While prior reviews have addressed single temperature ranges or isolated applications, this work provides the first unified cross-sectoral benchmarking framework spanning the full cryogenic-to-comfort spectrum (-160°C to +35°C) with charging strategies utilizing off-peak electricity, renewable sources, and waste cold recovery, integrated with techno-economic analysis. This review introduces a PCM Selection Index (PSI) with domain-specific criteria weighting across six sectors, and quantifies the conductivity energy-density trade-off (10-50x enhancement at 15-25% latent heat penalty) that governs all composite designs, the first framework of its kind to make this trade-off explicit and comparable across application domains. Analysis of 294 sources exposes a 15-35% laboratory-to-field performance gap for mature applications and identifies cycling durability beyond 10,000 cycles as the critical unvalidated barrier for building deployment, findings that reframe durability, not material discovery, as the field's principal bottleneck. Across field-validated deployments, PCM-CTES delivers domain-specific performance gains, 15-30% for HVAC load-shifting, up to 56% for envelope integration, 71-91% operating cost reduction in cold-chain transport, and 8-15°C peak temperature reduction in electronics cooling, though no single PCM class performs optimally across domains, underscoring the need for the domain-differentiated selection framework developed here. Future priorities include accelerated-aging protocol standardization with Arrhenius-based lifetime modeling, comprehensive lifecycle assessment, and grid-interactive demand-responsive systems that monetize peak-shaving via time-of-use tariffs.
The contamination of agricultural land with toxic chemicals, such as lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd), has become a major global concern, negatively affecting the ecosystem, public health, and food safety. This review highlights the sources of Pb and Cd into the environment, current knowledge of the severity of Pb and Cd contamination in soil and vegetables, documents their phytotoxicity and human toxicity, and then assesses effective remediation strategies that include phytoremediation, foliar application of nanoparticles, and organic growth hormones. The current study found that the toxicity of Pb and Cd in soils and vegetables from different countries exceeded the WHO permissible limit. For the phytoremediation process, ornamental plants are selected due to their genetic and phenotypic characteristics, as well as their widespread use. Since the sisal plant (Agave sisalana) is a rapidly growing plant that produces a high quantity of biomass, its products never compete with the food chain. Hence, these characteristics make it a suitable choice for phytoremediation of Pb- and Cd-contaminated soil. Furthermore, the fiber derived from sisal’s leaves has the capacity to sequester these toxic metals straight from the contaminated soil. Nanoremediation involves the foliar application of zinc oxide nanoparticles, and moringa leaf extract has been proposed to reduce the uptake of Pb and Cd in plants. However, more research is needed to understand better how the individual and combined effects of these remediation techniques effectively treat Pb- and Cd-contaminated and co-contaminated soil.
Methyl orange (MO), an azo dye broadly employed in textile industry, adversely affects water reservoirs and human health, prompting the need for efficient methods for its elimination. Photodegradation of organic pollutants is an auspicious, eco-friendly technology for wastewater treatment. Herein, an efficient and novel ternary composite comprising g-C3N4/Graphene oxide/CoFe2O4 (CGCo) was synthesized using simple in situ hydrothermal approach for degradation of MO dye. Various characterization tools, including XRD, FTIR, XPS, SEM–EDX, and UV–Vis spectroscopic analyses were utilized to validate effective synthesis of the ternary CGCo composite. The influencing operational parameters, like pH, oxidant dose, photocatalyst dosage, irradiation time, and initial dye concentration (IDC), on photocatalytic degradation were comprehensively examined and elucidated. Novel ternary CGCo composite displays improved photocatalytic performance for MO dye degradation than binary g-C3N4/CoFe2O4 (CCo, 89
Abstract T. molitor is identified as an acceptable sustainable protein source for consumption by animal and human’s feed. This occurs by their high nutritional content and efficient processing of feed into body mass. In this review paper, we discuss vital role of substrate choices in improving T. molitor farming and investigate how many food sources affect T. molitor survival, nutritional composition, and growth. Common substrates like wheat bran and maize flour are under research as well, and fresh ideas include trash from agricultural goods and brewery discarded grains. We explore fully how each substrate affects mealworm output and quality. Study shows that protein, mineral and fat content of mealworms greatly affected by composition of substrate. This highlights ability efficient in manufacturing using affordable, sustainable goods. The most frequently used substrate is wheat bran as its high level of protein supports ideal larvae growth. To boost nutritional content of T. molitor, several substrates such as maize flour, brewery wasted grains, and many agricultural by products have lately become reasonable and ecologically suitable choices. Mealworms’ nutritional makeup directly impacted by the substrates they eat; higher fat substrates cause mealworms to have greater fat content. The goal of this literature review is to determine which substrates work best and provide useful advice to farmers who want to improve mealworm farming methods and support sustainable food systems. Mealworms are a useful tool for tackling issues with food security and sustainability because of their capacity effectively transform organic waste into high quality protein. Farmers may minimize expenses and environmental effects while optimizing production efficiency by adding organic waste and agricultural by products to T. molitor diets.
Colletotrichum karsti has recently been reported as the causal agent of anthracnose in citrus and avocado trees in Hatay province, Turkey. This study investigated the chemical composition and in vitro antifungal activities of essential oils (EOs) from ten different plant species against C. karsti. The chemical constituents of the EOs were analysed by GC–MS, revealing major components characteristic of each species, including carvacrol, thymol, trans-anethole, eucalyptol, linalool, and limonene. The antifungal activity of the EOs in the vapour phase was evaluated against mycelial growth, and effective concentration (EC50) was calculated using Probit analysis. Among the tested EOs, those from Thymbra spicata var. spicata, Origanum syriacum, Thymus serpyllum, Foeniculum vulgare, Aloysia citrodora, Mentha × piperita nothosubsp. piperita 'Aura', and Origanum majorana exhibited the highest antifungal activity, achieving 100
