Extraction of phytochemicals using hydrotropic solvents

Every plant synthesizes phytochemicals with different properties to supply a pool of molecules for food, chemical and pharmaceutical applications. Concurrent with “green technology” development, use of green solvents to extract phytochemicals instead of conventional non-eco-friendly solvents is crucial. Hydrotrope is a one of the green solvents that enhances solubility of poorly water-soluble or hydrophobic compounds in aqueous solutions. This article critically reviews the extraction of phytochemicals using various hydrotropic solvents. Hydrotropy mechanisms, factors influencing extraction and recovery methods of phytochemicals were also evaluated in this review.     

Delay-range-dependent stability criterion for interval time-delay systems with nonlinear perturbations

In this paper, we consider the problem of robust stability for a class of linear systems with interval time-varying delay under nonlinear perturbations using Lyapunov-Krasovskii (LK) functional approach. By partitioning the delay-interval into two segments of equal length, and evaluating the time-derivative of a candidate LK functional in each segment of the delay-interval, a less conservative delay-dependent stability criterion is developed to compute the maximum allowable bound for the delay-range within which the system under consideration remains asymptotically stable. In addition to the delay-bi-segmentation analysis procedure, the reduction in conservatism of the proposed delay-dependent stability criterion over recently reported results is also attributed to the fact that the time-derivative of the LK functional is bounded tightly using a newly proposed bounding condition without neglecting any useful terms in the delay-dependent stability analysis. The analysis, subsequently, yields a stable condition in convex linear matrix inequality (LMI) framework that can be solved non-conservatively at boundary conditions using standard numerical packages. Furthermore, as the number of decision variables involved in the proposed stability criterion is less, the criterion is computationally more effective. The effectiveness of the proposed stability criterion is validated through some standard numerical examples.     

Integration of functional reliability analysis with hardware reliability: An application to safety grade decay heat removal system of Indian 500 MWe PFBR

A passive system can fail either due to classical mechanical failure of components, referred to as hardware failure, or due to the failure of physical phenomena to fulfill the intended function, referred to as functional failure. In this paper a methodology is discussed for the integration of these two kinds of unreliability and applied to evaluate the integrated failure probability of the passive decay heat removal system of Indian 500 MWe prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR). The probability of occurrence of various system hardware configurations is evaluated using the fault tree method and functional failure probabilities on the corresponding configurations are determined based on the overall approach reported in the reliability methods for passive system (RMPS) project. The variation of functional reliability with time, which is coupled to the probability of occurrence of various hardware system configurations is studied and incorporated in the integrated reliability analysis. It is observed that this consideration of the dependence of functional reliability on time will give significant advantages on system reliability. The integrated reliability analysis is also explained using an event tree. The impact of the provision for forced circulation in the primary circuit on functional reliability is also studied with this procedure and it is found that the forced circulation capability helps to bring down the total decay heat removal failure probability by lowering the peak temperatures after the reactor shut down.     

Influence of Emulsification Technique and Wall Composition on Physicochemical Properties and Oxidative Stability of Fish Oil Microcapsules Produced by Spray Drying

Encapsulation of fish oil is an effective way to protect it against oxidation and masking its fishy odor. One of the possible ways to produce fish oil microcapsules is to produce an oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion followed by spray drying. This study compares the production of the O/W emulsion by mechanical homogenization (rotor–stator) with membrane emulsification and examines the effect of the type and amount of wall material added before drying. The membrane emulsification process selected for the emulsion production is premix membrane emulsification (ME), which consists of the production of a coarse emulsion by mechanical means followed by droplet breakup when the coarse emulsion is forced through a membrane. The emulsions produced had an oil load of 10 and 20 % and were stabilized using whey protein (isolate and hydrolyzate at 1 or 10 %) and sodium caseinate with concentrations of 2 and 10 %. Regarding the material used to build the microcapsule wall, whey protein, maltodextrin, or combinations of them were used at three different oil/wall ratios (1:1, 1:2, 1:3). The results clearly show that premix ME is a suitable technology for producing O/W emulsions stabilized with proteins, which have a smaller droplet size and are more monodisperse than those produced by rotor–stator emulsification. However, protein concentrations of 10 % are required to reduce the droplet size down to 2–3 μm. Small and monodisperse emulsions have been found to produce microcapsules with lower surface oil content, which increases oil encapsulation efficiency and presents lower levels of oxidation during storage at 30 °C. Of all the possible combinations studied, the one with the highest oil encapsulation efficiency is the production of a 20 % O/W emulsion stabilized with 10 % sodium caseinate followed by the addition of 50 % maltodextrin and drying.