The integration of biosensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) in food packaging is gaining significant interest in rapidly enhancing food safety and traceability worldwide. Currently, the IoT is one of the most intriguing topics in the digital and virtual world. Biosensors can be integrated into food packaging to monitor, sense, and identify early signs of food spoilage or freshness. When coupled with the IoT, these biosensors can contribute to data transmission via IoT networks, providing real-time insights into food storage and transportation conditions for stakeholders across each stage of the food supply chain, facilitating proactive decision-making practices. The technologies of combining biosensors with IoT could leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance food safety, quality, and security in food industries, compared to conventional existing food inspection technologies, which are limited to assessing weight, volume, color, and physical appearance. This review focused on highlighting the latest and existing advancements, identifying the knowledge gaps in the applications of biosensors and the IoT, and exploring their opportunities to shape future food packaging, particularly in the context of 21st-century food safety. The review also aims to investigate the role of the IoT in creating smart food ecosystems and examines how data transmitted from biosensors to IoT systems can be stored in cloud-based platforms, in addition to addressing upcoming research challenges. Concerns of data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance in implementing the IoT and biosensors for food packaging are also addressed, along with potential solutions to overcome these barriers.

The massive consumption of fossil fuels and associated environmental issues are leading to an increased interest in alternative resources such as biofuels. The renewable biofuels can be upgraded from bio-oils that are derived from biomass pyrolysis. Catalytic cracking and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) are two of the most promising bio-oil upgrading processes for biofuel production. Heterogeneous catalysts are essential for upgrading bio-oil into hydrocarbon biofuel. Although advances have been achieved, the deactivation and regeneration of catalysts still remains a challenge. This review focuses on the current progress and challenges of heterogeneous catalyst application, deactivation, and regeneration. The technologies of catalysts deactivation, reduction, and regeneration for improving catalyst activity and stability are discussed. Some suggestions for future research including catalyst mechanism, catalyst development, process integration, and biomass modification for the production of hydrocarbon biofuels are provided.

To address the issues of greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuels, vegetable oilseeds, especially non-food oilseeds, are used as an alternative fuel resource. Vegetable oil derived from these oilseeds can be upgraded into hydrocarbon biofuel. Catalytic cracking and hydroprocessing are two of the most promising pathways for converting vegetable oil to hydrocarbon biofuel. Heterogeneous catalysts play a critical role in those processes. The present review summarizes current progresses and remaining challenges of vegetable oil upgrading to biofuel. The catalyst properties, applications, deactivation, and regeneration are reviewed. A comparison of catalysts used in vegetable oil and bio-oil upgrading is also carried out. Some suggestions for heterogeneous catalysts applied in vegetable oil upgrading to improve the yield and quality of hydrocarbon biofuel are provided for further research in the future.

Because there are some similarities in the reaction pathway and feedstock, the success and lessons of catalyst applications in petroleum refinery may help to make a breakthrough in biomass conversion.