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Octane and p-xylene are common components in crude gasoline, so their separation process is very important in petroleum industry. The azeotrope and near azeotrope are often separated by extractive distillation in industry, which can realize the recovery and utilization of resources. In this work, the vapor-liquid equilibrium experiment was used to obtain the vapor-liquid equilibrium properties of the difficult separation system, and on this basis, the solvent extraction mechanism was studied. The mechanism of solvent separation plays a guiding role in selecting suitable solvents for industrial separation. The interaction energy, bond length and charge density distribution of p-xylene with solvent are calculated by quantum chemistry method. The quantum chemistry calculation results and experiment results showed that N-Formylmorpholine is the best solvent among the alternative solvents in the work. This work provides an effective and complete solvent screening process from phase equilibrium experiments to quantum chemical calculation. An extractive distillation simulation process with N-Formylmorpholine as solvent is designed to separate octane and p-xylene. In addition, the feasibility and effectiveness of the intensified vapor recompression assisted extraction distillation are also discussed. In the extractive distillation process, the vapor recompression-assisted extraction distillation process is globally optimal. Compared with basic process, the total annual cost can be reduced by 43.2 %. This study provides theoretical guidance for extractive distillation separation technology and solvent selection.

Renewable solid sorbents for CO2 capture and storage have shown great potentials for the sake of gaseous separation, tail gas treatment, environmental regulation and climate governance. However, current existed preparation and reusability of solid sorbents are generally subject to high energy consumption and complicated procedure. Herein, a light-controlled CO2 separation system with high working temperature resulting from natural sawdust combined with polyethyleneimine is fabricated, which involves low energy input and few operating sequences. This system shows a direct and ratiometric response to sunlight illumination by which CO2 can be reversibly adsorbed and released. This light-controlled CO2 separation process is prospective to become an attractive alternative to traditional alkaline CO2 collection method in terms of its convenience and low cost. As a practical demonstration, CO2 mixed with N2 is successfully separated through this light-controlled carbon capture and storage (CCS) system, which offers great promise for CO2 capture and enrichment with applicability across a wide range of scales.

It is difficult to separate the methanol and hydrocarbons in the propylene oxide (PO) purification process due to their forming azeotrope. As for this, a novel PO separation process, in that the deionized water is employed as extractant and 1,2-propylene glycol (MPG) that is formed from the PO hydrolysis reaction is recovered, is presented in this work. The salient feature of this process is that both the non-catalyzed reactions of PO hydrolysis to form MPG and dipropylene glycol (DPG) are simultaneously considered and MPG by-product with high purity is obtained in virtue of the deionized water as reflux liquid and side take-off in MPG column. In addition, the ionic liquid (IL) extractant is screened through the conductor-like screening model for segment activity coefficient (COSMO-SAC) and the comparisons of separation efficiency between the IL and normal octane (nC8) extractant for the separation of PO and 2-methylpentane are made. With the non-random two-liquid (NRTL) thermodynamic model, the simulation and optimization design for the full flow sheet are performed and the effects of the key operation parameters such as solvent ratio, theoretical stages, feeding stage etc. on separation efficiency are detailedly discussed. The results show that the mass purity and the mass yield of PO can be up to 99.99% and 99.0%, and the condenser duty, reboiler duty and PO loss in the process with IL extractant can be decreased by 69.66%, 30.21% and 78.86% compared to ones with nC8. The total annual cost (TAC) calculation also suggests that the TAC would be significantly reduced if using IL in replace of nC8 in the investigated process. The presented results would provide a useful guide for improving the quality of PO product and the economic efficiency of industrial plant.

Salidroside (8-O-β- d -glucoside of tyrosol), a plant-derived natural product, is used for treatment of hypoxia, fatigue and aging diseases. The availability of salidroside is restricted since it is extracted from 3-5 years old Rhodiola roots, which grow very slowly in the cold region of northern hemisphere of Earth. Our laboratory has constructed an engineered Escherichia coli and established a fermentation process to produce salidroside from glucose. In this article, nine macroporous resins from polarity to non-polarity, including NKA-9, S-8, AB-8, SP825, D101, LSA-8, LX-12, LX-18 and LX-68 resins, were tested to separate salidroside from fermentation broth. After static and dynamic experiments, the weakly polar SP825 resin had a better separation efficiency among nine resins. The adsorption kinetic and isotherm of salidroside on the SP825 resin were determined, and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir model could be fitted well. The effects of the pH on adsorption and ethanol concentration on desorption were investigated, and an optimal separation process was established. The adsorption for salidroside in the SP825 resin column was conducted with loading 150 ml at pH 7, and desorpted by washing 50 ml of 80% ethanol solution. Under the best process conditions, the purity and yield of salidroside in the final product were 91.6% and 74.0%, respectively. The results showed that the macroporous SP825 resin would be feasible and effective to prepare salidroside and has promising application in the downstream process of microbial fermentation. © 2020 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd.. All rights reserved.

A two-stage vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) process that coupled kinetically controlled and equilibrium controlled separation process with reflux has been investigated for capturing carbon dioxide from dry flue gas (85% N2/15% CO2). In the first enriching stage, carbon molecular sieve (CMS), which shows kinetic selectivity for CO2/N2, is adopted as the adsorbent to remove most N2 in feed gas, thereby upgrading CO2 and significantly reducing the amount for further refinement. The second stage loads zeolite 13X as adsorbent to purify the CO2-rich flow from the first stage for meeting the requirements of National Energy Technology Laboratory. Series of experiments have been conducted for adsorption isotherms measuring and lab-scale experimental validation as well as analysis. The effect of feed composition on the separation performance of the PSA system was studied experimentally and theoretically here. The optimal results achieved 95.1% purity and 92.9% recovery with a high CO2 productivity (1.89 mol CO2·h−1·kg−1) and an appropriate energy consumption of 1.07 MJ·(kg CO2)−1. Further analysis has been carried out by simulation for explicating the temperature, pressure, and concentration distribution at cyclic steady state.

Background: Due to the suitable nuclear decay characteristics, 177Lu is an attractive radionuclide for various therapeutic applications. The non-carrier added form of 177Lu has drawn many attention because of its high specific activity needed in radiolabeling studies. There have been several separation methods for NCA 177Lu production. Objectives: Among the various separation methods, the electro-amalgamation separation method has got a large potential for large scale production. Li presence is a significant problem in this separation method, which seriously affects the radiolabeling efficiency. Method: In this study, Li was separated from the final product of electro-amalgamation separation by adding an ion-exchange chromatography column to the separation process. Results: NCA 177Lu was obtained by 84.09% ELM separation yield, 99.9% radionuclide purity and, 65 Ci/g specific activity. Then, 177Lu (177LuCl3 chemical form) was separated from Li using the ion exchange chromatography method by a separation yield of 94%. The obtained results of the radiolabeling efficacy studies showed that the radiochemical purity and radio-complex stability were significantly increased by separating of NCA 177Lu from Li. Conclusion: This new separation setup consisting of two steps allows using 177Lu of such a favorable quality for labeling studies.

Direct separation of high purity ethylene (C2H4) from an ethane (C2H6)/ethylene mixture is a critical and challenging task owing to the very similar molecular size and physical properties of the two components. While some studies have attempted this separation, there is a lack of excellent porous materials with strong binding affinity for C2H6-selective adsorption via an energy-efficient adsorptive separation process. Herein, we report a titanium metal-organic framework with strong binding affinity and excellent stability for the highly efficient removal of C2H6 from C2H6/C2H4 mixtures. Single component adsorption isotherms demonstrated a larger amount of adsorbed ethane (1.16 mmol·g−1 under 1 kPa) and high C2H6/C2H4 selectivity (2.7) for equimolar C2H6/C2H4 mixtures, especially in the low-pressure range, which is further confirmed by the results of grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations for C2H6 adsorption in this framework. The experimental breakthrough curves showed that C2H4 with a high purity was collected directly from both 1:9 and 1:15 C2H6/C2H4 (volume ratio) mixtures at 298 K and 100 kPa. Moreover, the unchanged adsorption and separation performance after cycling experiments confirmed the promising applicability of this material in future.

In this study, a sensitivity analysis was performed for an integrated SESMR process, and an optimization approach was formulated by developing an artificial neural network-based optimization (ANN-based optimization). The process comprised a cyclic fluidized bed (CFB), pressure swing adsorption (PSA), compressor, dehydrator, and other units. The PSA variables considerably affected product quality, while the CFB variables mainly contributed to other performance parameters. From the data analysis and domain knowledge, three main objectives and five main variables were selected for the process optimization. Thereafter, the ANN models were integrated with the economic model to formulate a SESMR-driven model for optimization. At the optimum conditions, the cost (1.7 $/kg) of the H2 (+99.99% purity) with 90.3% CO2 capture from the integrated SESMR process was 15% reduction compared to that of the SMR process, which agreed well with the US Department of Energy prediction (15–20%). These results suggest that the integrated SESMR process is valuable for the production of blue H2, and the ANN-based optimization is very effective for a complex integrated process.

This chapter describes different rivaling operating modes applied industrially in preparative chromatography. After recapitulating the basic features of the “workhorse” and reference in the field, namely isocratic batch elution, at first more sophisticated concepts are presented that offer additional degrees of freedom but maintain the discontinuous character of the separation process. Subsequently process options are described that possess the potential to perform the separations continuously. Hereby mainly the most successful multicolumn concepts are explained, which are based on realizing highly efficient countercurrent transport processes. Finally the important aspect will be addressed, how different process alternatives can be evaluated and compared quantitatively.

To solve the problem of non-magnetic inclusion in concentrates and magnetic inclusion in tailings in the separation process of micro-fine magnetite, a novel permanent magnet pulsating separator (PMPS) was developed, employing the agglomeration mechanism of magnetite particles, and the dispersion mechanism of gangue minerals, whose magnetic poles arranged in a rectangular manner on plates on both sides of a separation chamber, and with alternating strong and weak magnetic fields generated in the separation area by reciprocating the plates. The magnetic field intensity was simulated by Infolytica Magnet software to optimise the parameters of the magnetic system. Laboratory PMPS was used to carry out tests on Sample I with a total iron (TFe) grade of 53.9% and an 89.83% passing size of 0.074 mm, and on Sample II assaying TFe 62.8% with a 75.21% passing size of 0.02 mm, and the operational parameters were optimised. Results indicated that PMPS upgraded Sample I and Sample II correspondingly to TFe 63.5% with a recovery of 87.1%, and to TFe 68.1% with a recovery of 92.0%, suggesting its amenability for the cleaning stage. If required, the separation chambers and magnetic systems of PMPS can be superimposed parallelly in the horizontal direction to allow for flexible enlargement of the processing capacity, characteristics of a simple structure, small occupation area, and large processing capacity.

An innovative technical route has been proposed to improve recycling efficiency of Ni and Fe from low-grade nickel laterite via the duplex process between direct reduction-magnetic separation and rotary kiln-electric furnace. The results indicated that the high‑nickel concentrates produced from direct reduction-magnetic separation process, which were combined with optimization of slag types can not only increase the grade of furnace burdens and decrease quantity of slag, but also improve the fluidity of slag and smelting efficiency as well as reduce the power consumption of smelting. For the industrial application of duplex process, a preferable stainless-steel master alloy with 10.02% Ni was obtained at a lower cost of 8420 RMB/t than that of 8731 RMB/t for a stainless-steel master alloy containing 8.14% Ni in conventional rotary kiln-electric furnace process, and the recovery of nickel also increased from 91.27% to 95.51%, which shows an obvious superiority for treating the low-grade nickel laterite.

Hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC) has been widely studied for gas separation process due to its process intensification capability of combining conventional contactors with membrane technology. In the area of modeling and simulation of HFMC, the development of mathematical model for non-ideal conditions, that is incorporated into process design is key to accurately reflect actual industrial gas separation process. This article aims to review the modelling and simulation techniques, the capabilities and the limitations of different mathematical models in predicting gas separation performance in HFMC for both laboratory analysis and industrial applications. The approach of incorporating the HFMC models into gas separation system and the current progress of process simulation works to develop industrial scale gas separation process will be highlighted. Future works and challenges towards developing comprehensive model in HFMC for industrial gas separation process would also be presented to portray the potential of modelling and simulation in designing and optimizing the HFMC system.

Membrane distillation (MD) has gained the interest of many researchers since it is a promising method for the separation and purification process. Membrane distillation (MD) is a non-isothermal separation process in which differential vapor pressure between porous hydrophobic membrane surfaces acts as a driving factor. A hydrophobic membrane is used in the application of MD, which permits only the passage of vapor produced on the feed side through its pores to the permeate side. One of the most significant obstacles to the commercialisation of the MD method is a lack of appropriate membranes for the process. On the other hand, conventional hydrophobic membranes are subjected to rapid wetting and severe fouling, mainly when low surface tension compounds are present in saline water, resulting in decreased MD performance. In recent decades, MD membranes have received exceptional scientific interest, with substantial progress being made in the design and production of MD membranes appropriate for use in many applications. This review gives a comprehensive overview of recent research developments in the tailoring morphological structure of hydrophobic membranes, emphasising advancements in the fabrication and modification of membranes towards exhibiting high efficiency in the MD process. In addition, the critical morphology characteristics, mainly surface roughness, wettability, and water contact angle, are analysed. Finally, the challenges faced and future research direction is highlighted.

Within the research conducted at our Institute of Cryogenic and Isotopic Technologies (ICSI), is developed a project entitled "Innovative CECE process solution to promote a new technology for decontamination of liquid waste, tritium low concentrated and deuterium recovery”. The main objective of the project carried out within our team is to promote an innovative solution of CECE isotopic separation process (Combined Electrolysis and Catalytic Exchange), part of a new technology for decontamination of liquid waste, poorly concentrated in tritium, generated by nuclear reactors, ensuring increased recovery of the isotope deuterium and tritium. This paper presents the current stage of an innovative CECE isotopic separation process solution, and also the mathematical model developed for the simulation of hydrogen isotope separation processes through the CECE process and a theoretical analysis based on numerical data resulting from the simulation of two CECE plant operating mode.

Polysulfone (PES) membranes are among the rare membranes that are capable of double filtration: a pre-filter layer captures agglomerates and a thin-dense layer is responsible for the main separation process. This work aims to enhance the permeability and H2/N2 and CH4/N2 of the dense layer of PES by mixing it with low concentrations of carbon nanotubes (CNTs: 0.01–0.03 wt.%) using solution casting and doctor blade techniques. The pore topology, microstructure, chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties of the synthesized CNTs/PES membranes were investigated using FTIR, XRD, TGA, and a universal testing machine, while permeability of single CO2, H2, N2, and CH4 permeability of the CNTs/PES membranes were tested under different temperatures (20–60 °C) and pressures (1–6 bar). Also, the effect of added CNTs, separation temperature, and pressure on the gas separation mechanism were investigated. The results showed that adding of CNTs contributed to increase in porosity from 81.7% (PES) to 88.4% (CNTs/PES) and decrease in pore sizes from 84 nm (PES) to 50 nm (CNTS/PES). Meanwhile, the thermal and mechanical analysis showed that CNTs/PES membranes had higher thermal stability and somewhat lower strength compared with neat membranes. Also, the permeability measurements showed a big increase when only 0.01 wt.% of CNTs had been added, where H2, CH4, N2, CO2 permeabilities were increased up to 28,553, 11,358, 7540, 6720 Barrer, respectively, vs 10.4, 4.6, 13.7, and 12.3 Barrer in case of PES membranes. In addition, CO2/N2, CH4/N2, and H2/N2 selectivity of CNTs/PES membranes were enhanced by 29%, 396%, and 426%, respectively, as a result of pores refining and increasing of free space in the prepared CNTs/PES membranes. According to these results, CNTs/PES membranes with small loading of CNTs have a tremendous ability to deal with separation of H2/N2 and CH4/N2, what make them promising candidates for clean energy extraction applications.

As a kind of novel polyelectrolyte materials, poly(ionic liquids) (PILs) have excellent potentiality in the separation of ampholytes suchlike amino acids. Herein, the β-cyclodextrin-based PILs had been synthesized, followed by blending with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) to prepare poly(ionic liquid) membranes (PILMs). The Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), mechanical strength, zeta potential, and pore size distribution were characterized for these membranes or their intermediates. These PILMs had been developed for the selection separation of the amino acids mixture of L-glutamic acid (L-Glu) and L-threonine (L-Thr). The factors influencing the separation result were investigated, including the solution pH of the amino acids mixture and the PVDF amount in PILMs. The maximum selectivity of 55% can be obtain by one-step separation under the optimal conditions. This separation process using PILMs had the advantages of good selectivity, low operating pressure, larger water flux, and good reusability, which had the potentiality in the separation of various amino acids mixtures.

The separation process of caulerpin from other phytoconstituents in a feed extracted from Caulerpa racemose was conducted using a simulated moving bed (SMB). Before separation in the SMB, the feed was pretreated through drying and ultrasonic separation. In the SMB columns, the stationary phase was Welch Ultimate AQ-C18, while the eluent was 76% EtOH. Different affinities to the stationary phase and the eluent caused caulerpin to collect at the extract port while the other phytoconstituents collected at the raffinate port. The effect of three switching times on the efficiency of the separation and purification process were investigated empirically where, the average purity of caulerpin at switching times of 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 min were 91.2, 99.0, and 99.3%, respectively. Caulerpin content at the raffinate ports obeyed the triangle theory whereby, for the switching times of 3.5 and 4.0 min it was 0%, while for the 4.5 min, it was 35.0%. Overall, the optimum switching time for the separation and purification of caulerpin in this laboratory-scale SMB chromatograph was 4.0 min. For this switching time and in the sixth cycle, the caulerpin mass loaded in the SMB was 2341.4 g while that obtained in the extract port was 2158.0 g giving a yield of 93.3%.

A complete chemical characterization of Moringa oleifera leaves was carried out showing a high content of extractives. Extraction kinetics of bioactive compounds present in this fraction were performed by conventional and ultrasound assisted extraction (UAE). A 50% (v/v) hydroalcoholic mixture led to the highest total phenolic compounds yield by conventional solvent extraction, 29.5 ± 0.3 mg per gram of moringa leaves. UAE did not bring any improvement when using hydroalcoholic mixtures probably due to the physical properties of the ethanol aqueous mixtures that affect the UAE performance, such as viscosity and vapor pressure of the mixture. The retention index of the different solvents in the raffinate phase was determined revealing the highest retention index for water, 9.5, and a continuous decrease by increasing ethanol concentration. Retention index is a key parameter in a solvent extraction process since it determines the number of stages in an industrial separation process and it is not usually reported in bioactive compounds extraction. Solvent extraction capacity and the retention index determined the final freeze-dried extract yield., Junta de Castilla y León (JCyL) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) [grantnumbers BU301P18 and BU050P20]; and the Agencia Estatalde Investigación [grant number AEI/10.13039/501100011033].

The current crude phenol separation process is featured by the conventional distillation columns and its close boiling range between the components significantly increases the energy consumption. Compared to the conventional heat integrated technology, the advanced heat integrated technology has more or less advantage of simple structure, higher energy efficiency and economic benefit in some specific separation schemes but is lack of the application in process transformation. It has the potential to be a high-energy-efficient way to improve the energy efficiency of the crude phenol separation process. An improved middle vapor recompression distillation column (IMVRC) was proposed on the basis of the conventional middle vapor recompression distillation column (MVRC), with more consideration of operating pressure set and separated stage. The vapor recompression distillation column (VRC) and MVRC are used as the competitive configurations to estimate the performance of IMVRC for separating three different boiling range mixtures. Besides, the crude phenol process is established as two steam-driven and three electrical-driven processes with the conventional and advanced heat integrated technologies used. Furthermore, the flexibility of IMVRC for the process design is investigated and the extended structure of IMVRC (E-IMVRC) for the crude phenol separation process is achieved. The results show the IMVRC has the preferable energy and total annual cost (TAC) benefits in all the different boiling range mixtures. And the different separated stage makes the distinct structure of IMVRC with different cooling and heating duty arrangement, which benefits the potential heat integrated flexibility in the process design. Consequently, the electrical-driven processes have the significant TAC saving than the steam-driven processes. Moreover, the E-IMVRC performs best in all the 4E analysis.

The application of pervaporation (PV) as a membrane-based separation process for the recovery of dilute organic solutes has become a promising alternative to conventional distillation due to its easy scaleup, energy-saving, process continuity. The present study aims at the modelling of mass transfer during the pervaporation process for ethanol recovery from ethanol/water mixture using a solution-diffusion model at different concentrations (5–20%), and different temperatures (30–60 °C). The results revealed that the estimated values of ethanol reference permeance and water reference permeance were respectively Q0eth = 11.77 ± 0.10 g/m2 h kPa and Q0water = 13.31 ± 0.16 g/m2 h kPa. It was also found that the estimated value of ethanol activation energy (Ea(eth)) was 60.40 ± 6.40 kJ/mol whereas the estimated value of water activation energy (Ea(w)) was 56.09 ± 5.05 kJ/mol. The validation of the suggested solution-diffusion model was assessed in terms of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) using fermentation broth where it showed high accuracy with a low value of MAPE for the ethanol flux (MAPE = 2.8%), water flux (MAPE = 2%), total flux (MAPE = 3.2%). These findings suggest the solution-diffusion model as an efficient tool for optimizing and controlling the pervaporation process when it is coupled with continuous alcoholic fermentation for bioethanol production.

Lignocellulosic material represents an attractive raw material to the synthesis of different compounds with industrial interest. Among these compounds, levulinic acid has gained considerable attent...

Microfluidic separation technologies are the focus of various biological applications, such as disease diagnostics, single-cell analysis, and therapeutics. Different methods and devices were proposed in the micro-separation field, focusing on minimizing the chemical deformation and physical damage to the particles throughout the separation process; however, it is still a challenge. This paper proposes a hydrodynamic focusing-based microfluidic separation device equipped with a dual-neodymium magnet for positive magnetophoretic microparticles and cell separation. Hydrodynamic focusing is used to help to sort the particles and minimize the damage to the microparticles through the proposed different inlet flow rates between the two focusing channels. The dual magnets help to separate the particles in two stages. The system’s novelty is integrating the hydrodynamic focusing with the dual magnetics system, where the hydrodynamic focusing is with variable inlet flow rates. The performance of the proposed microfluidic particle separator is numerically assessed under various operating parameters, including the concentration of the particle in the injected solution and flow rate ratios of high to the low focusing flows on the efficiency of the separation. Following the proposed separation method, it was possible to separate the 16 and 10 $$\mu\mathrm{m}$$ microparticles with the first-round efficiency of 21% with a quality of 92%, respectively. The developed particle separation system can significantly broaden its applications in a variety of biomedical research studies.

In this paper, the variation of bubble size and number in the separation process of vibrated fluidized bed as well as the influence of bubble movement on the axial distribution of fine coal in different positions of the bed were studied. The result revealed that the size and number of bubbles is correlated with the fine coal separation effect in the separation process. When the bed is in a uniform and stable fluidized state, the size of bubbles in the separation process was in the range of 1–2.5 cm and the number of bubbles was reduced by nearly 50%, which is helpful to promote the stratification and segregation of fine coal. Thereby, after separation, the ash content of refined coal products of anthracite and 1/3 coking coal was reduced to 12.1% and 23.7% respectively, and the content of refined coal was up to 42.5% and 68.5% respectively, which show that the vibrated fluidized bed has a good separation performance, and can separate efficiently the coal of size −6 + 1 mm.

Oxygen-free roasting could efficiently achieve the recovery of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but the roasted products have the drawbacks of a high carbon (C) content and a complex separation process. Hence, in this study, a new method incorporating steam (H2O) into the reduction-roasting recovery process of spent LIBs (steam roasting) was proposed to realize carbon removal and valuable metal recovery simultaneously. The influence of steam on the reduction-roasting process of spent LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 batteries (NCM) was investigated through experimental methods and thermodynamic analysis. The results indicated that the addition of steam could dramatically facilitate the decomposition and reduction process of spent NCM, and the carbon removal efficiency could reach 84%. H2O only acted on the reaction process of the anode material, and the main component C could be efficiently gasified by steam to produce hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO), which could significantly accelerate the reduction process of CoO and NiO. The optimal conditions for valuable metal recovery and carbon removal were a H2O/C mole ratio of 5:1 and a reduction-roasting temperature of 1123 K. After steam roasting, the magnetic recovery efficiencies of Co and Ni were as high as 90% and 93%, respectively. The final recovery products were Co, Ni, and Li2CO3 with high purities. Therefore, this study is expected to provide a novel approach to achieve efficient disposal and recovery of metals from spent LIBs.

To improve the adaptability of fluidized beds for fine coal separation, a new type of liquid–solid fluidized bed was constructed, i.e., the inflatable-inclined liquid–solid fluidized bed (IILSFB). A combination of simulation analysis and separation experiments was used to analyze the fluidization characteristics and separation performance of the IILSFB. The results showed that there was upflow and downflow in the fluidized bed. The upflow was mainly composed of water flow, followed by light and heavy particles; on the other hand, the downflow was caused by the backflow of heavy particles that settled at the inclined section. In addition, the light particles that settled at the inclined section could return to the rising water flow under the action of secondary airflow. As the water velocity, separation time, and secondary gas velocity increased, the comprehensive separation efficiency of fine coal in the fluidized bed improved, while the value decreased as the feed quantity increased. This also indicated the order of importance for these four factors, i.e., water velocity, separation time, feed quantity, and secondary gas velocity, on fluidisation. Furthermore, the comprehensive separation efficiency of 0.1–1 mm fine coal varied significantly with various factors, while that of ∼0.1 mm and 1–3 mm fine coal was always at a low value. In the latter case, the classification process of the size fraction was significantly better than the separation process in the fluidized bed. Under optimal working conditions, an IILSFB was used to separate the fine coal (0.1–1 mm). The yield of clean coal was 37.95% with an ash content of 12.11%, and the possible error was 0.085 g/cm3, indicating that the IILSFB had good separation performance for 0.1–1 mm fine coal.

Hydrogen isotopes have extremely important roles in many fields, but they have almost the same chemical and similar physical properties, which makes the separation process very difficult. In this w...

This paper reports an experimental and numerical analysis of a tribo-electrostatic separation process based on a fluidised bed tribo-charging system and two rotating disks connected to two high-vol...

With the intensity of resource scarcities and environmental problems, the disposal and recovery of spent lithium-ion batteries, especially recovery of valuable metals, becomes vital. In this work, a method of co-extracting nickel, cobalt, manganese and being separated from lithium by single-stage solvent extraction is proposed. The extraction and separation process of D2EHPA was studied. The effects of extractant concentration, saponification percentage, extraction time and O:A on the extraction efficiency of D2EHPA were systematically studied. Nearly 100% manganese, 94% cobalt and about 90% nickel were co-extracted and separated from lithium using D2EHPA in kerosene by single-stage extraction. The maximum value of separation factors (βNi/Li, βCo/Li and βMn/Li) was 13.03, 23.42 and 1904.24. The mathematical model of extraction of four ions was developed by combination of Levenberg-Marquardt method and Universal Global Optimization method. The proposed extraction model accurately fits the experimental data and helps to predict the extraction efficiency of each metal under the corresponding conditions.

Saxifraga tangutica is widely used as a medicinal herb to treat hepatic diseases. Here, we developed a class separation method to separate gallic acid derivatives 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl inhibitors from the methanol extract of Saxifraga tangutica. Firstly, an MCI GEL CHP20P medium-pressure liquid chromatography was used to pretreat the crude extract from Saxifraga tangutica (500 g) and the target sample (fraction Fr1, 1.7 g) was obtained. Then, an online reversed-phase liquid chromatography-1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl assay was employed for recognizing potential 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl inhibitors and six 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl inhibitors fractions were recognized from fraction Fr1. Subsequently, the six 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl inhibitors fractions were isolated via a ReproSil-Pur C18 AQ preparative column. During the separation process, the hydrophilic liquid chromatography was used to enrich the target compounds (Fr1-3-1-1 and Fr1-3-1-2) from the fraction Fr1-3, which were hardly isolated only by one step reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Finally, six gallic acid derivatives were obtained and identified as gallic acid (Fr1-1-1), gallic acid 3-O-β-D-glucoside (Fr1-1-2), protocatechuic acid (Fr1-2), 4-O-galloyl-(-)-shikimic acid (Fr1-3-1-1), 5-O-galloyl-(-)-shikimic acid (Fr1-3-1-2), and 3-O-galloyl-shikimic acid (Fr1-4), respectively. Thus, the present study indicated that this method was highly efficient for the preparative separation of gallic acid derivatives 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl inhibitors from natural products.

The coal (syngas)-to-ethylene glycol (CTEG), is contaminated with the naughty impurity 2-Methoxyethanol (ME) generated during the hydrogenation stage, which affect the quality of EG for fiber-grade polyester production. Distillation, is the employed separation process in industrial, which makes production complicated because of the heat sensitivity of the impurities system. Melt crystallization has been regarded as an effective technology to obtain high-purity organic compounds based on the melting points difference, which could avoid the problems by heating. In this work, we have explored the feasibility of the static melt crystallization on the separation of EG/ME in a jacketed crystallization tube. The experimental parameters were investigated, which covers crystallization and sweating stage in each step. The results showed that the purity of EG could reach ≥99.8% from the binary system studied via the quaternary separation process.

A TLC densitometric method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of dutasteride and tamsulosin in their challenging combined pharmaceutical formulation, where the separation process was achieved using a mobile phase composed of ethyl acetate: methanol: hexane: ammonia (90: 5: 3: 2 by volume) on pre-coated silica gel (60 GF254) plates, densitometric quantification was performed at 270 nm for both drugs. TAMS and DUTA were resolved with Rf values of 0.57± 0.01 and 0.72 ± 0.01 with a mean percentage recovery of 100.51 ± 0.659 and 100.81 ± 0.743, respectively. Method validation was performed following the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines and was victoriously applied for simultaneous determination of tamsulosin HCl and dutasteride in their pharmaceutical formulation. The acquired results of the Proposed method were statistically compared with those acquired by the reported methods, demonstrating no significant difference. Therefore, the proposed method has the potential for being fast, simple, economic, and selective for sustainable analysis of the cited drugs.

The removal of trace propyne (C3H4) from propyne/propylene (C3H4/C3H6) mixtures is a technical and challenging task during the production of polymer-grade propylene in view of their very similar size and physical properties. While some progress has been made, it is still very challenging to use some highly stable and commercially available porous materials via an energy-efficient adsorptive separation process. Herein, we report the ultrafine tuning of the pore apertures in type-A zeolites for the highly efficient removal of trace amounts of C3H4 from C3H4/C3H6 mixtures. The resulting ion-exchanged zeolite 5A exhibits a large C3H4 adsorption capacity (2.3 mmol g−1 under 10−4 MPa) and high C3H4/C3H6 selectivity at room temperature, which were mainly attributed to the ultrafine-tuned pore size that selectively blocks C3H6 molecules, while maintaining the strong adsorption of C3H4 at low pressure region. High purity of C3H6 (>99.9999%) can be directly obtained on this material under ambient conditions, as demonstrated by the experimental breakthrough curves obtained for both 1/99 and 0.1/99.9 (V/V) C3H4/C3H6 mixtures.

The coal ash (CA) generated from coal-fired power plants (CPPs) is collected in ash ponds (APs), most of which are actually full, so there are concerns regarding the potential contamination of the environment around them. Thus, in the present study, a method for improving the utilization of coal pond ash (CPA) was proposed. Here the CA landfilled in an AP was regarded as CPA. Furthermore, the CPA characteristics (particle size and weight distributions, chemical composition, unburned carbon (UC) content, particle image, and mineralogical analysis) were investigated. Next, experiments were conducted on the main separation processes: screening with five standard sieves having 0.15-, 0.3-, 0.6-, 1.18-, and 2.36-mm diameter grids; float–sink experiments with four different specific gravities (SGs) of under 1.8 SG, 1.8–2.2 SG, and 2.2–2.5 SG and over 2.5 SG; flotation with a column-type glass reactor under the conditions of pH 2, 7, and 12; grinding with a batch-type ball mill for 5, 10, 20, and 40 min; wet magnetic separation with four magnetic forces (0.1, 0.5, 1, and 2 T). Based on these results, a pretreatment method was proposed and the final materials could be categorized into UC, amorphous compounds (ACs) with Al species (Al2O3∙xH2O) and glassy phases, inorganic materials with Si and Al, and ferrous material groups. Besides, six additional pretreatment methods were suggested through various combinations of each separation process. As a case of South Korea, the applicability of this method to the entire CPA in South Korea was also confirmed.

In this study, direct reduction-magnetic separation process was applied to enrich phosphorus and iron to prepare Fe-P crude alloy from a high phosphorus oolitic hematite ore (HPOH). The results show that at lower temperatures and with absence of any of additives, Fe cannot be effectively recovered because of the oolitic structure is not destroyed. In contrast, under the conditions of 15% Na2SO4 and reducing at 1050 °C for 120 min with a total C/Fe ratio (molar ratio) of 8.5, a final Fe-P alloy containing 92.40% Fe and 1.09% P can be obtained at an overall iron recovery of 95.43% and phosphorus recovery of 68.98%, respectively. This metallized Fe-P powder can be applied as the burden for production of weathering resistant steels. The developed process can provide an alternative for effective and green utilization of high phosphorus iron ore.

Background: Economically recovering valuable cyclohexane and sec-butyl alcohol from wastewater is an important industrial problem worthy of research and investigation. The available separation flowsheet in open literature was a heat pump assisted four-column scheme combining heterogeneous azeotropic and extractive distillation. However, the above design achieves significant energy saving at the cost of huge capital investment and increased operational complexity involved in the compression system. The purpose of this paper is to develop an improved configuration for separating the ternary system without using the expensive compression system, and it can also significantly improve the economics. Methods: The core design concept of our proposed three separation flowsheets is to fully utilize the advantage of the heterogeneity of the ternary system by introducing the fresh feed into a decanter for natural liquid-liquid splitting and innovatively applying a direct-contact heat exchanger to preheat the fresh feed. Besides, the technologies of dividing-wall column, side-stream extractive distillation and heat integration are also integrated to the heterogeneous azeotropic and extractive distillation for further energy saving. Significant findings: In comparison with the existing design, our final proposed heat-integrated heterogeneous distillation process with two dividing-wall columns can significantly save energy consumption 24.5%, total annual cost 43.6% and CO2 emission 13.2%.

Background The treatment of oily wastewater has become an urgent problem. In the process of water treatment, the superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic filter meshes offer attractive advantages because of the efficient separation efficiency and easy industrialization. Methods Here, a stable superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic Fe composite mesh coated by Prussian blue/alginate hydrogels (PB/AHs@Fe composite mesh) was successfully prepared via coordination-driven in-situ self-assembly. PB/AHs@Fe composite mesh combined the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) activity of PB with the hydrophilic property of alginate hydrogels (AHs). Significant Findings This composite mesh exhibited the exceptional self-cleaning performance through the activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) and H2O2. In this self-cleaning process, the concentration of metal ions was reduced by 82% owing to the strong cross-linking effect between AHs and metal ions for decreasing the secondary pollutions. Simultaneously, PB/AHs@Fe composite mesh showed a good underwater oil contact angle (OCA>156°). And the composite mesh demonstrated outstanding oil/water separation performances, such as 99.5% of separation efficiency and 180,000–280,000 L m−2 h−1 of water flux. Besides, PB/AHs@Fe composite mesh exhibited outstanding stability, durable alkaline resistance, and salt resistance in oil/water separation process, which made it a potential material for the application of oil/water separation and self-cleaning performance.

Applicability of tetra2-ehylhexyl diglycolamide (TEHDGA) impregnated adsorbent for minor actinide (MA) recovery from high level liquid waste (HLLW) in extraction chromatography technology was investigated through batch-wise adsorption and column separation experiments. Distribution ratio of representative fission product elements were obtained by the batch-wise experiments, and TEHDGA adsorbent was shown to be preferable to TODGA adsorbent for decontamination of several species. All Ln(III) supplied into the TEHDGA adsorbent packed column was properly eluted from the column, and the applicability of the adsorbent was successfully showed by this study.

Aim of the research is to increase the efficiency of the mechanical and technological process of separation of sunflower seed mixture on vibro-pneumatic separators, the principle of which is based on the interaction of seed flow with the surface having fluctuation-type vibration load by substantiating their efficient processing and technological parameters. A system of differential equations of sunflower seeds motions, as a granular gas, under the action of a vibrating surface was developed, taking into account the elastic-damping interaction and physical and mechanical properties of seeds. The presented system of differential equations is the basis of the physical and mathematical means of numerical modeling of this process, which was implemented in the software package STAR-CCM +. To build physical and mathematical models, it was assumed that sunflower seeds are presented in the form of ellipsoids with a certain density and effective diameter. As a result of numerical simulation of the process of moving sunflower seeds under the action of a vibrating sieve, dependences of the change in total concentration θ and productivity q on seed supply Q, sieve angle α, sieve frequency ψ and sieve amplitude A were obtained. As a result of numerical simulation of the process of moving sunflower seeds under the action of a vibrating surface, dependences of the change of filling factor χ, distribution coefficient δ and productivity q on seed supply Q, vibration surface angles α and β, oscillation frequency ψ, oscillation amplitude A and set air velocity V were obtained. Theoretical provisions were implemented and tested in the development of an adaptive vibrating screen separator of sunflower seeds (Ukrainian patent #120235).

At present, the design and optimization of the linear explosive separation device mainly depends on experiment, which is not only costly but also low efficient. The introduction of finite element analysis prior to experiment may reduce the cost to design a linear explosive separation device. Herein, arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) numerical method is utilized to investigate the functioning of an axisymmetric explosive separation device. Firstly, several ALE models are validated via explosive separation experiments and photonic Doppler velocimetry (PDV) measurements, and found to have reasonable accuracy. Then, a series of ALE models are developed to study the transient separation process of an axisymmetric explosive separation device. Multiple factors which may influence the process are identified through parametric study. Especially, it is found that the linear density of the explosive core in the detonating cord and the bottom radius of the v-notch on the separation plate are critical for the accumulation of effective plastic strain at the v-notch. In addition, the material of the protection plate and the angle of the v-notch have a certain influence on the effective plastic strain at the v-notch. The material strength of the protection plate almost has little influence on the effective plastic strain at the v-notch. The study may facilitate the optimal design of the axisymmetric explosive separation device.

Efficient extraction of crude oil, the major energy resource of current concern and high demand worldwide, is of paramount importance in both energy and environmental fields. However, it remains a great challenge to separate the crude oil-in-water emulsions with an ultralow oil content of

Herein, a unique hierarchically structured composite nanofiber membrane, consisting of a zeolitic imidazolate framework-8-embedded polyethersulfone (PES@ZIF8) fiber layer and a polysulfonamide/polyethersulfone (PSA/PES) fiber layer, was successfully developed to cope with the complex environments during the actual filtration/separation process and overcome the conflict between high filtration efficiency and low air pressure resistance. Due to the advantages of the synergistic effect of multicomponents and the bi-layer hierarchical structure, the integrated PES@ZIF8-PSA/PES filter possesses an extremely high air filtration efficiency (up to 99.986%) under a very low pressure drop (only 15 Pa), superior PM0.3 purification capacity (close to 99.95%), long-term recycling ability for purifying real smoke PM2.5 from >800 to

Porous organic polymers hold great promise for molecular sieving membrane separation. Although the inclusion of functional ionic liquid (IL) in the pores offers a facile way to manipulate their separation properties, the IL leaching during the separation process is difficult to avoid. Herein, we report a strategy to in-situ encapsulate ILs into the micropores of the conjugated microporous polymer membrane via a 6-min electropolymerization and further seal the aperture of the pores to prevent ILs leaching by solvent-assisted micropore tightening (SAMT). Upon screening the binding energy between different ILs and gas molecules, two ILs were selected to be incorporated into the membrane for CO2/CH4 and O2/N2 gas separations. The resultant separation performances surpass the 2008 Robeson upper bound. Notably, the ILs can be locked in the micropores by a facile high surface tension solvent treatment process to improve their separation stability, as evidenced by a 7-day continuous test. This simple and controllable process not only enables efficient and steady separation performance but also provides an effective strategy for confining and sealing functional guest molecules in the porous solids for various applications.

The impact of gyrotactic microorganisms in the mixed convection stagnation point flow of Cu-Al2O3/water hybrid nanofluid towards an immovable plate is numerically examined. The boundary layer equation coupled with the energy, nanoparticle volume fraction and conservation equations for microorganisms are simplified into a set of ordinary differential equations by adopting similarity transformation. The validation results are in a good agreement with previous studies approximately by 0% difference relative error. The results imply that the dual solutions only exist in the opposing flow up to a critical value/turning point. Beyond this turning point, the solutions are unavailable which reflects the separation of flow. The hybrid nanofluid is essential in delaying the separation process where the results show that λ c , h n f = − 3.5804 > λ c , C u = − 3.3903 > λ c , A l = − 3.2016 . Moreover, the advantage of this hybrid Cu-Al2O3/water nanofluid is in the augmentation of heat and mass transfer rates including the density of microorganisms which is higher than the Cu- and Al2O3-water nanofluids.

A facile solvothermal method coupled with an annealing strategy is developed to synthesize Fe3O4/carbon (Fe3O4@C) magnetic composite microstructures with different morphologies, including flower-like, hollow spheres and egg-like. The unique multiporous and hollow structure of the as-prepared hierarchical Fe3O4@C hollow microsphere results in an appealing performance as an absorber of Cr(VI) ions in aqueous solution, delivering a high capacity of ~ 197.2 mg/g. Meanwhile, the magnetic Fe3O4 ‘‘core’’ in the hierarchical microstructures can be easily separated from aqueous systems by magnetic separation. Furthermore, the carbon layers effectively prevent the aggregation of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The excellent absorbing ability of Cr(VI) ions and easy separation process strongly suggest that the Fe3O4@C magnetic microstructures would have a great potential as adsorbing materials in the large-scale application in environmental purification.

Half-life of 88Kr has been sequentially measured at different positions with a high purity germanium (HPGe) detector. A rapid Kr–Xe separation process has been used to gather 88Kr sample from the gaseous fission products of U3O8. Benefit for the Kr–Xe separation, both 196 keV and 2392 keV were used for the half-life determination. The measured half-life of 88Kr was 2.802 ± 0.012 h, in good agreement with the latest reported values but different from the earlier reported values.