Catalytic Membrane Reactors – Lab Curiosity or Key Enabling Technology?

Two industrially interesting partial oxidations have been performed in catalytic membrane reactors with oxygen‐transporting membrane: aromatization of natural gas and oxidation of ammonia to nitric oxide. In both reactions, the oxygen used has been separated from air through a perovskite membrane, which also is the catalyst for the ammonia oxidation. When conducting the methane aromatization in an oxygen‐transporting membrane reactor, coke deposition is reduced and the aromatics yield is higher than that of a reference non‐oxidative fixed‐bed reactor.     

Economies of Scale – Agitator Technology for World-Scale Plants

Over the past 35 years, the cost benefit of the economies of scale has led in some industrial production processes to a more than tenfold increase in reactor volume. The article highlights this trend with the focus on three industrial examples: PET production, pressure oxidizing in the mining industry, and fermentation. It gives background information about the current trend and shows industrial examples of the world's largest plants, often referred to as world-scale plants with their specific characteristics, challenges, and mixing and engineering solution.     

How Bromate and Ozone Concentrations Can be Modeled at Full-Scale Based on Lab-Scale Experiments – A Case Study

This article presents a full-scale modeling study of an industrial ozonation unit for practical application. The modeling framework combines an integrated hydraulic model (systematic network) with a quasi-mechanistic chemical model. Dealing with natural water, the chemical model has to be parameterized, and the parameters calibrated. This was done based on lab-scale experiments. The calibration results showed that the chemical model is able to account for changes in contact time with ozone, pH, temperature, ozone dose, NOM concentration, bromide concentration. Comparison of residence time distributions showed that the hydraulic model accurately reproduces flow conditions. Six sampling points were installed along an industrial ozonation unit of 487 m³ consisting of two baffled tanks in series. Bromate and ozone concentrations were monitored under varying operational process conditions. After the selection of a value for the k_La, simulations were run. Using the lab-scale calibrated models, simulated and experimental data were found in close agreement: 84% of the simulated concentrations for ozone matched measurements (±experimental error), 60 % for bromate. A readjustment of the kinetics of a single reaction (out of 65) showed that seasonal changes in NOM activity may easily be taken into account based on regular concentration measurements (90% of the bromate concentrations were then modeled accurately).     

A NIR Emitting Cyanine with Large Stokes’ Shift for Mitochondria and Identification of their Membrane Potential Disruption

An NIR emitting (λ_em≈730 nm) cyanine probe ExCy was synthesized in good yields by extending the π-conjugation length (i. e., with furan moiety) to the donor-accepter system. ExCy exhibited a large Stokes’ shift (Δλ≈100 nm) due to strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), and high fluorescence quantum yield (Φ_fl≈0.47 in DCM). Due to its low fluorescence in an aqueous environment (Φ_fl≈0.007 in H₂O), the probe exhibited the potential of achieving a large fluorescence turn-on upon entering a hydrophobic cellular environment. Fluorescence confocal microscopy studies revealed that ExCy was readily excitable with a far-red laser line (i. e., 640 nm) while the corresponding emission was collected in the NIR region. ExCy exhibited excellent selectivity towards live cell mitochondria according to the co-localization studies. The probe also exhibited high photostability, long-term imaging ability and wash-free staining ability, when being applied to live cells. Our studies indicated that the mitochondrial localization of ExCy was dependent on the membrane potential of the mitochondria. ExCy was successfully utilized as a mitochondrial membrane potential dysfunction indicator to visually identify cells with mitochondrial dysfunction via fluorescence confocal microscopy. ExCy was further examined for potential in vivo imaging of zebrafish.     

Differential Subcellular Distribution of Cytokinins: How Does Membrane Transport Fit into the Big Picture?

Cytokinins are a class of phytohormones, signalling molecules specific to plants. They act as regulators of diverse physiological processes in complex signalling pathways. It is necessary for plants to continuously regulate cytokinin distribution among different organs, tissues, cells, and compartments. Such regulatory mechanisms include cytokinin biosynthesis, metabolic conversions and degradation, as well as cytokinin membrane transport. In our review, we aim to provide a thorough picture of the latter. We begin by summarizing cytokinin structures and physicochemical properties. Then, we revise the elementary thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of cytokinin membrane transport. Next, we review which membrane-bound carrier proteins and protein families recognize cytokinins as their substrates. Namely, we discuss the families of “equilibrative nucleoside transporters” and “purine permeases”, which translocate diverse purine-related compounds, and proteins AtPUP14, AtABCG14, AtAZG1, and AtAZG2, which are specific to cytokinins. We also address long-distance cytokinin transport. Putting all these pieces together, we finally discuss cytokinin distribution as a net result of these processes, diverse in their physicochemical nature but acting together to promote plant fitness.     

Assessment of Lignin Model Quality in Lignin Chemical Shift Assignments – Substituent and Solvent Effects1

Typical solution-state ¹³C NMR spectra of lignins obtained with relatively modern instrumention contain well over 100 signals. The use of classical lignin model compounds is no longer sufficient for accurate interpretation of these spectra. Ultimately, the only valid models for etherified C₉ units in lignin (which account for about 80% of the lignin polymer) must be at least trimeric or tetrameric, depending on the linkages involved. One approach that can be used involves NMR substituent effects. This approach avoids tedious syntheses while retaining the much-needed accuracy of chemical shift correlations between models and natural lignins. Appropriate substituent effects have been calculated by the use of an extensive NMR database of dimeric, trimeric and tetrameric lignin model compounds. Effects related to acetylation and solvent have also been determined. For example, accurate chemical shift data for an underivatized milled-wood lignin (MWL) in DMSO-d₆ can be determined on the basis of the chemical shifts of the corresponding acetylated MWL in acetone-d₆.     

Pharmacogenomics of Methotrexate Membrane Transport Pathway: Can Clinical Response to Methotrexate in Rheumatoid Arthritis Be Predicted?

Background: Methotrexate (MTX) is widely used for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could be used as predictors of patients’ therapeutic outcome variability. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the influence of SNPs in genes encoding for MTX membrane transport proteins in order to predict clinical response to MTX. Methods: Clinicopathological data from 233 RA patients treated with MTX were collected, clinical response defined, and patients genotyped for 23 SNPs. Genotype and haplotype analyses were performed using multivariate methods and a genetic risk index (GRI) for non-response was created. Results: Increased risk for non-response was associated to SLC22A11 rs11231809 T carriers; ABCC1 rs246240 G carriers; ABCC1 rs3784864 G carriers; CGG haplotype for ABCC1 rs35592, rs2074087 and rs3784864; and CGG haplotype for ABCC1 rs35592, rs246240 and rs3784864. GRI demonstrated that patients with Index 3 were 16-fold more likely to be non-responders than those with Index 1. Conclusions: This study revealed that SLC22A11 and ABCC1 may be important to identify those patients who will not benefit from MTX treatment, highlighting the relevance in translating these results to clinical practice. However, further validation by independent studies is needed to develop the field of personalized medicine to predict clinical response to MTX treatment.     

Fouling Control in a Submerged Flat Sheet Membrane System: Part I – Bubbling and Hydrodynamic Effects

Abstract

Submerged flat sheet membranes are mostly used in membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment. The major problems for these modules are concentration polarization and subsequent fouling. By using gas‐liquid two‐phase flow, these problems can be ameliorated. This paper describes a study of the use of gas‐liquid two‐phase flow as a fouling control mechanism for submerged flat sheet membrane bioreactors. The effect of various hydrodynamic factors such as airflow rate, nozzle size, intermittent filtration, channel gap width, feed concentration, imposed flux, and the use of membrane baffles were investigated. Experiments conducted on model feeds showed that fouling reduction increased with air flow rate up to a given value and beyond this flowrate no further enhancement was achieved. The effect of bubbling was also found to increase with nozzle size at constant airflow. Using intermittent filtration as an operating strategy was found to be more effective than continuous filtration and it also reduced energy requirements. The study showed the importance of the size of the gap between the submerged flat sheet membranes. As the gap was increased from 7 mm to 14 mm, the fouling became worse and the degree of fouling reduction by two‐phase flow decreased by at least 40% based on suction pressure rise (dTMP/dt). This is the first study which has reported the effects of baffles in improving air distribution across a flat sheet submerged membrane. It was found that baffles could decrease the rate of fouling by at least a factor of 2.0 based on the dTMP/dt data, and significantly increase critical flux.     

The Multiverse of Plant Small RNAs: How Can We Explore It?

Plant small RNAs (sRNAs) are a heterogeneous group of noncoding RNAs with a length of 20–24 nucleotides that are widely studied due to their importance as major regulators in various biological processes. sRNAs are divided into two main classes—microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs)—which differ in their biogenesis and functional pathways. Their identification and enrichment with new structural variants would not be possible without the use of various high-throughput sequencing (NGS) techniques, allowing for the detection of the total population of sRNAs in plants. Classifying sRNAs and predicting their functional role based on such high-performance datasets is a nontrivial bioinformatics task, as plants can generate millions of sRNAs from a variety of biosynthetic pathways. Over the years, many computing tools have been developed to meet this challenge. Here, we review more than 35 tools developed specifically for plant sRNAs over the past few years and explore some of their basic algorithms for performing tasks related to predicting, identifying, categorizing, and quantifying individual sRNAs in plant samples, as well as visualizing the results of these analyzes. We believe that this review will be practical for biologists who want to analyze their plant sRNA datasets but are overwhelmed by the number of tools available, thus answering the basic question of how to choose the right one for a particular study.     

How Can Malnutrition Affect Autophagy in Chronic Heart Failure? Focus and Perspectives

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a disease with important clinical and socio-economic ramifications. Malnutrition and severe alteration of the protein components of the body (protein disarrangements), common conditions in CHF patients, are independent correlates of heart dysfunction, disease progression, and mortality. Autophagy, a prominent occurrence in the heart of patients with advanced CHF, is a self-digestive process that prolongs myocardial cell lifespan by the removal of cytosolic components, such as aging organelles and proteins, and recycles the constituent elements for new protein synthesis. However, in specific conditions, excessive activation of autophagy can lead to the destruction of molecules and organelles essential to cell survival, ultimately leading to organ failure and patient death. In this review, we aim to describe the experimental and clinical evidence supporting a pathophysiological role of nutrition and autophagy in the progression of CHF. The understanding of the mechanisms underlying the interplay between nutrition and autophagy may have important clinical implications by providing molecular targets for innovative therapeutic strategies in CHF patients.     

One-step Continuous Phenol Synthesis Technology via Selective Hydroxylation of Benzene over Ultrafine TS-1 in a Submerged Ceramic Membrane Reactor☆

A new route towards phenol production by one-step selective hydroxylation of benzene with hydrogen peroxide over ultrafine titanium silicalites-1 (TS-1) in a submerged ceramic membrane reactor was deve...