Pervaporation-based hybrid process: a review of process design,applications and economics

Pervaporation is one of the developing membrane technologies that can be used for various industrial applications but for a predefined task, the optimal process design is unlikely to consist solely of pervaporation. Often the optimised solution becomes a hybrid process combining pervaporation with one or more other separation technologies. A distinction will be made between hybrid and integrated processes. Hybrid processes are important and consequently need to be considered in process design. This paper focuses on pervaporation–based hybrid processes that have been realised on an industrial scale. Both present and future prospects of applying these process combinations will be reviewed. The emphasis of this paper is, therefore, on pervaporation combined with distillation and with chemical reactors. The economic potential of these hybrid processes is evaluated, for various applications, by cost comparisons between the pervaporation-based hybrid processes and alternative separation processes. Pervaporation-based processes for waste water treatment and biotechnology applications involve other types of pervaporation based hybrid processes and have been excluded from this review.     

亲和色谱纯化蛋白质新进展

通过对３５篇文献的综述,介绍了亲和色谱技术的新进展     

Metabolic engineering is key to a sustainable chemical industry

The depletion of fossil fuel stocks will prohibit their use as the main feedstock of future industrial processes. Biocatalysis is being increasingly used to reduce fossil fuel reliance and to improve the sustainability, efficiency and cost of chemical production. Even with their current small market share, biocatalyzed processes already generate approximately US$50 billion and it has been estimated that they could be used to produce up to 20% of fine chemicals by 2020. Until the advent of molecular biological technologies, the compounds that were readily accessible from renewable biomass were restricted to naturally-occurring metabolites. However, metabolic engineering has considerably broadened the range of compounds now accessible, providing access to compounds that cannot be otherwise reliably sourced, as well as replacing established chemical processes. This review presents the case for continued efforts to promote the adoption of biocatalyzed processes, highlighting successful examples of industrial chemical production from biomass and/or via biocatalyzed processes. A selection of emerging technologies that may further extend the potential and sustainability of biocatalysis are also presented. As the field matures, metabolic engineering will be increasingly crucial in maintaining our quality of life into a future where our current resources and feedstocks cannot be relied upon.     

Enantiomers separation by capillary electrochromatography using polysaccharide‐based stationary phases

The separation of chiral compounds is an interesting and important topic of research because these compounds are involved in some biological processes, fundamentally in human health. Among the various application fields where enantiomers are remarkable, drug analysis has to be considered. Most of the drugs contain enantiomers and very often one of the two isomers could be pharmacologically more active or even dangerous. Therefore, the separation of these compounds is very important. Among the different analytical techniques usually employed, capillary electrochromatography has demonstrated great capability in enantiomers resolution. The great potential of this electromigration technique stands mainly in its high efficiency due to the use of an electrosmotic flow (flat flow profile) and on the high selectivity because of the use of a stationary phase. Chiral separation can be obtained utilizing several chiral stationary phases including a polysaccharide derivative. The aim of this review paper is to summarize the main features of capillary electrochromatography and polysaccharide derivatives of chiral stationary phase. It also report examples of practical applications utilizing this approach.     

Pushing the limits on possibilities for large scale gas separation: which strategies?

Opportunities abound to extend membrane markets for gas and vapor separations; however, the existing membrane materials, membrane structures and formation processes are inadequate to fully exploit these opportunities. The requirements for viability of membranes vary somewhat with each application. Nevertheless, the key requirements of durability, productivity and separation efficiency must be balanced against cost in all cases. The various ‘contender’ technologies for large scale gas separation membrane applications and the gas transport mechanisms are considered. The current spectrum of applications of gas separation membranes include; nitrogen enrichment, oxygen enrichment, hydrogen recovery, acid gas CO₂, H₂S removal from natural gas and dehydration of air and natural gas. The current status and the limitations faced by the available membrane materials for each of these applications are discussed. Two key technical challenges exist. Achieving higher permselectivity for the relevant application with at least equivalent productivity is the first of these challenges. Maintaining these properties in the presence of complex and aggressive feeds is the second challenge. Attractive avenues to overcome these challenges for each application will be presented. Finally, several new membrane applications with immense potential (e.g. fuel cells and olefin-paraffin separations) are discussed.     

Evaluation of Target Efficiencies for Solid–Liquid Separation Steps in Biofuels Production

Development of liquid biofuels has entered a new phase of large scale pilot demonstration. A number of plants that are in operation or under construction face the task of addressing the engineering challenges of creating a viable plant design, scaling up and optimizing various unit operations. It is well-known that separation technologies account for 50–70% of both capital and operating cost. Additionally, reduction of environmental impact creates technological challenges that increase project cost without adding to the bottom line. Different technologies vary in terms of selection of unit operations; however, solid–liquid separations are likely to be a major contributor to the overall project cost. Despite the differences in pretreatment approaches, similar challenges arise for solid–liquid separation unit operations. A typical process for ethanol production from biomass includes several solid–liquid separation steps, depending on which particular stream is targeted for downstream processing. The nature of biomass-derived materials makes it either difficult or uneconomical to accomplish complete separation in a single step. Therefore, setting realistic efficiency targets for solid–liquid separations is an important task that influences overall process recovery and economics. Experimental data will be presented showing typical characteristics for pretreated cane bagasse at various stages of processing into cellulosic ethanol. Results of generic material balance calculations will be presented to illustrate the influence of separation target efficiencies on overall process recoveries and characteristics of waste streams.     

Chemical separation activities in environmental management at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Besides a brief review of the INEEL, examples of chemical separation activities in environmental management are presented in this paper. Under development at the INEEL are separation technologies for the treatment of radioactive wastes, including highly radioactive liquid wastes, solid calcined wastes and mixed wastes, as well as contaminated groundwater and soils. An overview of these technologies, specific applications of the technologies, and the benefits from their use are discussed.     

Recent advances in polyhydroxyalkanoate production by mixed aerobic cultures: from the substrate to the final product

Numerous bacteria have been found to exhibit the capacity for intracellular polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) accumulation. Current methods for PHA production at the industrial scale are based on their synthesis from microbial isolates in either their wild form or by recombinant strains. High production costs are associated with these methods; thus, attempts have been made to develop more cost-effective processes. Reducing the cost of the carbon substrates (e.g., through feeding renewable wastes) and increasing the efficiency of production technologies (including both fermentation and downstream extraction and recovery) are two such examples of these attempts. PHA production processes based on mixed microbial cultures are being investigated as a possible technology to decrease production costs, since no sterilization is required and bacteria can adapt quite well to the complex substrates that may be present in waste material. PHA accumulation by mixed cultures has been found under various operational conditions and configurations at both bench-scale and full-scale production. The process known as "feast and famine" or as "aerobic dynamic feeding" seems to have a high potential for PHA production by mixed cultures. Enriched cultures submitted to a transient carbon supply can synthesize PHA at levels comparable to those of pure cultures. Indeed, the intracellular PHA content can reach around 70% of the cell dry weight, suggesting that this process could be competitive with pure culture PHA production when fully developed. Basic and applied research of the PHA production process by mixed cultures has been carried out in the past decade, focusing on areas such as microbial characterization, process configuration, reactor operational strategies, process modeling and control, and polymer characterization. This paper presents a review of the PHA production process with mixed cultures, encompassing the findings reported in the literature as well as our own experimental results in relation to each of these areas.     

Carbon dioxide capture-related gas adsorption and separation in metal-organic frameworks

Reducing anthropogenic CO₂ emission and lowering the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has quickly become one of the most urgent environmental issues of our age. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one option for reducing these harmful CO₂ emissions. While a variety of technologies and methods have been developed, the separation of CO₂ from gas streams is still a critical issue. Apart from establishing new techniques, the exploration of capture materials with high separation performance and low capital cost are of paramount importance. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a new class of crystalline porous materials constructed by metal-containing nodes bonded to organic bridging ligands hold great potential as adsorbents or membrane materials in gas separation. In this paper, we review the research progress (from experimental results to molecular simulations) in MOFs for CO₂ adsorption, storage, and separations (adsorptive separation and membrane-based separation) that are directly related to CO₂ capture.     

Separations Through Reactions and other Novel Strategies

Abstract

Separation processes are essential to virtually all manufacturing processes. Literally, thousands of products are fractionated to the desired purity by different separation techniques. These techniques play a pivotal role in industry due to high associated capital and operating costs. Frequently, the cost of the separations constitute a major part of the economics of the plant. There is an ever increasing emphasis on improving the quality of industrial products and it is not uncommon to find impurities specified at ppm level and some cases even at ppb level. There is demand on reducing capital and running costs and make separation processes safer, reliable and more selective.     

轻质油品非加氢脱硫技术*

日益严格的环保法规,对生产低硫、超低硫清洁油品技术提出了更高的要求。传统的加氢脱硫技术存在投资大、运行成本高等问题,因此开发成本低、操作条件温和的非加氢脱硫技术成为一种趋势。本文综述了目前轻质油品非加氢脱硫的相关技术,主要包括氧化脱硫、吸附脱硫和生物脱硫等技术的研究进展;简要介绍了萃取脱硫、络合脱硫、催化裂化脱硫、烷基化脱硫、膜分离脱硫及离子液体脱硫等技术;同时对轻质油品非加氢脱硫技术的应用前景进行了展望。     

The Use of Dual Cyclodextrin Chiral Selector Systems in the Enantioseparation of Pharmaceuticals by Capillary Electrophoresis: An Overview

Cyclodextrin (CD) derivatives are the most efficient and frequently used chiral selectors (CSs) in capillary electrophoresis (CE). There are situations when the use of a single CD as CS is not enough to obtain efficient chiral discrimination of the enantiomers; in these cases, sometimes this problem can be resolved using a dual CD system. The use of dual CD systems can often dramatically enhance enantioseparation selectivity and can be applied for the separation of many analytes of pharmaceutical interest for which enantioseparation by CE with another CS systems can be problematic. Usually in a dual CD system an anionic CD is used together with a neutral one, but there are situations when the use of a cationic CD with a neutral one or the use of two neutral CDs or even two ionized CDs can be an efficient solution. In the current review we present general aspects of the use of dual CD systems in the analysis of pharmaceutical substances. Several examples of applications of the use of dual CD systems in the analysis of pharmaceuticals are selected and discussed. Theoretical aspects regarding the separation of enantiomers through simultaneous interaction with the two CSs are also explained. Finally, advantages, disadvantages, potential and new direction in this chiral analysis field are highlighted.     

分离技术在新型冠状病毒研究和防疫检测中的应用

新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19)疫情的爆发给世界公共卫生安全带来前所未有的挑战。随着新型冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)相关研究的不断深入,众多分析检测技术相继被应用,推动了病毒检测、疫苗和创新疗法的研发,从而使疫情早日得到控制。分离技术作为生命科学、医学、药学领域的关键技术,操作简单,分离效率高,选择性强,在新型冠状病毒的分离、检测、诊疗及防疫中起到不可替代的作用。该文以SARS-CoV-2或COVID-19为关键词在ISI Web of Science中进行主题检索,归纳了2020年度新型冠状病毒相关的研究论文,简要介绍主要的研究方向,并对国际顶级学术期刊Nature, Science, Cell的论文发表情况进行了统计。通过检索影响因子较高的期刊,综述了新型冠状病毒研究中主要应用的分离技术,并从亲和色谱和尺寸排阻色谱、液相色谱、磁珠分离、离心、微纳分离以及电泳6个方面进行说明。综述统计了亲和色谱和尺寸排阻色谱纯化的病毒相关蛋白,并介绍了其在新型冠状病毒传播、感染机制以及药物筛选中的应用;介绍了液相色谱对病毒候选药物评估以及复杂基质中单一成分的鉴定;介绍了磁珠分离在细胞分离、核酸提取和免疫学检测中的应用;介绍了离心对病毒颗粒、细胞以及血清的分离;介绍了微纳分离结合其他技术以实现病毒蛋白的高灵敏检测;简要介绍了电泳在聚合酶链式反应(PCR)产物分析中的应用。该文综述了2020年度新型冠状病毒研究和防疫检测中分离技术的应用情况,分析了分离技术在新型冠状病毒检测中发挥的作用,旨在为从事分离研究的科研工作者提供一些参考。     

分子印迹聚合物在毛细管电色谱拆分手性药物中的研究进展

手性药物通过与生物体内生物大分子之间的手性匹配与分子识别来发挥药理作用。两个对映体与体内手性环境相互作用的不同导致每个对映体表现出不同的药理活性、代谢过程、代谢速率及毒性等药代动力学特征。因此发展手性药物的拆分方法,对于手性药物的开发和生产过程的质量监控具有重要意义。分子印迹聚合物（MIPs）是以目标分子作为模板而制备的高分子聚合物,它具有特定的空间分子结构和官能团,对目标分子具有高度的特异性识别能力。基于该特点,MIPs非常适合于手性药物的拆分和纯化。毛细管电色谱（CEC）可同时基于毛细管电泳和液相色谱的分离机理对目标物进行分离,因此具有高分离效率和高选择性的特点。将MIPs材料作为CEC的固定相,可将这两种技术的优势结合,从而实现对手性药物的高效拆分。MIPs材料在1994年首次应用于CEC手性拆分,此后该研究领域开始获得关注和发展。MIPs材料主要通过4种模式在CEC中实现手性拆分,分别是作为开管柱、填充柱和整体柱的固定相以及分离介质中的准固定相。该综述以这4种模式作为分类基准,根据MIPs制备所需的材料和分离对象对其在CEC手性拆分中的应用进行了总结,揭示了MIPs在CEC手性拆分中的潜力,同时评述了这4种模式各自的优势与不足,并对将来MIPs在CEC手性拆分中的发展进行了展望。     

Molecular Mechanisms behind Acetylene Adsorption and Selectivity in Functional Porous Materials

Since its first industrial production in 1890s, acetylene has played a vital role in manufacturing a wide spectrum of materials. Although current methods and infrastructures for various segments of acetylene industries are well-established, with emerging functional porous materials that enabled desired selectivity toward target molecules, it is of timely interest to develop new efficient technologies to promote safer acetylene processes with a higher energy efficiency and lower carbon footprint. In this Minireview, we, from the perspective of materials chemistry, review state-of-the-art examples of advanced porous materials, namely metal–organic frameworks and decorated zeolites, that have been applied to the purification and storage of acetylene. We also discuss the challenges on the roadmap of translational research in the development of new solid sorbent-based separation technologies and highlight areas which require future research efforts.     

Voltammetric measurement of arsenic in natural waters

There are several U.S. EPA approved methodologies for the determination of arsenic in ground water. Such technologies are lab-based, time intensive and can lead to a large capital cost for multi-sample analysis. In light of the number of sites found to contain arsenic at levels higher than the maximum contaminant level (MCL), on-site screening and monitoring systems are an attractive alternative. This review article summarizes several examples in the recent literature to illustrate the breadth of work in voltammetric analysis of arsenic in environmental samples. Also, included are recent voltammetric results, obtained with a microfabricated gold array and a field portable potentiostat, at an arsenic contaminated site in southern New Jersey.     

Sorting biomolecules with microdevices

Micro- and nanofabrication techniques have provided an unprecedented opportunity to create a designed world in which separation and fractionation technologies which normally occur on the macroscopic scale can be optimized by designing structures which utilize the basic physics of the process, or new processes can be realized by building structures which normally do not exist without external design. Since microfabrication is exceedingly sophisticated in its development, it is possible to design and construct highly creative microdevices which allow one to probe specific aspects of biological objects. We give examples of uses of micro- and nanofabrication which, as opposed to simply shrinking the size of the vessels or tubes used in macroscopic lab environments, utilize our understanding of the physics of the process to take advantage of fabrication technologies.     

Cascade reactions in total synthesis

The design and implementation of cascade reactions is a challenging facet of organic chemistry, yet one that can impart striking novelty, elegance, and efficiency to synthetic strategies. The application of cascade reactions to natural products synthesis represents a particularly demanding task, but the results can be both stunning and instructive. This Review highlights selected examples of cascade reactions in total synthesis, with particular emphasis on recent applications therein. The examples discussed herein illustrate the power of these processes in the construction of complex molecules and underscore their future potential in chemical synthesis.     

Capillary electrokinetic separation techniques for profiling of drugs and related products

Capillary electrokinetic separation techniques offer high efficiency and peak capacity, and can be very useful for the analysis of samples containing a large variety of (unknown) compounds. Such samples are frequently met in impurity profiling of drugs (detection of potential impurities in a pharmaceutical substance or product) and in general sample profiling (determination of differences or similarities between samples). In this paper, the potential, merits, and limitations of electrokinetic separation techniques for profiling purposes are evaluated using examples from literature. A distinction is made between impurity profiling, forensic profiling and profiling of natural products, and the application of capillary zone electrophoresis, micellar electrokinetic chromatography, and capillary electrochromatography in these fields is discussed. Attention is devoted to important aspects such as selectivity, resolution enhancement, applicability, detection, and compound confirmation and quantification. The specific properties of the various electrokinetic techniques are discussed and compared with more conventional techniques as liquid chromatography.     

现代煤气化技术的开发与进展

评述了现代煤气化技术开发现状，对加压固定床气化，流化床气化，水煤浆气流床气化和干粉气流床气化典型代表技术的发展进行分析。结合热力学和动力学分析提出了未来煤气化技术发展的原则。鉴于目前制氧成本仍然是制约煤气化技术发展的最大因素，认为一方面应加速高效廉价的大规模制氧技术的开发，另一方面要注重氧耗低的气化技术的开发，重视过程集成概念和技术经济的优化。理论分析和已有研究表明粉煤/块煤双粒级进料液态排渣固定床气化、两段（多段）进料干粉气流床气化、流化床部分气化与气流床气化或CFB燃烧集成技术具有各自特点和良好的发展前景。