ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-11-02DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7060105
Mir Waqas Alam
{"title":"Smart Poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide)-Based Microgels Supplemented with Nanomaterials for Catalytic Reduction Reactions—A Review","authors":"Mir Waqas Alam","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7060105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7060105","url":null,"abstract":"The continuous and irresponsible addition of environmental pollutants into aqueous reservoirs due to excessive industrialization is a significant contemporary challenge. Nanomaterial-based catalytic reduction provides an effective way to convert these materials into environmentally useful products. Responsive polymeric assemblies, complemented with nanomaterials, represent advanced nanocatalysts that are gaining interest within the scientific community. These assemblies exhibit reversible morphological transitions in response to variations induced by external factors such as temperature, pH, or electromagnetic irradiation treatment. The term hybrid microgels has been coined for assemblies that contain both nanomaterial and smart polymeric components. This review presents recent advancements in the field of hybrid microgels as nanocatalysts for conducting reduction reactions on pollutants present in aqueous media. Apart from placing detailed emphasis on the advancements documented for these assemblies, the fundamentals associated with hybrid microgels, as well as the typical catalytic reduction, are also emphasized to develop an understanding for new academicians looking to explore this field. The author hopes that this critical review of the most recent academic literature, including the years spanning 2020 to 2023, will serve as a tutorial for the identification of research gaps in this field, along with its prospective solutions.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"2 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135974078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-11-01DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7060103
Maxim V. Zdorovets, Gulnaz Zh. Moldabayeva, Inesh Z. Zhumatayeva, Daryn B. Borgekov, Rafael I. Shakirzyanov, Artem L. Kozlovskiy
{"title":"Study of the Effect of Adding Nb2O5 on Calcium Titanate-Based Ferroelectric Ceramics","authors":"Maxim V. Zdorovets, Gulnaz Zh. Moldabayeva, Inesh Z. Zhumatayeva, Daryn B. Borgekov, Rafael I. Shakirzyanov, Artem L. Kozlovskiy","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7060103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7060103","url":null,"abstract":"This paper considers the effect of adding niobium oxide (Nb2O5) to ferroelectric ceramics based on calcium titanate (CaTiO3), and establishes a connection between the observed alterations in strength and dielectric properties and the variation in the Nb2O5 dopant concentration in the ceramics’ composition. The method of mechanochemical solid-phase synthesis was used as the main method for obtaining the ceramics, followed by thermal sintering under specified conditions in order to form a stable phase composition of the ceramics, and to initialize phase transformations in the composition. Based on the assessment of the phase composition of the resulting ceramics, it was determined that a growth in the Nb2O5 dopant concentration beyond 0.10 mol results in the formation of an orthorhombic-phase CaNb2O4 of the Pbcm(57) spatial system, the weight contribution of which grows. A growth in the Nb2O5 additive concentration results in the formation of two-phase ceramics, the formation of which allows for an enhancement in the mechanical strength of ceramics and resistance to external influences. During the study of the dependence of the strength properties on the dopant concentration alteration, a three-stage change in hardness and crack resistance was established, regarding both structural ordering and phase transformations. The measurement of dielectric characteristics showed the direct dependence of dielectric losses and the dielectric constant on the phase composition of ceramics.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135221395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-10-31DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7060102
Miguel Angel Vicente, Raquel Trujillano, Francisco M. Labajos
{"title":"A Themed Issue in Honor of Prof. Dr. Vicente Rives","authors":"Miguel Angel Vicente, Raquel Trujillano, Francisco M. Labajos","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7060102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7060102","url":null,"abstract":"Professor Vicente Rives developed a very long and fruitful career as a teacher of Inorganic Chemistry and Materials Chemistry and has been a dedicated researcher in these and related fields [...]","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135869277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7050101
Riyadh S. Almukhtar, Ali Amer Yahya, Omar S. Mahdy, Hasan Shakir Majdi, Gaidaa S. Mahdi, Asawer A. Alwasiti, Zainab Y. Shnain, Majid Mohammadi, Adnan A. AbdulRazak, Peter Philib, Jamal M. Ali, Haydar A. S. Aljaafari, Sajda S. Alsaedi
{"title":"Numerical Analysis of Gas Hold-Up of Two-Phase Ebullated Bed Reactor","authors":"Riyadh S. Almukhtar, Ali Amer Yahya, Omar S. Mahdy, Hasan Shakir Majdi, Gaidaa S. Mahdi, Asawer A. Alwasiti, Zainab Y. Shnain, Majid Mohammadi, Adnan A. AbdulRazak, Peter Philib, Jamal M. Ali, Haydar A. S. Aljaafari, Sajda S. Alsaedi","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7050101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7050101","url":null,"abstract":"Due to the significant increase in heavy feedstocks being transported to refineries and the hydrocracking process, the significance of adopting an ebullated bed reactor has been reemphasized in recent years. The predictive modelling of gas hold-up in an ebullated two-phase reactor was performed using 10 machine learning methods based on support vector machine (SVM) and Gaussian process regression (GPR) in this study. In an ebullated bed reactor, the impacts of three features, namely liquid velocity, gas velocity, and recycling ratio, on the gas hold-up were examined. The liquid velocity has the most impact on the predicted gas hold-up, according to the feature significance analysis. The rotational-quadratic, squared-exponential, Matern 5/2, and exponential kernel functions integrated with the GPR models and the linear, quadratic, cubic, fine, medium, and coarse kernel functions integrated with the SVM model performed well during training and testing, with the exception of the fine SVM model, whose R2 is very low. According to the R2 > 0.9 and low RMSE and MAE values, the rotational-quadratic, squared-exponential, and Matern 5/2 GPR models performed the best.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135569503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adaptive Mesh Refinement Strategies for Cost-Effective Eddy-Resolving Transient Simulations of Spray Dryers","authors":"Jairo Andrés Gutiérrez Suárez, Carlos Humberto Galeano Urueña, Alexánder Gómez Mejía","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7050100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7050100","url":null,"abstract":"The use of adaptive meshing strategies to perform cost-effective transient simulations of spray drying processes is evaluated. These simulations are often computationally expensive, given the large differences between the characteristic times of the central jet and those of the unsteady flow developed at its periphery. Managing the computational cost through the control of the grid resolution by regions is inadequate in many of these applications since the grid resolution requirements change dynamically within the domain. These conditions are related to the unsteady nature of the flow in both the central jet and the flow recirculation zones. Therefore, the application of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) strategies is recommended. In this paper, general AMR criteria based on relative errors are evaluated by testing three mesh adaptation criteria: velocity gradient, pressure gradient, and vorticity. This evaluation is performed using a low-cost turbulence model with eddy resolution (DDES) in two different types of drying chambers, in which experimental measurements are available. The use of AMR exerts appreciable effects on decreasing computational costs and contributes to the capture of large eddies in critical regions. The present approach provides an appropriate balance between solution accuracy and computational cost. By using a correct AMR configuration, it is possible to obtain results similar to those obtained on a fixed grid but reducing the computational costs by 3 to 5 times.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"875 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135888770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-10-17DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7050099
Tam Minh Le, Tan Dzung Nguyen, Giang Tien Nguyen, Nhung Thi Tran
{"title":"Antisolvent Effects of C1–C4 Primary Alcohols on Solid-Liquid Equilibria of Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate in Aqueous Solutions","authors":"Tam Minh Le, Tan Dzung Nguyen, Giang Tien Nguyen, Nhung Thi Tran","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7050099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7050099","url":null,"abstract":"The focus of this study was to examine antisolvent effects, which hold significance in particulate processes, such as crystallization and precipitation. In the first section, an experimental investigation revealed that C1–C4 primary alcohols significantly reduced the solubility of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) in water. The solid–liquid equilibria of KDP solutions were determined using an innovative polythermal method, demonstrating time and labor efficiency compared to the traditional isothermal method while maintaining solubility determination quality. This achievement established an efficient tool for high-throughput solvent screening, a crucial aspect of particulate process development. In addition to the experimental approach, in the second part, the influence of these alcohols on KDP solubility was analyzed using the eNRTL thermodynamics model. The model’s estimated parameters confirmed that the addition of these alcohols induced strong non-ideal behavior in the solutions, altered interactions between solute species and solvent components, and reduced KDP solubility. Under the effects of these alcohols, KDP solubility generally increased with the length of the alkyl chain in the added alcohols, although methanol deviated from this observation. Furthermore, the present work also discussed the limitation of the well-known Bromley’s equation, particularly when applied for KDP in alcohol–water mixed solvents. Consequently, binary and ternary systems consisting of KDP, water, and C1–C4 primary alcohols were successfully modeled using eNRTL. Furthermore, it was determined that the obtained model was insufficient for quaternary systems with a higher alcohol content, particularly when high-order interactions were neglected as in the cases of binary and ternary systems. In short, these investigated alcohols have potential for future applications in the design of particulate processes, with a particular emphasis on antisolvent crystallization.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"142 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136032680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-10-13DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7050098
Zaid Abdulhamid Alhulaybi
{"title":"Fabrication and Characterization of Poly(lactic acid)-Based Biopolymer for Surgical Sutures","authors":"Zaid Abdulhamid Alhulaybi","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7050098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7050098","url":null,"abstract":"Medical sutures are important surgical aids for promoting wound closure and establishing the ideal environment for wound healing. Several key factors must be considered in medical sutures, including the material of choice for the wound closure, the type of injury (internal or external), the mechanical support required to sustain the closure, the causes of infection, and the suture’s thickness and absorbability. Therefore, this study focuses on producing absorbable surgical sutures from a bio-compatible polymer material called polylactic acid (PLA) along with a PLA–chitosan composite suture initially using the extrusion method followed by the stretching method. The experimental results showed that the PLA suture can be successfully produced and coated with chitosan. The resulting suture elongated up to 148% with an achieved crystallinity of 27%, along with a superior surgical tying and knotting quality. The average thickness of the PLA sutures and PLA sutures coated with chitosan were found to be 0.33 mm and 0.58 mm, respectively. The efficient biocompatibility and wound healing/closure of the sutures were practically deep-rooted using a human skin simulator and rat animal tissue. Based on the degradation study, the manufactured suture in this study proved its degradability in physiological saline water. After a period of 15 days, the sutures lost 50% of their weight and the pH decreased from 6.49 to 4.42.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135918233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-10-12DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7050096
Diksha Chaturvedi, Deepti Bharti, Somali Dhal, Deblu Sahu, Haladhar Behera, Minaketan Sahoo, Doman Kim, Maciej Jarzębski, Arfat Anis, Biswaranjan Mohanty, Sai S. Sagiri, Kunal Pal
{"title":"Role of Stearic Acid as the Crystal Habit Modifier in Candelilla Wax-Groundnut Oil Oleogels","authors":"Diksha Chaturvedi, Deepti Bharti, Somali Dhal, Deblu Sahu, Haladhar Behera, Minaketan Sahoo, Doman Kim, Maciej Jarzębski, Arfat Anis, Biswaranjan Mohanty, Sai S. Sagiri, Kunal Pal","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7050096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7050096","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated the effects of incorporating stearic acid (SAC) in candelilla wax (CW) and groundnut oil (GO) oleogel with potential health benefits as an alternative to saturated fats in processed foods. Results showed that SAC possesses crystal habit-modifying properties on the oleogels, causing its average crystallite size to increase, as observed through polarized light microscopy and XRD analysis. Additionally, SAC caused an increase in ordering within the crystallite network as a result of the decrease in d-spacing. Interestingly, the firmness of the oleogels remained unaffected, even at a higher fraction of SAC. It is believed to be due to the interference caused by the crystallization of high-melting SAC within the fine crystal network of CW-GO oleogel. However, adding 3 mg of SAC significantly increased the work of the shear of the oleogel (SAC3), which decreased the spreadability. As observed through colorimetric analysis, SAC3 showed a dense and uniform distribution of prominent bright crystals with minimal amorphous regions, leading to a high whiteness index. SAC3 also demonstrated the highest compactness and dislocation density among the oleogels, likely due to the formation of prominent crystals. However, SAC did not affect the overall oleogel crystallization rate. SAC3 had delayed secondary crystallization and thermal equilibrium by having a prolonged crystallization time of CW crystals. In the case of controlled delivery studies, the addition of SAC improved CPCR. On the other hand, CPCR decreased with the increase in SAC amount, where SAC3 showed a moderate curcumin release ability among the oleogels.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135968353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Energy-Intensive Materials with Mechanically Activated Components","authors":"Bakkara Ayagoz, Sadykov Bakhtiyar, Artykbaeva Aida, Kamunur Kaster, Batkal Aisulu, Kalmuratova Bakhyt","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7050097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7050097","url":null,"abstract":"The production and study of highly dispersed aluminum-based powders represents one of contemporary science’s priority fields. This is primarily driven by the practical necessity to develop new materials, a feat that, in some cases, can only be achieved through the utilization of powdered components. This article presents the results of the mechanochemical treatment method employed to obtain highly reactive aluminum particles. It also includes a comparative analysis of aluminum particles generated through various methods and their respective properties. Furthermore, the application of these highly reactive aluminum particles in energy-intensive materials is discussed.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136013968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ChemEngineeringPub Date : 2023-10-10DOI: 10.3390/chemengineering7050095
Daniyar Uskenbaev, Adolf Nogai, Alisher Uskenbayev, Kairatbek Zhetpisbayev, Eleonora Nogai, Pavel Dunayev, Ainur Zhetpisbayeva, Artur Nogai
{"title":"Synthesis and Research of Critical Parameters of Bi-HTSC Ceramics Based on Glass Phase Obtained by IR Heating","authors":"Daniyar Uskenbaev, Adolf Nogai, Alisher Uskenbayev, Kairatbek Zhetpisbayev, Eleonora Nogai, Pavel Dunayev, Ainur Zhetpisbayeva, Artur Nogai","doi":"10.3390/chemengineering7050095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering7050095","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper influence of the excess Ca and Cu cations on the critical temperature (Tc) and critical transport current density (Jc) of high-temperature superconducting ceramics of the compositions (HTSC) Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2.1Cu3.1Oy, Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2.25Cu3.25Oy and Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca3Cu4Oy synthesized by the glass-ceramic method has been studied. The synthesis of superconducting ceramics was carried out on the basis of the glass phase, obtained by ultra-fast quenching of the melt. Melting of the mixture of starting components was carried out without the use of a crucible under the influence of IR radiant heating. Analysis of the elemental composition of the samples of the initial precursors showed a significant deviation from stoichiometry in oxygen (increase), as well as a decrease in calcium content. The synthesis of HTSC ceramics was carried out at a temperature of 849–850 °C for 96 h with intermediate grinding every 24 h. Studies of the phase composition of ceramic samples by X-ray diffraction have shown that HTSC ceramics consist only of a superconducting high-temperature phase Bi-2223. Studies of current-carrying characteristics by the four-point probe method according to the criterion of 1 µV/cm2 have shown that high-temperature superconducting ceramics of the compositions Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2.1Cu3.1Oy, Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2.25Cu3.25Oy and Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca3Cu4Oy have an increased density of critical transport current of 9.12 A/cm2, 7.62 A/cm2 and 7.26 A/cm2, respectively. At the same time, it was found that with a decrease in the content of Ca and Cu cations in HTSC ceramics, an increase in the critical current density is observed.","PeriodicalId":9755,"journal":{"name":"ChemEngineering","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136357472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}