Search Results (1,011)

Northern Colombian Creole-Antillean avocado constitutes a promising agroindustrial resource because of its lipid-rich composition and regional availability. Despite this potential, the industrial exploitation of this biomass remains limited, particularly regarding the technical assessment of large-scale oil production systems. In this study, an avocado oil production process was evaluated through computer-aided simulation combined with the Water–Energy–Product (WEP) methodology to assess operational behavior, resource utilization, and process efficiency from an integrated technical perspective. The evaluated system achieved an overall production yield of 9.43%, mainly affected by the elevated raw material requirements associated with oil generation. Nevertheless, the extraction stage exhibited favorable technical performance, reaching an oil recovery efficiency of 81.42%. Concerning water management, the process required 26.85 m³/t of freshwater and generated wastewater equivalent to 96.05% of the total water consumed, revealing important limitations related to water integration and recirculation within the process configuration. From an energy perspective, the system presented a specific energy intensity of 19,929 MJ/t, with natural gas representing the predominant energy source throughout the operation. Overall, the obtained results demonstrate that the proposed process is technically viable for avocado oil production while also identifying critical opportunities for improving resource utilization, decreasing water demand, and enhancing the operational sustainability of the system. Full article

Aiming at the characteristics of high viscosity and poor fluidity of high waxy ordinary heavy oil, a Janus silica-based nanosheet composite viscosity reducer was designed and prepared in this paper. The viscosity reducer was assembled by asymmetric Gemini viscosity reducer and silica nanosheets through dehydration condensation reaction, and its structure was verified by FT-IR, ¹HNMR, XPS and DLS. The viscosity reduction performance, emulsion stability, interfacial tension and flow performance of the viscosity reducer were systematically evaluated by taking heavy oil with wax content of 35.7% and viscosity of 237 mPa·s at 30 °C as the research object. The results showed that, at an oil-to-viscosity-reducer-solution volume ratio of 3:7 and a viscosity reducer mass fraction of 0.3%, the maximum viscosity reduction rate reached 94.5% at 30 °C, calculated relative to the viscosity of the dehydrated original heavy oil. The oil–water interfacial tension was significantly reduced, and the 24 h bleeding ratio, defined as the volume percentage of separated water relative to the initial aqueous phase volume, was only 7.3%, indicating good emulsion stability. The core flow experiment shows that the resistance coefficient is reduced to the lowest at 0.3% concentration, and the seepage capacity is significantly improved. The analysis of total hydrocarbon gas chromatography showed that the content of high-carbon wax components in the C₂₃-C₃₀ range decreased by 4.79 percentage points after treatment, indicating that the viscosity reducer preferentially interacted with high-carbon wax molecules and promoted wax-crystal dispersion, thereby weakening the three-dimensional wax-crystal network. The viscosity reducer has the synergistic effect of dispersing wax crystals, reducing interfacial tension and stabilizing emulsification, which provides a low-cost and high-performance technical approach for the efficient exploitation of high waxy ordinary heavy oil. Full article

Babassu (Attalea speciosa) is one of the most abundant palm species in the Brazilian Amazon and an important unconventional crop, playing a key socioeconomic role due to the commercial exploitation of its oil-rich almonds. However, approximately 90–93% of the fruit biomass—mainly mesocarp, epicarp, and endocarp—is generated as underutilized residue. This systematic review aims to analyze extraction methods, phytochemical composition, and antioxidant capacity of bioactive compounds derived from different babassu fractions. Following PRISMA guidelines, searches of five databases (Embase, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science) retrieved 410 records, of which 23 met the inclusion criteria. The results show that, although research has predominantly focused on the almond fraction, non-edible parts contain significant levels of phenolic compounds, flavonoids, phytosterols, and other bioactive metabolites with antioxidant properties. Green and non-thermal extraction technologies, such as ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), supercritical CO₂ extraction (SC-CO₂), and pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), demonstrated advantages in improving extraction efficiency while reducing solvent consumption and thermal degradation. Overall, the available evidence indicates that babassu residues represent a promising and still underexplored source of bioactive compounds. Their valorization may contribute to sustainable extraction strategies, waste reduction, and the development of value-added products within agricultural and bioeconomic systems. Full article

Carbon taxes and credits (CT&C) accelerate global deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies to enable energy transition. This study investigates the economic performance and resilience of floating gas-to-wire with CCUS (f-GTW-CCUS), deployed at the wellhead of stranded CO₂-rich offshore oil and gas reservoirs. The f-GTW-CCUS platform integrates a natural gas combined cycle power plant with monoethanolamine post-combustion capture (PCC-MEA), producing low-carbon electricity (23 kgCO_2e/MWh, competitive with renewables) while monetizing captured CO₂ via enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The mass and energy balance data from the proposed process configuration were obtained in the literature. Critically, f-GTW-CCUS operates on wellhead-sourced in situ-associated gas, eliminating exposure to volatile natural gas markets, and achieves a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of USD 67.15/MWh. Monte Carlo analysis (10,000 Gaussian iterations, 30-year lifetime, 10% discount rate, three CT&C scenarios, namely, low/medium/high) is used to quantify economic feasibility across three stochastic variables: oil, natural gas, and electricity prices, starting in the 5th year. The results demonstrate the following: (1) Case A (f-GTW without CCUS) remains economically infeasible (NPV < 0) under all price volatility scenarios due to insufficient electricity-only revenue and carbon taxation penalties; (2) Case B (f-GTW-CCUS with immediate CCUS deployment) maintains positive NPV across all scenarios, with EOR monetization contributing 43% of total revenue; (3) the critical CCUS deployment-delay threshold is 6 years under high carbon taxation, extending to 10 years when carbon credits are included. Gate-to-gate environmental assessment (carbon intensity, water footprint, land transformation) shows f-GTW-CCUS superiority versus alternative power systems, with minimal water–land nexuses due to offshore desalination. An empirical consistency assessment based on the 2026 geopolitical energy crisis demonstrates the structural resilience of the f-GTW-CCUS plant: the wellhead sourcing provides resilience to global natural gas price shocks, while the concurrent crude price escalation amplifies EOR revenues by 43–57%, improving project feasibility during commodity disruptions. These findings position f-GTW-CCUS as a critical decarbonization pathway for O&G producers exploiting stranded gas reserves. The technology combines carbon intensity reduction with economic resilience under volatile energy market conditions and mandatory climate policies. Full article

Organic-rich shales in China’s deep-water shelf environments possess significant shale gas resource potential. To investigate the reservoir development characteristics of deep-water shelf shale, 143 shale samples were collected from the low-maturity Xiamaling Formation in the Zhangjiakou area and the high to over-mature Wufeng–Longmaxi Formations in the southeastern margin of the Sichuan Basin. Basic analytical methods, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), total organic carbon (TOC) analysis, rock pyrolysis, and solid bitumen reflectance measurements, were employed alongside advanced reservoir characterization techniques such as field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), low-pressure CO₂/N₂ physisorption, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), and focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM). This study focuses on the petrographical, geochemical, and microscopic pore structure characteristics of these marine shales. The results indicate that the mineral composition of deep-water shelf sedimentary shale is dominated by quartz, clay minerals, feldspar, calcite, dolomite, apatite, and pyrite, with quartz being the most abundant. The Xiamaling Formation shales, at low maturity, are relatively rich in siliceous components, while the high to over-mature Wufeng and Longmaxi Formation shales are richer in carbonate components. The kerogen type of organic matter in the Xiamaling Formation is primarily Types II₁ and II₂, whereas the Wufeng–Longmaxi shales are predominantly Types I and II₁. TOC content is highest in the Wufeng Formation, followed by the Longmaxi Formation, with the Xiamaling Formation exhibiting the lowest TOC levels. Pore development in the Wufeng and Longmaxi shales is significantly superior to that in the Xiamaling shales. Overall, the Wufeng and Longmaxi Formations demonstrate more favorable pore characteristics and hydrocarbon generation potential compared to the Xiamaling Formation. The Wufeng and Longmaxi Formations’ shales will be the key targets for shale gas exploration in the future. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding and development of theories of marine shale gas accumulation in China and hold both theoretical and practical significance for the efficient and rational exploitation of shale oil and gas resources. Full article

In oil-rich countries, petroleum contamination of soils frequently occurs during refining, transportation, and exploitation. Such contamination significantly alters soil behavior and properties from a geotechnical perspective. Given that some fine-grained soils exhibit insufficient bearing capacity or excessive settlement, soil improvement is often necessary. The selective use of nanoparticles offers a promising novel approach in this regard. This study investigates the effects of diesel contamination and nanosilica modification on the physical and mechanical properties of clayey sand and aims to interpret the variations in the mechanical properties and the permeability of the treated soil based on microstructural observations. Diesel (0–10% in 2% increments) and nanosilica (0%, 1%, 2%) were added to the soil, preparing a total of 18 mixtures for testing. The microstructural changes directly alter the physical parameters such as specific gravity, optimum moisture content (OMC), and maximum dry unit weight, consequently affecting the permeability and the mechanical behavior. The microstructural analysis via scanning electron microscopy revealed diesel-induced clay flocculation and increasing macroporosity, while the nanosilica at 1% improved the soil fabric through pore filling and interparticle bonding, whereas 2% nanosilica led to partial dispersion and agglomeration. The findings demonstrate that soil behavior is controlled by the interplay between diesel (lubrication, pore blocking, hydrophobicity) and nanosilica (surface activation, micro-bonding, agglomeration). Increasing the diesel content consistently reduces the specific gravity across all the mixtures, due to the replacement of heavier mineral particles by lighter hydrocarbon, diesel adsorption onto the soil grains, the formation of low-density organic films, and increased micro-voids. Diesel addition reduces the OMC but increases the maximum dry unit weight due to its lubrication effect. Mechanically, the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) peaked at approximately 4% diesel contamination, with the addition of 1% nanosilica yielding the highest strength overall. Conversely, the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) increased continuously with diesel due to improved packing and frictional resistance and was further improved by nanosilica. The results show that permeability decreases with increasing diesel content due to hydrophobic diesel molecules coating soil particles, filling micro-voids, and blocking pore channels, while the consolidation parameters exhibit non-monotonic trends, peaking at moderate contamination levels. An optimal nanosilica content effectively mitigated some of the adverse effects of diesel and enhanced the mechanical performance, providing valuable insights for managing hydrocarbon-contaminated soils. Full article

The role of medicinal plants in primary healthcare and livelihoods around the world is both ancient and well-documented. Agathosma betulina (P.J. Bergius) Pillans, commonly known as ‘buchu’, has long been utilised in traditional medicine as a household remedy for various ailments and is also valued for its essential oils in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. This study aimed to profile and quantify the secondary metabolites in buchu using ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight combined with mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS) techniques, whereby plant material from three distinct locations in the Western Cape Province, Groot Winterhoek, Citrusdal, and Cederberg, was collected. A total of 32 maker compounds were identified from buchu leaves. The results revealed a significant location-dependent variation in the accumulation of multiple classes of phytochemicals, including phenolic acids, flavonoids, saponins, terpenoids, oligosaccharides, vitamins, and steroids. Citrusdal samples had the most bioactive compounds compared to the Cederberg and Groot Winterhoek. Citrusdal had the highest flavonoid levels, while Cederberg samples were the richest in phenolic acids and Groot Winterhoek was dominant in iridoid glycoside levels. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed distinct clusters corresponding to the three different regions, confirming chemical differences. Elucidating the distribution of secondary metabolites in this species may provide new information for possible medicinal and pharmacological uses, such as the creation of novel and enhanced organic medications and food products. These results will aid in selecting a buchu chemotype with optimal attributes for the intended therapeutic application, helping to protect wild populations from over-exploitation through cultivation. Full article

Spent mushroom substrate (SMS), the main by-product of mushroom production, is rich in valuable compounds that could be recovered by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) and exploited as fat-mimetic functional ingredients in food formulations. In this study, low-fat cookie prototypes were developed by incorporating a dietary fiber extract obtained from SMS using UAE. The extraction process was optimized following a Box–Behnken experimental design, identifying optimal conditions at a specific energy input of 200 J/mL, a particle size of 2 mm, and a solvent-to-solute ratio of 27%, yielding a dietary fiber recovery of 30.82%. The optimized SMS extract exhibited high oil-holding capacity (OHC) (1.39 g/g), emulsion stability (ES) (80%), and foaming capacity (FC) (83.55%). Four cookie formulations were evaluated, among which G1 (50% fat replacement) showed the best balance between consumer acceptability and an improved nutritional profile, characterized by higher protein (8.4 g/100 g), total dietary fiber (TDF) (7.10 g/100 g), and mineral contents. Notably, G1 cookies displayed a significant reduction in predicted glycemic index (pGI), decreasing from 83.84 in the control to 69.65. Overall, these results demonstrate that optimized SMS-derived dietary fiber is an effective functional ingredient for the development of low-fat, high-fiber, and reduced-glycemic cookies, contributing to the valorization of agro-industrial by-products within a circular economy framework. Full article

Unconventional oil and gas reservoirs naturally have low porosity and low permeability, which necessitate reservoir stimulation during production to achieve commercial exploitation. Therefore, to improve reservoir stimulation effectiveness, this study established a thermal–hydraulic–mechanical coupled numerical model suitable for hydraulic fracturing experiment scales based on rock mechanics, elasticity mechanics, damage mechanics, and flow mechanics theories, combined with maximum principal stress and Mohr–Coulomb damage criteria. The model was numerically solved within a finite element framework and used to simulate the reservoir hydraulic fracturing process. The results indicate that the propagation behavior of hydraulic fractures is controlled by reservoir rock mechanical properties, geostresses, reservoir temperatures, fracturing fluid viscosities, and injection rates. Among these, the increase in principal stress difference, reservoir temperature, fracturing fluid viscosity and injection rate promotes the propagation of hydraulic fractures along the direction of the maximum horizontal principal stress, whereas an increase in the rock’s elastic modulus reduces the propagation length of the hydraulic fractures. During fracturing, the fracturing fluid fractures the reservoir rock, significantly improving its porosity and permeability. This not only enhances the mobilization of unconventional oil and gas resources but also provides effective flow pathways for their migration, thereby ensuring the commercial viability of unconventional oil and gas resource extraction. Additionally, selecting a fracturing process that matches the geological characteristics of the study area during fracturing design is a prerequisite for improving the reservoir stimulation effect. The results of this study provide a reference for fracturing design and optimization. Full article

Offshore oil and gas exploitation is one of the riskiest businesses to invest in and is dominated by various uncertainties: high deepwater pressure, low temperatures, remote operation, long-distance tiebacks and transportation, as well as environmental factors such as wind, waves and ocean currents. Serving as a profitability threshold, the minimum economic field size is defined as the economic recoverable reserve level that an oilfield must exceed to achieve economic returns. This paper develops an approach for determining the minimum economic field size of offshore oil and gas reservoirs. It categorizes the capital expenditure into four major components: drilling and completion costs, platform costs, pipeline costs, and subsea production system costs. The regression models of drilling costs and subsea production costs are developed respectively, with water depth and recoverable reserves as key influencing factors. The pipeline costs are estimated using the unit pipeline cost per mile and pipeline length. A profit model for the offshore field is established under the constraints of the contract, which allocates the oilfield’s production profits between the contractor and the government according to the contractual fiscal terms. Finally, taking the Lucius oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico as a case study, the paper simulates its investment, operating costs, and oilfield revenues. The minimum economic field size is calculated, accompanied by the derivation of the sensitivity boundaries for the primary parameters. Full article

Avocados produced in Colombia’s Caribbean region represent a biomass with high potential for valorization beyond fresh consumption, particularly when their fractions are exploited as sources of value-added compounds. This study proposes a dual-production system integrating oil extraction from the pulp and biochar generation from the seed under a process approach aimed at maximizing raw material utilization. The process performance was evaluated through the application of the Extended Water–Energy–Product (E-WEP) methodology, which allows for a comprehensive assessment of water, energy, and material consumption, as well as product generation efficiency, based on computer simulation results. The findings indicate an overall process yield of 14.20%, limited by the high raw material demand, although a high oil recovery efficiency of 83.95% was achieved. Water consumption reached 17.84 m³/t, with 99.25% converted into wastewater, highlighting the need for improved water management strategies. The process exhibited an energy demand of 3613.19 MJ/h, predominantly covered by natural gas consumption, which led to an energy intensity of 23,192.65 MJ/t. Furthermore, the obtained NER and EUI values of 0.53 and 2.84, respectively, suggest that the system does not operate under energy self-sufficiency conditions. Nevertheless, the resulting products still present considerable potential for energy recovery and subsequent valorization processes. Full article

Significant amounts of food waste come from fruit processing, causing economic and environmental impacts. The waste generated is a valuable source of compounds due to its concentration of nutrients, such as dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, lipids with mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids, and bioactive compounds. Despite the nutritional and functional qualities of the waste, it is still commonly discarded and underutilized, demonstrating the importance of studying it. The selected fruits described in this study are widely consumed by various populations around the world and are used at an industrial scale. The objective of this review is to discuss the use of seeds from grapes, passion fruit, melon, watermelon, papaya, guava, raspberry, and pomegranate and their benefits for human consumption. The seeds stand out for the possibility of oil extraction, creating a sustainable and healthy mode of production. Due to their nutritional composition rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, they have been shown to be beneficial to health, promoting development, strengthening the immune system, and promoting the growth and maintenance of cell membranes, cardiovascular benefits, and antimicrobial and antioxidant activity, in addition to innovation in the cosmetics sector and applicability as biofuel. Therefore, the exploitation of this type of by-product shows promise in the search for alternative sources of vegetable oils and bioactive compounds with high added nutritional value and potential nutraceutical application, helping to increase the value of food waste and thus contributing to a better use of plant resources. Full article

Camphora officinarum (syn. Cinnamomum camphora) is an ecologically, medicinally, and economically important tree species widely known for its essential oils (EOs), timber, and long history of use in traditional medicine. In recent years, renewed interest in this species has been driven by taxonomic revision, the discovery of chemically distinct chemotypes, and advances in genomics, metabolomics, and biotechnological processing. This review summarizes current knowledge on the botany, distribution, phytochemistry, biological properties, agro-industrial value, and biotechnological potential of C. officinarum. Particular attention is given to the genetic and metabolic basis of terpene diversity, especially the role of terpene synthase (TPS) gene expansion in the formation of camphor-, linalool-, borneol-, cineole-, and citral-type profiles. We also discuss developments in essential oil extraction, the utilization of non-volatile constituents such as flavonoids and lignans, and the nutritional value of seed kernel oil rich in medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs). In addition, recent progress in tissue culture, multi-omics analysis, metabolic engineering, and nano-enabled delivery systems is reviewed. The paper also considers important safety and ecological issues, including the dose-dependent toxicity of camphor and the contrasting status of the species as a protected native resource in East Asia and an invasive plant in some introduced regions. Overall, this review provides an updated and balanced overview of C. officinarum, identifies key knowledge gaps, and highlights future prospects for sustainable utilization, conservation of native genetic resources, and exploitative control of invasive populations. Full article

Object detection in high-resolution remote sensing images under complex industrial environments is fundamentally constrained by the inherent limitations of single-modality sensors. Optical imagery is prone to background confusion and pseudo-target interference, while synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery suffers from speckle noise and structural ambiguity. This work investigates a critical evaluation gap in multimodal fusion, where traditional image-level quality metrics do not consistently reflect downstream detection performance. To address this issue, we propose a task-oriented framework termed the Multi-Source Fusion for Enhanced Object Detection Network (MSFE-Net). The proposed method integrates pixel-level optical–SAR fusion with a YOLOv11-based detector, enabling the learning of task-relevant representations by exploiting complementary optical spectral cues and SAR scattering characteristics. Extensive experiments are conducted across multiple fusion strategies and representative detection architectures on two industrial datasets covering oil tanks and photovoltaic arrays. The results consistently reveal a nonlinear decoupling between image-level fusion metrics and detection accuracy, indicating that improvements in global statistical image quality do not necessarily lead to superior task performance. Furthermore, the proposed framework demonstrates improved robustness in complex scenarios involving multi-scale and weak targets. Specifically, MSFE-Net achieves 99.1% mAP@50 for oil tank detection (19.5% improvement over SAR-only baselines) and 90.2% mAP@50 for photovoltaic array detection, with stable performance across different evaluation settings. These results highlight the importance of task-oriented evaluation in multimodal remote sensing fusion and suggest that downstream detection performance provides a more reliable criterion than conventional image-quality metrics. Full article

Nowadays, the global demand for medicinal plants, including A. absinthium L. (wormwood), has increased considerably, leading to significant pressure on their wild populations and the biodiversity of ecosystems. Consequently, the rates of exploitation may exceed those of natural regeneration. This destructive process can be reduced by cultivating plants with the desired secondary metabolites by transferring them from their natural habitats. The present study investigates phytochemistry and the potential antioxidative/prooxidant activity of low-thujone A. absinthium plants. The chemical composition of wormwood extracts and essential oils (EOs) was determined by HPLC/DAD/TOF and GC/MS techniques, respectively. Trans-Sabinyl acetate (59.6 ± 10.1%) predominated in the wormwood EOs, while the content of toxic trans-thujone was negligible (1.2 ± 0.5%). Eighteen acids, such as fumaric, ascorbic, succinic, quinic, malic, gallic, benzoic, (neo/iso)chlorogenic, (di)ferulic, caffeic, etc., were found in 50% methanolic wormwood extracts. Additionally, (epi)catechin, astragalin, diosmetin, piceatannol-3’-O-glucoside, quercetin-3-O-glucoside, quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside-7-O-glucoside, hesperidin, apigenin-7-O-glucoside, baicalin, 5,7,3′-trihydroxy-3,6,4′,5′-tetramethoxyflavone and rutin were tentatively identified in the extracts. Total phenolic content was found 412.82 ± 11.10 mg/L (of gallic acid equivalent) in A. absinthium methanolic extracts. Using conventional spectroscopic methods, the antioxidant activity (DPPH radicals scavenging) was determined to be 0.83 ± 0.06 mmol/L (TROLOX equivalent) in the wormwood essential oil. ABTS^●+ and DPPH^● scavenging activity means, 3.485 ± 0.07 (TROLOX, mmol/L) and 6.48 ± 0.25 (TROLOX, mmol/L) were revealed for A. absinthium methanolic extracts. Less commonly used methods, electrochemical tests showed the presence of oxidizable compounds with characteristic E_pa values of 0.38 and 0.61 V. Moreover, hydrogen peroxide scavenging tests were performed. The largest quantity of peroxide (31.86 ± 0.1 μmol/L) was formed in the wormwood boiling infusions (at pH = 7.2). As the presence of toxic and neurotoxic thujone isomers is undesirable, therefore, the search for low- or thujone-free plants from natural populations that exhibit biological activity (i.e., antioxidant/prooxidant) is of great importance. Full article