative impacts from the estimated world population growth for the coming decades. Among the alternatives of this technology, the development of meat grown in the laboratory stands out. Numerous researchers have been making efforts to develop this scientific field today. However, few studies have tried to map the intellectual panorama and emerging themes in the scientific literature of this scientific field. Thus, this research aims to analyze from the perspective of the bibliometric and sociometric analysis the scientific publications on meat cultivated within the perspective of cellular agriculture, indexed in the Web of Science database. We analyzed 91 publications on cultured meat, combining mapping data, patterns of co-citation and collaboration from scientific journals and authorship. We also analyze emerging issues in the research on meat cultivated. We noted that, given the participation of authors and co-authors from different areas of knowledge, there is not a pattern in the composition of collaboration networks. Also stands out the multidisciplinary nature of the studies on cultured meat, transposing different disciplines and analytical approaches. Those aspects concerning the environmental, cultural impact, technical viability of its productive process and impacts on traditional livestock production appear as latent constructs in this new food biotechnology.