Recent Innovations in Chemical Engineering (Formerly Recent Patents on Chemical Engineering) - Volume 15, Issue 1, 2022

Advances in personalized medicine are useful in improving the treatment of metabolic diseases and patient care. The current innovations in integrating nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology tools in pharmaceutical formulation development have proven the effectiveness of xenobiotics in diagnosing, treating, and curing various metabolic diseases. The implementation of nanomedicines for the treatment of metabolic diseases has served the advantage of overcoming the limitation of bioavailability, selectivity and specificity, biological barriers, and toxicity. Simultaneously, the hybridization of drug molecules and nanomaterials builds promising effective tools for the same. While on the other hand, the development in omics sciences has further supported the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of various metabolic disease conditions. Therapy and analysis of metabolic diseases in asymptomatic patients can be facilitated whereas, harsh complications in diagnosis and disease progression can be avoided by the use of molecular metabolic and genetic biomarkers, biosensor miniatures, and transducers. Therefore, a combination of personalized medicine and nanotechnology gives rise and serves the ultimate goal of predicting, preventing, and treating metabolic diseases. The current article reviews the interdisciplinary nature of personalized medicine, nanotechnology, and nanobiotechnology to employ a safe, efficient, stable, cost-effective futuristic approach for the individualized treatment strategies and challenges in the application of personalized medicines for metabolic diseases.

Introduction: The environmental legislation on pollutant concentrations in aqueous effluents tends to tighten and increase due to the huge efforts devoted as a response to global warming and its related negative impact on our planet. As a result, sour water must be handled and processed properly to provide a high quality of stripped water with insignificant traces of NH3 and H2S. This approach must be achieved within the minimum operating costs. This scientific research investigates the stripping configurations of sour water effluents from various industries. The research also offers an insight into different scenarios and configurations to accomplish set targets satisfying the environmental law criteria. Methods: This research introduces a range of heat integration schemes for saving energy. Further, vapor recompression “VRC” technique is opted for its ability to maximize energy savings. This research also investigates the effect of operating and design variables on the stripped water quality, such as feed temperature, feed location, reflux split, and steam flow rate. The option of adding new equipment is also addressed to maximize heat integration and enhance the efficiency of the process. Thus, several schemes and process configurations are explored to treat the industrial sour water waste streams seeking better efficiency. Those configurations differ from one another in heat integration layout and VRC utilization. The energy efficiency and economics of the proposed configurations are considered decisive factors in this research study. The case study adopted in this research is based on published data taken from several iron and steel factories in South Korea named POSCO (Pohang Iron and Steel Corporation). Results: The obtained results of the treated wastewater streams guarantee that the effluent sour water obeys the standard environmental regulations, i.e., NH3 contents range from 30 to 80 ppm and H2S concentration falls below 0.1 ppm. The obtained results of the seven different scenarios are compared to the original case study. It is found that scenario 7 is the most economical solution saving 51.54 % of the total annual cost compared to the original case study while satisfying the treated water environmental regulations with a concentration of 3.19 ppm NH3 and 0.05 ppm H2S. Scenario 7 creates its own steam, unlike the original case study where steam utility is needed extensively. However, scenario 7 consumes 15 % more electricity than the original case study, but it also still shows 56.34 % less than the overall utility cost. Conclusion: The optimum process configuration can be employed for other sour water purification systems such as those used in petroleum refiners. An ongoing research work focuses on the use of internal heat integration for more energy savings and economic improvement.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the effect of hydrodynamic conditions on the release rate of urea/acetylated lignin sulfonate (Ac-LS) matrix as slow-release fertilizers (SRFs). Therefore, two models were developed using the mass transfer balance for the determination of finite/infinite volume of fluids and solving finite integral transformation/separation of a variable. The Biot number, validating the hydrodynamic condition, was found in these models. Methods: In this study, the urea/Ac-LS matrix fertilizer was prepared. The morphological, thermal, chemical, and mechanical properties of the LS, Ac-LS, urea, and urea/Ac-LS matrix were analyzed using Fe-SEM, TGA, XRD, and SANTAM. Finally, the nitrogen release of the matrix fertilizer was investigated at 25°C for different impeller speeds. The models were also validated using the experimental data. Results: The results showed that the thermal and mechanical resistance of urea/Ac-LS due to strong interaction increased compared to pure urea or Ac-LS. The results further showed that the external resistance on the mass transfer decreased as the impeller speed increased, and the nitrogen release rate increased as the Biot number increased in both the states, i.e., finite and infinite. Conclusion: It was also observed that the release rate in the finite environment was less than that of the infinite one in the given hydrodynamic condition initially; however, the type of environment did not affect the release rate after a while.

Background: The world’s raw material consumption has shifted from the use nonrenewable materials to renewable materials. Methods: In this study, the epoxidation of palm oleic acid was carried out by in situ performic acid to produce epoxidized palm oleic acid. Since the epoxide ring is highly reactive, the degradation of the oxirane was examined by using hydrogen peroxide, formic acid, and water. Results: A mathematical model was developed by using the numerical integration of the 4th order Runge-Kutta method and the results showed that there is a good agreement between the simulation and experimental data, validating the kinetic model. As a result, the degradation is highly effective in acidic conditions such as hydrogen peroxide and formic acid, which leads to the formation of side products such as diol and α-glycol. The kinetic rate (k) parameters obtained by using ode45 function in MATLAB software is k11= 6.6442, k12= 7.0185, k2= 0.1026, for epoxidation of palm oleic acid, and k3 = 0.0347, k4= 0.0154, k5= 0.142, in degradation process. Conclusion: The minimum error of the simulation is 0.17311.

Background: Greener epoxidation by using vegetable oil to create an ecofriendly epoxide is being studied because it is a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly commodity that is safer than non-renewable materials. The aim of this research is to come up with low-cost solutions for banana trunk acoustic panels with kinetic modelling of epoxy-based palm oil. Methods: In this study, the epoxidation of palm oleic acid was carried out by in situ performic acid to produce epoxidized palm oleic acid. Results: Banana trunk acoustic panel was successfully innovated based on the performance when the epoxy was applied. Lastly, a mathematical model was developed by using the numerical integration of the 4th order Runge-Kutta method, and the results showed that there is a good agreement between the simulation and experimental data, which validates the kinetic model. Conclusion: Overall, the peracid mechanism was effective in producing a high yield of epoxy from palm oleic acid that is useful for the improvement of acoustic panels based on the banana trunk.

Background: Catalysts are the most vital part of any chemical industry. Catalyst is a substance that affects the rate of reaction, but the catalyst itself does not take part in the reaction. Catalysts offer different pathways of reaction by diffusing the reactant inside it to provide a large surface area within a small volume, thus, lowering the activation energy of molecules for reaction. Most of the catalytic reactions take place in a liquid- solid or gas-solid interface where catalysts are mostly porous in nature. Spherical and cubic-shaped catalyst particles are commonly used in different industries. Methods: In the first phase of the present study, the physics behind the diffusion inside the catalyst pellet has been discussed. In the second part, governing differential equations have been established at a steady-state condition. For solving the differential equation, the equation is made dimensionless. Physical boundary conditions were used to solve the diffusion equation. The assumption of writing the differential equation of the reaction is elementary. Then, the Thiele modulus is derived in terms of the reaction and geometrical parameter (Length). Results and Conclusion: In the third part, the differential equation is solved for firstorder reaction with some constant values of the Thiele modulus, and three-dimensional plots are obtained using numerical analysis. After that, the obtained Thiele modulus and effectiveness factor plot are compared to draw the conclusion of rate limiting reaction and internal diffusion.