Agricultural waste can be recycled in different ways. Cost-effectiveness is important information for investment decision-making of enterprises and policy-making of government to choose a profitable way to recycle agricultural waste. Therefore, this paper aims to present a cost-benefit analysis to assess and compare the cost-effectiveness between feasible recycling methods, and further propose cost-effective ways for recycling agricultural waste in Taiwan. Three recycling types of agricultural wastes, namely, composting, biogas power generation and biomass fuel are selected for cost-benefit analysis based on related regulations and policy supports of agricultural waste management in Taiwan. Primary data collected by sampling surveys conducted in 2018 supplemented by secondary data from national statistics are used for this study. Study results show that all three recycling types of agricultural wastes discussed in this study are profitable under corresponding economic conditions in 2018 with benefit/cost ratio greater than 1 and positive net present value; as expected, the cost-effectiveness of agricultural waste recycling varies depending on the recycling types, composition of input materials, and economic scales. Mixing chicken manure with other agricultural wastes for composting and using rice straw to make biomass fuel rods are estimated to have higher cost-effectiveness; livestock farms with small farming scale have relatively low biogas energy recovery efficiency; the cost-effectiveness of biogas power generation highly depends on fixed-in tariffs (FITs). Results imply that policy support for establishing co-processing centers of agricultural waste and differentiated FITs would be good measures to stimulate recycling efficiency of agricultural waste in Taiwan.A comparative study was conducted on the pyrolysis of sewage sludge in tube reactors heated by electromagnetic induction (EMI) and conventional electrical resistance furnace (ERF). A minimal effect of pyrolysis temperature and initial moisture content on the distribution of pyrolytic products was obtained. Compared with the counterpart from ERF pyrolysis, the bio-char from EMI pyrolysis exhibited less ash content (46.38 wt%) and higher organic matter content (53.62 wt%). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/diabzi-sting-agonist-compound-3.html SEM and FTIR test showed similar microstructure characterizations in the two bio-chars. The specific area of bio-char from EMI pyrolysis was 8.6 m2/g. EMI pyrolysis increased the total content of aliphatic/aromatics in the bio-oil from 10.8 wt% to 15.6 wt% and the hydrogen/carbon monoxide in the bio-gas from 33.8 vol% to 41.1 vol% because of possible cracking and reforming reactions. Increased sulfur content in the bio-oil and decreased hazard gas content (such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide) in the bio-gas were obtained during EMI pyrolysis. The actual energy consumption for EMI and ERF pyrolysis were 4.62 MJ/kg and 6.65 MJ/kg. Increasing the feedstock content would reduce the energy consumption unit energy consumption. Less system energy loss during EMI pyrolysis might explain the higher energy recovery from EMI pyrolysis than that from ERF. Despite some disadvantages, EMI pyrolysis shows potential in real-plant applications.Pyrolysis coupled to either thermal or catalytic cracking of mattress foam waste was performed in a laboratory-scale facility consisting of a fixed-bed reactor joined to a tubular cracking reactor. The results showed a great potential for the production of syngas specially at high cracking temperatures. Particularly, fixing 800 °C in the cracking reactor, a CO and CH4 rich gas with a remarkable amount of H2 was obtained. The addition of catalysts (dolomite, olivine or HiFUEL®) significantly decreased undesirable tar formation, (below 10 wt%), simultaneously increasing the gas yield and keeping CO and CH4 as the main components in the stream, becoming a preferable route that the non-catalytic process. Accordingly, this stream could be used preferably for further applications in energy generation because its heating value ranged between 15.7 MJ/Nm3 and 19.6 MJ/Nm3. In particular, the gas obtained by the use of dolomite could be advantageous for the production of organic compounds such as dimethyl ether (DME) as well as its use an engine or boiler to generate electricity in small facilities. In addition, the solid fraction obtained after de process could be used as a medium quality refused derived fuel (LHV ~ 12 MJ/kg) in order to support the internal energy requirements of the process.Urban parks and gardens green waste constitute a low-cost and highly available lignocellulosic-rich resource, that is currently treated in composting or anaerobic digestion processes. The present work investigated for the first time the potential of using urban green waste as raw resource for the production of lignocellulosic fillers by dry fractionation (combination of sorting and grinding processes). Five fractions of lignocellulosic fillers with controlled composition were produced a branches-rich fraction, a grasses-rich fraction, a leaves-rich fraction, and two fractions constituted of a mixture of constituents. All the fractions were ground to reach an average median diameter around 100 μm. The reinforcing effect of each fraction was investigated and compared to that of the sample as a whole. Biocomposites based on a poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) as matrix were produced by melt extrusion, with filler contents up to 30 wt%. It was shown that the branches-rich fraction displayed the best reinforcing effect (e.g. stress at break of 37 ± 1 MPa for a filler content of 15 wt%, similar to that of the neat matrix) whereas the grasses-rich fraction slightly degraded the overall mechanical performance (e.g. stress at break of 33.5 ± 1.5 MPa for a filler content of 15 wt%). The dry fractionation and formulation steps could be thus adapted depending on the targeted application, e.g. by choosing to use the whole urban green waste resource, or to remove grasses, or to keep only branches.On occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Hermann von Helmholtz the article presents a historical review on the development of audiology over the past two centuries. Modern audiology is considered to be a multidisciplinary field addressing clinical work and research on all aspects of hearing impairment, particularly prevention/protection, diagnostics and treatment of hearing problems as well as rehabilitation of patients with any degree of hearing loss. To cover all these subjects comprehensively would go beyond the scope of a journal article. Therefore, the review focuses on two of these domains, namely hearing research and diagnostic procedures as representatives for the other areas of audiology being equally important. The paper concludes with a brief look into the development of the organizational structures of audiology and a summary.