Mulch films increase soil temperature, maintain soil moisture, improve water and fertilizer absorption, and reduce weed growth. This work studied a mulching film made using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and lignin extracted from empty fruit bunches (EFBs). The mulch films were investigated for opaqueness, biodegradation, water-solubility, absorption, and mechanical properties. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost estimate analysis were conducted. The composite mulch film-PVA solution was blended with 6% EFB lignin in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution using five different amounts (0, 20, 40, 60, or 80 wt% lignin). The results showed that increasing the amount of lignin increased the film’s water solubility, moisture content, and biodegradability. At the same time, water absorption tended to decrease. Consequently, the light transmittance of the film was reduced, which had a positive effect on preventing soil weed growth. Tests of the mechanical properties showed that 60% lignin in the PVA film had the highest tensile strength (16.293 MPa). According to the LCA studies and cost estimation, the lignin-mixed PVA film had the lowest impact and was cheaper than the commercial mulching film. The results suggested that it is possible to blend polyvinyl alcohol polymer with lignin to improve biodegradability up to 25.47% by soil burial and 32% by water solubility.

Mung bean seed coat (MBC) is a by-product of the mung bean processing industry. It contains a large number of phenolic compounds with therapeutic anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and antioxidant properties. This research aimed to investigate the optimum conditions for phenolic and flavonoid extraction from MBC by pressurized liquid extraction (PLE). Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to study the effects of temperature (80–160 °C), pressure (1200–1800 psi) and ethanol concentration (5–95%) on total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) scavenging activity (ABTS). Scale-up extraction was also performed. The optimum conditions for extraction were 160 °C, 1300 psi and 50% ethanol. Under optimum conditions, the TPC was 55.27 ± 1.14 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g MBC, TFC was 34.04 ± 0.72 mg catechin equivalent (CE)/g MBC and ABTS scavenging activity was 195.05 ± 2.29 mg trolox equivalent (TE)/g MBC. The TFC and ABTS scavenging activity of the extracts obtained at the pilot scale (10 L) was not significantly different from the laboratory scale, while TPC was significantly increased. The freeze-dried MBC extract contained vitexin and isovitexin 130.53 ± 17.89, 21.21 ± 3.22 mg/g extract, respectively. In conclusion, PLE was able to extract phenolics, flavonoids with ABTS scavenging activity from MBC with the prospect for future scale-up for food industry.

Sugarcane trash (SCT) is a promising, underutilized raw material for producing value-added bio-based materials. Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) production conditions were obtained from the experiment. On the other hand, bioethanol production conditions were retrieved from the secondary data. This study compared the environmental impact of SCT in NCC production to that of bioethanol. For NCC production, SCT was subjected to organosolv pretreatment (140, 160, or 180 °C) in a mixed solvent system (methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), ethanol, and water), bleached, and then hydrolyzed with different concentrations of sulfuric acid (50 and 58%) for varying times. Organosolv pretreatment at 180 °C removed 98.24 and 81.15% of the hemicellulose and lignin, respectively, resulting in 73.51 and 79.72% cellulose purity and recovery. In addition, bleaching increased the cellulose purity to 95.42%. Field Emission Transmission Electron Microscopy (FE-TEM) analysis showed that NCC’s small 2:1 elliptical particles were found at the hydrolysis of 50% H₂SO₄ for 45 min. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern revealed 70% crystalline index values for NCC obtained from 50% H₂SO₄ with 45 min retention times. Then, the optimum conditions of NCC production were used for LCA analysis (Sigmapro software). The analysis included global warming, marine ecotoxicity, fresh water, and human carcinogenic toxicity. NCC production’s electricity consumption (freeze-dried step) was the highest environmental impact on LCA analysis.