Developing countries are facing challenges due to rapid urbanization and insufficient sanitation facilities. However, valorizing treated fecal sludge as a fuel source presents an opportunity to recover energy and mitigate environmental impacts. This experimental study aimed to produce low-cost biofuel from dried fecal sludge and enhance its energy efficiency by incorporating locally available organic matters. Various organic materials like rice husk, cow dung, sawdust, and coal were carbonized and mixed with the sludge to enhance calorific value. Eight sludge and organic matter mixtures were formed into briquettes. The blend of 50% sludge and 50% coal yielded the highest calorific value of 14618 KJ/kg and a boiling time of 14 minutes. The second-highest result was for 50% sludge and 50% cow dung, with a calorific value of 14427 KJ/kg and a boiling time of 23 minutes. The study found that blending sludge with organic materials enhances energy output. Briquettes with 50% sludge and 50% coal cost 19.87 BDT/kg, while those with 50% sludge and 50% cow dung cost 14.37 BDT/kg, proving more economical. The latter blend emerged as the most efficient and cost-effective biofuel, offering a sustainable eco-friendly solution for Bangladesh's rural energy market.

With the aquaculture industry's growth comes an increased demand for fishmeal, leading to overfishing and rising prices. Spirulina, a microalga rich in protein and essential nutrients, is proposed as an alternative protein source research in the diet of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, a major aquaculture species. This study investigates the effect of replacing fishmeal with spirulina at a higher percentage than in previous studies. The formulated diets containing 0%, 30%, and 50% spirulina were tested over a 58-day period to determine the effect on growth, survival, and proximate composition on Nile tilapia. Results showed that replacing fishmeal with spirulina at both 30% and 50% levels did not negatively affect growth or survival rates. Water quality parameters remained within optimal ranges throughout the experiment, indicating that spirulina inclusion did not adversely affect water quality. Proximate analysis of the fish muscle revealed no significant differences in crude protein content but fish fed 30% spirulina had higher crude fat content. Overall, the study concludes that spirulina can replace fishmeal up to 50% without negative effect on the growth, survival and proximate composition of Nile tilapia.

Pesticides have considerably increased agricultural output, but their overuse presents serious threats to human health, food safety, and the environment. Alarmingly, only around 1% of pesticides used reach their intended pests, with the remainder polluting soil, water, and air. This causes broad environmental contamination and negative consequences on non-target animals, including people. Top pesticide-consuming countries, including China, the United States, and Brazil, confront considerable issues due to residual pesticide buildup. Recent biotechnology developments provide intriguing pesticide mitigation strategies. Engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains have developed as very efficient bioremediation agents. These genetically engineered microbes are intended to convert hazardous chemicals into harmless metabolites. E. coli strains are tailored for increased expression of pesticide-degrading genes using modern genetic and metabolic engineering, dramatically enhancing their ability to break down hazardous chemicals. Studies have shown that modified E. coli may degrade persistent pesticides such as Paraoxon and p-nitrophenol (PNP), turning them to harmless molecules. These bacteria may reach great densities, making them ideal for large-scale detoxifying operations. Furthermore, recombinant DNA technology enables the development of E. coli strains with several copies of degradation genes, which improves their bioremediation capacities. Despite these advances, obstacles persist, including biosafety issues and the need for regulatory supervision. Ongoing research is critical for addressing these concerns and developing safer, more sustainable agriculture techniques. Engineered E. coli strains represent a substantial advancement in pesticide mitigation, providing a feasible approach for reducing environmental pollution and protecting human health.

Biosurfactants produced by native microorganisms have excellent surface activity and ideal environmental compatibility, and the mining of the biosurfactant-producing strains has become a key focus in the field of applied and environmental biotechnology. In this paper, we report a new lipopeptide-producing strain isolated from the production water of Daqing oilfield in China and identified as Bacillus Subtilis R1-2 based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. A combination of ESI-MS and FT-IR analyses revealed that the strain R1-2 produced the surfactin family containing four members of the C₁₂-surfactin, C₁₃-surfactin, C₁₄-surfactin and C₁₅-surfactin, which is a representative family of the lipopeptide biosurfactants. The lipopeptide biosurfactant produced by the strain R1-2 exhibits excellent surface activity and good thermal stability over a temperature range between 20 °C and 100 °C and pH range between 3 and 14, and has a strong salt tolerance to NaCl concentration up to 140 g/L. In addition, the lipopeptide biosurfactant demonstrates significant properties in changing the contact angles of oil reservoir core slices from 86.2° to 39.0° and the wettability from strong oil-wet to strong water-wet, and therefore, resulted in a good oil removing ability with an efficiency of 64.84%, suggesting that the lipopeptide-producing strain R1-2 is promising in applications in environmental bioremediation and enhanced oil recovery.

Review article is a unique and an important category of publication serving the scientific community, but the recent trend of a rapid increase of such articles published in different journals is alarming because majority of them fail to contribute to the science and its development to a significant extent by providing new elements. Requirements of authors contributing to any review articles include prior direct working experience and understanding of the subject matter to significant level. The article contents shall be a collection of published papers first, and then more on evaluation and synthesis of the available literature. In addition, both problems and opportunities together with future directions of the research subject shall be offered to foster the future development. Unfortunately, many of the recent published ones have some level of coverage superficially, but clearly fail to provide insightful information for science in a significant and important way to make a substantial contribution to the research advancement.