Determination of the adhesion force between particles and a flat surface, using the centrifuge technique

By using a centrifuge technique, the influence of powdery material particle size on the adhesion force particle-surface was determined. In order to achieve this, the adhesion of phosphatic rock (ρ_p = 3.090 kg m^− 3) and of manioc starch particles (ρ_p = 1.480 kg m^− 3) on a steel surface were studied. A microcentrifuge that reached a maximum speed rotation of 14000 rpm and which contained specially designed centrifuge tubes was used. There tubes contained the flat surface where the test particles were deposited. The powder particles were dispersed on these disks and the particles detachment were performed using diverse centrifugal speeds. The graphics of particle percentages still adhering on the surface of the disks as a function of the applied detachment force showed that the profile of adhesion force followed a log-normal distribution. The adhesion force increased with particle size. The manioc starch particles presented adhesion forces greater than those for the phosphatic rock particles for all particle sizes studied. The results obtained were compared with the theory proposed by Derjaguin, Muller and Toporov whose theoretical adhesion presented values close to the experimental data for the phosphatic rock particles adhesion on the stainless steel surface. On the contrary, the theoretical values were lower than the experimental ones for the manioc starch particles maybe due to the small roughness of these particles, their physical properties (softer and deformable material) and/or specific chemical interactions since the organic composition of the manioc starch particles that can dominate the adhesion force. Finally, the separation distance among the surfaces in contact (Z₀) was estimated in approximately 1.0 × 10^− 9 m for the phosphatic rock and 5.0 × 10^− 10 m for the manioc starch. These results were weakly dependent on the particle size range.     

Assembled-magnetite membrane for recovery of starch granules in an open flow

Magnetite was set in a channel as an open system and was placed there by application of a magnetic field to form an assembled-magnetite membrane. A starch-granules-dispersed solution flowed from the top of the channel to allow recovery of starch granules by the assembled-magnetite membrane by size effect. The size of starch granules dispersed was ranged from 1 to 60 μm. The magnetite density in the membrane was strongly related to the recovery efficiency. To alter the density of the assembled-magnetite membrane, the amount of magnetite in the channel ranged from 0.05 to 0.5 g. With increasing membrane density, the recovery efficiency increased. After recovery by the membrane, the flown starch granules through the membrane were observed by optical microscopy, and were found to be less than 10 μm in diameter. The proposed assembled-magnetite membrane has the potential for recovery of starch granules and other food particles used for cooking based on molecular gastronomy.     

Correlation between the molecular morphology and the biocompatibility of bioadhesive carriers prepared from spray-dried starch/Carbopol blends

Spray-dried Amioca^® starch/Carbopol^® 974P (C 974P; cross-linked poly(acrylic acid)) blends were evaluated as bioadhesive drug carriers and compared with equivalent physical mixtures. For both mixture types, the nano-morphology was determined by means of SEM and ¹³C-CP/MAS solid state NMR. Whereas phase separation occurs into individual starch and C 974P molecular domains for the physical mixtures, spray-drying results in homogeneous blends of Amioca^® starch and C 974P.This intimate mixing improves the bioadhesive capacity significantly as compared to equivalent physical mixtures. Up to a 20 wt% content of C 974P, the spray-dried blends did not show any sign of irritation. This makes them promising biocompatible powders for application as safe bioadhesive carriers.     

进气方式和气速对卧轮式分级机性能的影响

传统卧轮式分级机内流场分布比较混乱，分级精度普遍不高。本文基于对分级机内气流运动规律的分析，将传统切向进风方式调整为径向进风，分别设计了百叶窗型和多孔型风筛，试验对比了传统切流风筛和上述两种径向进风方式对分级效果的影响。结果表明，径向进风方式对分级流场形成和细颗粒淘洗更有利，不仅可以提高分级机的粗粉产率，同时还可降低粗组分中的细粉夹带量，提高粗、细颗粒分离的程度，改善颗粒分级效果；百叶窗型风筛分级机的分级效果最优，气流经百叶窗风筛可对粗组分进行多层、充分扬析，减少细颗粒误入粗产品的概率，牛顿分级效率较传统切流风筛分级机平均提高约6%；此外，入口气速也对分级精度有较大的影响，但对分级粒径的影响不明显，存在临界入口气速使得综合分级效果最好。为提升涡轮分级机的颗粒分级性能提供了新思路。     

Separation performance of an 8 mm mini-hydrocyclone and its application to the treatment of rice starch wastewater

ABSTRACT

The rice starch particles are difficult to separate from starch suspensions for its fine diameter. In this work, an 8 mm mini-hydrocyclone is designed, and its separation performance and potential for the treatment of rice starch wastewater is investigated. The capacities, total separation efficiencies of an 8 mm mini-hydrocyclone and a 10 mm mini-hydrocyclone are compared. The experimental results reveal that the total separation efficiency of the 8 mm mini-hydrocyclone is approximately 13% higher than that of the 10 mm mini-hydrocyclone. A total separation efficiency of 92.1% was obtained using a two-stage hydrocyclone separation process comprising two 8 mm mini-hydrocyclones connected in series. The research findings can be utilized to efficiently treat the rice starch wastewater.     

Mixed matrix membranes of Matrimid 5218 loaded with zeolite 4A for pervaporation separation of water–isopropanol mixtures

Mixed matrix membranes were prepared by incorporating zeolite 4A into polyimide of Matrimid 5218 using solution-casting technique. The fabricated membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). It was found that the higher annealing temperature of 250 °C is more favorable to improve adhesion between zeolite and polymer phases. Effects of different parameters such as temperature (30–60 °C), water content in feed (10–40 wt.%), zeolite loading (0–15 wt.%) and polymer content (10 and 15 wt.%) on pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol were studied. Sorption studies were carried out to evaluate degree of swelling of the membranes in feed mixtures of water and isopropanol. The experimental results showed that both pervaporation flux and selectivity increase simultaneously with increasing the zeolite content in the membranes. The membrane containing Matrimid 5218 (10 wt.%)–zeolite 4A (15 wt.%) exhibits the highest separation factor (α) of 29,991 with a substantial permeation flux (J) of 0.021 kg/m² h at 30 °C for 10 wt.% of water in the feed. The PV performance was also studied in term of pervaporation separation index (PSI). Permeation flux was found to follow the Arrhenius trend over the investigated temperature range.     

Characteristics of polyurethanes incorporating starch granules

Polyurethanes containing different starch contents were synthesized in a one-step reaction by suspending starch granules in polycaprolactone diol, MDI and 1,4 butane diol in a bulk phase at 175 °C. The products were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, DSC, and swelling behavior. Their mechanical properties, e.g. tensile strength and elongation, were measured for different starch contents. The starch dispersed well as a grafted state in the polyurethane phase. The grafted percentage of polyurethane to starch granules increased with the starch content to a maximum point (about 20 wt%) and then decreased due to gapping between the two phases and probably the homo-polymerization tendency of the polyurethane. The DSC indicated that T_g increased with the starch content due to the decreased average molecular weight of the homo-polyurethane. Three endothermic transitions at 60-70 °C (I), ∼150 °C (II), 190-210 °C (III) were observed. Transition I was not changed by the starch content, whereas transition II appeared only for the psb2m3 series (32-48 wt% hard segment) at the lower range of 26 wt% of starch content. The temperature of transition III, which is related to the melting point of the hard segments, increased with the starch content despite a decrease in the molecular weight of the homo-polyurethane. The tensile strength and the elongation of the polymers slightly increased or were constant up to about 20 wt% of starch, and then decreased rapidly because of phase separation (gapping) between the starch granules and the polyurethane phase and division of the starch granules.     

Investigation of co-combustion of coal and olive cake in a bubbling fluidized bed with secondary air injection

In this study, a bubbling fluidized bed of 102 mm inside diameter and 900 mm height was used to burn olive cake and coal mixtures. Tunçbilek lignite coal was used together with olive cake for the co-combustion tests. Combustion performances and emission characteristics of olive cake and coal mixtures were investigated. Various co-combustion tests of coal with olive cake were conducted with mixing ratios of 25%, 50%, and 75% of olive cake by weight in the mixture. Operational parameters (excess air ratio, secondary air injection) were changed and variation of pollutant concentrations and combustion efficiency with these operational parameters were studied. The results were compared with that of the combustion of olive cake and coal. Flue gas concentrations of O₂, CO, SO₂, NO_x, and total hydrocarbons (C_mH_n) were measured during combustion tests.For the setup used in this study, the optimum operating conditions with respect to NO_x and SO₂ emissions were found to be 1.35 for excess air ratio, and 30 L/min for secondary air flowrate for the combustion of 75 wt% olive cake and 25 wt% coal mixture. The highest combustion efficiency of 99.8% was obtained with an excess air ratio of 1.7, secondary air flow rate of 40 L/min for the combustion of 25 wt% olive cake and 75 wt% coal mixture.     

Starch Granules in Arabidopsis thaliana Mesophyll and Guard Cells Show Similar Morphology but Differences in Size and Number

Transitory starch granules result from complex carbon turnover and display specific situations during starch synthesis and degradation. The fundamental mechanisms that specify starch granule characteristics, such as granule size, morphology, and the number per chloroplast, are largely unknown. However, transitory starch is found in the various cells of the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana, but comparative analyses are lacking. Here, we adopted a fast method of laser confocal scanning microscopy to analyze the starch granules in a series of Arabidopsis mutants with altered starch metabolism. This allowed us to separately analyze the starch particles in the mesophyll and in guard cells. In all mutants, the guard cells were always found to contain more but smaller plastidial starch granules than mesophyll cells. The morphological properties of the starch granules, however, were indiscernible or identical in both types of leaf cells.     

Chitosan/TiO2 nanocomposite pervaporation membranes for ethanol dehydration

Novel chitosan/titanium dioxide (CS/TiO₂) nanocomposite membranes were prepared using tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) as precursor and acetyl acetone as chelating agent by in situ sol-gel process, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetry (TG). The characterization results demonstrated that nano-sized TiO₂ particles dispersed homogeneously within the CS matrix, which could be assigned to the hydrogen and titanoxane bonds formed between CS and TiO₂. Moreover, the pervaporation performance of these membranes was investigated using the separation of ethanol-water mixture as model system. Compared with CS/TiO₂ hybrid membranes prepared by blending method, most of CS/TiO₂ nanocomposite membranes prepared by in situ sol-gel process exhibited higher permeation flux and separation factor under the identical conditions. Among all the prepared membranes, CS/TiO₂ nanocomposite membrane containing 6 wt% TiO₂ exhibited the best pervaporation performance, whose averaged permeation flux and separation factor were 0.340 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ and 196 for 90 wt% aqueous solution of ethanol at 80 °C, respectively.     

Poly(lactic acid)/starch composites: Effect of microstructure and morphology of starch granules on performance

Starches used to develop biodegradable composites belong to different botanical sources that exhibit different microstructures and morphologies. This results in confused relationship and no comparison of data for applications. In this work, the most popular ten different starches were used as model materials to investigate the relationship between starch microstructure and the performance of poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/starch composites. It was found that: (a) composites filled with either well‐sized (small‐sized and non‐agglomerated) starch granules or those containing high amylose content (G‐50 and G‐80) improves the reinforcing ability of PLA, with least reduction in deformation; (b) aggregation tendency of small‐sized starch granules can be controlled using surface modification approach that not only reduces the phase‐separation between starch and PLA but also improves the dispersion; and (c) no discernible relationship exists between the starches, from different botanical sources, and the thermal performance of PLA/starch composites. The results provide practical guidelines to develop starch‐based biodegradable composites for commercial applications. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45504.     

Removal characteristics and distribution of indoor tobacco smoke particles using a room air cleaner

The objective of this study is to analyze the removal characteristics and distribution of indoor air pollutants by a room air cleaner. A pollutant removal effect according to room volume and measurement point was evaluated in an indoor room. A series of filtration efficiency tests were performed on only the electrostatic precipitator of the room air cleaner. The measurements of filter efficiency and pressure drop across the electrostatic precipitator were made using an ASHRAE 52.1-1992 filter test system and an opacity meter to measure the particle concentration upstream and downstream of the test filter. Also the performance of the air cleaner in the room was evaluated by examining tobacco smoke particle concentration. The size distribution of the tobacco smoke particles was 1.27 μm in mass median diameter and a geometric standard deviation of 1.313 μm. The efficiency of the electrostatic filter was measured as 78.6% with dust particles of 1.96 μm in mass median diameter and 1.5m/s face velocity. The tobacco smoke particle concentration as a function of time decayed exponentially. The contaminant removal effect was increased when increasing the effective clean air exchange rate (ηQ/V), which is 0.0780 min^?1 for 51 m³ room and 0.0235 min^?1 for 149 m³ room. This study clearly shows that a room air cleaner with an electrostatic precipitator is effective in removing tobacco smoke particles. The removal characteristics and distribution of indoor air pollutants in other rooms is predicted based on empirical modeling.     

Effect of amphiphilic phosphate/octenylsuccinate starch on enhancing adhesion to hydrophobic polyester fibers in sizing

Amphiphilic starch at different degree of substitution (DS) was prepared by phosphorylation and octenylsuccinylation of acid-thinned starch with sodium tripolyphosphate and 2-octenylsuccinic anhydride, respectively for improving the adhesion of starch to polyester fibers. Various assessment of starch such as ¹H NMR and FTIR analysis, apparent viscosity, starch clarity, adhesion to polyester fiber, desizing efficiency and biodegradability were conducted. The ¹H NMR and FTIR spectroscopy revealed that octenylsuccinate and phosphate substituents have been attached to the molecular chain of starch. Also, the apparent viscosity, paste clarity, desizing efficiency and biodegradability of the amphiphilic starch increased as the DS of phosphate increased. It was observed that the amphiphilic starch was an effective method for stronger adhesion unto polyester fibers but reduced at the highest DS of phosphate due to excessive hydrophilicity. As compared to acid-thinned starch, the stronger adhesion of the amphiphilic starch was attributed to the steric hindrance caused by the two substituents on starch and the good dispersibility impacted by the phosphate substituents on starch. Conclusively, the strongest adhesion on polyester fibers, good paste clarity, good desizing efficiency and enhanced biodegradability of starch were attained at phosphate and octenylsuccinate DS ratio of 0.031/0.014.     

Influence of operation parameters on the separation of mixtures by pervaporation and vapor permeation with inorganic membranes. Part 1: Dehydration of solvents

The separation performance of two different commercially available tubular inorganic membranes was studied for solvent dehydration. The separation layers consisted of A-type zeolite and microporous silica. The membrane characteristics were determined as function of operating conditions such as feed composition, temperature, and permeate pressure in pervaporation and vapor permeation. Among different membranes of the same batch, flux and selectivity were reproducible within 10%. The partial flux of water as the preferentially permeating component increases linearly with the water vapor pressure difference between feed and permeate and depends only marginally (viscosity influence) upon the properties of the organic component. The flux of the organic (retained) component is low and can best be described by assuming a substance and membrane specific permeance (flux over partial pressure difference) that is independent of composition. At very low water concentration in the feed one would expect a strong increase in permeability of the retained component through non-zeolite pores and larger silica pores as predicted by pure component measurements. However, this effect was not observed in mixtures within the concentration range studied here. A temperature rise improves flux rates exponentially while selectivity remains high. Thus, higher module cost in comparison to polymeric membranes can be compensated by reduced membrane area if a higher operating temperature can be chosen. Flux and selectivity decline as a function of permeate pressure with decreasing driving force. In vapor permeation with inorganic membranes superheating of the vaporous feed improves their performance while for polymeric materials a steep flux decline is observed. High flux and selectivity are obtained in the separation of water from alcohols. The normalized flux values of the A-type zeolite membrane are roughly 10 kg/m² h bar with a mixture selectivity of 2000 for methanol, 4000 for ethanol and 8000 for n-butanol. The average permeance of the amorphous silica membrane lies above 12 kg/m² h bar with mixture selectivity of 50 for methanol, 500 for ethanol and 2000 for n-butanol. The separation mechanism is mainly based on adsorption and diffusion enhanced by shape selectivity and size exclusion in some cases. The transport characteristics could be described with a simple transport model based on normalized permeate fluxes. With regard to the operation stability of the membranes, no deterioration of the performance was observed for the A-type zeolite in solvent dehydration or in separation of water from reaction mixtures. The silica membrane showed an initial conditioning effect involving a rearrangement of Si-OH groups with an increase in selectivity and decrease in flux of about 30%. After a few hours the performance stabilized and remained constant during further operation.     

Experimental study on physical properties and pervaporation performances of polyimide membranes

Five kinds of polyimide membranes have been synthesized from two dianhydrides (including pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and 3, 3^′4, 4^′-benzophenonetetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA)) and three diamines (including 4,4^′-diaminodiphenylether (ODA), 4,4^′-diaminodiphenylmethane (MDA) and phenylenediamine (PDA)) via a two-step method, and the properties of polyimide membranes have been characterized by experimental techniques. The permeation experiments of water/ethanol mixtures through the polyimide membranes were carried out at 318, 328, 338 and 348 K. All polyimide membranes in this paper are water selectivity, and the flux of mixtures through MDA-based polyimide membranes is higher than that of solvents through PDA-based polyimide membranes with the same diahydrides, while the separation factor exhibits the opposite variation order at the same temperature. The total flux and the partial water flux through all the membranes increase with the operating temperature rising, and the relationships between the flux and temperature can be described by Arrhenius equation. According to the Arrhenius equation, the active energies of water/ethanol in PMDA-ODA, PMDA-MDA, BTDA-PDA, BTDA-ODA and BTDA-MDA membranes are 35.1, 52.6, 16.4, 19.8 and 27.1 kJ/mol, respectively, and those for partial water flux in PMDA-ODA, PMDA-MDA, BTDA-ODA and BTDA-MDA are 36.1, 46.8, 19.9 and 27.9 kJ/mol, respectively. The separation factors of mixtures in the polyimide membranes but no PMDA-MDA show the trend of increase with the operating temperature. The partial flux of ethanol increases while the separation factor of mixtures in PMDA-MDA decreases with the operating temperature, and the activation energy for partial ethanol flux in PMDA-MDA is 75.2 kJ/mol. In addition, pervaporation performances were attempted to correlate independently with the fractional free volume (FFV) and mean interchain distance (d-spacing) of polymers. It is shown that lnJ increases with d-spacing, while there is no clear relationship between the flux and FFV.     

Thermogelling behaviour of starches to be used in ceramic consolidation processes

Starch is one of the agents used as both consolidator/binder of the ceramic suspension and pore former at temperature for porous ceramic processing. In this work, the thermogelling behaviour of aqueous suspensions of different starches (potato, cassava, and corn) was studied by dynamic rheological testing and optical microscopy in order to optimize the thermal consolidation of ceramic green bodies prepared by the starch consolidation method. Viscoelastic properties (G^′, G″, tan δ) as a function of the temperature (30–95 °C) were determined by non-isothermal rheological measurements (temperature sweep tests). In these tests, the influence of experimental variables on viscoelastic properties, such as the amount of Dolapix CE-64 as dispersant (0, 3, 4.5, and 6 wt%), the heating rate (1, 2, 5, and 10 °C/min) and the starch concentration (14 and 40 vol%) was analyzed. Swelling capacity and the analysis of volume-weighted granule size distributions (median volume granule diameters, distribution widths and arithmetic mean diameters) in aqueous suspension, as a function of the temperature, was also evaluated. In addition, the degree of disintegration of starch granules and the rheological stability of the gels were also studied by dynamic time sweep test. The obtained results are useful in order to establish the experimental variables to be used in the thermal consolidation step for the production of porous ceramics with controlled microstructures.     

Separation of gas and organic/water mixtures by MFI type zeolite membranes synthesized in a flow system

MFI type zeolite membranes were synthesized in a recirculating flow system at 95 °C where the synthesis solution was flown over the tubular α-alumina supports. The performance of the membranes for the separation of binary gas mixtures and alcohol/water liquid mixtures was investigated. A membrane synthesized by two consecutive synthesis steps had a separation selectivity of 15 and 11 for equimolar mixtures of n-C₄H₁₀/CH₄ and n-C₄H₁₀/N₂ at 200 °C, respectively. The membrane selectively permeated large n-C₄H₁₀ over small CH₄ and N₂, suggesting that the separation is essentially adsorption-based and the membrane has few nonselective intercrystalline pores. The selectivities in the pervaporation separation of 5% ethanol/95% water mixture were 43 and 23 with permeate fluxes of 0.2 and 1.9 kg/m² h at 25 and 85 °C, respectively. The separation performance of membranes showed that MFI type membranes prepared in a recirculating flow system can be used both in the separation of gas and liquid mixtures.     

Numerical study of particle dispersion in the wake of gas-particle flows past a circular cylinder using discrete vortex method

A numerical investigation on the particle dispersion in the wake of particle-laden gas flows past a circular cylinder at Reynolds number of 10⁵ is presented. In the numerical method, the Discrete Vortex Method with the diffusion velocity model is employed to calculate the unsteady gas flow fields and a Lagrangian approach is applied to track individual particles. A dispersion function is defined to represent the dispersion scale of the particle. The distributions of gas velocities and vortex blobs, the trajectories and dispersion functions as well as distributions for particles with various Stokes numbers ranging from 0.01 to 1000 are obtained. The numerical results show that: (1) very small sized particles with St = 0.01 can distribute both in the vortex core and around the vortex periphery, whereas intermediate sized particles with St = 1.0, 10 are distributed around the vortex periphery, and very large sized particles with St = 1000 do not feel the gas flow; (2) only at small Stokes number (St = 0.01, 0.1) the particles do not impact with the cylinder; (3) the particle's dispersion intensity decreases precipitously as St is increased from 0.01 to 10.     

The starch grafted poly(l-lactide) and the physical properties of its blending composites

A new method of the surface modified starch (SM-St) by grafting reaction of the hydroxyl groups on the starch with l-lactic acid was developed. A novel biodegradable starch grafted copolymer, starch-g-poly(l-lactide) (St-g-PLLA), was synthesized in situ by the ring-opening graft polymerization of a l-lactide (LLA) monomer onto the surface of the SM-St granules in the presence of Sn(Oct)₂ as a catalyst. The PLLA grafting efficiency could reach as high as 64 wt%. The structure of St-g-PLLA was characterized by IR, DSC and WAXD. The good adhesion between the two components had been evidenced by SEM observations. The medium-resistance of St-g-PLLA and the mechanical properties of the PLLA composite blending with St-g-PLLA were much better than that of the PLLA/starch blending composite.     

Characterizing the effect of substrate surface roughness on particle-wall interaction with the airflow method

The effect of surface roughness on particle-wall interaction was studied by the airflow method. Five kinds of monodispersed spherical particles (D_p50 = 11-41 μm) and six test pieces with different surface roughness (Ra = 0.01-1.64 μm) were used in the experiments. The particles were dispersed on the test pieces to form a monolayer, and entrained in a rectangular air channel. The air velocity increased at a constant rate, and the entrained particles were detected with a laser dust monitor. Microscopic observations showed that particle entrainment occurred in discrete and intermittent events during experiment, thus a statistical parameter, i.e. the particle entrainment efficiency as a function of the air velocity, was defined for evaluating the particle-wall interaction force distribution. The experimental results showed that the air velocity for particle entrainment decreases with the increase of the surface roughness within submicron-scale and reaches a lower limit, while increases to some extent for micron-scale surface roughness. It was also found that the effect of the substrate surface roughness depends on the particle diameter.