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Journal of Perinatology : Official... May 2024Preterm infants need enrichment of human milk (HM) for optimal growth. This study evaluated a novel, point-of-care human milk concentration (HMC) process for water...
OBJECTIVE
Preterm infants need enrichment of human milk (HM) for optimal growth. This study evaluated a novel, point-of-care human milk concentration (HMC) process for water removal from fresh HM samples by passive osmotic concentration.
STUDY DESIGN
Nineteen fresh HM samples were concentrated by incubation with the HMC devices for 3 h at 4 °C. Pre- and post-concentration HM samples were compared by HM properties for: pH, osmolality, macronutrients, enzyme activity, bioactive, and total cell viability.
RESULTS
Passive osmotic concentration reduced HM volume by an average of 16.3% ± 3.8% without a significant effect on pH or cell viability. Ten of the 41 HM components did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) between pre- and post-concentration samples. Twenty-three increased within the expected range by volume reduction. Six increased more than expected, two less than expected, and none decreased significantly.
CONCLUSION
Passive osmotic concentration of fresh HM can concentrate HM components by selective removal of water. HM osmolality and pH remained within neonatal feeding parameters.
PubMed: 38760580
DOI: 10.1038/s41372-024-01988-2 -
The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B May 2024Over the past decade, multilayered graphene oxide (GO) membranes have emerged as promising candidates for desalination applications. Despite their potential, a...
Comparative Retention Analysis of Intercalated Cations Inside the Interlayer Gallery of Lamellar and Nonlamellar Graphene Oxide Membranes in Reverse Osmosis Process: A Molecular Dynamics Study.
Over the past decade, multilayered graphene oxide (GO) membranes have emerged as promising candidates for desalination applications. Despite their potential, a comprehensive understanding of separation mechanisms remains elusive due to the intricate morphology and structural arrangement of interlayer galleries. Moreover, a critical concern of multilayered GO membranes is their susceptibility to swelling within aqueous environments, which hinders their practical implementation. Therefore, this study introduces cation intercalation within GO laminates to elucidate the underlying factors governing swelling behavior and subsequently mitigate it. Moreover, this study performed nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations on the cation (Mg or K)-intercalated lamellar and nonlamellar GO membranes to understand the effect of the arrangement of GO sheets on the retention time of intercalated cations within GO layers, water permeance, and salt rejection mechanism in the reverse osmosis process using cation-intercalated GO membranes. Our results highlight that lamellar GO membranes exhibit higher water permeance, attributed to their well-defined interlayer gallery structure. On the other hand, nonlamellar GO membranes display superior salt rejection due to their complex interlayer gallery structure that impedes salt permeation. Moreover, the structural complexity of nonlamellar GO membranes contributes to greater stability by retention of the more intercalated cations for a longer time within the layers. Furthermore, it is observed that a higher percentage of Mg cations remained inside the GO laminates as compared to K cations, hence resulting in the greater stability of the Mg-intercalated GO membrane in the aqueous environment.
PubMed: 38756068
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c01623 -
Physical Review. E Apr 2024Electric fields are commonly used to control the orientation and motion of microscopic metal particles in aqueous suspensions. For example, metallodielectric Janus...
Electric fields are commonly used to control the orientation and motion of microscopic metal particles in aqueous suspensions. For example, metallodielectric Janus spheres are propelled by the induced-charge electro-osmotic flow occurring on their metallic side, the most common case in electrokinetics of exploiting symmetry breaking of surface properties for achieving net particle motion. In this work, we demonstrate that a homogeneous metal rod can translate parallel to a dielectric wall as a result of the hydrodynamic wall-particle interaction arising from the induced-charge electro-osmosis on the rod surface. The applied electric field could be either dc or low-frequency ac. The only requirement for a nonvanishing particle velocity is that the axis of the rod be inclined with respect to the wall, i.e., it cannot be neither parallel nor perpendicular. We show numerical results of the rod velocity as a function of rod orientation and distance to the wall. The maximum particle velocity is found for an orientation of between ∼30^{∘} and ∼50^{∘}, depending on the position and aspect ratio of the cylinder. Particle velocities of up to tens of µm/s are predicted for typical conditions in electrokinetic experiments.
PubMed: 38755876
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.109.045109 -
Water Research Jul 2024Seawater utilization is crucial for the sustainable human development. Despite growing interest in forward osmosis (FO) due to its unique properties, conventional FO...
Seawater utilization is crucial for the sustainable human development. Despite growing interest in forward osmosis (FO) due to its unique properties, conventional FO membranes with salt-water selectivity have limitations in applying to specific salt-salt separation processes, which hinders their application in resource utilization. In this work, a new concept, "selective forward osmosis (SFO)", was proposed, which ingeniously employed an SFO membrane consisting of an ion-selective layer on a denser substrate. The denser substrate is designed to control water flux so as to alleviate the solution dilution and improve the salt-salt separation. Moreover, the sucrose and pure water were used separately as feed solution to provide different water flux to influence the various salt fluxes, showing that pure water feed could enhance the salt-salt separation efficiency, although it could dilute the draw solution to some extent. Therefore, pure water was selected as feed in the subsequent experiments. The optimized SFO membrane achieved high NaSO/NaCl selectivity (∼54.8) and MgCl/NaCl selectivity (∼9.2) in single-salt draw solutions. With mixed-salt and heavy-metal-mixed-salt draw solutions, the Mg/Na selectivity was enhanced to ∼14.5, and further to 29.3. In real seawater tests, the SFO system effectively permeated monovalent elements (such as Na flux of ∼68.6 g m h) while maintaining a higher rejection for bivalent elements (such as Mg flux of ∼0.08 g m h), showing high selectivities for Mg/Na, U/Na, Sr/Na, Ni/Na, and Ca/Na. These results demonstrate the potential of SFO for resource utilization, especially in complex saline environments. This work contributes a new route for salt-salt separation in the pretreatment of seawater resources.
Topics: Seawater; Osmosis; Sodium Chloride; Membranes, Artificial; Water Purification
PubMed: 38754298
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121753 -
ACS ES&T Engineering May 2024Cost-optimization models are powerful tools for evaluating emerging water treatment processes. However, to date, optimization models do not incorporate detailed chemical...
Cost-optimization models are powerful tools for evaluating emerging water treatment processes. However, to date, optimization models do not incorporate detailed chemical reaction phenomena, limiting the assessment of pretreatment and mineral scaling. Moreover, novel approaches for high-salinity and high-recovery desalination are typically proposed without direct quantification of pretreatment needs or mineral scaling. This work addresses a critical gap in the literature by presenting a modeling framework that includes complex water chemistry predictions with process-scale optimization. We use this approach to conduct a technoeconomic assessment on a conceptual high-recovery treatment train that includes chemical pretreatment (i.e., soda ash softening and recarbonation) and membrane-based desalination (i.e., standard and high-pressure reverse osmosis). We demonstrate how to develop and integrate accurate multidimensional surrogate models for predicting precipitation, pH, and mineral scaling tendencies. Our findings show that cost-optimal results balance the costs of pretreatment with reverse osmosis system design. Optimizing across a range of water recoveries (i.e., 50-90%) reveals multiple cost-optimal schemas that vary the chemical dosing in pretreatment and the design and operation of reverse osmosis. Our results reveal that pretreatment costs can be more than double the cost of the primary desalination process at high recoveries due to the extensive pretreatment required to control scaling. This work emphasizes the importance of and provides a framework for including chemistry and mineral scaling predictions in the evaluation of emerging technologies in high-recovery desalination.
PubMed: 38751651
DOI: 10.1021/acsestengg.3c00537 -
Scientific Reports May 2024Due to the high volume of wastewater produced from dairy factories, it is necessary to integrate a water recovery process with the treatment plant. Today, bipolar...
Due to the high volume of wastewater produced from dairy factories, it is necessary to integrate a water recovery process with the treatment plant. Today, bipolar membrane electrodialysis units (BMEUs) are increasingly developed for wastewater treatment and reutilizing. This article aims to develop and evaluate (technical and cost analyses) a combined BMEU/batch reverse osmosis unit (BROU) process for the recovery of chemicals and water from the dairy wastewater plant. The combined BROU/BMEU process is able to simultaneously produce water and strong base-acid, and reduce power consumption due to the injection of concentrated feed flow into the BMEU. A comprehensive comparative analysis on the performances of two combined and stand-alone BMEU configurations are developed. The proposed combined technology for dairy factory wastewater treatment is designed on a new structure and configuration that can address superior cost analysis compared to similar technologies. Further, the optimal values of permeate flux and current density as two vital and influencing parameters on the performance of the studied dairy wastewater treatment process were calculated and discussed. From the outcomes, the total cost of production in the combined configuration has been reduced by approximately 26% compared to the stand-alone configuration. Increasing the feed concentration rate using the batch reverse osmosis process for the dairy wastewater treatment process can be an ideal solution from an economic point of view. Moreover, point (current density, feed concentration rate, total unit cost) = can be considered as an optimal point for the economic performance of the studied wastewater treatment process.
PubMed: 38750120
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-61699-8 -
Water Science and Technology : a... May 2024Electroplating wastewater contains heavy metal ions and organic matter. These contaminants not only endanger the environment but also pose risks to human health. Despite...
Electroplating wastewater contains heavy metal ions and organic matter. These contaminants not only endanger the environment but also pose risks to human health. Despite the development of various treatment processes such as chemical precipitation MBR, electrocoagulation (EC) ceramic membrane (CM), coagulation ultrafiltration (UF) reverse osmosis (RO), and CM RO. These methods are only effective for low concentrations of heavy metals and struggle with high concentrations. To address the challenge of treating electroplating wastewater with high heavy metal content, this study focuses on the wastewater from Dongfang Aviation Machinery Processing Plant. It introduces an EC and integrated membrane (IM) treatment process for electroplating wastewater. The IM comprises microfiltration (MF) membrane, nanofiltration (NF) membrane, and RO membrane. Results indicated that under specific conditions, such as a pH of 8, current density of 5 A/dm, electrode plate spacing of 2 cm, 35 min of electrolysis time, and influent pH of 10 for the IM, removal rates of Zn, Cu, Ni, and TCr in the wastewater exceeded 99%. The removal rates of chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and petroleum in wastewater exceed 97%. Following a continuous cleaning process, the membrane flux can consistently recover to over 94.3%.
Topics: Membranes, Artificial; Wastewater; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Electroplating; Water Purification; Metals, Heavy; Electrocoagulation
PubMed: 38747966
DOI: 10.2166/wst.2024.136 -
Water Science and Technology : a... May 2024In this study, a multi-functional layer was developed based on the commercially available cellulose triacetate (CTA) forward osmosis (FO) membrane to improve its...
In this study, a multi-functional layer was developed based on the commercially available cellulose triacetate (CTA) forward osmosis (FO) membrane to improve its antifouling property. Tannic acid/ferric ion (TA/Fe) complexes were firstly coated as a precursor layer on the membrane surface via self-assembly. Afterwards, the tannic acid/diethylenetriamine (TA/DETA) hydrophilic functional layer was further coated, following Ag/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) anti-bacterial layer was formed through the reducibility of TA to obtain TA/Fe-TA/DETA-Ag/PVP-modified membrane. The optimized precursor layer was acquired by adjusting the buffer solution pH to 8, TA/Fe ratio to 4 and the number of self-assembled layers to 5. The permeability testing results illustrated that the functional layer had an insignificant effect on the membrane transport parameters. The TA/Fe-TA/DETA-Ag/PVP-modified membrane simultaneously exhibited excellent physical and chemical stability. The coated membrane also demonstrated enhanced anti-bacterial properties, achieving 98.63 and 97.30% inhibition against and , respectively. Furthermore, the dynamic fouling experiment showed a 12% higher water flux decrease for the TA/Fe-TA/DETA-Ag/PVP CTA membrane compared to the nascent CTA membrane, which proved its excellent antifouling performance. This work provides a feasible strategy to heighten the antifouling property of the CTA FO membrane.
Topics: Membranes, Artificial; Osmosis; Biofouling; Staphylococcus aureus; Escherichia coli; Tannins; Phenols; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Water Purification
PubMed: 38747962
DOI: 10.2166/wst.2024.129 -
Water Science and Technology : a... May 2024In the face of growing global freshwater scarcity, the imperative to recycle and reuse water becomes increasingly apparent across industrial, agricultural, and domestic... (Review)
Review
In the face of growing global freshwater scarcity, the imperative to recycle and reuse water becomes increasingly apparent across industrial, agricultural, and domestic sectors. Eliminating a range of organic pollutants in wastewater, from pesticides to industrial byproducts, presents a formidable challenge. Among the potential solutions, membrane technologies emerge as promising contenders for treating diverse organic contaminants from industrial, agricultural, and household origins. This paper explores cutting-edge membrane-based approaches, including reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, microfiltration, gas separation membranes, and pervaporation. Each technology's efficacy in removing distinct organic pollutants while producing purified water is scrutinized. This review delves into membrane fouling, discussing its influencing factors and preventative strategies. It sheds light on the merits, limitations, and prospects of these various membrane techniques, contributing to the advancement of wastewater treatment. It advocates for future research in membrane technology with a focus on fouling control and the development of energy-efficient devices. Interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, engineers, policymakers, and industry players is vital for shaping water purification innovation. Ongoing research and collaboration position us to fulfill the promise of accessible, clean water for all.
Topics: Membranes, Artificial; Water Purification; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Filtration; Ultrafiltration; Organic Chemicals
PubMed: 38747950
DOI: 10.2166/wst.2024.117 -
Global Challenges (Hoboken, NJ) May 2024The acute water and electricity shortages in Gaza necessitate comprehensive solutions that recognize the interconnected nature of these vital resources. This article...
The acute water and electricity shortages in Gaza necessitate comprehensive solutions that recognize the interconnected nature of these vital resources. This article presents pragmatic solutions to align supply with fundamental needs in both domains, offering viable pathways for achieving strategic water-energy security in Gaza. Baseline data reveals a deficit in the current water supply, falling below the international minimum of 100 L per capita per day, while the reported 137-189 MW per day electricity supply significantly lags behind the estimated 390 MW per day peak demand. To meet projected 2024 residential, commercial, and industrial demands, this study proposes actionable measures including expanding wastewater treatment to enable over 150 MCM per year tertiary effluents for agricultural reuse and adopting energy-efficient forward osmosis-reverse osmosis and osmotically assisted reverse osmosis desalination methods to increase potable water supply to 150 MCM per year. Electricity supply strategies include scaling renewable capacity towards 110 MW per day, exploring regional cooperation to unlock over 360 MW of power per day, and potentially recovering up to 60 MW per day through system efficiencies. These recommendations aim to prevent exacerbated scarcity and alleviate hardships in Gaza.
PubMed: 38745562
DOI: 10.1002/gch2.202300304