Bio-degradation of Phenol in Wastewater by Enzyme-loaded Membrane Reactor: Numerical Approach

Barbieri, Giuseppe,Choi, Seung-Hak,Scura, Francesco,Mazzei, Rosalinda,Giorno, Lidietta,Drioli, Enrico,Kim, Jeong-Hoon The Membrane Society of Korea 2009 멤브레인 Vol.19 No.1

A mathematical model was written for simulating the removal of phenol from wastewater in enzyme-loaded membrane reactor (EMR). The numerical simulation program was developed so as to predict the degradation of phenol through an EMR. Numerical model proves to be effective in searching for optimal operating conditions and creating an optimal microenvironment for the biocatalyst in order to optimize productivity. In this study, several dimensionless parameters such as Thiele Modulus (${\phi}^2$, dimensionless Michaelis-Menten constant ($\xi$), Peclet number (Pe) were introduced to simplify their effects on system efficiency. In particular, the study of phenol conversion at different feed compositions shows that low phenol concentrations and high Thiele Modulus values lead to higher reactant degradation.

상용화 기체 분리막 모듈을 이용한 CO₂ 분리 특성

황해영,( Francesco Scura ),( Giuseppe Barbieri ),( Enrico Drioli ),하성용,남상용 한국공업화학회 2008 한국공업화학회 연구논문 초록집 Vol.2008 No.-

Membrane engineering for environmental protection and sustainable industrial growth: Options for water and gas treatment

Adele Brunetti,Francesca Macedonio,Giuseppe Barbieri,Enrico Drioli 대한환경공학회 2015 Environmental Engineering Research Vol.20 No.4

The increasing demand for materials, energy and products drives chemical engineers to propose new solutions everyday able to promote development while supporting sustainable industrial growth. Membrane engineering can offer significant assets to this development. Here, they are identified the most interesting aspects of membrane engineering in strategic industrial sectors such as water treatment, energy production and depletion and reuse of raw materials. The opportunity to integrate membrane units with innovative systems to exploit the potential advantages derived from their synergic uses is also emphasized. The analysis of the potentialities of these new technologies is supported by the introduction of process intensification metrics which provide an alternative and innovative point of view regarding the unit performance, highlighting important aspects characterizing the technology and not identified by the conventional analysis of the unit performance.

Process intensification strategies and membrane engineering

Drioli, Enrico,Brunetti, Adele,Di Profio, Gianluca,Barbieri, Giuseppe The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012 Green chemistry Vol.14 No.6

<P>An important contribution to the realization of industrial sustainable development can be given by “green process engineering”. Based on the principles of the Process intensification strategy it can lead to the development and the re-design of new processes more compact and efficient that allow the better exploitation of raw materials, a lower energy consumption and a reduced plant volume. Membrane technology contributes to the pursuit of these principles and, in the last few years, the potentialities of membrane operations have been widely recognized. In this work, an overview of membrane application and their perspectives in the field of hydrogen production and distillation will be analysed considering membrane reactors and membrane distillation as case studies. The scope is to show how the redesign as membrane systems of traditional operations might contribute to the realization of the goals of process intensification and green chemistry by a new “green process engineering”.</P> <P>Graphic Abstract</P><P>Green chemistry and green process engineering also mean new processes such as those based on membrane reactors and membrane contactors. <IMG SRC='http://pubs.rsc.org/services/images/RSCpubs.ePlatform.Service.FreeContent.ImageService.svc/ImageService/image/GA?id=c2gc16668b'> </P>

Recovery of water and contaminants from cooling tower plume

Francesca Macedonio,Mirko Frappa,Adele Brunetti,Giuseppe Barbieri,Enrico Drioli 대한환경공학회 2020 Environmental Engineering Research Vol.25 No.2

Membrane assisted condenser is an innovative membrane operation that exploits the hydrophobic nature of microporous membranes to promote water vapor condensation and recovery. It can be used for water and chemicals recovery from waste gaseous streams. In this work, the testing of membrane condenser for water and ammonia recovery from synthetic streams (i.e., a saturated air stream with ammonia) simulating the plume of cooling tower is illustrated. The modeling of the process was carried out for predicting the membrane-based process performance and for identifying the minimum operating conditions for effectively recovering liquid water. The experimental data were compared with the results achieved through the simulations showing good agreement and confirming the validity of the model. It was found that the recovery of water can be increased growing the temperature difference between the plume and the membrane module (DT), the relative humidity of the plume (RH<SUP>plume</SUP>) and the feed flow rate on membrane area ratio. Moreover, the concentration of NH₃ in the recovered liquid water increased with the growing DT, at increasing NH₃ concentration in the fed gaseous stream and at growing relative humidity of the feed.

Bio-degradation of Phenol in Wastewater by Enzyme-loaded Membrane Reactor: Numerical Approach

Seung-Hak CHOI,Francesco SCURA,Giuseppe BARBIERI,Rosalinda MAZZEI,Lidietta GIORNO,Enrico DRIOLI,Jeong-Hoon KIM 한국막학회 2009 멤브레인 Vol.19 No.1

A mathematical model was written for simulating the removal of phenol from wastewater in enzyme-loaded membrane reactor (EMR). The numerical simulation program was developed so as to predict the degradation of phenol through an EMR. Numerical model proves to be effective in searching for optimal operating conditions and creating an optimal microenvironment for the biocatalyst in order to optimize productivity. In this study, several dimensionless parameters such as Thiele Modulus (Φ2, dimensionless Michaelis-Menten constant (ξ), Peclet number (Pe) were introduced to simplify their effects on system efficiency. In particular, the study of phenol conversion at different feed compositions shows that low phenol concentrations and high Thiele Modulus values lead to higher reactant degradation.

PIM-polyimide multiblock copolymer-based membranes with enhanced CO₂ separation performances

Hossain, Iqubal,Nam, Sang Yong,Rizzuto, Carmen,Barbieri, Giuseppe,Tocci, Elena,Kim, Tae-Hyun Elsevier 2019 Journal of membrane science Vol.574 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Multiblock copolymers based on both a PIM-PI block and a 6FDA-PI block, that are [(PIM-PI)x-<I>b</I>-(PI)y], with different block compositions (x:y = 1:4, 1:6 and 1:8) have been prepared for the first time. Through a combination of experimental and simulation approaches, the effects of the compositions of the PIM-PI units on the void distribution and gas transport properties in [(PIM-PI)x-<I>b</I>-(PI)y] block copolymer membranes are fully explored. By combining the effects of the high free volume of amorphous PIMs (polymers with intrinsic microporosity) brought about by the rigidity of the macromolecular chains and their contorted backbones with the excellent chemophysical properties of PIs (polyimides) in a block copolymer approach, our [(PIM-PI)x-<I>b</I>-(PI)y] membranes showed excellent thermomechanical properties as well as very good gas-separation performances, placing them well above the upper bound for CO<SUB>2</SUB>/N<SUB>2</SUB> and CO<SUB>2</SUB>/CH<SUB>4</SUB>, especially at low pressures, and making them comparable to even the highly permeable PIM-1. The block copolymer membrane, with a 1:4 block ratio between the (PIM-PI) and (6FDA-PI) units, denoted here as (PIM-PI)-<I>b</I>-(PI)(1:4), showed a well-connected morphology of the permeable phase and displayed very high CO<SUB>2</SUB> permeability of 3011 Barrer as well as moderate CO<SUB>2</SUB>/CH<SUB>4</SUB> (16.0) and CO<SUB>2</SUB>/N<SUB>2</SUB> (17.0) permselectivities, together with <I>T</I> <SUB> <I>max</I> </SUB> above 520 °C and Young’s modulus above 2.1 GPa.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Multiblock copolymers based on PIM-PI and 6FDA-PI were prepared. </LI> <LI> High free volume nature of PIM was combined with physical stability of polyimide. </LI> <LI> Transport properties of block copolymer membranes were investigated by molecular modeling. </LI> <LI> Excellent thermomechanical properties and good gas-separation performances were achieved. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

The effect of operating conditions on the performance of hollow fiber membrane modules for CO2/N2 separation

Hae Young Hwang,Hyung Chul Koh,Seong Yong Ha,Giuseppe Barbieri,Enrico Drioli,남상용 한국공업화학회 2012 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.18 No.1

A commercialized polysulfone (PSf) hollow-fiber membrane module was tested for CO2/N2 separation performance for application in post-combustion capture. Cost efficiency, easy module manufacturing,and efficiency in gas separation are the main advantages of using PSf hollow-fiber modules for CO2separation. The effects of operating conditions such as temperature, pressure, and feed composition on separation performance were examined at various stage cuts. A 2-stage system including concentration of feed composition at stage 1 and production of high-purity CO2 at stage 2 was constructed to improve separation efficiency. Higher operating temperature and pressure increased CO2 permeance, but the loss of selectivity and higher energy consumption are a concern. Modules with various membrane areas were also used to test the effect of area on CO2 separation.

Sorption and Diffusion of CO₂/N₂ in gas mixture in thermally-rearranged polymeric membranes: A molecular investigation

Rizzuto, Carmen,Caravella, Alessio,Brunetti, Adele,Park, Chi Hoon,Lee, Young Moo,Drioli, Enrico,Barbieri, Giuseppe,Tocci, Elena Elsevier 2017 Journal of membrane science Vol.528 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>In this work, we study the adsorption and diffusion of nitrogen and carbon dioxide through an atomistically detailed model of a thermally rearranged polybenzoxazole (TR-PBO) polymer membranes, <I>via</I> equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. This work represents a first explicit molecular modelling of the behavior of CO<SUB>2</SUB>/N<SUB>2</SUB> binary mixture in TR-PBO and demonstrates how diffusivity and solubility in mixtures can be coherently obtained. In particular, the number of molecules present in the polymer matrix is estimated using the Gran Canonical Monte Carlo approach. As for the sorption in mixture conditions, MD simulations are used in a synergistic pairing with GCMC and Ideal Adsorption Solution Theory (IAST). For this purpose, the single-gas isotherms calculated from GCMC simulations are fitted with Langmuir and Dual-Langmuir adsorption models to obtain the parameters needed for the IAST simulations.</P> <P>As for diffusion, single-gas and mixture (Maxwell-Stefan) diffusion coefficients are performed by MD simulations. As main results, it is observed that the evaluated diffusion coefficients of CO<SUB>2</SUB> and N<SUB>2</SUB> are in a satisfactory agreement with the values estimated using the available experimental permeability data. More specifically, the CO<SUB>2</SUB> diffusivity in mixture conditions is found to be the same as that in the single-gas one, whereas the N<SUB>2</SUB> diffusivity is slightly higher. These differences are explained in terms of the effect of both the mutual gas diffusion and the competing occupancy of the available free space preferentially occupied by the CO<SUB>2</SUB> molecules in mixture.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Sorption of gas mixture are characterized by the Monte-Carlo method and IAST. </LI> <LI> The Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities are calculated by molecular dynamics simulations. </LI> <LI> The N<SUB>2</SUB> diffusivity in mixture slightly increases with respect to the single-gas case. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

In situ restoring of aged thermally rearranged gas separation membranes

Brunetti, Adele,Cersosimo, Maurizio,Dong, Guangxi,Woo, Kyung Take,Lee, Jongmyeong,Kim, Ju Sung,Lee, Young Moo,Drioli, Enrico,Barbieri, Giuseppe Elsevier 2016 Journal of membrane science Vol.520 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Physical aging in high free-volume polymer membranes is one of the main hurdles limiting their application in gas separation. The recovery of membrane separation properties without the need to disassemble the module, although challenging, would provide significant advantages for applications in various fields. In this work, an in situ restoring procedure for the recovery of mass transport in aged membrane modules made of thermally rearranged polymer membranes was developed in which the modules were exposed to methanol at 80°C. The thermally rearranged hollow fiber membrane modules were subjected to long-time operation to investigate their aging: the CO<SUB>2</SUB> and N<SUB>2</SUB> permeances were monitored at different temperatures, pressures, and feed compositions over a total period of 727 days with two long-time runs of 185 and 263 days, interspersed by a stand-by period of 240 days, and with each run followed by a restoring. In both long-time runs, CO<SUB>2</SUB> and N<SUB>2</SUB> permeance dropped as a result of aging, whereas the selectivity remained nearly constant. The permeances were fully recovered after the proposed restoring procedure was applied, demonstrating its efficacy and repeatability for membrane aging recovery, even for an extremely aged membrane exposed to various conditions for nearly two years.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> In-situ restoring of mass transport in aged membranes. </LI> <LI> Thermally rearranged polymer membranes. </LI> <LI> Periodic measures over years on thermally rearranged polymer membranes. </LI> <LI> Repeatability of in-situ restoring showing full permeation properties recovery. </LI> </UL> </P>