Chemical engineering • Food processing • Materials • Mechanical Engineering • Nanotechnology
Imagine a close basketball game that comes down to the final shot. The probability of the ball going through the hoop might be fairly low, but it would dramatically increase if the player were afforded the opportunity to shoot it over and over. A similar idea is at play in the scientific field of membrane […]
Chemical engineering • Economics • Food processing • Materials
Authors: Mireia Martín, Life Cycle Thinking Group, Department of Graphic Design and Engineering Projects. University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and Erlantz Lizundia, Life Cycle Thinking Group and BCMaterials One of the consequences of global population growth is an increase in food waste. This is a relevant issue not only in terms of the waste […]
Food waste represents a serious problem associated with today’s society to which a solution should be found. A notable share of the impacts originates from the fishing sector. It hardly results acceptable that, in a world with shrinking food resources, 25% of the total fishing catches end up being discarded as waste. It should be […]
Biotechnology • Food processing • Microbiology • Planetary Science • Plant biology
Could we feed a city on Mars? This question is central to the future of space exploration and has serious repercussions on Earth too. To date, a lot of thought has gone into how astronauts eat; however, we are only beginning to produce food in space. Space launches are quite expensive. And with the growing […]
Fermentation is a form of anaerobic respiration occurring in certain microorganisms, like yeasts. Many processes arising in diverse contexts can be classified as fermentation processes, such as manufacturing of some food products (baking, wine and beer industries are based on them) and of some industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals. Alcoholic fermentation comprises a series of biochemical […]
“ Eat all your food, it can’t be wasted”. How many times have you heard that phrase from your parents? We did not know it, but they were right. Nowadays, a third of the food we generate is wasted. This generates both economic losses (~ $940 billion USD per year) and environmental problems (4.4 Gt […]
You have probably heard before about the origin of the word salary. Indeed, it comes from the allowance that Roman soldiers received to purchase salt. The trace left on the language tells about the importance it had. There is no doubt about the key role salt had for the preservation of food. Analogously, words derived […]
Coffee is one of the most widely consumed drinks in the world. Several brewing methods can be used to prepare it depending on the consumer’s taste – or the lack of it – as well as cultural and geographical habits. My father, for example, had a ritual every time he wanted a coffee. He took […]