Coupled PermSMBR – Process design and development for 1,1-dibutoxyethane production

In this work, a new configuration of the simulated moving bed membrane reactor (PermSMBR) technology is presented, the coupled PermSMBR, where the tubular membranes are located after fixed-bed columns packed with the catalyst/adsorbent. By this way the membranes are not in contact with the solid, which from an industrial point of view is easier to implement since the process of membranes installation/replacement and clean-up is simpler than in the previous considered set-up (tubular membranes packed with the catalyst/adsorbent – integrated PermSMBR). The 1,1-dibutoxyethane production is used, as an example, and the features of the new “coupled PermSMBR” and the previous set-up (integrated PermSMBR) are discussed. The coupled PermSMBR revealed to be a very attractive solution for the sustainable 1,1-dibutoxyethane production, proved by the high productivity and low desorbent consumption obtained within the studied conditions.     

Function-integrative Lightweight Engineering – Design Methods and Applications

Function-integrative lightweight engineering represents an essential element in modern design methods. Currently, there is a great need for the incorporation of sensors, actuators and electronics in novel, demand-oriented components. In contrast to a subsequent, mostly adhesive bonding, structural integration offers numerous advantages, for example in terms of space requirements and robustness. This paper demonstrates the potential of integrated sensors for various industrial sectors based on selected examples from mechanical engineering, aviation, mobility, sports, and medical technology.     

Dynamic Process Operation Under Demand Response – A Review of Methods and Tools

Participating in electricity markets through demand response causes new requirements for optimizing process control of chemical plants. The last ten years have brought great advances in the formulation and solution of economic nonlinear model predictive control and state estimation to support operation of processes under dynamic constraints. However, gaps remain regarding the availabilities of suitable plant models capable of describing processes active in demand response as well as of robust schemes for state estimation and economic nonlinear model predictive control in commercial tools.     

Applications of the Biosorption Process for Nickel Removal from Aqueous Solutions – A Review

Wastewaters and contaminants released to the aqueous environment increase due to developing industrialization and technology. These wastewaters should be treated before being discharged to water bodies. Also, reusable materials in wastewaters must be recovered by appropriate techniques. Discharge limits required by the authorities become more stringent with updated legislations. Nickel ions can be reusable by recovering it after the biosorption process. So, this will prevent the loss of raw materials in industries and it also affects the economy in a positive way. Conventional heavy metal removal processes may be costly and inadequate to meet the desired discharge limits and they exhibit low efficiencies. Eco-friendly and economical treatment technologies gain great importance in the removal and recovery of nickel from wastewaters. In this study, biosorption which is the subject of numerous studies and one of the heavy metal removal methods will be investigated, and nickel removal by this technique and the biosorption mechanism will also be elaborated with data from literature studies.     

Total Turnover Number – a Key Criterion for Process Evaluation

The dimensionless total turnover number TTN, the average number of turnovers per active site of a catalyst over the catalyst's lifetime, is a universal criterion for the operational stability of a catalyst. If the cost of the catalyst is known, the cost contribution per catalytic cycle can be determined. The present work honors the contributions by Prof. Christian Wandrey and his group on the topic of TTN and describes some recent developments on the subject.     

Industrial Internet of Things for the Sugar Industry – Initial Results

The operating data from batch-type pendulum centrifuges for separating sugar crystals from crystal suspensions are recorded locally during the sugar manufacturing process and analyzed in cloud-based applications. The information obtained can be classified into machine-related status data, separation process-related key figures, and advanced evaluation results for the crystal suspension (massecuite) processed and the sugar produced. Such continuously available analyses could previously only be prepared in limited quantities and by experts with specialist knowledge.     

Appendix:Abstracts of Journal of Chemical Industry and Engineering(China)

A new plate-to-plate method for performanceprediction of azeotropic distillation processes isdeveloped.Azeotropic distillation is character-ized by the strong interaction among componentsand by a samll number of components involved.By plate-to-plate method,the number of intera-rive variables depends only on the number ofcomponents,therefore a combination of theplate-to-plate approach and the Newton-     

Polyphosphazenes—A Promising Candidate for Drug Delivery,Bioimaging, and Tissue Engineering: A Review

Synthetic polymer materials have been surged to the forefront of research in the fields of tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biomonitoring in recent years. Biodegradable synthetic polymers are increasingly needed as transient substrates for tissue regeneration and medicine delivery. In contrast to commonly used polymers including polyesters, polylactones, polyanhydrides, poly(propylene fumarates), polyorthoesters, and polyurethanes, biodegradable polyphosphazenes (PPZs) hold great potential for the purposes indicated above. PPZ's versatility in the synthetic process has enabled the production of a variety of polymers with various physico-chemical, and biological properties have been produced, making them appropriate for biomedical applications. Biocompatible PPZs are often used as scaffolds in the regeneration of skeleton, bones, and other tissues. PPZs have also received special attention as potential drug vehicles of high-value biopharmaceuticals such as anticancer drugs. Additionally, by incorporating fluorophores into the PPZ backbone to produce photoluminescent biodegradable PPZs, the utility of polyphosphazenes is further expanded as they are used in tracking the regeneration of the target tissue as well as the fate of PPZ based scaffolds or drug delivery vehicles. This review provides a summary of the evolution of PPZ applications in the fields of tissue engineering, drug delivery, and bioimaging in recent 5 years.     

A Modified Model for Flexibility Analysis in Chemical Engineering Processes

This paper discussed an extended model for flexibility analysis of chemical process. Under uncertainty, probability density function is used to describe uncertain parameters instead of hyper-rectangle, and chance-constrained programming is a feasible way to deal with the violation of constraints. Because the feasible region of control variables would change along with uncertain parameters, its smallest acceptable size threshold is presented to ensure the controllability condition. By synthesizing the considerations mentioned above, a modified model can describe the flexibility analysis problem more exactly. Then a hybrid algorithm, which integrates: stochastic simulation and genetic algorithm, is applied to solve this model and maximize the flexibility region. Both numerical and chemical process examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.     

A Multi-layer Information Integration Platform for Chemical Process Operation Systems

In the process industry, automation and process control systems are widely implemented, information integration is however far away from satisfactory. It remains a hard job for senior managers to make decisions based on the plant-wide real-time integrated information. This paper proposes a multi-layer information integration platform. In the data integration level, the standard for the exchange of product (STEP) and the extensible markup language (XML) are used to unify these data of the chemical process. In the model integration level, the models are integrated by using the neutral model repository and CAPE-OPEN. In the integration of process task, the common object request broker architecture (CORBA) is used as the communication mediator. The XML is taken as the data standard. A uniform information platform is thus constructed and realized. The proposed information integration platform is satisfactorily implemented to solve the Tennessee Eastman (TE) problem.     

Advances in Merox? Process and Catalysis for Thiol Oxidation

The UOP Merox? process is an efficient and economical catalytic process developed for the treatment of petroleum fractions to remove sulfur present as thiols or to directly convert thiols to less-objectionable disulfides. The key to this oxidation process is a metal-chelate redox catalyst which selectively catalyzes the oxidation of thiols with oxygen as the oxidant without causing undesirable oxidation of hydrocarbons. In this paper, we discuss the Merox? process and mechanisms by which the catalyst selectively oxidizes thiols. Additionally, we discuss the development of promoted thiol oxidation catalyst systems which eliminate the use of caustic media in the oxidation process.     

Heat on – Calibration of IR Spectroscopy at Process Conditions for Continuous Esterification

This work tries to close the gap between continuous synthesis, measurement, calibration, and analysis on R&D scale. By introducing new calibration methods, the full potential of inline ATR-FTIR spectroscopy in continuous reactor setups is unraveled. A fast, fully automated calibration of the reaction mixtures is carried out at process conditions. The use of different compositions underlines the robustness of this calibration method, which was used for the determination of kinetic parameters. The conversion-based calibration significantly increased the precision of the analysis. In difference, the new method only requires the preparation of two calibration mixtures. By that, this method can also be applied to large-scale processes and allows the use of a single measurement setup from R&D to industrial scale.     

A Robust Statistical Batch Process Monitoring Framework and Its Application

In order to reduce the variations of the product quality in batch processes, multivariate statistical process control methods according to multi-way principal component analysis (MPCA) or multi-way projection to latent structure (MPLS) were proposed for on-line batch process monitoring. However, they are based on the decomposition of relative covariance matrix and strongly affected by outlying observations. In this paper, in view of an efficient projection pursuit algorithm, a robust statistical batch process monitoring (RSBPM) framework, which is resistant to outliers, is proposed to reduce the high demand for modeling data. The construction of robust normal operating condition model and robust control limits are discussed in detail. It is evaluated on monitoring an industrial streptomycin fermentation process and compared with the conventional MPCA. The results show that the RSBPM framework is resistant to possible outliers and the robustness is confirmed.     

Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) – A Versatile Polymer for Biomedical and Beyond Medical Applications

The high versatility of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) can be explained by its diverse properties including its solubility in water and in a broad range of liquid media, high chemical and thermal resistance, and unique wetting, binding, and film-forming properties. Thanks to biocompatibility, absence of toxicity and high capacity to form interpolymer complexes, PVP is widely used for designing materials for different applications, such as biomaterials for medical and nonmedical uses. This review summarizes a vast diversity of applicative examples showing the tremendous opportunities for future research and developments of PVP based biomaterials.     

Combination of Refractometry and Densimetry – A Promising Option for Fast Raw Methanol Analysis

Besides water, raw methanol produced from steel mill gases within the Carbon2Chem® project contains dissolved carbon dioxide. Refractometry and densimetry were investigated as analysis methods to analyze raw methanol samples quickly and reliably. To verify existing calibration curves, a set of standard solutions from pure chemicals was produced. Experimental results differed significantly from published refractive index data, especially in the range of high methanol weight fractions, which are of particular interest for the Carbon2Chem® project.