Membrane processes oscillation

Many researchers have assessed the effect of pulsatile flow on different membrane processes with wide range of feeds. One of the first studies was by Kennedy et al. [48] who showed that flux in the RO of sucrose solution could increase by 70% by pulsatile flow at 1 Hz. Gupta et al. [49] reported a 45% enhancement of flux in MF of raw apple juice with a pressure waveform provided by a fast piston return followed by a fast forward stroke at 1 Hz. Jaffrin [50], using hollow fiber filters, demonstrated a 45% enhancement in flux in plasma filtration. Using the collapsible-tube oscillation generator described above, Bertram et al. [47] demonstrated that pulsation resulted in a 60% increase in permeate flux in the filtration of silica suspensions. 

Two mechanisms, shear-related and oscillated backflushing, have been suggested for pulsatile flow-enhanced membrane processes by Li and Bertram [49]. The shear-related mechanisms contribute to the filtration enhancement by a reduced boundary layer and enhanced particle back transport. Since the shear scouring effect is not direction dependent, the maximum of the absolute value of the shear may be used to... 

The mechanisms of the oscillations in biomembranes have been explained based on the gating of membrane protein called an ion channel, and enormous efforts have been made to elucidate the gating process, mainly by reconstitution of channel proteins into bilayer membranes [9-11]. 

The oscillations observed with artificial membranes, such as thick liquid membranes, lipid-doped filter, or bilayer lipid membranes indicate that the oscillation can occur even in the absence of the channel protein. The oscillations at artificial membranes are expected to provide fundamental information useful in elucidating the oscillation processes in living membrane systems. Since the oscillations may be attributed to the coupling occurring among interfacial charge transfer, interfacial adsorption, mass transfer, and chemical reactions, the processes are presumed to be simpler than the oscillation in biomembranes. Even in artificial oscillation systems, elementary reactions for the oscillation which have been verified experimentally are very few. 

The voltammetry for ion transfer at an interface of two immiscible electrolyte solutions, VITIES, which is a powerful method for identifying the transferring ion and for determining the amount of ion transferred, must be helpful for the elucidation of the oscillation process [17 19]. The VITIES was also demonstrated to be useful for ion transport through a membrane, considering that the membrane transport of ions is composed of the ion transfers at two aqueous-membrane interfaces and the mass transfers and/or chemical reactions in three phases [2,20,21]. 

The wrapping process is typically carried out in liquid medium a PEI chloroform solution (1.5% w/w) is mixed with the SWCNTs under intense stirring. The blend is then treated with an ultrasonic tip for 1 h at 50% oscillation amplitude and 50% cycle time. The resulting dispersion is subsequently filtered using a 0.2 pm pore size PTFE membrane and dried under vacuum at 60°C to assure total evaporation of the solvent. The wrapped SWCNTs can be characterized by different techniques, and some results are included in Table 10.1. Figure 10.5 shows TEM images of acid-treated SWCNTs dispersed in the compatibilizer. Small nanotube bundles shrouded in PEI can be visualized in the micrographs. 

Many biochemical signaling processes involve the coupled reaction diffusion of two or more substrates. Metabolic biochemical pathways are mainly multicomponent reaction cycles leading to binding and/or signaling and are coupled to the transport of substrates. A reaction-diffusion model can also describe the diffusion of certain proteins along the bacterium and their transfer between the cytoplasmic membrane and cytoplasm, and the generation of protein oscillation along the bacterium (Wood and Whitaker, 2000). 

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