Due to the oversupply and scarcity cycles of the Agave tequilana Weber blue variety, the effect of agave age (harvested in 4, 5, and 6 years) as raw material for the tequila 100% agave silver class was studied for each stage in a full-scale (industrial) process. Harvested plants showed differences in their morphological characteristics that affected the amount of juice; this had an impact in the fermentation stage since must composition was modified in the nitrogen content and juice/exudate ratio. This was noticed due to an increase in the production of higher alcohols attributed to the odd-chain fatty of the exudate, which affects n-propanol production. The characterization of the final product showed the feasibility to use agaves (less than 7 years) to produce the Tequila 100% agave silver class and to comply with the quality criteria. Furthermore, the final product was analyzed with the gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass-spectrometry technique to determine its authenticity. The δ¹³C_VPDB isotopic parameter (−13.40‰ in average) values show the type of plant used as a raw material for ethanol production, while the δ¹⁸O_VSMOW (20.52‰ in average) isotopic parameter can be helpful in corroborating and ensuring the traceability of the product and the geographical location of the beverage production.

In this contribution, we propose a polyacrylamide surfactant-free nanogel synthesis technique in a water/ethanol system using N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAm) as a crosslinker agent. The polymerization reactions were carried out using the potassium persulfate (KPS) and N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) redox pair. The main contribution of this paper is a two-dimensional study of the particle size, polydispersity, and morphology as a function of the solvent water/ethanol wt. ratio and wt. % of monomer (acrylamide, AM) during the particle synthesis. The results show that the obtained particles have a similar morphology compared to those prepared using surfactants. The particle size was measured using Quasi-Elastic Light Scattering (QELS) of the redispersed nanogel, obtaining particle sizes from 41 to 1050 nm, with polydispersity values between 0.31 and 1. In all cases, we found three particle sizes with different abundance distributions, each having a prevailing abundancy ranging from 65% to 95%. Finally, the nanogel morphology was analyzed with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an efficient wastewater bioprocess, suitable for treating agroindustrial residues with high organic loads and characterized by both a low environmental impact and energy generation. This process is conformed by several chemical and biological reactions in an oxygen free atmosphere, that degrades high molecular weight organic compounds into carbon dioxide and methane mainly but also into traces of hydrogen and ammonia. This process is potentially unstable to volatile fatty acids (VFA), and the alkalinity. variations and is satisfactorily described by the non-linear AM2 model. In this contribution, the AM2 model is modified to include a more general expression for the pH, a cheap and continuous measurement, and also to add more detail in the interactions of the VFA, bicarbonates, and the alkalinity, key factors in the process stability. The stability of the AM2 modified model is explored through a rigorous bifurcation analysis that identifies unstable operation zones and viability of operation trajectories as a function of the dilution rate. Finally, an experimental validation is carried out to show the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed modifications.