Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 21, Issue 17, 2017

Objective: This paper describes examples of membrane engineering for water that take inspiration from biology. Next generation, high permeability, desalination membranes incorporating natural Aquaporin water channels are described. A potential consequence of raised flux is boundary layer mass transfer limitation which can be alleviated by unsteady shear stress, such as vibrations, adopted by some aquatic s Read More

Background: The development of bio-inspired materials is of high interest to produce advanced materials able to improve the quality of life through sustainable industrial production. Membranes associated/functionalized with biomolecules, are very suitable to develop biohybrid and biomimetic systems, because they simulate the biological membrane compartmentalization. This system integration, could be divided into membra Read More

Background: The development of fuel cells device, which used bioelements as catalyst, converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through an electrochemical reaction with oxygen oxidizing agent, and demonstrates the potential of electrochemical techniques for energy generation. The development of sustainable energy production prompted the researcher community to propose and investigate the use Read More

Objective: This paper discusses the performance of two, potentially important membrane processes of the next future, namely the biocatalytic membrane reactor (BMR) and membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR). It discusses what kinds of methods are applying for enzyme immobilization, which membrane materials can be used for immobilization and what biochemical reactions can be realized by the biocat Read More

Background: Proteins are important players in most membrane bioprocesses due to their high propensity to interact with solid surfaces. Their structural behavior when adsorbing to surfaces is not only dependent on protein structural stability, but also it is influenced by the chemical and topographical characteristics of the surfaces. The intensity of protein-surface interactions has a determinant role in the transport of prot Read More

Background: Whey is a valuable by-product obtained from cheese manufacture and employed as a source of proteins that present remarkable potential in food or pharmaceutical industries. Although chromatography is the common method to isolate whey proteins at preparative scale, it reports some disadvantages like its high operational cost. Objective: Membrane processes can play an important role in protein separati Read More

Background: Monoclonal antibodies are nowadays by far the most important of all biotherapeutics. Unfortunately, they are complex proteins, so that their production is complicated and expensive, which eventually leads to an elevated average cost per treatment per patient. An important research effort is dedicated to the development of a process that may allow a reduction of antibodies production costs. Objective: In par Read More

Background: In tissue engineering applications, advanced membrane systems provide useful and adaptable biomimetic microenvironment able to sustain cell viability and functions, enabling the delivery and diffusion of biochemical factors, cell nutrients, and products, and mimicking the natural biological extracellular matrix. Proper cell-material interactions favour cell adhesion and trigger cell growth, migration, proliferation, diff Read More