MembranesPub Date : 2025-05-02DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050140
Yogesh Kumar, Atul Khalangre, Rajat Suhag, Alfredo Cassano
{"title":"Applications of Reverse Osmosis and Nanofiltration Membrane Process in Wine and Beer Industry.","authors":"Yogesh Kumar, Atul Khalangre, Rajat Suhag, Alfredo Cassano","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050140","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050140","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes are traditionally employed in wine and beer production for concentration, clarification, and stabilization. Their applications now extend to dealcoholization, addressing rising demand for low-alcohol beverages. RO/NF selectively reduce ethanol while retaining volatile aromas and non-volatile flavors, outperforming thermal methods that degrade sensory profiles. This review examines RO/NF roles in alcohol adjustment, sugar modification, and by-product recovery, emphasizing mechanisms and efficiency. Operational challenges such as membrane fouling (polysaccharides, polyphenols), selectivity-permeation flux trade-offs, and energy costs are assessed. By balancing tradition with innovation, RO/NF technologies offer transformative potential for meeting health and sustainability goals in beverage industries. However, gaps in standardization, sensory consistency, and cost-effectiveness necessitate targeted research to optimize industrial adoption and consumer acceptance.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113238/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144150913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MembranesPub Date : 2025-05-02DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050139
Sandra Gębczyńska, Julia Gdowska, Agata Mikos, Iga Gawrońska, Teresa Janas, Aleksander Czogalla, Tadeusz Janas
{"title":"Toluidine Blue for the Determination of Binding of Anionic Polysaccharides to Lipid Raft Domains by Absorption Spectroscopy.","authors":"Sandra Gębczyńska, Julia Gdowska, Agata Mikos, Iga Gawrońska, Teresa Janas, Aleksander Czogalla, Tadeusz Janas","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050139","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050139","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The complexes of negatively charged polysaccharides with lipid vesicles have been shown to have applications in medicine, bioremediation, water purification, and construction of nano-biosensors. This article presents research on the formation of these complexes based on the interactions between three types of liposomes, DOPC liposomes (which contain a lipid bilayer in the liquid-disordered (Ld) state), RAFT liposomes (which contain liquid-ordered (Lo) lipid raft domains surrounded by lipids in the Ld state) and SPH-CHL liposomes (which contain a lipid bilayer in the Lo state), and two selected anionic polysaccharides, polysialic acid (PSA) and polygalacturonic acid (PGA). The analysis was conducted using a toluidine blue (TB) probe and the absorption spectroscopy technique. In contrast to DOPC and SPH-CHL liposomes, binding of negatively charged PSA or PGA chains to RAFT liposomes induced a TB absorption maximum shift from 630 nm to 560 nm. The obtained results indicate that toluidine blue can be applied for monitoring the formation of these nano-complexes, and that the boundaries between Ld/Lo domains within membranes in RAFT liposomes can significantly enhance the binding affinity of negatively charged polysaccharides to the lipid bilayer surface. The observed metachromatic shift in TB absorption suggests that negatively charged PSA and PGA chains interact with the Ld/Lo boundaries within RAFT liposome membranes.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12112939/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MembranesPub Date : 2025-05-01DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050136
Shichang Xu, Zhen Zhang, Long Zhang, Lixin Xie, Wen Zhang
{"title":"Electrodialysis Metathesis for the Production of Potassium Phosphate.","authors":"Shichang Xu, Zhen Zhang, Long Zhang, Lixin Xie, Wen Zhang","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050136","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050136","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Potassium phosphate (K<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub>) is a common inorganic compound with broad applications in agriculture and industry. Although the traditional thermal method of preparing K<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> by reacting phosphoric acid with potassium hydroxide can obtain high-quality products, it consumes a lot of energy and has high costs. This study explores the process of preparing K<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> by Electrodialysis metathesis (EDM). This process uses sodium phosphate (Na<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub>) and potassium chloride (KCl) as raw materials and can prepare K<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> continuously. Under the optimized conditions (operating voltage of 8 V, 0.35 mol/L Na<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> and 1.05 mol/L KCl in raw flow with the rate of 30 mL/min), the product purity of K<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> reaches more than 97%, the energy consumption is 1191 kW·h/t, and the cost is about 8314 CNY/ton. Compared with traditional methods, EDM has the advantages of low cost, simple operation, and high utilization rate. This study shows that EDM technology has significant potential in preparing K<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub>.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12112981/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MembranesPub Date : 2025-05-01DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050134
Shufang Zhu, Yuke Niu, Xu Yan
{"title":"Effect of Folded Structures on Interfacial Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination.","authors":"Shufang Zhu, Yuke Niu, Xu Yan","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050134","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050134","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Currently, solar-driven interface evaporation for seawater desalination is believed to be an effective way to overcome freshwater shortage. To improve the efficiency of solar-driven interfacial evaporators, designing the evaporator's structure is essential. In this study, we proposed a folded structure solar-driven interfacial evaporator with electrospun recycled PET/carbon nanotube fibrous membranes. The as-spun membranes were folded into 4, 8, and 16 petals. The results suggested that F@8 (fold with eight petals) had the best solar-driven evaporation performance, with a photothermal conversion efficiency of 90.59% and an evaporation rate of 1.31 kg·m<sup>-2</sup>·h<sup>-1</sup>, due to its lower light projection area and greater light absorption. The evaporation performance remained stable after 10 cycles. In addition, the concentration of ions in the freshwater collected after desalination was 2~3 orders of magnitude lower than that before desalination. These results indicate that a properly designed folded structure can effectively enhance evaporators through changing the light projection area and absorption. This approach might provide an effective way to optimize the structure of interfacial solar-driven evaporators.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113013/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MembranesPub Date : 2025-05-01DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050135
Didrik R Småbråten, Marie D Strømsheim, Thijs A Peters
{"title":"Hydrogen and Ammonia Co-Adsorption on <i>M</i>(1 1 1) and Pd<sub>3</sub><i>M</i>(1 1 1) (<i>M</i> = Pd, Ru, Ag, Au, Cu) Surfaces.","authors":"Didrik R Småbråten, Marie D Strømsheim, Thijs A Peters","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050135","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050135","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ammonia (NH<sub>3</sub>) represents a promising zero-emission fuel in hydrogen fuel cells. Membrane reactors for NH<sub>3</sub> decomposition based on Pd-alloys have demonstrated high NH<sub>3</sub> conversion, high hydrogen diffusivity, and high hydrogen selectivity, which allows for the production of high-purity H<sub>2</sub> without the need for gas separation or purification. However, it is observed that Pd-alloy membranes are to a various degree prone to H<sub>2</sub> flux inhibition in the presence of NH<sub>3</sub>. Hence, finding proper means to tailor the surface adsorption properties through, e.g., alloying is imperative to further improve the technology. In the current work, hydrogen and ammonia co-adsorption phenomena on <i>M</i>(1 1 1) and Pd<sub>3</sub><i>M</i>(1 1 1) (<i>M</i> = Pd, Ru, Ag, Au, Cu) surfaces are studied using density functional theory calculations. It is shown that the surface adsorption properties are strongly dependent on the surface composition, which can be linked to the corresponding electronic structure at the membrane surface.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113646/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Carbonation of Ammonium Diuranate Filtrate to Enhance Uranium Rejection by Nanofiltration.","authors":"Runci Wang, Zhongwei Yuan, Xiang Meng, Taihong Yan, Weifang Zheng","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050133","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050133","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A commercial polymeric nanofiltration membrane (NF270, DuPont) was employed for uranium removal from ammonium diuranate filtrate (ADUF). Carbonate supplementation through ammonium carbonate addition enhanced uranium rejection via formation of uranyl-carbonate coordination complexes. Systematic speciation analysis of uranium species in ADUF was conducted, coupled with calculation of the concentration polarization modulus to optimize ammonium carbonate dosage. The experimental results demonstrated that with 680 mg/L ammonium carbonate addition, the permeate uranium concentration decreased from 1.2 mg/L to 0.64 mg/L. This study confirms the technical feasibility of ADUF carbonation pretreatment for improving uranium retention efficiency in nanofiltration processes, achieving 46.7% reduction in uranium permeation flux.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113109/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MembranesPub Date : 2025-04-30DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050132
Adam M Zawada, Bettina Griesshaber, Bertram Ottillinger, Ansgar Erlenkötter, Nathan Crook, Skyler Boyington, Manuela Stauss-Grabo, James P Kennedy, Thomas Lang
{"title":"Development and Investigation of a New Polysulfone Dialyzer with Increased Membrane Hydrophilicity.","authors":"Adam M Zawada, Bettina Griesshaber, Bertram Ottillinger, Ansgar Erlenkötter, Nathan Crook, Skyler Boyington, Manuela Stauss-Grabo, James P Kennedy, Thomas Lang","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050132","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050132","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Innovation in dialysis care is fundamental to improve well-being and outcomes of patients with end-stage kidney disease. The dialyzer is the core element of dialysis treatments, as it largely defines which substances are removed from the patient's body. Moreover, its large surface size is the major place of interaction of the patient's blood with artificial surfaces and thus may lead to undesired effects such as inflammation or coagulation. In the present article we summarize the development path for a new dialyzer, including in vitro and clinical evidence generation. We use the example of the novel FX CorAL dialyzer, which has recently entered European and US markets, to show which steps are needed to develop and characterize a new dialyzer. The FX CorAL dialyzer includes a new hydrophilic membrane, which features reduced protein adsorption, sustained performance, and an improved hemocompatibility profile, characterized in numerous in vitro and clinical studies. Safety evaluations revealed a favorable profile, with low incidences of adverse device effects. Insights gained from both in vitro and clinical studies contribute to the advancement of dialyzer development, ultimately leading to improved patient care.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113146/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MembranesPub Date : 2025-04-29DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050131
Muhammad Zahid, Anum Rashid, Saba Akram, H M Fayzan Shakir, Zulfiqar Ahmad Rehan, Talha Javed, Rubab Shabbir, Mahmoud M Hessien
{"title":"Correction: Zahid et al. Fabrication and Characterization of Sulfonated Graphene Oxide-Doped Polymeric Membranes with Improved Anti-Biofouling Behavior. <i>Membranes</i> 2021, <i>11</i>, 563.","authors":"Muhammad Zahid, Anum Rashid, Saba Akram, H M Fayzan Shakir, Zulfiqar Ahmad Rehan, Talha Javed, Rubab Shabbir, Mahmoud M Hessien","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050131","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050131","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the original publication [...].</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113190/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improved CO<sub>2</sub>/CH<sub>4</sub> Separation in Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes via Copolymerization of Long-Chain Flexible Structures.","authors":"Yingxiu Wu, Haiyan Guo, Bingyu Zhao, Yuxiu Yu, Yaodong Liu, Shouchun Zhang","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050128","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050128","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes demonstrate considerable advantages and significant potential in the separation of CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub>. Nevertheless, current research predominantly emphasizes the enhancement of CMS membranes through the incorporation of rigid structures and chain spatial stacking. The role of flexible structures in this context remains inadequately understood. To address this gap, we introduced long-chain polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and copolymerized it to synthesize polyimide that combines rigid and flexible frameworks. This approach enabled us to investigate the impact of flexible structures on the structure and properties of carbon membranes by varying the PDMS content. The findings indicated that flexible PDMS significantly influenced the thermal decomposition behavior of polyimide and facilitated in situ silicon doping within the carbon membranes, thereby modifying the pore characteristics of the carbon film. Specifically, with a 10% addition of PDMS, the CO<sub>2</sub> permeability of the CMS membrane reached 9556 Barrer, representing an enhancement of 103.9% and surpassing the 2019 upper bound for CO<sub>2</sub>/CH<sub>4</sub> separation. Furthermore, the effect of pyrolysis temperature was also examined. Ultimately, this study offers a novel perspective on regulating the structural and performance characteristics of carbon membranes through the integration of long-chain flexible structures.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113629/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
MembranesPub Date : 2025-04-27DOI: 10.3390/membranes15050129
Shichang Xu, Long Zhang, Zhen Zhang, Lixin Xie, Wen Zhang
{"title":"The Enrichment of Acetic Acid Using an Integrated Reverse Osmosis-Electrodialysis Process.","authors":"Shichang Xu, Long Zhang, Zhen Zhang, Lixin Xie, Wen Zhang","doi":"10.3390/membranes15050129","DOIUrl":"10.3390/membranes15050129","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this study, the integrated process of reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodialysis (ED) is developed to concentrate the dilute solution of acetic acid (HAc). The key parameters, such as RO pressure, ED voltage, and ED volume ratio, were systematically evaluated and the operation conditions of the processes were optimized. Under an operating pressure of 5 MPa, RO can enrich low-concentration HAc from 1.5 wt.% to 6.5% wt.% and the energy consumption is 0.37 kW·h·kg<sup>-1</sup>. Next, RO-concentrated water was used as the ED feed and the first ED with a volume ratio of the concentrated to dilute chamber of 1:4 was carried out under the conditions of a flow rate of 30 L/h and an operating voltage of 12 V; the HAc concentration reached 12.50 wt.%. The second ED with a volume ratio of 1:5 made the final HAc concentration reach 19.02 wt.%. This study shows that using RO-concentrated water instead of initial water for the ED process can reduce water energy consumption and cost markedly, and the RO-ED integrated process can efficiently pre-enrich low-concentration HAc aqueous solution, and the enriched HAc concentration meets the requirements for the further distillation of HAc.</p>","PeriodicalId":18410,"journal":{"name":"Membranes","volume":"15 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12113363/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144151108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}