Wastewater treatment consists of three or four sequential stages: preliminary, primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each stage can comprise multiple alternative technologies that can perform the same tasks with different efficiencies, operating times, and costs. Thus, we propose a systematic approach for designing wastewater treatment networks by utilizing principles of mathematical modeling and generating

Product design for formulations is an active and challenging area of research. The new challenges of a fast‐paced market, products of increasing complexity, and practical translation of sustainability paradigms require to re‐examine the existing theoretical frameworks to include the advantages deriving from the new reality of digitalization of business and research. In this work, we review the existing

As an attractive alternative technology for the separation of long chain olefin and paraffin, a novel silver‐based deep eutectic solvent (Ag‐DES) was prepared and utilized for 1‐octene/n‐octane separations. Comprehensive reactive extraction separation experiments were performed to highlight the Ag‐DES concentration and operating temperature discriminations using compounds with different ratio of 1‐octene/n‐octane

Aging effects of off‐gas streams including dry air and humid air on reduced silver exchanged mordenite (Ag0Z) were studied. Aged Ag0Z was prepared by exposing Ag0Z to dry air and humid air at different aging temperatures, time, and water vapor concentrations. Iodine loading capacity on the aged Ag0Z was obtained through a continuous‐flow adsorption system. Significant iodine loading capacity losses

Spheronization of cylindrical extrudates on a rotating friction plate involves breakage and rounding. Little attention has been given to the breakage stage and quantitative modeling of this process is scarce. Two simple models are compared with experimental data obtained for the early stages of spheronization of microcrystalline cellulose/water extrudates. Tests were conducted for different times (t)

A rate‐based model of an absorption column was developed and used to analyze several intercooling strategies utilizing “heat exchange packings.” These packings are capable of removing heat from the column and transferring it to a cooling fluid within the packing. For absorption of CO2 into aqueous monoethanolamine under industrial conditions, intercooling via heat exchange packings placed along 10–20%

A mathematical model of a membrane with a thin, oriented, and selective MFI layer, which also includes contributions from defects, pore blockages, support layer, and external mass transfer, was formulated based on the Maxwell‐Stefan equations. It was validated using reported (Kim et al., Angew Chemie Int Ed, 2018, 57:480–485; Jeon et al., Nature, 2017, 543:690–694) para/ortho‐xylene separation data

Acetylene, an important petrochemical feedstock, is the starting chemical to produce many polymer products. Separating C2H2 from its by‐product mixtures is still an energy‐consuming process and remains challenging. Here, we present a metal–organic framework[Zn2(bpy)(btec)], with a desirable pore geometry and stable framework, which demonstrated a high separation performance of C2H2 from simulated mixtures

While facial coverings reduce the spread of SARS‐CoV‐2 by viral filtration, masks capable of viral inactivation by heating can provide a complementary method to limit transmission. Inspired by reverse‐flow chemical reactors, we introduce a new virucidal face mask concept driven by the oscillatory flow of human breath. The governing heat and mass transport equations are solved to evaluate virus and

It is well known that drag reduction properties of polymer solutions in pipe flows are classified into two categories, based on the relationship between the friction factor and the Reynolds number. The degree of drag reduction either increases with an increase in the Reynolds number or is independent of the Reynolds number. In the latter case, the drag reduction behavior is referred to as type B behavior

Stratified two‐phase flows of oil and water are important to the energy industry, and models capable of predicting this type of flow are primordial. Many studies focus on fluids with low viscosity, but a high viscosity oil in the mixture significantly changes its behavior. We gathered experimental data of pressure drop, volumetric fractions, and flow‐pattern data of a stratified liquid–liquid flow

This manuscript develops a robust output regulator for the column froth flotation process in the presence of unknown disturbance. In particular, motivated by relevant physical modeling setting, all information (including magnitude, phase, bias, and frequency) of the disturbance is unavailable. The system considered is consisting of froth and collection zones and is governed by a set of conservative

During emulsification process design, the bulk and interfacial rheology of the target formulation must be carefully considered. Formulations with high viscosity ratios and/or finite interfacial elasticity are particularly challenging to emulsify, as conventional drop‐breakup methods consume significant energy and provide limited control over polydispersity. Here, we develop a two‐stage process that

The Taylor‐Couette reactor (TCR) is an apparatus that capitalizes on the Taylor‐Couette flow, which allows many flow regimes and conditions to perform (bio‐)chemical conversions with precise control of various reactor characteristics. With the possibility to continuously perfuse the reactor with a reaction medium, the TCR becomes interesting for chemical engineering applications. In this review, we

Discovering and designing novel materials is a challenging problem as it often requires searching through a combinatorially large space of potential candidates, typically requiring great amounts of effort, time, expertise, and money. The ability to predict reaction outcomes without performing extensive experiments is, therefore, important. Toward that goal, we report an approach that uses context‐free

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) containing zirconium secondary building units (SBUs) in UiO‐67 and related MOFs, are highly active for neutralizing both the chemical warfare agents and simulants, such as dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP). However, two recent publications gave conflicting reports of DMMP reaction with UiO‐67 under ultra high vacuum (UHV) conditions, with one reporting chemisorption

Since chromatographic separation is a dynamic process, with the interactions between the drug and the chiral stationary phase mediated by the solvent, no single interacting structure, such as could be found by minimizing the energy, could possibly describe and account for the ratio of residence times in the chromatographic column for the enantiomeric pair. We describe the use of explicit‐solvent fully

This contribution is in honor of Professor Keith E. Gubbins, an international leader in developing advances in statistical mechanics and molecular simulation for engineering applications. The research presented here extends the SAFT model that Chapman proposed and developed while a graduate student with Professor Gubbins. In this manuscript, a thermodynamic perturbation theory within a multi‐density

The isosteric heat of adsorption is an important thermodynamic property used to characterize and optimize adsorption processes. In this work, analytic expressions for isosteric heats of adsorption are derived for a collection of commonly used isotherm models and a two‐dimensional molecular equation of state based on the SAFT‐VR approach. The use of these expressions is presented with an example of

The SAFT‐γ Mie group‐contribution equation of state is used to represent the fluid‐phase behavior of aqueous solutions of a variety of linear, branched, and cyclic amines. New group interactions are developed in order to model the mixtures of interest, including the like and unlike interactions between alkyl primary, secondary, and tertiary amine groups (NH2, NH, N), cyclic secondary and tertiary amine

We investigate the effect of steric and hydrodynamic interactions (HI) on quiescent diffusion and flow‐driven transport of finite‐sized nanoparticles through periodic 2D (two‐dimensional) and 3D (three‐dimensional) nanopost arrays using Stokesian dynamics simulations. We find that steric and HI hinder particle diffusivity under quiescent conditions and enhance longitudinal dispersion under flow. Moreover

Nonlinear high‐dimensional distributed parameter systems(DPSs) described by sets of parabolic partial different equations (PDEs) exhibit a dominant, low‐dimensional slow behavior that can be captured using model reduction. A time‐space coupled model reduction architecture combining encoder‐decoder networks with recurrent neural networks (RNNs) was presented in our previous work24, for modeling the

The enhancement of turbulence was considered to be able to bring about better mixing and more uniform distribution of concentration generally, but its influence on ultrafast competitive reactions is an open question. Cu‐Zn co‐precipitation was carried out in three types of micro‐reactors and the turbulent intensity was regulated by changing flow rate and ultrasound power, respectively. Energy‐dispersive

The present study depicts the hydrodynamics and the mixing characteristics in a millichannel‐based serpentine fixed‐bed device to attain the particular demands of the miniature adsorption devices' fabrication. Residence time distribution analyses were accomplished to analyze the velocity distribution inside the packed bed geometry. The effects of operating variables on the system hydrodynamics and

Sugar cane juice concentration via evaporation is the traditional method, though the downside in this technique is the product loss due to sucrose inversion. Gas hydrate separation is an emerging technology applied in desalination, carbon capture, and in this study, for concentrating fruit juice by trapping the water in the form of crystalline cages. A 750 cm3 hydrate reactor was used for hydrate formation

A new synthesis method for reactive distillation processes is proposed. At each stage of a column, vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) is assumed and kinetically controlled reaction in liquid phase is considered. First, the liquid composition space is divided into small subspaces. Then, for each subspace a representative liquid composition is decided and assigned to a module corresponding to a stage of

We investigate non‐uniform behaviors in space of the microbubble emission boiling (MEB). Special attention is paid to radial temperature difference on the heated surface before/after the onset of the MEB. Correlation among the regimes of the MEBs, the radial temperature difference in the heated surface and the vapor bubble behaviors is indicated experimentally. We find that the surface temperature

Optical imaging technologies have the potential to provide detailed information which can inform process design decisions via modeling of critical phenomena or provide innovative process sensors for use in online monitoring and control strategies. In this work, novel algorithms are developed for automated object tracking, event detection and classification in high‐speed imaging sequences of drop breakup

In this article, a robust distributed economic model predictive control (DEMPC) approach is developed for plant‐wide chemical processes. The proposed approach achieves arbitrary feasible setpoints that may vary frequently, attenuates the plant‐wide effects of unknown disturbances and minimizes a plant‐wide economic cost. In this approach, a plant‐wide process is represented as a network of process

In this article, the importance of considering operability and control criteria in the analysis and design of intensified and modular processes is discussed. We first analyze the impact on operability of key factors including: (i) degrees of freedom, (ii) process constraints, (iii) numbering up vs. scaling up, and (iv) dynamic/periodic operation. Comparative examples are presented to showcase the pros

Community detection decomposes large‐scale, complex networks “optimally” into sets of smaller sub‐networks. It finds sub‐networks that have the least inter‐connections and the most intra‐connections. This article presents an efficient community detection algorithm that detects community structures in a weighted network by solving a multi‐objective optimization problem. The whale optimization algorithm

Pervaporation (PV) is a membrane technology that holds great promise for industrial applications. To better understand the PV mechanism, PV dehydrations of various types of organic solvents (methanol, ethanol, iso‐propanol, tert‐butanol, and acetone) were performed on five types of organosilica and two types of silicon carbide‐based membranes, all with different pore sizes. Water permeance was dependent

Removing SO2 and NOx released from middle and small‐scaled coal‐burning boiler is one important strategy for air pollution control. Herein, we first report a novel process on simultaneous eliminating SO2 and NOx at low temperature, by employing large scale and cheap sources of phosphorus sludge and phosphate rock slurry. The results showed that 100% desulfurization and denitrification efficiency can

In this study, two membrane dispersion microreactors in series are used to synthesize piperacillin with low impurity content in kilogram scale. By combining experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulations, the membrane size and cross‐sectional area are scaled up from 2 mm × 0.7 mm and 2 mm × 1 mm to 6.5 mm × 2.5 mm and 6.5 mm × 3.5 mm, respectively, and the reaction time is extended from ~10

Superior controllability of reactive distillation (RD) systems, designed at the maximum driving force (design‐control solution) is demonstrated in this article. Binary or multielement single or double feed RD systems are considered. Reactive phase equilibrium data, needed for driving force analysis and design of the RD system, is generated through an in‐house property prediction tool. Rigorous steady‐state

In this study, hydraulic treatment was performed to fabricate porous cellulose acetate (CA) membranes for application as adsorbents for impurities. For this purpose, porous CA membranes were prepared by applying a water pressure of 8 bar on CA dissolved in a mixed solvent of acetone and water. These porous polymers could separate impurities from 2‐n‐octyl‐4‐isothiazolin‐3‐one (OIT) by providing adsorption

The complexity of lipid feedstocks and the lack of data on physical properties hinder the simulation of oleochemical processing units. In this work, an iterative lumping approach is proposed to define an adequate number of key compounds such that diversification between lipid feedstocks becomes possible, while keeping the determination of physical properties as required for process modeling manageable

Spectroscopic methods play an instrumental role in the implementation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlined process analytical technology for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Industrial spectroscopic calibration models are typically developed in an offline setting using traditional methods, such as partial least squares and principal component regression. Apart from the limiting performances

The low effectiveness factor of catalyst pellet caused by high internal diffusion limitation is a common issue in fixed‐bed reactor. Nevertheless, hierarchical structured catalyst provides a promising solution for the contradiction between reaction activity and diffusion efficiency in large catalyst pellets. Herein, we studied the effect of pore structure parameters of the meso‐macroporous catalyst

We examine the critical cracking thicknesses of as‐dried colloidal TiO2 suspensions containing water‐soluble polymeric additives, above which cracks spontaneously propagate. In contrast to common observations, the critical cracking thickness increases in a nonlinear, stepwise manner as increasing the concentration of the polymeric additive in the suspension. The critical thickness diverges when the

Microbial enhanced oil recovery makes a substantial contribution to the recovery of heavy oils; however, most methods use bacteria, with less attention paid to the potential of fungi. In this study, we investigated the efficiency of fungal extracellular enzymes in biotransformation of heavy oil fractions into light compounds. Two Aspergillus isolates (A. terreus and A. nidulans) with the ability to

Single atom catalysts (SACs), featured with atomically dispersed metal species, have been considered as one of the most promising catalytic materials because of the excellent performance in various high‐value‐added reactions. However, the large‐scale and continuous‐type production of such SACs is still challenging. Herein, a novel and facile microcapsule strategy for the quasi‐continuous synthesis

We propose a novel computational framework for the robust optimization of highly nonlinear, non‐convex models that possess uncertainty in their parameter data. The proposed method is a generalization of the robust cutting‐set algorithm that can handle models containing irremovable equality constraints, as is often the case with models in the process systems engineering domain. Additionally, we accommodate

The low concentration methyl iodide (CH3I) adsorption process on reduced silver‐functionalized silica aerogel (Ag0‐Aerogel) was studied. The kinetic data were acquired using a continuous flow adsorption system. Because the corresponding physical process was observed, the shrinking core model (SCM) was modified and applied. An average CH3I pore diffusivity was calculated, the CH3I‐Ag0‐Aerogel reaction

In this manuscript, common chemical engineering transport‐reaction systems are modeled by taking into consideration the inertia in the transport phenomena, leading to hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDEs), which have finite speed of propagation. The findings provide the derivation of the hyperbolic transport‐reaction PDEs and a direct comparison with their corresponding dissipative parabolic

The synergic solvent extraction system of tri‐n‐butyl phosphate (TBP) and FeCl3 (or ionic liquids, ILs) has been extensively studied for selective extraction of Li from Mg‐containing brines. However, Cyanex 923 (C923), which extracts many metals stronger than TBP, has not yet been examined for Li/Mg separation. Here, we report on the unexpected observation that the C923/FeCl3 system has opposite Li/Mg

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to understand the adsorption of positive‐charged lysozyme onto negative‐charged polyvinylidene fluoride membrane at three pH and two ionic strengths. The lysozyme was initialized at six orientations at 10 Å from the membrane and adsorption was deemed to occur when the lysozyme is less than 4 Å from the membrane. Local interactions are clearly important:

Poor mixing in the clear liquid layer above the cloud height has been reported by several authors. This study uses LDV measurements to quantify turbulence above the cloud using a liquid level of 1.5 T to remove the barrier of a free surface at H = T. A D = T/3, down‐pumping PBT was used at an off‐bottom clearance of C = T/3. Three slurries were tested at impeller speeds 0.8, 1, and 1.2Njs. The change

This study investigates the application of a recently developed construct, the uniform trigonometrization method (UTM), to the singular control problems in chemical engineering. The UTM involves minimal modifications to the original problem, thereby generating near‐singular control solutions that can be used for conceptual design and serve as an alternate to direct techniques like nested and simultaneous

Experiments and modeling of head‐on collision of a pair of bubbles driven by buoyancy in quiescent water are presented. The experiments showed that two bubbles after contacting for a few milliseconds may coalesce or bounce back depending on the collision velocity. As theoretical comparisons, the influence of velocity boundary conditions on the liquid film drainage and the characteristics of two film

Graphene oxide (GO) membranes have shown great prospects as the next‐generation membranes to tackle many challenging separation issues. However, the employment of GO membranes remains difficult for the precise separation of molecules with strong coupling effect and small size discrepancy such as water–ethanol. Herein, a new strategy of constructing exclusive and fast water channels in GO membrane was

For lithium salts, ionic liquids (ILs) are promising alternatives to conventional solvents in lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) due to a more favorable high‐voltage operating window, and due to improved safety through reduction of flammability. Toward better understanding of wetting properties of IL‐based electrolytes on a LIB separator, wetting properties affect electrochemical performance, experimental

Dibutyl carbitol (DBC) and methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) are commercially available for the extraction of Au(III) from acidic chloride media through ion solvation. These extractants show high Au(III) extractability, but their physical properties have drawbacks in extraction processes. In this study, Au(III) extraction using a series of aliphatic ketone compounds was studied to find a novel extractant

A microreactor system consisting of membrane‐dispersion tube‐in‐tube microreactors and delay loops was developed for the continuous synthesis of 1‐ethoxy‐2,3‐difluoro‐4‐iodo‐benzene. Because of the high mass and heat transfer in the microreactor system, ortho‐ and halogen‐lithiation could be performed at −40 and −20°C, respectively, which are much higher than the temperature required (−70°C) for the