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At least 127 records · Page 7

Computationally efficient optimization models for preliminary distillation column design and separation energy targeting

We propose versatile shortcut distillation column and separation energy targeting models that are well-suited for superstructure-based process synthesis. The models are based on a novel reformulation of the Underwood equations to address systems where the components that are present in the feed can vary due to zero flow rates of some components. Also, we propose valid constraints, resulting in a significant enhancement of the computational performance of the models. Furthermore, the proposed distillation column model can automatically identify adequate key components and the energy requirement of a desired separation task, while considering a wide range of types of separations including non-sharp/sloppy splits. Also, the proposed separation energy targeting model can be used to estimate an energy requirement target for the separation of a mixture without finding detail network configurations. Due to their versatility and computational efficiency, the proposed models can be readily used for and expand the scope of superstructure-based process synthesis approaches.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Superhydrophobic composite asymmetric electrospun membrane for sustainable vacuum assisted air gap membrane distillation

Membrane distillation (MD) relies on superhydrophobic membranes that must achieve the competing goals of high liquid entry pressure (LEP) and high permeability. Here, in this study, we developed the first superhydrophobic composite electrospun asymmetric membrane using fluorinated graphite (FG). We also provided among the first comparisons of the relative benefits of membrane asymmetry and composite coatings via 3D electrospinning and spraying. FG particles increased the roughness and reduced the zeta potential of the membranes. Superhydrophobic composite membranes had a contact angle of 157° (sliding angle of 7°) and an LEP of 327 kPa. Long-term MD testing revealed that FG particles could increase MD's sustainability while decreasing membrane wetting. Vacuum-assisted air gap membrane distillation (V-AGMD) showed that the composite asymmetric membrane outperformed the non-asymmetric version (composite nanofiber) membrane by 21 % in average water flux and 25 % in average thermal efficiency because of the asymmetric structure of the membrane. The numerical model developed for the V-AGMD system also successfully predicted the water flux generated experimentally from the composite nanofiber and composite asymmetric membranes. Our results confirmed that electrospun asymmetric FG membranes with high contact angle, low sliding angle, high permeability, and high gained output ratio (GOR) would be promising candidates for sustainable MD.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Optimal design of multi-stage vacuum membrane distillation and integration with supercritical water desalination for improved zero liquid discharge desalination

Herein this paper proposes a novel concept for the optimal design of multi-stage vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). Generally, a multi-stage VMD is designed with an equal temperature difference between each stage. However, such a design is energy inefficient and increases VMD area. An analytical methodology for calculating the optimal stage temperature is proposed. By selecting the optimal stage temperature, the energy efficiency and required membrane area can be potentially improved by 16% and 30%, respectively. The proposed concept applies to all heat sources, including latent, sensible, and waste heat. To illustrate the method, multi-stage VMD is integrated with the waste heat from a supercritical water desalination (SCWD) system to achieve zero liquid discharge. SCWD is an energy-intensive process, requires high-quality thermal heat (>450 °C), and exhibits high waste heat rejection. The integrated VMD-SCWD approach is approximately 50% more energy-efficient and 35% more cost-efficient than the standalone SCWD system. Compared to the commercially used brine concentrator and crystallizer, the multi-stage VMD-SCWD system is more energy efficient for feed concentrations >5%. VMD-SCWD system is 30% cheaper, due to less expensive membrane distillation modules compared to a brine concentrator. The proposed design concept can replace the brine concentrator and crystallizer as an improved alternative for a zero-liquid discharge desalination system.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A novel sub-pilot-scale direct-contact ultrasonic dehydration technology for sustainable production of distillers dried grains (DDG)

DDG is a major source of protein, calcium, phosphorus, and sulfur is arguably the most important byproduct of the bioethanol industry with increasing demand over the past few years. Reducing energy consumption in the DDG production process and energy recovery from DDG is vital for sustainable bioethanol productions. In this paper, a novel direct-contact multi-frequency, multimode, and modulated (MMM) ultrasonic dryer (US) was developed for the first time and has been applied in dehydration of wet distillers' grain (WDG). Ultrasonic drying (US) was combined with a convective airflow (HA) at different temperatures of 25 (room temperature), 50 and 70 °C to evaluate the impact of US, HA, and US + HA on drying kinetics, activation energy, chemical compositions, microstructure, and color of DDG. Semi-empirical kinetic models were developed and evaluating drying performances showed that the application of ultrasound significantly enhanced the drying rate and decreased the drying time (by 46%), especially at low drying temperatures. The activation energy for moisture removal in the presence of ultrasound was about 50% of that without ultrasound. The final dried distillers' grains product processed by ultrasonic drying had a brighter color, a higher available protein, a higher digestible protein (the lowest acid detergent insoluble crude protein), and a better surface profile with no compromise on minerals and fiber contents.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Mineral Scale Prevention on Electrically Conducting Membrane Distillation Membranes Using Induced Electrophoretic Mixing

The growth of mineral crystals on surfaces is a challenge across multiple industrial processes. Membrane-based desalination processes, in particular, are plagued by crystal growth (known as scaling), which restricts the flow of water through the membrane, can cause membrane wetting in membrane distillation, and can lead to the physical destruction of the membrane material. Scaling occurs when supersaturated conditions develop along the membrane surface due to the passage of water through the membrane, a process known as concentration polarization. To reduce scaling, concentration polarization is minimized by encouraging turbulent conditions and by reducing the amount of water recovered from the saline feed. In addition, antiscaling chemicals can be used to reduce the availability of cations. Here, we report on an energy-efficient electrophoretic mixing method capable of nearly eliminating CaSO4 and silicate scaling on electrically conducting membrane distillation (ECMD) membranes. The ECMD membrane material is composed of a percolating layer of carbon nanotubes deposited on porous polypropylene support and cross-linked by poly(vinyl alcohol). The application of low alternating potentials (2 Vpp,1Hz) had a dramatic impact on scale formation, with the impact highly dependent on the frequency of the applied signal, and in the case of silicate, on the pH of the solution.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Low-cost desalination of seawater and hypersaline brine using nanophotonics enhanced solar energy membrane distillation

A stand-alone small-scale nanophotonics enhanced solar membrane distillation (NESMD) testbed was designed, developed, and tested for desalinating seawater and high salinity feedwaters. This NESMD system can take almost any source water and turn it into clean water with sunlight as the only energy source. The NESMD technology applies nanophotonic coating materials on a commercial hydrophobic polypropylene support of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane surface. The photothermal coating serves as a solar thermal collector, absorbs solar energy, and generates highly localized heat on the membrane, while the rest of the membrane performs membrane distillation functions. The presented NESMD system is equipped with an internal heat recovery system with no need for external electricity and no additional water for cooling. The NESMD testbed is installed and tested at Rice University campus (29.7174° N, 95.4018° W). In this study, real seawater from Galveston Bay, Texas, U.S. and high salinity simulated feedwaters (total dissolved solids (TDS) of 113 200–200 000 PPM) have been tested for long-term testing under the weather conditions of Houston, Texas. Here, the field testing results showed stable desalination performance in consecutive 5–8 hour operation cycles, with a TDS removal of ≥99.5% in all experiments. An average daily membrane flux of ≥0.75 L m –2 h –1 was achieved at a solar intensity close to 1 kW m –2 without an external heat exchanger. Further investigations and improvements are required to enhance the performance of the reactor since it is still a new promising technology.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Distilling particle knowledge for fast reconstruction at high-energy physics experiments

Knowledge distillation is a form of model compression that allows artificial neural networks of different sizes to learn from one another. Its main application is the compactification of large deep neural networks to free up computational resources, in particular on edge devices. In this article, we consider proton-proton collisions at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) and demonstrate a successful knowledge transfer from an event-level graph neural network (GNN) to a particle-level small deep neural network (DNN). Our algorithm, DistillNet, is a DNN that is trained to learn about the provenance of particles, as provided by the soft labels that are the GNN outputs, to predict whether or not a particle originates from the primary interaction vertex. The results indicate that for this problem, which is one of the main challenges at the HL-LHC, there is minimal loss during the transfer of knowledge to the small student network, while improving significantly the computational resource needs compared to the teacher. This is demonstrated for the distilled student network on a CPU, as well as for a quantized and pruned student network deployed on a field programmable gate array. Our study proves that knowledge transfer between networks of different complexity can be used for fast artificial intelligence (AI) in high-energy physics that improves the expressiveness of observables over non-AI-based reconstruction algorithms. Such an approach can become essential at the HL-LHC experiments, e.g. to comply with the resource budget of their trigger stages.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Conceptual design and optimization for JET water detritiation system cryo-distillation facility

The aim of the Exhaust Detritiation System (EDS) of the JET Active Gas Handling System (AGHS) is to convert all Q-based species (Q{sub 2}, Q-hydrocarbons) into Q{sub 2}O (Q being indifferently H, D or T) which is then trapped on molecular sieve beds (MSB). Regenerating the saturated MSBs leads to the production of tritiated water which is stored in Briggs drums. An alternative disposal solution to offsite shipping, is to process the tritiated water onsite via the implementation of a Water Detritiation System (WDS) based, in part, on the combination of an electrolyser and a cryo-distillation (CD) facility. The CD system will separate a Q{sub 2} mixture into a de-tritiated hydrogen stream for safe release and a tritiated stream for further processing on existing AGHS subsystems. A sensitivity study of the Souers' model using the simulation program ProSimPlus (edited by ProSim S.A.) has then been undertaken in order to perform an optimised dimensioning of the cryo-distillation system in terms of available cooling technologies, cost of investment, cost of operations, process performance and safety. (authors)

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Distillable amine-based solvents for effective pretreatment of multiple biomass feedstocks

Exploring the potential of advanced distillable solvents as efficient biomass pretreatment agents is critical for biorefineries, enhancing fermentable sugar yields while enabling solvent recovery and recycling without suffering significant losses. Here, we employ distillable amine-based solvents for pretreating a wide range of lignocellulosic feedstocks, aiming to facilitate the industrial release of fermentable sugars from diverse feedstocks through enzymatic hydrolysis. Twenty-two diverse feedstocks, sourced from different geographical regions and representing various biomass categories, were surveyed for chemical (mainly carbohydrates and lignin) and lignin (S, G, and H units) profiles. Several solvents, including ethanolamine, ethanolammonium acetate, butylamine, butylammonium acetate, and triethylamine, were tested for the pretreatment of eight selected biomasses. Among these solvents, butylamine emerged as the most effective due to its favorable sugar release, excellent solvent removal rate, and low boiling point, facilitating solvent recovery and recycling. Extending butylamine pretreatment to all 22 feedstocks demonstrated desirable sugar yields and highly efficient solvent removal in the majority of the biomass sources tested. Agricultural residues and their mixtures showed particularly favorable sugar release. Despite minimal changes in cellulose crystallinity, XRD characterization of sorghum, poplar, and pine before and after butylamine pretreatment showed a decrease in intensity and a slight shift of certain peaks, indicating alterations in cellulose structure. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis analyses suggested disruption of biomass linkages in hemicellulose and lignin, enhancing enzymatic digestibility. Scale-up experiments of the mixed agricultural feedstocks in a 1 L Parr reactor achieved over 90% glucose liberation and more than 99% butylamine removal, highlighting the scalability of the method. The resulting hydrolysates supported the growth of diverse bacterial and fungal strains, indicating downstream compatibility with commercial fermentation processes. This study presents butylamine as an effective, recoverable pretreatment solvent for a wide range of lignocellulosic feedstocks, offering a promising solution to key biorefinery challenges. The demonstrated scalability and compatibility with various biomass types and blends underscore its potential for industrial application, advancing sustainable biofuel and biochemical production.

biomass composition↗

Cost-efficient and Scalable Nitration of Cyanoacetic Acid with Potassium Nitrate in Methanesulfonic Acid Gives Pure 3,4-Dicyanofuroxan Following Modified Steam Distillation Methodologies

Two issues exist in the preparation of 3,4-dicyanofuroxan (1, DCFO) by a nitration of cyanoacetic acid (CAA) with 100% of HNO 3 in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) or in H 2 SO 4 /CH 2 Cl 2 : (1) the cost of 100% of HNO 3 and (2) the isolation and purification of the product. In this paper, we report a cost-efficient nitration methodology by replacing 100% of HNO 3 with KNO 3 in methanesulfonic acid (MSA). The methodology includes adding KNO 3 and CAA portionwise to the solution of MSA at 45-50 ºC and keeping total nitrating time < 90 mins; purifying the product using our newly developed Water-Co-Distilling process or Modified Steam Distillation at atmosphere pressure. Here, the methodology, in general, provided DCFO in 50-60% of yield with >99% of purity as identified by NMR and GC-MS.

3,4-dicyanofuroxan↗

IS Process Hydrogen Production Test for Components and System Made of Industrial Structural Material (II) - H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} decomposition, HI Distillation, and HI Decomposition Section - 18629

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting research and development on the thermochemical iodine sulfur (IS) process for nuclear-powered hydrogen production. The IS process is one of the promising candidates of heat application of High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors. The IS process consists of three chemical reactions: Bunsen reaction, hydriodic acid (HI) decomposition and sulfuric acid (H{sub 2}SO{sub 4}) decomposition. It is necessary for component materials to have high corrosion resistance because high-temperature strong acids such as HI and H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} are used in the IS process. JAEA, so far, achieved to produce hydrogen for one week continuously with a hydrogen production rate of approximately 30 NL/h by a test apparatus made of glass and fluoro-resin material. As a next step toward practical application, we test-fabricated main components, that is, Bunsen reactor, sulfuric acid decomposer, and HI decomposer, made of industrial materials and investigated their integrity in the practical corrosive environments of the IS process. Based on their results, we have constructed a 100 NL/h-H{sub 2}-scale test apparatus made of industrial materials. This test apparatus is divided by chemical reaction and unit operation into five sections: Bunsen section, H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} decomposition section, HI concentration section, HI distillation section, and HI decomposition section. First, we investigated performance of components in each section. This report discusses test results of the H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} decomposition section, HI distillation section, and HI decomposition section. (authors)

08 HYDROGEN↗

Minimum Energy of Multicomponent Distillation Systems Using Minimum Additional Heat and Mass Integration Sections

Heat and mass integration to consolidate distillation columns in a multicomponent distillation configuration can lead to a number of new energy efficient and cost effective configurations. In this paper, we identify a powerful and simple-to-use fact about heat and mass integration. The newly developed heat and mass integrated configurations, which we call as HMP configurations, involve first introducing thermal couplings to all intermediate transfer streams, followed by consolidating columns associated with a lighter pure product reboiler and a heavier pure product condenser. A systematic method of enumerating all HMP configurations is introduced. We compare the energy savings of HMP configurations with the well-known fully thermally coupled (FTC) configurations. We demonstrate that HMP configurations can have very similar and sometimes even the same minimum total vapor duty requirement as the FTC configuration, while using far less number of column sections, intermediate transfer streams, and thermal couplings than the FTC configurations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Additively manufactured cryogenic microchannel distillation device for air separation

Abstract The efficiency of air separation is tested using three different small‐scale cryogenic distillation columns. The performance of a random packed column is compared to the performance of two microchannel distillation (MCD) columns that use thin wicking structures and gas flow channels to achieve process intensification. The MCD columns tested include a plate‐type layered column and an additively manufactured porous honeycomb (AMPH) column. For columns with 25.4 cm of active height and run under similar conditions, the packed, plate‐type layering, and AMPH columns achieved approximate height equivalent of a theoretical plate (HETP) values of 5.5, 3.7, and 3.2 cm for nitrogen, and 5.9, 4.9, and 3.3 cm for argon. The AMPH column can produce up to 0.4 SLM of more than 90% purity oxygen with 12 W of cooling lift. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using additive manufacturing to construct MCD devices and pave a way for constructing novel MCD designs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Comparison of the efficacy of a biocompatible and a distillable solvent for pretreatment of mixed bioenergy feedstocks

Biomass deconstruction is a crucial step in the production of lignocellulosic biofuels and bioproducts. However, identifying and selecting an optimal pretreatment solvent that enhances enzymatic saccharification while being cost-efficient and ensuring sustainability remains a challenge. In this study, we compare the effectiveness of the biocompatible ionic liquid cholinium lysinate ([Ch][Lys]) against the distillable solvent ethanolamine, when used for the pretreatment of mixed bioenergy feedstocks, including poplar, switchgrass, and sorghum. [Ch][Lys] was used at a concentration of 10 % wt. in a one-pot configuration without biomass washing and ethanolamine was used in a concentrated form and removed with a vacuum oven, before performing enzymatic hydrolysis and microbial conversion. Our results show that ethanolamine pretreatment consistently enhances the glucose yield across various biomass types compared to [Ch][Lys], with improvements ranging from 22.0 % to 52.7 %. The highest combined sugar release was observed when the three feedstocks were combined in equal amounts and pretreated with ethanolamine, achieving a glucose yield of 84.6 % and a xylose yield of 76.6 %. Additionally, ethanolamine exhibited exceptional solvent recovery efficiency, with removal efficiencies exceeding 99.8 % at 120 °C across all feedstocks, highlighting its advantage over non-distillable solvents. While both solvents produced biocompatible hydrolysates, the hydrolysates prepared using ethanolamine resulted in higher bioproduct formation. These findings highlight the industrial relevance of selecting recyclable and biocompatible solvents for scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective bioenergy production. This study contributes to the development of economically viable and scalable pretreatment technologies for bioenergy applications using different feedstocks and process configurations.

Rahman, Maksudur↗

Fluorographite-co-polydimethylsiloxane coated polyvinylidene-fluoride membrane for desalination of highly saline water with humic acid in direct contact membrane distillation

Highlights: • Surface modifications by FGi particles with PDMS binder of PVDF microporous membranes shown improvement in DCMD. • LEP with DI water & performance of M2-M4 modified membranes in DCMD was enhanced with 1M NaCl & 10 ppm HA feed solution. • Amphiphobicity was evidenced by CA with low surface tension liquids upto 38 dyne/cm as well as with canola oil. • EDX analysis proved enhancement in FC ratio and membrane surface analysis lead to understand enhanced performance in DCMD. Membranes with amphiphobic properties are crucial for desalination of concentrated saline water with organic foulant by membrane distillation. In this research, we coated Fluorographite (FGi) particles on polyvinylidene-fluoride (PVDF) flat sheet membranes with 0.8% v/v polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as binder by filtration coating method. We evaluated its amphiphobicity via contact angles which were observed by DI water, canola oil and organic solutions as mimicking for oleophobicity. Surface modifications by FGi particles on the surface of membranes was introduced with PDMS binder which brought bifunctionality of amphiphobicity to enhance hydrophobicity and oleophobicity. We also investigated performance of coated membranes in direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) with 1 molar concentrated NaCl solution along with humic acid being organic foulant and compared with virgin membrane (M1 membrane) and Liquid entry pressure (LEP) was also evaluated. LEP was measured by dynamic method which shown considerable improvement in coated membranes. M3 membrane showed overall better performance in terms of salt rejection higher than 99.87% and flux as compared to M1 membrane. Furthermore, the evaluation of surface characterizations was done by FESEM with EDX, AFM and FTIR. Surface morphology confirmed the coating of FGi on membrane surface while EDX evidenced increase in atomic percent of fluorine in turn F:C ratio.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Conversion of Distiller’s Grains to Renewable Fuels and High Value Protein: Integrated Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Assessment

Distiller’s grains are a byproduct of corn ethanol production and provide an opportunity for increasing the economic viability and sustainability of the overall grain-to-fuels process. Typically, these grains are dried and sold as a ruminant feed adjunct. Here, this study considers utilization of the residuals in a novel supplementary fermentation process to produce two products, enriched protein and fusel alcohols. The value-added proposition and environmental impact of this second fermentation step for distiller’s grains are evaluated by considering three different processing scenarios. Techno-economic results show the minimum protein selling price, assuming fusel alcohol products are valued at 0.79 cents per liter gasoline equivalent, ranges between 1.65–2.48 kg protein –1 for the different cases. Environmental impacts of the systems were evaluated through life cycle assessment. Results show a baseline emission results of 17 g CO 2-eq (MJ fuel) –1 for the fuel product and 10.3 kg CO 2-eq kg protein –1 for the protein product. Sensitivity to allocation methods show a dramatic impact with results ranging between –8 to 140 g CO 2-eq (MJ fuel) –1 for the fuel product and –0.3 to 6.4 kg CO 2-eq kg protein –1 for the protein product. The discussion is focused on the potential impact of the technology on corn ethanol production economics and sustainability.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

A New Framework for Combining a Condenser and Reboiler in a Configuration To Consolidate Distillation Columns

Heat and mass integration to consolidate distillation columns in a configuration is often characterized by elimination of a reboiler and condenser associated with the same components. We study a new and more general approach to column consolidation, of which the conventional approach is a special case. In the new approach, the reboiler of a column is coupled with the condenser of another, through heat and mass integration in an additional section (HMA-section). The introduction of an HMA-section eliminates multiple connecting streams/valves, reduces the number of reboilers, condensers, and distillation columns by one each, and reduces the heat duty of the configuration. We exhaustively enumerate HMA-sections, and lay out a framework to identify all configurations with HMA-sections. Through examples, we show that both heat integration and mass integration resulting from introducing an HMA-section contribute to reduce the heat duty significantly.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Hybrid Pressure Retarded Osmosis-Membrane Distillation System for Power Generation from Low-Grade Heat: Thermodynamic Analysis and Energy Efficiency

We present a novel hybrid membrane system that operates as a heat engine capable of utilizing low-grade thermal energy, which is not readily recoverable with existing technologies. The closed-loop system combines membrane distillation (MD), which generates concentrated and pure water streams by thermal separation, and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO), which converts the energy of mixing to electricity by a hydro-turbine. The PRO-MD system was modeled by coupling the mass and energy flows between the thermal separation (MD) and power generation (PRO) stages for heat source temperatures ranging from 40 to 80 degrees C and working concentrations of 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 mol/kg NaCl. The factors controlling the energy efficiency of the heat engine were evaluated for both limited and unlimited mass and heat transfer kinetics in the thermal separation stage. In both cases, the relative flow rate between the MD permeate (distillate) and feed streams is identified as an important operation parameter. There is an optimal relative flow rate that maximizes the overall energy efficiency of the PRO-MD system for given working temperatures and concentration. In the case of unlimited mass and heat transfer kinetics, the energy efficiency of the system can be analytically determined based on thermodynamics. Our assessment indicates that the hybrid PRO-MD system can theoretically achieve an energy efficiency of 9.8% (81.6% of the Carnot efficiency) with hot and cold working temperatures of 60 and 20 degrees C, respectively, and a working solution of 1.0 M NaCl. When mass and heat transfer kinetics are limited, conditions that more closely represent actual operations, the practical energy efficiency will be lower than the theoretically achievable efficiency. In such practical operations, utilizing a higher working concentration will yield greater energy efficiency. Overall, our study demonstrates the theoretical viability of the PRO-MD system and identifies the key factors for performance optimization.

Lin, SH↗