Catalytic Activity of Ceramic Honeycombs in the Exhaust Gas Oxidation of a Waste Treatment Plant

The activity of ceramic honeycombs with varying material composition and degree of utilization is compared on a suitable model gas in a test plant. The tested honeycombs are standard products that have not been surface‐treated in any way. A propane‐air mixture was fed to the test plant and then oxidized in a high‐temperature furnace. The analysis of the conversion rate over the reaction temperature showed remarkable differences in activity. The honeycomb with the most promising results was further investigated with the exhaust gas from the drying process of a waste treatment plant. Finally, the activity of this honeycomb was assessed in a large‐scale trial in an existing running regenerative thermal oxidizer.     

Mineral Oil Hydrocarbons (MOSH/MOAH) in Edible Oils and Possible Minimization by Deodorization Through the Example of Cocoa Butter

Mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) are present in many fats and oils as well as foods prepared thereof. A survey of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) in different types of vegetable fats and oils is reported. Contents of MOSH/MOAH were quantified using liquid chromatography online‐coupled to gas chromatography with flame‐ionization detection (LC‐GC‐FID). Cocoa butter (n = 142) showed levels from <LOQ (2.5 mg kg^?1) to 162 mg kg^?1 ΣMOSH (sum of C10–C50) and <LOQ to 55 mg kg^?1 ΣMOAH, in palm oil (n = 21) ΣMOSH were quantified from <LOQ to 124 mg kg^?1 and ΣMOAH from <LOQ to 39 mg kg^?1. Sunflower oil showed lower levels: ΣMOSH were determined in the range of <LOQ to 17 mg kg^?1 and MOAH were not observed at all. A possible influence of deodorization and a subsequent minimization of MOSH/MOAH was investigated. Systematic model‐experiments were performed on laboratory scale using spiked cocoa butter. Significant minimization of volatile MOH subfractions ≤C24 were observed at a deodorization temperature of 210 °C. Deodorization can be considered as an important processing step to reduce or even remove volatile MOSH/MOAH ≤C24. Practical Applications: Regardless of their possible entry routes into the food chain, volatile fractions of MOSH/MOAH can be removed by deodorizing vegetable fats and oils. This model‐study identifies the temperatures of deodorization that provide a significant improvement toward minimization of undesired MOSH/MOAH.     

Contribution of the Internal and External Oxygen to the Oxidation of Microencapsulated Fish Oil

Microencapsulation aims to protect polyunsaturated fatty acids against oxidation by embedding oil droplets in a solid matrix. In such a system the internal (dissolved and entrapped) and external (in the environment) oxygen can be differentiated. The study aims to quantify the impact of both oxygen sources on the oxidation of microencapsulated fish oil. The impact of the solubilized oxygen in bulk fish oil is investigated by saturating the oil with nitrogen, synthetic air, and pure oxygen. Even though more dissolved oxygen results in more oxidation products, the difference between the oxidation of the nitrogen and air saturated oil is significant but low. For encapsulated fish oil powders, the internal oxygen is modified by preparing oil‐in‐water emulsions under atmospheric and inert conditions. The feed is atomized and spray dried with either nitrogen or air. Powders are stored under vacuum and in vials and the hydroperoxides and anisidine value are determined in the total‐ and encapsulated oil. The internal oxygen has a minor impact, whereas the external oxygen is the main determinant for autoxidation. Apart from oxidizing the non‐encapsulated oil, the external O₂ penetrates into the particle and reacts with the encapsulated oil. Practical Applications: Comparing the contribution of the internal and external oxygen to the oxidative stability shows that the internal O₂ plays a minor role and can be neglected. This means that the emulsion preparation as well as the spray drying process can be conducted under ambient conditions. An inert production is not extending the shelf life significantly as long as the external O₂ determines oxidation. The focus should be on optimizing the diffusion barrier properties of the wall matrix to reduce the penetration of the external oxygen into the particle system. Alternatively, packaging solution reducing the external O₂ will extend the shelf life of the microencapsulated oil.     

Modelling and optimization of a flexible poly(vinyl chloride) compound formulation for mine cables

Developments by Labuschagné et al. (Patent, WO 2006/123284 A2, 2006) in the manufacture of Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs) have led to a patent describing a new effluent free synthesis method. A promising application for the LDH is as an additive for a flexible poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) compound used for the insulation for cables used in South African underground mines. Consequently, a new formulation is required. Unfortunately formulating a PVC compound is a complex problem. The purpose of the investigation is to develop a method that can be used to find an optimum PVC formulation where the material requirements are met while also allowing for the quantitative analysis of the effect of the ingredients on the material properties. This is achieved by modeling the thermal stability, fire retardancy, and basic mechanical properties of the compound as a function of the relative proportions of the ingredients using 2nd order Scheffé polynomials. The empirical models are determined using statistical experimental design. Each model is interpreted using statistical analysis of the model terms which allows for the quantification of the effects and interactions of all the ingredients on the various response variables. The models are also used as constraints in the optimization of the PVC formulation for minimum cost. Parametric analyses are done to demonstrate how the optimization can be used to analyze the entire system taking into account the cost performance of the ingredients. Finally, it is demonstrated how the above approach requires significantly less time and labor to find an optimum formulation than the traditional approach. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 25:E44–E58, 2019. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Supramolecular Assembly of Aminoethylene‐Lipopeptide PMO Conjugates into RNA Splice‐Switching Nanomicelles

Phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs) are oligonucleotide analogs that can be used for therapeutic modulation of pre‐mRNA splicing. Similar to other classes of nucleic acid‐based therapeutics, PMOs require delivery systems for efficient transport to the intracellular target sites. Here, artificial peptides based on the oligo(ethylenamino) acid succinyl‐tetraethylenpentamine (Stp), hydrophobic modifications, and an azide group are presented, which are used for strain‐promoted azide‐alkyne cycloaddition conjugation with splice‐switching PMOs. By systematically varying the lead structure and formulation, it is determined that the type of contained fatty acid and supramolecular assembly have a critical impact on the delivery efficacy. A compound containing linolenic acid with three cis double bonds exhibits the highest splice‐switching activity and significantly increases functional protein expression in pLuc/705 reporter cells in vitro and after local administration in vivo. Structural and mechanistic studies reveal that the lipopeptide PMO conjugates form nanoparticles, which accelerate cellular uptake and that the content of unsaturated fatty acids enhances endosomal escape. In an in vitro Duchenne muscular dystrophy exon skipping model using H2K‐mdx52 dystrophic skeletal myotubes, the highly potent PMO conjugates mediate significant splice‐switching at very low nanomolar concentrations. The presented aminoethylene‐lipopeptides are thus a promising platform for the generation of PMO‐therapeutics with a favorable activity/toxicity profile.     

Behavior change through wearables: the interplay between self-leadership and IT-based leadership

Electronic Markets - Physical inactivity is a global public health problem that poses health risks to individuals and imposes financial burdens on already strained healthcare systems. Wearables...     

Efficient Engineering and Production Concepts for Products in Regulated Environments – Dream or Nightmare?

Manufacturing of chemical‐pharmaceutical products is moving increasingly fast on a global scale. Therefore, developing and starting up production facilities fast, with high quality, and at reasonable costs has become extremely challenging. Engineering concepts like modularization, standardization and simultaneous/parallel engineering are discussed as methods for speeding up process design and filing for regulatory approval. Transfer from batch to continuous operation mode of production is pointed out as the key‐issue in such strategies.     

Evaluating the impacts of membrane type, coating, fouling, chemical properties and water chemistry on reverse osmosis rejection of seven nitrosoalklyamines, including NDMA

Reverse osmosis (RO) treatment has been found to be effective for a wide range of organics but generally small, polar, uncharged molecules such as N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) can be poorly rejected. The rejection of seven N-nitrosoalkylamines with molecular masses in the range of 78-158Da, including NDMA, N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA), N-nitrosodipropylamine (NDPA), N-nitrosodibutylamine (NDBA), N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPyr), N-nitrosopiperidine (NPip) by three commercial brackish-water reverse osmosis membranes was studied in flat-sheet cells under cross-flow conditions. The membranes used were ESPA3 (Hydranautics), LFC3 (Hydranautics) and BW-30 (Dow/Filmtec), commonly used in water reuse applications. The effects of varying ionic strength and pH, dip-coating membranes with PEBAX 1657, a hydrophilic polymer, and artificial fouling with alginate on nitrosamine rejection were quantified. Rejection in deionized (DI) water increased with molecular mass from 56 to 70% for NDMA, to 80-91% for NMEA, 89-97% for NPyr, 92-98% for NDEA, and to beyond the detection limits for NPip, NDPA and NDBA. For the nitrosamines with quantifiable transmission, linear correlations (r(2)>0.97) were found between the number of methyl groups and the log(transmission), with factor 0.35 to 0.55 decreases in transmission per added methyl group. A PEBAX coating lowered the ESPA3 rejection of NDMA by 11% but increased the LFC3 and BW30 rejection by 6% and 15%, respectively. Artificially fouling ESPA3 membrane coupons with 170g/m(2) alginate decreased the rejection of NDMA by 18%. A feed concentration of 100mM NaCl decreased rejection of NDMA by 15% and acidifying the DI water feed to pH=3 decreased the rejection by 5%, whereas increasing the pH to 10 did not have a significant (p<0.05) effect.     

Validation of Tuba1a as Appropriate Internal Control for Normalization of Gene Expression Analysis during Mouse Lung Development

The expression ratio between the analysed gene and an internal control gene is the most widely used normalization method for quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) expression analysis. The ideal reference gene for a specific experiment is the one whose expression is not affected by the different experimental conditions tested. In this study, we validate the applicability of five commonly used reference genes during different stages of mouse lung development. The stability of expression of five different reference genes (Tuba1a, Actb Gapdh, Rn18S and Hist4h4) was calculated within five experimental groups using the statistical algorithm of geNorm software. Overall, Tuba1a showed the least variability in expression among the different stages of lung development, while Hist4h4 and Rn18S showed the maximum variability in their expression. Expression analysis of two lung specific markers, surfactant protein C (SftpC) and Clara cell-specific 10 kDA protein (Scgb1a1), normalized to each of the five reference genes tested here, confirmed our results and showed that incorrect reference gene choice can lead to artefacts. Moreover, a combination of two internal controls for normalization of expression analysis during lung development will increase the accuracy and reliability of results.