Department of Chemical Engineering

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IIT Jodhpur

Membrane based process assumes a significant importance among all the separation practices being followed in the present time. Among the limitations faced by the membrane process, the most critical one is the bio-fouling, which results in lesser throughput as well as deterioration in membrane life. To enhance the anti-biofouling behaviour of the membrane surface, nanostructured materials offer a tremendous opportunity. One potential candidate among them is the carbon nanotubes (CNTs). With the objective of having improvement over the existing anti-biofouling tendency of polysulfone membranes, nanocomposites were developed with impregnation of both single walled as well as multi walled CNTs. The performance of the membranes was evaluated in terms of pure water permeability and solute rejection studies. The membranes were characterised using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and contact angle studies. The anti-biofouling performance of the membrane surfaces was examined using E. Coli culture and a comparison of antibiofouling tendency obtained with the nanocomposites over the pure polysulfone membranes has been made. It was confirmed that membranes with impregnation of single walled CNTs possess better antibiofouling behaviour as compared to pure polysulfone as well as polysulfone membrane embedded with multi walled CNTs. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

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AIP Conference Proceedings

Preparation, characterisation and performance evaluation of anti-biofouling property of carbon nanotube-polysulfone nanocomposite membranes

Water, a nonsubstitutional natural resource, is best described by Leonardo Da Vinci as 'the vehicle of nature' ('vetturale di natura'). This is the single most essential commodity responsible for the existence and sustenance of life on the planet earth. It is not at all an exaggeration to state that water is primarily responsible for the restoration of health, environment and prosperiy of human civilization. Unfortunately, this most precious natural resource is becoming increasingly scarce day by day. Water scarcity is among the main problems facing many societies around the world in the twenty-first century. Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century. According to a report from the United Nations, by 2025, 1800 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world's population could be under stress conditions. As emphasized in one of the UN's Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), water scarcity calls for strengthened international cooperation in the fields of technologies for enhanced water productivity. Recent years have witnessed impressive breakthroughs towards application of nanostructured materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), metal/metal-oxide nanoparticles, zeolites, and dendrimers in the field of water purification. The present chapter aims to give an overview of the developments in the application of nanotechnology in water treatment, with a special emphasis on domestic water purification. The focus is oriented to the fact that the ultimate practical realization of this new technology is based on the assessment of the risks as well as benefits posed by nanostructured materials. The challenges involved in producing a well-defined integrated nano-based water purification device are discussed. © 2013 Woodhead Publishing Limited All rights reserved.

Nanotechnology in Eco-Efficient Construction: Materials, Processes and Applications

Nanotechnology for domestic water purification

The present solid phase sorption studied for the treatment of water containing mainly chromium by “In-house” synthesized specific amphoteric chelator have been evaluated w.r.t. basic parameters like concentration, time, and elution etc. High uptake values of the metal ions proves its selectivity, whereas negligible elution or high immobilization factor (0.97) confirm further decontamination of run-off water during natural calamities. This polymeric ligand exchanger displayed minimum and maximum level sorption of 41.2% and 99.6% at the feed concentration of 50 and 500 ppm respectively. © 2012, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Desalination and Water Treatment

Feasibility study of novel sorbent for chromium sequestration and enhanced immobilization

Proteins endogenously secreted by human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and those present in hESC culture medium are critical regulators of hESC self-renewal and differentiation. Current MS-based approaches for identifying secreted proteins rely predominantly on MS analysis of cell culture supernatants. Here we show that targeted proteomics of secretory pathway organelles is a powerful alternate approach for interrogating the cellular secretome. We have developed procedures to obtain subcellular fractions from mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and hESCs that are enriched in secretory pathway organelles while ensuring retention of the secretory cargo. MS analysis of these fractions from hESCs cultured in MEF conditioned medium (MEF-CM) or MEFs exposed to hESC medium revealed 99 and 129 proteins putatively secreted by hESCs and MEFs, respectively. Of these, 53 and 62 proteins have been previously identified in cell culture supernatants of MEFs and hESCs, respectively, thus establishing the validity of our approach. Furthermore, 76 and 37 putatively secreted proteins identified in this study in MEFs and hESCs, respectively, have not been reported in previous MS analyses. The identification of low abundance secreted proteins via MS analysis of cell culture supernatants typically necessitates the use of altered culture conditions such as serum-free medium. However, an altered medium formulation might directly influence the cellular secretome. Indeed, we observed significant differences between the abundances of several secreted proteins in subcellular fractions isolated from hESCs cultured in MEF-CM and those exposed to unconditioned hESC medium for 24 h. In contrast, targeted proteomics of secretory pathway organelles does not require the use of customized media. We expect that our approach will be particularly valuable in two contexts highly relevant to hESC biology: obtaining a temporal snapshot of proteins secreted in response to a differentiation trigger, and identifying proteins secreted by cells that are isolated from a heterogeneous population. © 2012 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Fulltext

Molecular and Cellular Proteomics

Targeted proteomics of the secretory pathway reveals the secretome of mouse embryonic fibroblasts and human embryonic stem cells

Thermochemical cycle using water as raw material and nuclear/renewable energies as sources of energy is believed to be a safe, stable and sustainable route of hydrogen production. Amongst the well-studied thermochemical cycles, the sulfur-iodine (S-I) cycle is capable of achieving an energy efficiency of 50%, making it one of the most efficient cycles among all water-splitting processes. The SI cycle is characterized by three basic reactions as shown below.I 2 + SO 2 + 2H 2O → 2HI x + H 2SO 4 (120 °C)2H 2SO 4 → 2SO 2 + 2H 2O + O 2 (830 °C)2HI x → I 2 + H 2 (450 °C) The third section, that is the HI x (HI + I 2 + H 2O) processing section, is the most intricate step in terms of the process efficiency as it has got the lowest overall rate and very complicated separations. In order to overcome the low efficiency due to the poor equilibrium decomposition of HI, ongoing research is dedicated toward development of a hydrogen-permselective membrane reactor. Proper identification of suitable membranes and introduction of membrane reactor is proposed to improve the efficiency of the overall cycle and make hydrogen production more economical. The experimental procedure has already been optimized toward development of an asymmetric silica membrane. The authors presently intend to use the membrane in the form of a packed bed membrane reactor for the enhancement of equilibrium decomposition of HI. The present paper discusses the challenges and intricacies associated toward development of a membrane reactor which can be applied in highly corrosive environment like HI under a high temperature of about 500 °C. © 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

The application of membrane reactor technology in hydrogen production using S-I thermochemical process: A roadmap

Polyacrylhydroxamic acid resin synthesized by functionalization of polyacrylamide with hydroxylamine has been investigated for the sorption of plutonium(IV) from carbonate medium, aiming at its application for the removal of plutonium from alkali wash effluent generated during purification of TBP in PUREX process. Batch experiments have been carried out to determine distribution coefficient of plutonium(IV) between this exchanger and various compositions of carbonate medium. Effect of the concentration of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate and pH of the solution on the distribution coefficient have been studied to optimize the conditions for the uptake of Pu(IV) by this exchanger. Column experiments were carried out to determine the practical capacity of the exchanger for plutonium. Elution studies were also carried out to recover the loaded plutonium from the ion exchange column The exchanger displayed good exchange capacity for Pu(IV) from feed solution simulating the conditions of carbonate wash effluent generated in PUREX process. The exchanger also exhibited fast elution of Pu, suggesting the feasibility of using it for the recovery of Pu from carbonate based wash effluent. © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2012.

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Studies on sorption of plutonium from carbonate medium on polyacrylhydroxamic acid resin

We have characterized the subcellular proteome of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) through MS analysis of the membrane, cytosolic, and nuclear fractions, isolated from the same sample of undifferentiated hESCs. Strikingly, 74% of all proteins identified were detected in a single subcellular fraction; we also carried out immunofluorescence studies to validate the subcellular localization suggested by proteomic analysis, for a subset of proteins. Our approach resulted in deeper proteome coverage - peptides mapping to 893, 2475, and 1185 proteins were identified in the nuclear, cytosolic, and membrane fractions, respectively. Additionally, we used spectral counting to estimate the relative abundance of all cytosolic proteins. A large number of proteins relevant to hESC biology, including growth factor receptors, cell junction proteins, transcription factors, chromatin remodeling proteins, and histone modifying enzymes were identified. Our analysis shows that components of a large number of interacting signaling pathways are expressed in hESCs. Finally, we show that proteomic analysis of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi compartments is a powerful alternative approach to identify secreted proteins since these are synthesized in the ER and transit through the Golgi. Taken together, our results show that systematic subcellular proteomic analysis is a valuable tool for studying hESC biology. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Proteomics

The subcellular proteome of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells

Nuclear analytical techniques namely fission track technique using solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) have been standardized and applied for quantification of low uranium concentrations in liquid samples such as feed, elute and brine and solid sorbent samples respectively. The quantification of uranium is required for its recovery study from seawater, which is one of the potential sources of uranium. The uranium concentration of a liquid sample obtained by SSNTD method was compared with the other well established conventional techniques like ICP-MS, ICP-AES, adsorptive stripping voltametry and alpha spectrometry. INAA was applied for uranium concentration determination in the radiation grafted polyamidoxime sorbent samples. © 2012 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.

Nuclear analytical techniques for quantification of uranium for its recovery from seawater

The importance as well as impact of application of carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes in the area of water technology development is tremendous. A substantial amount of work have been carried out with impregnation of CNTs (simply as one of the reinforcements for incorporation of better properties like antibiofouling and/or better strength, etc.) in polymer host matrix. However, the volume of work enabling CNTs as flow channels (in a membranous structure) is not significant and that is where the potential benefits of CNTs lie. Moreover, from impressive works carried out in this direction, it is quite obvious that still significant challenges have to be addressed to align the CNTs, to reinforce it in a suitable host matrix without disturbing the alignment and inhibiting the agglomeration (adoption of suitable nanocomposite fabrication route), to open the tips preferentially and to scale up favorably. It is believed that the innovative attributes put forth by CNTs and the application areas identified with CNTs are getting matured, while the area of development of CNT (based) membranes is far from being matured and it still needs to be looked into in the light of involvement of materials as well as process challenges. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nano Today

Carbon nanotube membranes for desalination and water purification: Challenges and opportunities

This study aims at understanding the role the velocity profile can play in affecting the performance of the electorneutral bulk of a continuous flow electrolyser. Numerical simulations have been carried out by solving Navier-Stokes (NS) equations together with the Nernst-Planck (NP) equations. Performance of different geometries in which velocity profile has been altered by putting different types of obstacles has been evaluated. Performance of electrolysers having moving cathode has also been evaluated. Role played by inlet channel has also been investigated. The results obtained for different geometries suggest that it is possible to enhance the performance of the electroneutral bulk by putting obstacles in the flow path but this enhancement may not be very significant. An electrolyser with the cathode moving co-currently with the electrolyte is found to perform better than an electrolyser with cathode moving counter-currently with the electrolyte. Performance of an electrolyser with the inlet channel is found to be better than an electrolyser without inlet channel. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.