Processing concentrations

Manufacture of Fatty Acids and Derivatives. Splitting of fats to produce fatty acids and glycerol (a valuable coproduct) has been practiced since before the 1890s. In early processes, concentrated alkaU reacted with fats to produce soaps followed by acidulation to produce the fatty acids. Acid-catalyzed hydrolysis, mostly with sulfuric and sulfonic acids, was also practiced. Pressurized equipment was introduced to accelerate the rate of the process, and finally continuous processes were developed to maximize completeness of the reaction (105). Lipolytic enzymes maybe utilized to spHt... 

Process Concentration, °Bh Capacity, t X 10 /yr Capital cost, X 10 Net production cost/ /kg Product cost," /kg... 

Ultrasonic spectroscopy technology, developed in the early 1990s, is proving useful in the lubricant and food industries for measurement of od-in-water emulsions at process concentrations. This technology is anticipated to find a wide range of industrial appHcations. 

Chemicals in ores, wastes, etc., that undergo beneficia-tion tor purposes of production of that chemical. For example, a company recovers silver by processing waste material containing silver at less than 1% total weight of the material. Although silver is received at less than the de minimis concenlration, the de minimis would not apply because the process concentrates and produces silver as an end product. 

Electrodialysis can be applied to the continuous-flow type of operation needed in industry. Multi-membrane stacks can be built by alternately spacing anionic- and cationic-selective membranes. Among the technical problems associated with the electrodialysis process, concentration polarization is perhaps the most serious (discussed later). Other problems in practical applications include membrane scaling by inorganics in feed solutions as well as membrane fouling by organics. 

Major problems inherent in general applications of RO systems have to do with (1) the presence of particulate and colloidal matter in feed water, (2) precipitation of soluble salts, and (3) physical and chemical makeup of the feed water. All RO membranes can become clogged, some more readily than others. This problem is most severe for spiral-wound and hollow-fiber modules, especially when submicron and colloidal particles enter the unit (larger particulate matter can be easily removed by standard filtration methods). A similar problem is the occurrence of concentration-polarization, previously discussed for ED processes. Concentration-polarization is caused by an accumulation of solute on or near the membrane surface and results in lower flux and reduced salt rejection. 

The simplest case to be analyzed is the process in which the rate of one of the adsorption or desorption steps is so slow that it becomes itself rate determining in overall transformation. The composition of the reaction mixture in the course of the reaction is then not determined by kinetic, but by thermodynamic factors, i.e. by equilibria of the fast steps, surface chemical reactions, and the other adsorption and desorption processes. Concentration dependencies of several types of consecutive and parallel (branched) catalytic reactions 52, 53) were calculated, corresponding to schemes (Ila) and (lib), assuming that they are controlled by the rate of adsorption of either of the reactants A and X, desorption of any of the products B, C, and Y, or by simultaneous desorption of compounds B and C. 

Each half-reaction is balanced separately using the four-step process. Concentrated sulfuric acid contains some water, so H3 and H2 O can be used as needed. The new feature in each step is highlighted by a yellow background. 

The kinetics of the ammonia synthesis have been discussed as an example of micro-kinetic modeling in Chapter 7. Here we present a brief description of the process, concentrating on how process variables are related to the microscopic details and the optimization of the synthesis. 

Figure 28 The biophysical model for passive diffusion and concurrent intracellular metabolism of a drug for a simple A-to-B reaction process. Concentration-distance profiles are depicted in the aqueous boundary layer and intracellular domain for the drug and metabolite. The bottom diagram depicts the direction of the fluxes of drug and metabolite viewed from the donor and receiver sides of the cell monolayer. Details of basic assumptions are found in the text.

It assumes that there are no significant solute-solute interactions and no strong solute-solvent interactions which would influence the distribution process. Concentrations are expressed as mass/unit volume, and usually C1 refers to an aqueous phase and C2 to a non-aqueous phase. The equilibrium constant (P or K) defining this system is referred to as the partition coefficient or distribution ratio. The thermodynamic partition coefficient (P ) is given by the ratio of the respective mole fractions as follows ... 

The third possibility refers to a set of research topics on the development of methods making possible to estimate on-line — for control or diagnosis purposes — the input process concentrations. Starting from the knowledge... 

Labile and refractory DOM undergo abiotic photochemical reactions in the photic zone, especially in the sea surfece microlayer where physical processes concentrate DOM into thin films. Some of these reactions appear to be important in the formation of refractory DOM and others in its degradation. For example, DOM exuded by diatoms during plankton blooms has been observed to be transformed into humic substances within days of release into surfece seawater. Laboratory experiments conducted in seawater have demonstrated that photolysis of labile LMW DOM promotes the chemical reactions involved in humification and produces chemical structures foimd in marine humic substances. 

In the United States, germanium is obtained as a by-product of zinc production from zinc blende ores. The ore is concentrated by the flotation process. Concentrated ore is then roasted, converting zinc and the impurity metals to their oxides. Heating the crude oxides with sodium chloride and coal converts germanium and other impurity metal oxides into their volatile chlorides. The chloride vapors are condensed and germanium chloride, GeCh, is separated from the condensate by fractional distillation. 

Direct pyrometallurgical processing of heavy-metals-contaminated soils, sands, and dust is often better suited for materials with higher levels of contamination however, it can be effective for low-level contamination as well. The technology is also well suited to process-concentrated heavy metals that have been generated by on-site screening or soil washing (personal communication, M. Thomas, The Doe Run Company, 10/97). 

As a result of these condensation processes, concentrations of meth-oxy-containing malvidin anthocyanins decline more quickly in red wines than hydroxycinnamic acids such as caffeic acid with easily oxidizable catechol groups (De Beer et ah, 2008). This is particularly the case when higher levels of SO2 are maintained (Tao et ah, 2007), an observation that can also be linked to the ability of free SO2 to readily regenerate the original caffeic acid form (Makhofkina and Kilmartin, 2009). 

To determine ions at mid pg/1 to mg/1 (ppb to ppm) levels with IC, a sample size of 10 to 50/pi is sufficient. To determine ions at lower levels, then a preconcentration or trace enrichment technique has t3rpically to be utilized [20]. With this method, the analytes of interest are preconcentrated on another column in order to "strip" ions from a measured sample volume. This process concentrates the desired species resulting in lower detection limits. However, preconcentration has several disadvantages, compared with a direct method, additional hardware is required. A concentrator column is used to preconcentrate the ions of interest, a sample pump is needed for loading sample, an additional valve is often required for switching the concentrator column in and out-of line with the analytical column and extra time is required for the preconcentration step. It was of interest to explore the development of a high-volume direct-injection IC method that would facilitate trace ion determinations without a separate preconcentration step. This would represent a significantly simpler and more reliable means of trace analysis. 

VARIATIONS IN THE PROCESS. There are many variables in this (experimentally simple) process concentration of the various reactants, pH, and temperature are the main ones. Other, less important (in most cases) ones are stirring of solution and illumination of the solution during deposition. We will ignore these last two here. 

The following examples of successful and well developed high pressure processes concentrate mainly on the general aspects and a consideration of the high pressure machinery involved. The explanations will discuss primarily the general aspects and benefits of high pressure as a tool, and will not address details of the methodology. 

For fruits and their products, HPLC techniques for phenolics have been used to study the effect of processing, concentration, and storage on the phenolic composition of juices as well as a potential precursor for an off-flavor compound in juices. Phenolic analysis has been further applied to the detection of economic adulteration and especially to verify the authenticity of fruit juices. This is especially important when cheaper fruits can be added to more expensive ones in a fraudulent manner. In most fruits, the nonanthocyanin flavonoids consist mainly of flavonols and flavanols, with trace amounts of flavones. Glycosides are the predominant forms present. These most often are separated by reversed-phase HPLC on Cl8 columns with gradients consisting of acidified H20 and ACN, MeOH, or EtOH. 

The promise shown by supercritical fluid extraction led to the development of the Solexol process for the purification and separation of vegetable and fish oils. This process concentrated the polyunsaturated triglycerides in vegetable oils and the so-called vitamin A values from fish oils using propane as a selective solvent [5]. 

The aseptically-processed concentrates retained sterility throughout the course of the study and were stored at 7.2° and 23.9°C. The samples in 6-oz. foil-lined composite cans and those cold filled into the 200-ml rectangular packages were stored only at -17.8°C because, they were not aseptically packed and were subject to microbial spoilage. 

The layer of solution immediately adjacent to the membrane surface becomes depleted in the permeating solute on the feed side of the membrane and enriched in this component on the permeate side. Equivalent gradients also form for the other component. This concentration polarization reduces the permeating component s concentration difference across the membrane, thereby lowering its flux and the membrane selectivity. The importance of concentration polarization depends on the membrane separation process. Concentration polarization can significantly affect membrane performance in reverse osmosis, but it is usually well controlled in industrial systems. On the other hand, membrane performance in ultrafiltration, electrodialysis, and some pervaporation processes is seriously affected by concentration polarization. 

Figure 4.1 shows the concentration gradients that form on either side of a dialysis membrane. However, dialysis differs from most membrane processes in that the volume flow across the membrane is usually small. In processes such as reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and gas separation, the volume flow through the membrane from the feed to the permeate side is significant. As a result the permeate concentration is typically determined by the ratio of the fluxes of the components that permeate the membrane. In these processes concentration polarization gradients form only on the feed side of the membrane, as shown in Figure 4.3. This simplifies the description of the phenomenon. The few membrane processes in which a fluid is used to sweep the permeate side of the membrane,...

Both of the current commercial pervaporation processes concentrate on the separation of VOCs from contaminated water. This separation is relatively easy, because organic solvents and water have very different polarities and exhibit distinct membrane permeation properties. No commercial pervaporation systems have yet been developed for the separation of organic/organic mixtures. However, current membrane technology makes pervaporation for these applications possible, and the process is being actively developed by a number of companies. The first pilot-plant results for an organic-organic application, the separation of methanol from methyl tert-butyl ether/isobutene mixtures, was reported by Separex in 1988 [14,15], This is a particularly favorable application... 

---