scholarly journals Incorporation of Biomass-Based Carbon Nanoparticles into Polysulfone Ultrafiltration Membranes for Enhanced Separation and Anti-Fouling Performance

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2303
Author(s):  
Zhiyu Zheng ◽  
Jingwen Chen ◽  
Jiamin Wu ◽  
Min Feng ◽  
Lei Xu ◽  
...  

Functionalized carbon nanomaterials are considered to be an efficient modifier for ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced performance. However, most of the reported carbon nanomaterials are derived from unsustainable fossil fuels, while an extra modification is often essential before incorporating the nanomaterials in membranes, thus inevitably increasing the cost and complexity. In this work, novel functionalized biomass-based carbon nanoparticles were prepared successfully from agricultural wastes of corn stalks through simple one-step acid oxidation method. The obtained particles with the size of ~45 nm have excellent dispersibility in both aqueous and dimethyl formamide solutions with abundant oxygen-containing groups and negative potentials, which can endow the polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced surface hydrophilicity, larger pore size, more finger-like pores, and lower surface roughness. Therefore, the separation and anti-fouling performance of membranes are improved simultaneously. Meanwhile, the addition of 0.4 wt% nanoparticles was proved to be the best condition for membrane preparation as excess modifiers may lead to particle aggregation and performance recession. It is expected that these biomass-based carbon nanoparticles are potential modifying materials for improving the separation performance and anti-fouling property of the membranes with great simplicity and renewability, which pave a new avenue for membrane modification and agricultural waste utilization.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 4747
Author(s):  
Mario A. Heredia Salgado ◽  
Ina Säumel ◽  
Andrea Cianferoni ◽  
Luís A. C. Tarelho

Improving the livelihoods of communities living in fragile ecosystems, such as tropical forests, is among the main strategies to promote their conservation and preserve wildlife. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, farmers’ cooperatives are recognized as an important mechanism to improve the socioeconomic conditions of local communities. This study analyzes the integration of pyrolysis processes to convert agricultural waste into biochar as a way to implement the bioeconomy in these organizations. We found that post-harvesting processes in the studied farmers’ cooperatives are similar, and coffee husks are a potential feedstock to produce biochar. Although the environmental policies in Ecuador consider the valorization of agricultural waste, we did not find any specific standard to regulate the operation of pyrolysis facilities. Nonetheless, conversion of agricultural waste into biochar can contribute to (i) replacement of subsidized fossil fuels used in drying processes, (ii) prevention of environmental pollution caused by accumulation of waste, (iii) emergence of new income sources linked with the provision of carbon sequestration services, and (iv) the long-term maintenance of soil fertility. Currently, demonstration projects are needed to stimulate collaboration among farmers’ cooperatives, academia, the government, international cooperation agencies, and existing forest conservation initiatives.


Pedosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 923-933
Author(s):  
Dina M. SALAMA ◽  
Mahmoud E. ABD EL-AZIZ ◽  
Mehrez E. EL-NAGGAR ◽  
Essam A. SHAABAN ◽  
Mohamed S. ABD EL-WAHED

Desalination ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 283 ◽  
pp. 89-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric M.V. Hoek ◽  
Asim K. Ghosh ◽  
Xiaofei Huang ◽  
Monty Liong ◽  
Jeffrey I. Zink

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Buyanov ◽  
I. V. Mishakov ◽  
A. A. Vedyagin

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rehab Metwally ◽  
hassan Abu Hashish ◽  
Haitham Abd El-Samad ◽  
Mostafa Awad ◽  
Ghada Kadry

Abstract Background: The world depends almost on fossil fuels. This leads to depletion of oil and an increase in environmental pollution. Therefore, the researchers search to find alternative fuels. Waste cooking oil (WCO) was selected as feedstock for biodiesel production to eliminates the pollution problems. The agricultural waste is very big and without cost, this leads to the use of the rice straw in preparing a catalyst for biodiesel production. Results: The reusability of the acidic catalyst confirmed that the conversion efficiency was high until after 8 cycles of the production. The highest conversion efficiency of the converting WCO extended to 90.38% with 92.5% maximum mass yield and methyl ester content 97.7% wt. at the optimized conditions. The result was indicating that B15 is the best blend for thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption. All emission concentrations decrease with increasing the engine load, especially for B15 fuels compared to the diesel oil.Conclusion: The novelty of this paper is assessing the methyl esters from the local WCO as an alternative fuel for diesel engines using a heterogeneous catalyst based on the agricultural waste. The performance of the diesel engines and its exhaust emissions have been experimentally investigated with the produced biodiesel of WCO as a blend (B10, B15, and B20) compared to the diesel.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
pp. 4586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spyridon Achinas ◽  
Nienke Leenders ◽  
Janneke Krooneman ◽  
Gerrit Jan Willem Euverink

Due to the exhaustion and increased pressure regarding the environmental and political aspects of fossil fuels, the industrial focus has switched towards renewable energy resources. Lignocellulosic biowaste can come from several sources, such as industrial waste, agricultural waste, forestry waste, and bioenergy crops and processed into bioethanol via a biochemical pathway. Although much research has been done on the ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass, the economic viability of a bioethanol plant in the Northern Netherlands is yet unknown, and therefore, examined. In this thesis, the feasibility study of a bioethanol plant treating sugar beet pulp, cow manure, and grass straw is conducted using the simulation software SuperPro Designer. Results show that it is not economically viable to treat the tested lignocellulosic biomass for the production of bioethanol, since all three original cases result in a negative net present value (NPV). An alternative would be to exclude the pretreatment step from the process. Although this results in a lower production of bioethanol per year, the plant treating sugar beet pulp (SBP) and grass straw (GS) becomes economically viable since the costs have significantly decreased.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaehee Jang ◽  
Youngjun Kim ◽  
Jangsun Hwang ◽  
Yonghyun Choi ◽  
Masayoshi Tanaka ◽  
...  

Nanodiamonds are emerging as new nanoscale materials because of their chemical stability, excellent crystallinity, and unique optical properties. In this study, the structure of nanodiamonds was engineered to produce carbon nano-onion particles (CNOs) with multiple layers. Following a series of physicochemical characterizations of the CNOs, various evaluations for biological responses were conducted for potential biotechnological applications of the CNOs. The possibility of biological applications was first confirmed by assessment of toxicity to animal cells, evaluation of hemolysis reactions, and evaluation of reactive oxygen species. In addition, human immune cells were evaluated for any possible induction of an immune response by CNOs. Finally, the toxicity of CNOs to Escherichia coli present in the human colon was evaluated. CNOs have the chemical and physical properties to be a unique variety of carbon nanomaterials, and their toxicity to animal and human cells is sufficiently low that their biotechnological applications in the future are expected.


2018 ◽  
pp. 385-393
Author(s):  
Poonam Shekhawat ◽  
Sandeep Shrivastava ◽  
Neha Shrivastava

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 2404-2409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam P. Draude ◽  
Tejas Y. Kalavalapalli ◽  
Maria Iliut ◽  
Ben McConnell ◽  
Ingo Dierking

Carbon nanomaterials of differing dimensionality, namely fullerenes, nanotubes and graphene oxide are shown to stabilize the Blue Phases at the expense of the N* phase until its complete disappearance. A BP–N*–SmA* triple point is observed.


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