Scientific Program

Conference Series Ltd invites all the participants across the globe to attend 9th International Conference and Expo on Separation Techniques Zurich, Switzerland.

Day 1 :

Keynote Forum

Terry Chilcott

University of Sydney, Australia

Keynote: Interfacial impedimetric biosensor

Time : 10.00-10.35

Conference Series Separation Techniques 2018 International Conference Keynote Speaker Terry Chilcott photo
Biography:

Terry Chilcott has specialized in Biophysics at the School of Physics, University of New South Wales (UNSW) and latter in industrial membranes at the UNESCO CMST at UNSW and presently in membrane science at the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney. He is also a co-inventor of a unique impedance spectrometer commercialized by Inphaze Pty Ltd. He has some 50 publications in top international journals and some 50 peer reviewed papers delivered at international conferences

Abstract:

The immersion of biosensors in body tissue samples inevitably involves the formation of interfaces with body electrolytes. The interfaces are generally viewed as nuisances to recognizances of antibodies to which nanostructures comprising the biosensor surfaces have been sensitized. This is because the interfaces can interfere with sophisticated electronic and chemical constructs comprising the biosensor substrates that transduce and amplify signals generated by targeted antibodies upon binding tocomplementary antigens anchored within the nanostructures. The interfacial impedimetric biosensor avoids this sophistication butuses electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to characterize electrochemical and physiochemical changes in the interface where antibody-antigen bindings occur. EIS, XPS and water-contact-angle measurements were used to characterize the surfaces andinterfaces that alkane nanostructures formed with 1-300 mM KCl electrolytes during the construction of the biosensor. EIS alsocharacterized the interfaces that formed between the nanostructures and the highly doped semiconductor substrate. This confirmedthe absence of the usual electric field inducing depletion layers that develop in low doped semiconductor substrates and the absenceof dependencies of the interfacial properties on electrolyte concentration. Such remained the case during the construction whichcommenced with an undecylenic acid nanostructure and progressed through stages of surface modifications with NHS, IgG andglycine. The interfaces that formed with the electrolytes varied but in explainable ways related to thicknesses, surface coverage’s and electronegativity of the modifications as well as electrolyte concentrations. The interfacial recognizance of the targeted anti-IgG wasunambiguously confirmed by non-specific binding tests with anti-IgM. Future development stages will be discussed.

Conference Series Separation Techniques 2018 International Conference Keynote Speaker Giuseppe Firpo photo
Biography:

Giuseppe Firpo has completed his Physics degree in 1992 from University of Genova, Department of Physics. He is the Chief of Technical Staff of Physics Department of the University of Genova. He has 39 cited documents with h-index 11 (source Scopus 2018) and he has obtained the license for teaching as Associate Professor at Italian University for scientific sector 02/B1-Experimental Physics of Matter.

Abstract:

Gas separation, CO2 capture, petrochemical and food industry, are only the most important fields employing membrane technologies as separation processes. The characterization of membrane materials is based on the knowledge of their permeability P and diffusivity D. Although data of P and D are available in literature for a wide group of materials, agreement between the results of the different procedures to measure them, is sometimes poor and may be material-dependent. In this work we present a new versatile experimental set up fabricated to carry out P and D measurements with high accuracy. The apparatus is a high vacuum set up allows the measurements with two methods: static and dynamic. The static method consists in a constant-volume variable-pressure procedure, dynamic one employ a mass spectrometer (MS) to perform a selective and rapidly measurements of transient flux through membranes. Both methods measure P and D. Respect to other apparatus, it present substantial improvements. It is equipped with a spinning rotor gauge, which it is possible to obtain measure with high accuracy. It has a new freestanding membrane assembly that guarantee the same feed and permeate area in order to avoid later diffusion. In the dynamic procedure MS allows to run experiment without sweeping gas to prevent sample diluition which diminishes analytical sensitivity. Finally, it allows permeability measurements in a high range of values, making it available for a wide group of materials for several applications: materials with high and very low permeability (for separation or sealing applications respectively).

Conference Series Separation Techniques 2018 International Conference Keynote Speaker Conidi Carmela photo
Biography:

Conidi Carmela has completed her degree in Pharmacy from University of Calabria in 2004 and her PhD in Methodologies for the development of molecules of pharmacological interest in 2009. She conducted Postdoctoral research at the Instituto de Ingeniería de Alimentos para el Desarrollo, Universitat Politècnica de València between the years 2011-2013. She is currently working at the Institute of Membrane Technology of CNR where she is involved in different research activities devoted to the purification and concentration of antioxidant compounds in products and by-products of food processing. She has published more than 40 papers in international journals and she is participant in different national and international projects

Abstract:

Olive-waste cake is a by-product of the Olive oil extraction recognized as a rich resource of phenolic compounds (about 45% of the original Olives’ phenolic content). Recently, in relation to the major interest for natural compounds with biological activities,the interest in the separation and purification of polyphenols from these wastes has remarkably grown. Indeed, polyphenols have been associated with a multitude of health beneficial effects possibly preventing damages and diseases caused by oxidative stress. Pressure-driven membrane processes has been largely investigated in the last years for reducing the organic load of agro-food wastewaters and for recovering of high-added value compounds. This work was aimed at investigating a sustainable process for the purification of polyphenols from Olive-waste cake. It was based on an aqueous extraction step of the Olive-waste cake followed by a fractionation/concentration step through the use of tight ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes. The aqueous extraction was studied on bench scale evaluating the effect of time and solid-liquid ratio on polyphenols recovery. The performance of flat-sheet polymeric membranes, with different molecular weight cut-off, was evaluated in terms of productivity and selectivity towards total phenols. Fouling index and cleaning efficiency were also analysed in order to determine process feasibility at industrial scale. The whole result allows selecting the suitable membranes to obtain formulations enriched in phenolic compounds of interest for functional foods and functional food ingredients. Preliminary results demonstrate that the combination of aqueous extraction and membrane systems is an effective method to extract and purify phenolic compounds from Olive cakes to produce products that are economically highly valued reducing at the same time environmental issues of Olive waste disposal.

Keynote Forum

Chenlong Duan

China University of Mining and Technology, China

Keynote: Dry and separation of fine lignite in pulsed fluidized bed system

Time : 12:00-12:35

Conference Series Separation Techniques 2018 International Conference Keynote Speaker Chenlong Duan photo
Biography:

Chenlong Duan is a Professor of Mineral Processing, the Vice Dean of Graduate School, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT). He is a Member of American Society of Engineering Education, Youth Council of Chinese Society of Particuology and has been nominated as Standard English Interpreting Expert for Coal Industrial Engineering Construction Project. He has published more than 180 papers in reputed journals and applied 10 invention patents in USA and China.

Abstract:

Lignite is an abundant raw coal resource, which is increasingly implemented as a primary energy supply worldwide. However,due to the characteristics of high moisture content, high ash content, high volatile content and low calorific value etc., the direct combustion of lignite resuts in low combustion efficiency, high transportation cost. In order to implement lignite as energy source and increase the utilization efficiency, the upgrading of lignite by discarding and removing moisture prior to direct use is necessary. Coal separation and simultaneously drying technologies have the superiorities of avoiding lignite slimming in separation process and attenuating the adverse effect of liquid bridge between lignite particles on particle diffusion and stratification in the separation process. The pulsed fluidized bed is typical coal separation and drying system, which implements pulsating air flow to promote the diffusion and stratification of particles and improve the dying performance and separation efficiency. In the proposed work, a novel autogenous medium pulsed fluidized bed system was established targeting at separating and simultaneously drying the fine lignite. The core of the system involves: gas heater, pulsating system and fluidized bed with thermocouple measuring equipment. The electrical heater consists of electrical heating tubes. Controller is responsible for setting the range of heating temperature in order to satisfy experimental requirements. In the experiment, the drying process and separation process were conducted simultaneously under different superficial velocities. After each separation, the products were sampled and analyzed in terms of ash content and moisture content. Results show that the calorific capacity have been increased significantly and the moisture content of lignite has been decreased.

Conference Series Separation Techniques 2018 International Conference Keynote Speaker Amarjit Bakshi photo
Biography:

Amarjit Bakshi has PhD and undergraduate degree both in Chemical Engineering from University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. He has over 40 years of experience in Engineering/Consulting Management at senior level in Process Engineering Technology, Business Development, Licensing, Acquisitions, Alliances and Project Management and Engineering, Operations Management and Process Engineering. He has worked in all EU countries including UK, Germany, and The Netherland.Major developments in oil and gas business, downstream and petrochemicals technology, catalysts, international alliance, licensing and contract negotiation, technology marketing, new technology commercial launch and partner relations.

Abstract:

With the invention of RHT-alkylation, sulfuric acid alkylation process configuration and equipment provides multiple paradigm shifts and breakthroughs in the technology but keeping same reaction chemistry. The breakthroughs reduce the Capex and Opex in region of 40 to 50% compared to conventional technology; this is not just improvements but major paradigm shift. The process uses a unique educator-mixing device, which reduce the costs and maintenance requirements on stream factor with simple equipment. The unit uses classical coalescers for separating the acid and hydrocarbon from the contactor/reactor effluent, making it a dry process that simplifies the process by reducing equipment items, corrosion and cost. Additionally major breakthrough is in absorbing the auto refrigeration vapors in reactor effluent. This reduce the requirement for compressor saving 20% Capex and 50% of power requirements and operating costs. These are major benefits to the refining industry and should be embraced by the industry to make the competitiveness of the unit. RHT-Iso-octene/iso-octane process provides major economic advantages with simple and smart configuration which enhances the yield and reduces the equipment sizes and utilities. Advances simplify the technology and provide economy of scale.

  • Novel Separation Techniques in Chemistry | Separation Methods and Techniques | Applications of Separation Techniques | Separation Processes in Chemical Engineering
Location: Berlin
Speaker

Chair

Chenlong Duan

China University of Mining and Technology, China

Speaker

Co-Chair

Conidi Carmela

ITM-CNR, Italy

Speaker
Biography:

Hiroya Muramatsu is a PhD student at Shizuoka University. His three papers were published in high-quality journals. His research interests are multiphase flows, chemical engineering and development of optical-based measurement science and technology.

Abstract:

Aiming at industrial processes, some ultrasound separation techniques have been proposed due to their advantages of non-contact. These previous techniques used MHz-band ultrasound because of its high directionality. An ultrasound separation technique using kHz-band proposed by us is very rare. We found out an intriguing phenomenon: by irradiating 20-kHz-band ultrasound into water, dispersed particles were flocculated into a suspended spherical particle swarm (SFPS). We have revealed this unique flocculation mechanisms. The acoustic cavitation oriented bubbles (ACOBs) play an essential role in the SFPS formation. Our newly developed technique is able to be applied to liquid/solid separation. Precisely controlling the ultrasound irradiation and manipulating the SFPS through a simple apparatus, we succeeded in classifying the particles by their diameter. The flocculated particles were repeatedly discharged and captured from/by the SFPS. This fluctuation has to be elucidated and restrained for industrial application. In the present study, we aim at the relationship between the ACOBs and this SFPS’s fluctuation. Since directly visualizing the ACOBs behavior inside the SFPS is impossible, we focused on the sonoluminescence which is fast and feeble light emission from the ACOBs. First, we measured the sonoluminescence, as an index of the ACOBs’ activity, inside/outside of the SFPS via optical fiber probing. We quantified the periodical fluctuation of the intensity of the sonoluminescence. Second, we visualized the SFPS, and analyzed the SFPS’s characteristics via image processing. By the comparison of these results, we discuss the influence of the ACOBs’ activity on the SFPS.

Martin Topiar

Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of CAS, Czech Republic

Title: Isolation of polyphenols from wastes produced by wine industry

Time : 14.25-14.50

Speaker
Biography:

Martin Topiar has completed his Master of Science in Synthesis and Production of Drugs at the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague. This year he obtained PhD at UTC Prague in cooperation with the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of CAS, v.v.i. He is focusing on the SFE from plants with particular interest in a study of several types of fractionation techniques. He has published five papers in reputed journals and presented his work in many international conferences dealing with extraction techniques and supercritical fluids utilization

Abstract:

Czech Republic belongs among countries with long winemaking tradition. Unfortunately, wine-processing industry produces large amounts of waste, which is usually burnt or it is used in compost. However, grape marc, stems or wood contains wide variety of biologically active substances which can be used as by-products in food suplementation or in a pharma industry. This work was focused on combination of several extraction techniques suitable for the isolation of polyphenols (resveratrol, viniferins) from wine marc, stems and wood with South Moravia origin. We have observed variations in chemical compositions of isolates obtained by the combination of pressing, maceration, soxhlet and ultrasonic extraction, based on a different process parameters (time, solvent to feed ratio, temperature, solvent, ultrasonic amplitude). Chemical composition of isolated samples were determined by LC-MS. Moreover, we have designed batch laboratory equipment which allows us to combine all of the mentioned isolation techniques. Using the combination of soxhlet and ultrasionic extraction resulted into substantial decrease in processing time with no influence on the yield of polyphenols in the isolate.

Jinpeng Qiao

China University of Mining and Technology, China

Title: DC- SP- ETVS- Dynamic characteristics and screening performance of an equal-thickness vibrating screen

Time : 14.50-15.15

Speaker
Biography:

Jinpeng Qiao is a PhD candidate from China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), and his major is Mineral Processing Engineering. His supervisior is Professor Duan Chenlong, an expert of Clean Coal Technology and Dry Separation Theory and Technology.

Abstract:

Screening is the key unit in coal processing and utilization. Recently, equal-thickness screens characterized by a large capacity and high efficiency have been extensively used. Conventionally, equal-thickness screening is achieved by changing the inclinations of each stage or adjusting the exciting force. In this paper, a single-deck equal-thickness vibrating screen (ETVS) driven externally by an unbalanced two-axle excitation with a large span is proposed, and a set of dynamic equations governing the motion of the screen are also presented. The vibration data was obtained using a vibration test and analysis unit, and the bed stratification and particle behavior on the screen were obtained by image acquisition using a high-speed camera and data analysis unit. Screening experiments were conducted to evaluate the classification performance of the ETVS with a variable amplitude. The results showed that the amplitude of the vibrating screen driven by an unbalanced excitation with a large span showed a decreasing trend, and a constant bed thickness was obtained throughout the deck. The ETVS has advantages of a high screen deck utilization and an efficient classification. Compared to the normal vibrating screen (NVS), the screening efficiency of the ETVS increased by 3.05%–8.76%. The screening performance of the ETVS is obviously better than that of the NVS, especially when dealing with a large amount of materials and those with high moisture.

Xuchen Fan

China University of Mining and Technology, China

Title: F-PDFB- fine coal beneficination by pulesd dense-phase fluidized bed

Time : 15.15-15.40

Speaker
Biography:

Xuchen Fan is a PhD candidate from China University of Mining and Technology. His Major is Mineral Processing Engineering. His supervisors are Prof. Zhao Yuemin and Prof. Dong Liang. His research interests include fine coal dry beneficiation. He has published papers in Fuel, Particulate Science & Technology and Coal Technology, respectively.

Abstract:

High efficiency dry coal separation technology is beneficial to improve the efficient utilization of coal energy. While with the increasing content of fine coal, there is a lack of mature and efficient dry separation technology. In this study, a novel pulsed dense-phase fluidized bed was introduced into fine coal separation. Due to the action of the vibration energy of pulsing air flow, the fluidization quality of the fluidized bed was improved; the homogeneous stability of the bed density was strengthened. Due to the effect of gas pulsation frequency on the bed density, the frequency was divided into three regions: low-frequency region, middle-frequency region and high-frequency region. In the middle-frequency region, the bed density was uniform in the cross section of the fluidized bed, which was suitable for fine coal separation. At the same time, the circulating current and back mixing of heavy-medium particles were restrained. Based on basic theory and experimental research, the experimental study on separation of fine coal with -6+1 mm size fraction in pulsed dense-phase fluidized bed system was conducted. The separation results showed that the probable error (E) of -6+3 mm and -3+1 mm were 0.19 g/cm3 and 0.10 g/cm3 respectively. Comparing with raw coal, the ash content of the clean coal is -6+3 mm and -3+1 mm decreased by 18.66% and 12.07% respectively. It indicated that using pulsed dense-phase fluidized bed could achieve high efficiency separation of fine coal.

Speaker
Biography:

Abstract:

Palm oil fronds were used to prepare activated carbon using physiochemical activation method, which consisted of potassium hydroxide (KOH) treatment and carbon dioxide CO2 gasification. The effects of variable parameters activation temperature, activation time and chemical impregnation ratios (KOH: char by weight) on the preparation of activated carbon and for removal of pesticides: bentazon, carbofuran and 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D) were investigated. Based on the central composite design (CCD), two factor interaction (2FI) and quadratic models were respectively employed to correlate the effect of variable parameters on the preparation of activated carbon used for removal of pesticides with carbon yield. From the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the most influential factor on each experimental design response was identified. The optimum conditions for preparing activated carbon from oil palm fronds were found as follows: activation temperature of 750°C, activation time of 2H and chemical impregnation ratio of 2.38. The percentage error between predicted and experimental results for removal of bentazon, carbofuran and 2, 4-D was 8.2, 1.3 and 9.2%, respectively and for the yield of palm oil fronds activated carbon was 5.6.

Speaker
Biography:

A Saccà is a Chemist. She completed her PhD in Materials for Environment and Energy from TorVergata University, Rome, Italy in 2006, 2nd level Master’s degree in Hydrogen production systems and means of transport with fuel cells from Messina University, Italy in 2008. She is actually a Researcher at National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Advanced Energy Technologies Nicola Giordano, Messina, Italy. Her activity regards: developement of components (electrodes, ionomers, MEAs, membranes) for H2/Air-PEFC, particularly solid polymer membranes for electrochemical devices (PEFC, EHC, VRFB) and, recently, for separation processes, synthesis of inorganic compounds as fillers for membranes (oxides, proton conductors). She has published 34 papers on international journals, 79 on conference books, 55 technical reports.

Abstract:

In the last years, ultrafiltration (UF) membranes for wastewaters treatment have been increasingly investigated due their ability to work in low-pressure conditions. Membranes based on polysulphone (PSF) are among the most commonly used materials thanks to PSF properties, but their hydrophobicity and poor fouling resistance reduce the water permeability, molecular selectivity, process duration representing an obstacle for application. An investigation on development of asymmetric solid PSF membranes is here presented. Four parameters for membrane formation were investigated: polymer concentration, nonsolvent, de-mixing time (Dt), surfactant concentration. Eleven membranes were synthesised tuning the above-mentioned parameters that were characterised in terms of XRD, TGA-DSC, IR, contact-angle, DMA, N2 adsorption−desorption isotherm, water retention, SEM, water permeability tests. SEM results highlight a good finger-like macrovoids morphology for membranes with and without surfactant. Its introduction enhances the membranes hydrophilic properties as evidenced by water retention measurements, but it has to be better dispersed. The permeability tests point out only the samples without surfactant were able to overcome the under pressure operation. In any case, the most performing membranes were obtained when lower Dt and water as a non-solvent are used; mesoporous and more mechanically stiff membranes with higher hydrophilic character were obtained without surfactant; asymmetry with finger-like morphology was obtained determining the main generating parameters; surface porosity (500 nm-2 μm) with channels of about 1-2 μ was obtained for some samples; a good permeability was obtained for PSF2-3 and PSF2-4 samples. PSF2-3 and PSF 2-11 samples were identified as the most promising prototypes to be further optimized for final UF application.

Speaker
Biography:

Maryam Sayah has completed her Master's degree in 2016 from the Department of Chemistry, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. She is interested in chromatography (GC and HPLC), separation and chemometric methods.

Abstract:

Tartrazine as an anionic azo dye is widely used in several industries and is considered as highly toxic to humans. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the dye-contaminated wastewater prior to its discharge to the environment. This work presents the application of bat inspired algorithm with the aid of artificial neural networks (ANN-BA) as a novel metaheuristic algorithm in chemistry for optimization of tartrazine dye adsorption onto the novel polypyrrole/SrFe12O19/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite from aqueous solutions. The polypyrrole/SrFe12O19/GO nanocomposite was fabricated by an in situ polymerization process and its structural and magnetic properties were studied by means of several instrumental techniques. Four factors affecting adsorption process including initial concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH and shaking rate were optimized in a batch system using response surface methodology (RSM) and bat inspired algorithm (ANN-BA). In comparison to the RSM, the ANN- BA model obtained through Levenberg Marquardt back propagation methodology, gave higher percentage removal (94%) about 6%. Under optimal conditions obtained by ANN-BA, the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model with monolayer maximum capacity(qmax) of 123.5 mgg-1 and pseudo-second-order kinetic model fitted the experimental results with determination coefficients (R2) of 0.9986 and 0.9989, respectively. Thermodynamic studies revealed that tartrazine adsorption was endothermic, spontaneous, and feasible process. Moreover, the adsorbent application in wastewater and its regeneration studies depicted that the nanocomposite can be applied as an effective, magnetic separable and reusable adsorbent in environmental clean-up.