Feed Water Concentration Research Articles

Acoustic insights into the corn extrusion process for enhanced quality control

In industrial extrusion processes, a solid material is pressed through a die to obtain products of the desired shape and dimension. Fluctuations in the process parameters have a significant impact on the product quality. In food extrusion, the expansion noise at the die can serve as an indicator of the stability of the process. This study employs microphones to characterize the corn extrusion process, focusing on correlating acoustic emissions with predefined process parameters such as feed intake and water content. Experimental data from laboratory and industrial settings reveal distinct domain shifts, yet consistent findings confirm the distinguishability of various extrusion process parameters by analyzing acoustic emissions. Employing machine learning models, including support vector machines and convolutional neural networks, in conjunction with audio features such as log Mel spectrograms, yields promising accuracies above 90\% in discriminating between standard and non-standard process parameters. The proposed acoustic quality control approach has the potential to enhance the stability of extrusion processes and contributes to the development of automated monitoring systems in the field of food extrusion. This ensures consistent quality and reduced waste, ultimately leading to significant cost savings in production.

Highly selective alginate/CuO mixed matrix membranes for efficient dehydration pervaporation of various organic solvents

Pervaporation is an energy-efficient technique for dehydrating organic solvents from aqueous mixtures. To develop a highly selective pervaporation membrane with broad usage, we incorporated three types of CuO particles (solid CuO-S, sea urchin-like CuO-U, and porous CuO-P) into sodium alginate (Alg) for fabricating the Alg/CuO mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). The CuO syntheses and membrane preparation are simple and eco-friendly. The synthesized particles and membranes were systematically characterized. The improved hydrophilic feature of Alg/CuO MMMs was validated from the reduced water contact angle and higher water swelling ratio with increasing CuO wt%. When the Alg/CuO MMMs were applied to the pervaporation of 30 wt% water/isopropanol (IPA) at 25 ℃, both the permeation flux and separation factor were enhanced significantly compared to the pure Alg membrane. The separation efficiency followed the order of Alg/CuO-S MMMs < Alg/CuO-U MMMs < Alg/CuO-P MMMs, in good agreement with their water swelling tendency. The incorporation of 3 wt% porous CuO-P particles in MMM achieved the optimal dehydration efficacy (normalized total flux of 3.5 kg m-2h−1, separation factor of ca. 5000, and water purity of 99.96 wt%, with a stable performance over 168 h). A further larger loading wt% led to a decreased separation selectivity due to more void formation from particle aggregation. With an increase in feed temperature, both the permeation flux and separation factor were improved; however, the increase in feed water concentration deteriorated the separation selectivity while enhancing the flux. Furthermore, the high selectivity and broad applicability of Alg/3% CuO-P MMM were fruitfully demonstrated by exhibiting superior separation efficiencies in dehydrating various polar aprotic solvents compared with several membranes discussed in the literature.

Lithium extraction via capacitive deionization: AlF3 coated LiMn2O4 spheres for enhanced performance

The escalating demand within the lithium battery sector has intensified the pursuit of efficient methods for lithium's selective extraction from brines. Particularly, LiMn2O4 (LMO) emerges as a prime candidate, celebrated for its robust redox properties and considerable theoretical adsorption capacity. Nonetheless, its application is hampered by structural instability due to Jahn-Teller distortion, which triggers a phase shift from cubic to tetragonal and Mn dissolution, undermining the material's lithium extraction efficiency. In response, this study introduces an innovative, multifunctional amorphous AlF3 coating on LMO spheres, employing a novel synthesis approach combining co-precipitation, solid-phase transformation, and a final AlF3 deposition. This method not only mitigates Mn leaching but also curtails the adverse effects of Jahn-Teller distortion by integrating trace amounts of Al3+ into the LMO lattice, thus fortifying both the surface and bulk structure of the material. Significantly, the AlF3-coated LMO demonstrates an enhanced lithium extraction capacity of 31.5 mg g−1 at 1.2 V with feedwater concentration of 150 mg L−1. Additionally, the optimally coated sample exhibits superior cycling stability, maintaining high-capacity retention and minimal manganese dissolution across multiple absorption-desorption cycles. Furthermore, the optimized electrode exhibits exceptional selectivity for lithium over magnesium in solutions with high Mg2+/Li+ ratios, achieving a notable separation factor of 7.66. Additionally, this electrode demonstrates efficient separation capabilities in synthetic brine, effectively distinguishing Li+ from competing ions such as Na+, K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+, which underscores its substantial potential for effective lithium recovery from complex brines.

Highly efficient oil-in-water emulsion separation based on innovative stannic oxide/polyvinylchloride (SnO2/PVC) microfiltration membranes

Global awareness has been raised to tackle the impact of produced water effluents from the oil and gas industries on the environment. In this work, innovative stannic oxide/polyvinylchloride (SnO2/PVC) microfiltration membranes were fabricated via the phase inversion method and their properties and performance were studied. Six membranes consisting of a fixed PVC concentration of 15 wt%, and varying loading of SnO2 nanoparticles (SnO2NPs) of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 wt% were cast. The results showed that embedding SnO2NPs outstandingly increased the pure water flux from 40.03 L/m2.h for the pristine PVC membrane to 104.06 L/m2.h for the 1 wt% SnO2NPs/PVC membrane when the oil in water feed concentration was 100 mg/L. This was attributed to enhancing the comprehensive porosity and hydrophilicity of the membranes as well as improving their grifted negative charge. Additionally, the maximum rejection of oil as COD and NTU removal percent achieved by the 1 wt% SnO2NPs/PVC membrane were around 99.6 % and 99.3 % respectively, compared to 83.29 % and 86.11 % using the pristine PVC membrane. Finally, the surface roughness decreased from 18.45 to 8.59 nm with adding SnO2NPs which positively improved the fouling resistance of the membranes as confirmed by obtaining low relative flux reduction and high flux recovery ratio.

Mathematical modeling of reverse osmosis system design and performance

ABSTRACT Reverse osmosis (RO) is one of the most effective technologies for water desalination. However, the RO system's performance is contingent on its design parameters and operating conditions. In this study, a computational model for RO desalination performance prediction was developed. The study compares the performance parameters of the RO system utilizing various types of membranes with the established model using a single pressure vessel and seven membrane elements within the pressure vessel. This study looked at two different feed water concentrations. The first is for saltwater with a concentration of 40,000 mg/L, while the second is for seawater with a concentration of 32,000 mg/L. WAVE software assessed the findings of the generated model to the recovery ratio, feed pressure, salt rejection, and permeate concentration of each membrane element inside the pressure vessel. The results of the study show good similarity between the simulation model results and the results obtained by WAVE software as they are illustrated in Figures 4–7.

Co-treating flue gas desulfurized effluent and produced water enables novel waste management and recovery of critical minerals

This study reports a novel approach of resource recovery from co-managing two geographically co-located and chemically complementary wastewaters using a pilot-scale treatment process. Designed to treat flue gas desulfurized (FGD) effluent from combustion powerplants and produced water (PW) from energy industries, the process consists of soda-ash softening, nanofiltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO). Recovered products are barite, calcite, and low-salinity water. Using field-collected waters, the results show that softening at pH ≈ 8.5 produces calcite (yield: ~30 kg/m3 treated water), a chemical used as SO₂(g) scrubbers. NF treatment under an applied pressure of ~3.5 MPa yields a permeate stream laden with monovalent ions (water recovery ~60 %) and a concentrate stream with a sulfate concentration ~1.8 times of the feedwater concentration. Mixing the NF concentrate and PW at a volumetric ratio of 1.0 precipitates a high-density barite material (4.1 g/cm3, yield: ~7.5 kg/m3 mixture) – a critical mineral commonly used as a weighting agent in drilling. The RO treatment recovers >64 % water as the permeate, which can be readily used as cooling make-up water at the powerplants. The RO concentrate stream can be further processed in a thermal evaporative system for additional water recovery and brine production.

Comprehensive investigation of capacitive deionization cells by response surface methodology

Freshwater resources are limited; thus, different technologies for desalination of brackish and seawater have been developed. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is one of the most promising desalination technologies owing to its low cost, simplicity, nonmoving parts, and low energy consumption. However, its energy consumption significantly increases with desalination of high-salinity water. In this regard, a good understanding of the effects of different process parameters on CDI energy consumption is crucial for further performance improvement. Therefore, the surface response methodology (RSM) was adopted to systematically study the effects of applying voltage, Stern layer capacity, volume and concentration of feed water, and volume of micropores on energy consumption and desalination time. The results showed that the Stern layer capacity and volume of micropores reduced desalination time by approximately 25% without significant changes in energy consumption. With the design of an improved electrode (improving the micropore structure for ion adsorption), the desalination time (Cycle) was reduced and a slight reduction in energy consumption was achieved. It can be claimed that any improvement in the physical (porosity) and electrical properties of the electrodes, results in an important increase in the performance of the CDI system.

Electrosorption of uranium (VI) by sulfonic acid‑decorated FeOOH nanorods

The capacitive deionization (CDI) technology for the removal of U(VI) has been the focus of attention because of its superiorities in operation cost, energy consumption, and environmental friendliness. In this report, electrode materials based on sulfonic acid‑decorated FeOOH were applied to CDI and flow electrode capacitive deionization (FCDI) for the first time. The sulfonic acid‑decorated FeOOH nanorods presented a high electrosorption capability of U(VI) in the CDI system (709.4 mg g−1 at 1.2 V and pH = 4.0, based on Langmuir model), which may result from the coordinative surfaces as well as the mesoporous structures of FeOOH. The thermodynamic and kinetic behaviors of the electrosorption process can be well-fitted using the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order model. The effective electrosorption in the presence of Na+ competitive ions and recycling of adsorbents in the CDI system further demonstrated the potential application of sulfonic acid‑decorated FeOOH nanorods for the electrosorptive removal of U(VI) from radioactive wastewater. The electrosorption mechanism was determined to be a combined process that is composed of diffusion of the uranyl ions into the EDL and adsorption onto the surface of FeOOH via the coordination interaction from Fe-OH and sulfonic acid groups (-SO3H). Further, continuous FCDI batch experiments in low concentration of feed water (60 mg L− 1 U) show that removal efficiency of U remained over 99% in 10 times continuous cycles, endowing it more possibilities for capacitive deionization from research to practical application.

Artificial intelligence models for predicting calcium and magnesium removal by polyfunctional ketone using ensemble machine learners

Calcium (Ca2+) and magnesium (Mg2+) are the major scaling ions of reverse osmosis concentrate in zero-liquid discharge systems, causing performance decline. In this study, we predicted the removal of Ca2+ and Mg2+ from simulated reverse osmosis concentrate by functional polyketones (FPKs). Four amines, including 1,2-diaminopropane (DAP), 1-(2-aminoethyl) piperazine (AEP), 1-(3-aminopropyl) imidazole (API), and butyl amine (BA) used to synthesize FPKs. The effects of various factors such as the amount of adsorbent, feed water concentration, and pH were investigated for process optimization. In this study, ensemble learner artificial intelligence models, decision tree (DT), extreme gradient boost (XGB), and random forest (RF) were used to predict Ca2+ and Mg2+ removal by the FPKs. Datasets were collected experimentally using FPKs to remove Ca2+ and Mg2+ from the simulated reverse osmosis concentrate. The predictions were made by XGB, DT, and RF models for the first chosen amine for Ca2+ and then for Mg2+, subsequently, this process was repeated with each amine. The developed DT, RF, and XGB models demonstrated higher coefficients of determination for predicting Mg2+ removal by AEP and DAP (R2 = 0.841–0.935) than by API and BA (R2 = 0.774–0.801) except in the RF and XGB model results (R2 = 0.801–0.846). Overall, the XGB model displayed good results for both Ca2+ and Mg2+ removal but slight changes were observed in the AEP and BA predictions by DT and RF. Therefore, artificial intelligence models may be a viable alternative for further insight in predicting Ca2+ and Mg2+ removal by FPKs from simulated reverse osmosis concentrate.

Janus resorcinol-formaldehyde-based membrane with opposite wettability for efficient separation of oil and water emulsion

A resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF)-based Janus membrane was fabricated by casting graphene oxide (GO)-dispersed RF solution on Janus-B side and Cu salt-RF solution on the opposite Janus-A side of an activated carbon fibre (ACF) substrate, and then subjecting the composite material to chemical vapor deposition to form a web of carbon nanofiber (CNF) on the Janus-A side. CNF imparted the super-hydrophobic (water contact angle WCA ∼151°) and super-oleophilic (oil contact angle OCA ∼0°) characteristics, while GO-RF imparted the hydrophilic (WCA 30°) and olephobic (OCA ∼121°) characteristics to the membrane. The microfiltration tests were carried out under different conditions of oil and water feed concentrations (0–15% v/v) and operating pressure (1–3 bar). The super-hydrophobic side showed 99.75% water rejection efficiency and the initial permeate flux of 1020 Lm−2h−1 for a 5% (v/v) water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion, while the hydrophilic side showed 99.96% oil rejection efficiency and the initial permeate flux of 380 Lm−2h−1 for 5% (v/v) oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion. The material showed good chemical stability in acidic, basic and corrosive media as well as an excellent repeatability under the repeated alternate cycles of pure diesel/water and emulsion post- simple ethanol wash. Considering that the method of fabrication is simple, fast, and scalable, the comparative performance data clearly pitch CNF-RF/ACF/GO-RF ahead of the other membranes discussed in the literature for oil-water emulsion.

A new PERVAPTM membrane to enhance the dehydration of isopropanol by pervaporation

The performance of a new commercial polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membrane (PERVAPTM 4100HF) was investigated and compared with a standard membrane (PERVAPTM 4100) for the dehydration of isopropanol (isopropyl alcohol) with an azeotropic point using pervaporation process. Both membranes were also characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and contact angle (CA) goniometer. The results showed that the PERVAP™ 4100HF was thinner (1–1.5 μm) and had a lower degree of cross-linking than the PERVAP™ 4100HF (2–3 μm). The effect of the feed water concentration and operating temperature on the membranes separation performance in terms of the permeation flux, separation factor, selectivity, and permeance was investigated. The water permeates in the PERVAP™ 4100HF (∼3350 GPU) was seven times higher than that in PERVAP™ 4100 (∼463 GPU) at 70 °C and for 7 wt.% of water concentration in the feed. The water/isopropanol selectivity of the new membrane under these operating conditions was very high (∼17,000). The total permeation flux of water and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) was increased with the feedwater concentration (0.0690–1.0275 and 0.0079–0.6384 kg/m2.hr) for PERVAP™ 4100HF and PERVAP™ 4100, respectively with feed water concentration increased from 7 to 18 wt.%. The temperature dependence of the pervaporation behaviors was investigated in detail in terms of the Arrhenius activation energy. The effect of the feedwater concentration on the Arrhenius activation energy was also studied to evaluate the mass transfer across the membrane under other operating conditions, such as high temperatures and low feedwater concentrations. The new membrane PERVAP™ 4100HF exhibited the best dehydration properties at water concentrations in the azeotropic region and below, making it possible to pervaporate even at low feedwater concentrations.

Ultrathin thin-film composite membrane integrated with MoS2 conjugated with thiol ligands for isopropanol dehydration by pervaporation

In recent years, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have garnered much significant attention for their potential in fabricating high-performance membranes and applications in water treatment. In the present study, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets were modified using organic thiols to synthesize amino, hydroxyl, and carboxyl-functionalized MoS2. These modified nanosheets were subsequently integrated into polyamide matrix to develop thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes for dehydration of isopropanol-water mixtures through pervaporation. A comprehensive examination of the impact of incorporating functionalized MoS2 on the physical and chemical properties and separation performance of the resulting TFN membranes was carried out. Embedding MoS2 created a bumpy structure with protuberances on the membrane surface. Amine groups from the modified MoS2 played a crucial role in crosslinking with trimesoyl chloride during interfacial polymerization, contributing to an enhanced crosslinking degree in the membrane. Compared with the pristine membrane, hydroxyl and carboxyl-modified MoS2, the TFN membrane incorporated with amine-modified MoS2 exhibited the highest separation performance with total flux of 1438 g m−2 h−1 and water content in permeate of 99.37 wt% for separating 70 wt% isopropanol aqueous solution. Remarkably, the TFN membrane exhibited a robust performance under high operating temperatures and high feed water concentrations, demonstrating its resilience in challenging conditions. Furthermore, the membrane exhibited stable long-term operational performance, highlighting its potential for pervaporation dehydration applications in the industry. The insights gained from this study contribute to the ongoing development of advanced membrane technologies based on TMDs.

Reduction of Energy Consumption of Brackish Water Reverse Osmosis Desalination System Via Model Based Optimisation

Reverse Osmosis (RO) process is being engaged to yield fresh water from brackish water sources. However, the RO process is characterized by its high specific energy consumption (SEC) owing to high-pressure pumps. The current study focuses on reducing the SEC of the brackish water RO desalination plant using model-based optimization practice. The inlet conditions of RO process such as the feed pressure, flow rate (individual membrane module and total plant) and temperature, have a substantial influence on the performance indicators namely, water productivity, product concentration and SEC. Therefore, the optimisation of this study has been directed to determine optimal inlet conditions within feasible limits to minimise SEC. Arab Potash Company (APC) brackish water RO desalination plant has been considered as the case study. The optimal inlet conditions have resulted in a significant energy saving of 27.97% depending on the set of decision variables being considered at a fixed brackish water feed concentration.

Selective Pb2+ removal and electrochemical regeneration of fresh and recycled FeOOH

Heavy metal pollution is a key environmental problem. Selectively extracting heavy metals could accomplish water purification and resource recycling simultaneously. Adsorption is a promising approach with a facile process, adaptability for the broad concentration of feed water, and high selectivity. However, the adsorption method faces challenges in synthesizing high-performance sorbents and regenerating adsorbents effectively. FeOOH is an environmentally friendly sorbent with low-cost production on a large scale. Nevertheless, the selectivity behavior and regeneration of FeOOH are seldom studied. Therefore, we investigated the selectivity of FeOOH in a mixed solution of Co2+, Ni2+, and Pb2+ and proposed to enhance the capacity of FeOOH and regenerate it by using external charges. Without charge, the FeOOH electrode shows a Pb2+ uptake capacity of 20 mg/g. After applying a voltage of −0.2/+0.8 V, the uptake capacity increases to a maximum of 42 mg/g and the desorption ratio is 70%–80%. In 35 cycles, FeOOH shows a superior selectivity towards Pb2+ compared with Co2+ and Ni2+, with a purity of 97% ± 3% in the extracts. The high selectivity is attributed to the lower activation energy for Pb2+ sorption. The capacity retentions at the 5th and the 35th cycles are ca. 80% and ca. 50%, respectively, comparable to the chemical regeneration method. With industrially exhausted granular ferric hydroxide as the electrode material, the system exhibits a Pb2+ uptake capacity of 37.4 mg/g with high selectivity. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of regenerating FeOOH by charge and provides a new approach for recycling and upcycling FeOOH sorbent.

PVA/UiO-66 mixed matrix membranes for n-butanol dehydration via pervaporation and effect of ethanol

In this work, pervaporative mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) composed of porous UiO-66 filler newly-synthesized and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) have been investigated for dewatering n-butanol (BuOH) from BuOH/H2O and BuOH/ethanol/H2O solutions. The influences of the filler loading, feed concentration and feed temperature on the membrane dehydration performance are investigated in detail in terms of pervaporation flux/separation factor, pervaporation separation index and component permeance/selectivity. It is found that with the increase in feed water concentration or temperature, total permeation flux across the MMM substantially rises while the dehydration separation factor decreases considerably. With the increase in feed temperature, pronounced increase in the driving force is resulted, yielding the decline in the partial permeance and water/n-butanol selectivity but increase in the component flux. As the water content increases, the water permeance and water/n-butanol selectivity are reduced while both BuOH flux and permeance increase. Over the filler loading range considered here, the MMM with 15 wt% UiO-66 has reached the largest pervaporation separation index of 2560 kg/m2·h at 70 °C and 10 wt% water in the feed. In the case of using 10 wt% ethanol for BuOH in the feed, the dewatering separation performance has varied substantially as compared to the binary feed, leading to reduced separation factor and elevated permeation flux for the 15 wt% UiO-66 filled MMM. In the meantime, the MMM has maintained excellent separation performance over a testing duration of 240 h. Our results show that pervaporative UiO-66/PVA MMMs have demonstrated great potential in practical BuOH dehydration applications.

Microplastics in different water samples (seawater, freshwater, and wastewater): Removal efficiency of membrane treatment processes

The distribution and fate of microplastics in different water sources and their treatment plants (seawater, three municipal wastewaters, a pharmaceutical factory wastewater, and three drinking waters) in France were studied. Currently, research in this field is still under exploration since almost no relevant standards or policies have been introduced for the detection, the removal, or the discharge of microplastics. This study used an improved quantitative and qualitative analytical methodology for microplastic detection by μ-FTIR carried out with siMPle analytical software. By investigation, wastewater was determined to contain the most abundant microplastics in quantity (4,203–42,000 MP·L−1), then followed by surface water/groundwater (153–19,836 MP·L−1) and seawater (around 420 MP·L−1). Polyethylene was the dominant material in almost all water types followed by polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene terephthalate. Almost all treatment technologies could remove microplastics whatever the feed water types and concentration of microplastics, though some treatment processes or transport pipes could cause additional contamination from microplastics. The four WWTPs, three DWTPs, and SWTP in France provided, respectively, 87.8–99.8%, 82.3–99.9%, 69.0–96.0% removal/retention of MPs in quantity, and provided 97.3–100%, 91.9–99.9%, 92.2–98.1% removal/retention of MPs in surface area. Moreover, ultrafiltration was confirmed to be an effective technology for microplastic retention and control of dimensions of microplastics in smaller ranges both in field-scale and lab-scale experiments. The 200 kDa ultrafiltration membrane could retain 70–100% and 80–100% of microplastics in quantity and in surface area, respectively.

Applicability and limitation of the industrial reverse osmosis system simulators

Industrial reverse osmosis (RO) system simulators predict the RO system operation results, and it is used for both RO plant designs and research. The performance of the simulators at various operating conditions (e.g., permeate flux, temperature, pH, and concentration of feed water) was investigated by comparing the projection and experimental results using 4-inch Seawater RO (SWRO) membrane modules. Although the differences between the experimental and projection results at a general feed water condition (25 °C, 32,000 mg/L) were acceptable (<15.3 %), they became larger up to 51.7 % with the changes in feed water temperature and concentration. Interestingly, membrane spec data provided by manufacturers were different from those projected by their simulators in most cases. This is the reason why the simulators from different manufacturers predicted different results at the same operation conditions with the same-spec membrane modules. In addition, some of the simulators did not correctly account for the effects of permeate flux or feed water pH on the salt rejection. Two limitations of the simulators found from this work are (1) membranes from different manufacturers cannot be compared; and (2) the prediction reliability tends to be lower at operation conditions farther from a general one.

Novel microporous material-induced high selective membrane for acetic acid dehydration: experiments and molecular modelling

ABSTRACT Zeolite Y-doped sulphonated polyethersulphone (SPES) membrane is investigated for acetic acid dehydration by pervaporation. The membrane exhibits desired functional group, semicrystalline nature and high thermal stability with a uniform dispersion of filler. A 15 wt% zeolite Y loading was found to be the most appropriate with a low degree of swelling (30%) and mechanical stability (37 MPa). Molecular dynamic simulation estimates the water and acetic acid which reveals higher diffusivity of water molecules than acetic acid. The RDF analysis shows the high interaction of water molecules towards the zeolite Y and sulphonic group. The simulated diffusivity of acetic acid and water was validated with experimental diffusivity and it was to be in good agreement with an error below ±5%. The effect of different feed water concentrations (3–70 wt %), permeate pressures (1–11 mm Hg) and membrane thicknesses (30–180 μm) was investigated. The synthesised membrane exhibits high selectivity (1261) and optimum flux at a 97:3 ratio of acetic acid:water. The interaction of zeolite Y with SPES induces the hydrophilic nature in the membrane which preferentially improves the diffusion and permeation of water and restricts the acetic acid which causes the optimum water flux with high selectivity.

Effect of extrusion on phenolics from Jizi439 black wheat bran: The profile, structure, and bioactivities

The effect of extrusion on the profile, structure, and bioactivities of phenolics from Jizi439 black wheat bran was investigated in this study. Extrusion process was carried out at 110 °C, 25% feed water content and 140 rpm screw speed. Total phenolic contents (TPCs) together with the levels of ferulic acid, vanillin, and apigenin that analyzed by HPLC were drastically elevated by extrusion (p < 0.05). Their corresponding derivatives including vanillin 4-O-β-D-glucoside, ferulic acid 4-O-β-D-glucoside, apigenin-4’-(3-O-(p-(E)-coumaroyl)-β-d-glucopyranoside), etc. were identified by UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS for the first time in black wheat. Furthermore, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, as well as anti-cancer activities were compared before and after extrusion. Results showed that extrusion could significantly improve the antioxidant activity of the phenolic extracts (p < 0.05). Both α-amylase and α-glucosidase treated with extracted phenolics at 50–1000 μg/mL from extruded black wheat bran showed a dose-dependent increase in their inhibitory rations. Significantly higher amount of Caco-2 cells were arrested at S-phase (p < 0.05) that leading to a higher percentage of apoptotic cells (p < 0.01) in extruded bran. Taken together, our study elucidated the changes in the profile, structures, and bioactivities of Jizi439 black wheat bran phenolics by extrusion, suggesting an efficiency approach for obtaining functional phenolics from the wheat milling by-products to improve their comprehensive utilization in food industry.

Graphene Oxide-Carbon Nanotube (GO-CNT) Hybrid Mixed Matrix Membrane for Pervaporative Dehydration of Ethanol.

The pervaporation process is an energy-conservative and environmentally sustainable way for dehydration studies. It efficiently separates close boiling point and azeotrope mixtures unlike the distillation process. The separation of ethanol and water is challenging as ethanol and water form an azeotrope at 95.6 wt.% of ethanol. In the last few decades, various polymers have been used as candidates in membrane preparation for pervaporation (PV) application, which are currently used in the preparation of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for ethanol recovery and ethanol dehydration but have not been able to achieve an enhanced performance both in terms of flux and selectivity. Composite membranes comprising of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) incorporated with carboxylated carbon nanotubes (CNT-COOH), graphene oxide (GO) and GO-CNT-COOH mixtures were fabricated for the dehydration of ethanol by pervaporation (PV). The membranes were characterized with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Raman spectroscopy, Raman imaging, contact angle measurement, and water sorption to determine the effects of various nanocarbons on the intermolecular interactions, surface hydrophilicity, and degrees of swelling. The effects of feed water concentration and temperature on the dehydration performance were investigated. The incorporation of nanocarbons led to an increase in the permeation flux and separation factor. At a feed water concentration of 10 wt.%, a permeation flux of 0.87 kg/m2.h and a separation factor of 523 were achieved at 23 °C using a PVA-GO-CNT-COOH hybrid membrane.