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Flue gas and coal bed methane are two important sources of greenhouse gases. Pressure swing adsorption process has a wide range of application in the field of gas separation, and the selection of adsorbent is crucial. In this regard, in order to assess the better adsorbent for separating CO2 from flue gas and CH4 from coal bed methane, adsorption isotherms of CO2, CH4 and N2 on activated carbon and carbon molecular sieve are measured at 303.15, 318.15, and 333.15 K, and up to 250 kPa. The experimental data fits better with Langmuir 2 compared to Langmuir 3 and Langmuir-Freundlich models, and Clausius-Clapeyron equation was used to calculate the isosteric heat. Both the order of the adsorbed amount and the adsorption heat on the two adsorbents are CO2 > CH4 > N2. The adsorption kinetics are calculated by the pseudo-first kinetic model, and the order of adsorption rates on activated carbon is N2 ≥ CH4 > CO2, while on carbon molecular sieve it is CO2 ≥ N2 > CH4. It is shown that relative molecular mass and adsorption heat are the primary effect on kinetics for activated carbon, while kinetic diameter is the main resistance factor for carbon molecular sieve. Moreover, the adsorption selectivity of CH4/N2 and CO2/N2 were estimated with the ideal adsorption solution theory, and carbon molecular sieve performed best at 318.15 K for both CO2 and CH4 separation. Overall, the study suggested that carbon molecular sieve is a better option for separating flue gas and coal bed methane.

Women experiencing primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) are more likely to experience infertility, and its incidence is increasing worldwide annually. Recently, the role of alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) in the treatment of POI has been reported. However, details of the potential pharmacological targets and related molecular pathways of ALA remain unclear and need to be elucidated. Thus, this study aims to elucidate the potential therapeutic target and related molecular mechanism of ALA on POI. First, the potential targets of POI and ALA related targets were downloaded from online public databases. Subsequently, the overlapped target genes between POI and ALA were acquired, and Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, Protein-Protein interaction (PPI) networks were performed and constructed. Finally, molecular docking was performed to verify protein-to-protein effect. A total of 152 potential therapeutic targets were identified. The biological processes of the intersecting targets were mainly involved in the cellular response to peptides, response to xenobiotic stimuli, and response to peptide hormones. The highly enriched pathways were the cAMP, PI3K/AKT, estrogen, progesterone mediated oocyte maturation, and apoptosis signaling pathways. The top ten hub targets for ALA in the treatment of POI were STAT3, STAT1, CASP3, MTOR, PTGS2, CASP8, HSP90AA1, PIK3CA, MAPK1, and ESR1. The binding between ALA and all top hub targets were verified using the molecular docking analysis. In summary, using the systematic integrated pharmacology network and bioinformatics analysis, this study illustrated that ALA participates in the treatment of POI via multiple-targets and multiple-pathways mechanisms.