Search results for "PROCESS INTENSIFICATION"

PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOPOLYMERIC POROUS STRUCTURES FOR ADVANCED APPLICATIONS

Porous biopolymers received an increasing academic and industrial interest finding application in several fields such as tissue engineering, bioprocess intensification and waste removal. Tissue engineering combines the knowledge of materials science and bioengineering in order to develop structures able to substitute and restore the normal function of injured or diseased tissues. In this context, polymeric 3D or 2D scaffolds are widely investigated as temporary cell guidance during the tissue restore. Porous biomaterials can offer a versatile and cost effective way for immobilization of filamentous microorganisms in submerged fermentation processes for the production of biologically active …

Pervaporation membrane reactors

2013

Pervaporation is a peculiar membrane separation process which is now considered for the integration with some types of reactions in new promising and interesting applications. Indeed, pervaporation membrane reactors are suitable to some specific utilizations also in sustainable chemistry, which is an area currently characterized by a growing interest. The fundamentals of this type of membrane reactors are presented and the advantages and the difficulties in many applications are discussed and reviewed with particular attention to the opportunities for future developments.

Features and application of coupled cold plasma and photocatalysis processes for decontamination of water

2020

Dielectric barrier discharge plasma and photocatalysis have been proposed as tools for decontamination of process water, especially in food industry. The present investigation aims to redefine and identify the features of coupling the two technologies in terms of degradation efficiency of a model compound. Results show that, when the process is carried out in plasma activated water in the presence of irradiated TiO2, the efficiency of the integrated process is lower than the sum of the two processes acting separately. It is proposed that afterglow species, e.g. hydrogen peroxide and/or peroxynitrites could be activated by UVA light irradiation producing hydroxyl radicals in the liquid phase…

Improvement of membrane performances to enhance the yield of vanillin in a pervaporation reactor.

2014

In membrane reactors, the interaction of reaction and membrane separation can be exploited to achieve a “process intensification”, a key objective of sustainable development. In the present work, the properties that the membrane must have to obtain this result in a pervaporation reactor are analyzed and discussed. Then, the methods to enhance these properties are investigated for the photocatalytic synthesis of vanillin, which represents a case where the recovery from the reactor of vanillin by means of pervaporation while it is produced allows a substantial improvement of the yield, since its further oxidation is thus prevented. To this end, the phenomena that control the permeation of bot…

A PERVAPORATION PHOTOCATALYTIC REACTOR FOR THE GREEN SYNTHESIS OF VANILLIN

2012

Abstract Pervaporation is the ideal membrane separation process to be coupled with photocatalysis for the green synthesis of vanillin from ferulic acid. In fact the operative conditions of the two processes are absolutely congruent and the integration is straightforward even operating with separate equipments. The utilization of a highly selective membrane allows the continuous recovery of vanillin by pervaporation from the reacting solution, so that its oxidative degradation is largely avoided and the yield is substantially enhanced. The effects of the main parameters are analyzed resorting to a mathematical model, which is validated by a comparison with the experimental data. In particula…

System Design Rules for Intensifying the Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 to CO on Ag Nanoparticles

2020

Electroreduction of CO2 (eCO2RR) is a potentially sustainable approach for carbon-based chemical production. Despite significant progress, performing eCO2RR economically at scale is challenging. Here we report meeting key technoeconomic benchmarks simultaneously through electrolyte engineering and process optimization. A systematic flow electrolysis study - performing eCO2RR to CO on Ag nanoparticles as a function of electrolyte composition (cations, anions), electrolyte concentration, electrolyte flow rate, cathode catalyst loading, and CO2 flow rate - resulted in partial current densities of 417 and 866 mA/cm2 with faradaic efficiencies of 100 and 98 % at cell potentials of −2.5 and −3.0 …

Photocatalytic process intensification by coupling with pervaporation

2011

The integration of photocatalysis with a membrane separation process, in particular pervaporation, permits the recovery of valuable intermediate compounds (aromatic aldehydes) while they are produced avoiding their further degradation in the reactive ambient. In this way the yield and the conversion are enhanced. The coupling of the two processes is straightforward and the integration is complete even maintaining pervaporation and photocatalysis in two separate apparatuses provided that the process stream is continuously recycled at a sufficiently high flow rate. Additional advantages are: higher degree of purification of the aldehyde in the powder-free product stream, semicontinuous produc…

Photocatalytic ozonation:Maximization of the reaction rate and control of undesired by-products

2014

In theso-calledphotocatalyticozonation(PO)synergisticeffectsbetweenphotocatalysisandozonation enhance therateofoxidationoforganiccompounds,thereforethisintegratedprocessisverypromising for useinwatertreatment.Inthepresentwork,itisdemonstratedthattheimprovementthatcanbe obtained bytheintegratedprocessincomparisonwiththeuncoupledprocessesdependsontherelative weight between photocatalysis and ozonation. In this respect, it has been found that a relatively low rate of photocatalysis (0.3 times the rate of ozonation)issufficienttogetthehighestsynergyandtomaximize the performancesintheoxidationofformate,theadoptedmodelorganiccompound.Thebenefitsof the couplingofphotocatalysistoozonationarenotlimi…

Modelling and cost analysis of hybrid systems for seawater desalination: Electromembrane pre-treatments for Reverse Osmosis

2019

Abstract The need to reduce energy consumption in seawater Reverse Osmosis (RO) process has pushed research towards the development of new hybrid systems in which, for example, other membrane processes can be used to pre-treat seawater. Electrodialysis (ED) and Reverse Electrodialysis (RED) can act as a pre-desalting step before seawater enters the RO unit, thus leading to an important energy saving in RO. In this work, two coupled models are proposed for the RED-RO and ED-RO systems. Each process model was validated. Then a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the effect of the integration on the overall process cost saving. The analysis was performed by changing ED or RED voltage …

Electrodialysis with Bipolar Membranes for the Sustainable Production of Chemicals from Seawater Brines at Pilot Plant Scale

2023

Environmental concerns regarding the disposal of seawater reverse osmosis brines require the development of new valorization strategies. Electrodialysis with bipolar membrane (EDBM) technology enables the production of acid and base from a salty waste stream. In this study, an EDBM pilot plant with a membrane area of 19.2 m2 was tested. This total membrane area results much larger (i.e., more than 16 times larger) than those reported in the literature so far for the production of HCl and NaOH aqueous solutions, starting from NaCl brines. The pilot unit was tested both in continuous and discontinuous operation modes, at different current densities (200-500 A m-2). Particularly, three differe…