This paper analyses the real behaviour of the fluid in the channels of a three-end membrane module. The commonly accepted mathematical model of membrane separation of gas mixtures in such modules assumes a plug flow of fluid through the feed channel and perfect mixing in the permeate channel. This article discusses the admissibility of accepting such an assumption regarding the fluid behaviour in the permeate channel. Throughout analysis of the values of the Péclet number criterion, it has been demonstrated that in the industrial processes of membrane gas separation, the necessary conditions for the perfect mixing in the permeate channel are not met. Then, CFD simulations were performed in order to establish the real fluid behaviour in this channel. It was proved that in the permeate channel the fluid movement corresponds to the plug flow, with the concentration differences at both ends of the module being insignificant. In view of the observations made, the admissibility of concentration stability assumptions in the mathematical models for the permeate channel was discussed.

In this paper the influence of high power airborne ultrasound on drying biological material (Lobo apple) properties is considered. Apple samples were dried convectively at 75 ◦C and air flow of 2 m/s with and without ultrasound assist at 200W. During experiments, sun-drenched and not sun-drenched part of fruits were considered separately to show, how the maturity of the product influences dry material properties. Dried apple crisps in a size of small bars were subjected to compression tests during which acoustic emission (AE) was used. Analysis of AE and strength test results shows that correlations between received acoustic signals and sensory attributes (crispness, brittleness) of dried apples can be found. It was noted that ultrasound improved fruit brittleness in comparison with pure convective processes, where fruit maturity determines a kind of destruction and behaviour of dried apple crisps.

This paper presents an experimental study on chicken egg white solution ultrafiltration, where membrane fouling has been the main point of concern. Separation process has been performed with a 150 kDa tubular ceramic TiO2/Al2O3 membrane. The operating parameters have been set as follows: transmembrane pressure 105–310 kPa, cross-flow velocity 2.73–4.55 m/s, pH 5 and constant temperature of 293 K. Resistance-in-series model has been used to calculate total resistance and its components. The experimental data have been described with four pore blocking models (complete blocking, intermediate blocking, standard blocking and cake filtration). The results obtained show that the dominant fouling mechanism is represented by cake filtration model.

Because of excellent properties, similar to natural bone minerals, and variety of possible biomedical applications, hydroxyapatite (HAp) is a valuable compound among the calcium phosphate salts. A number of synthesis routes for producing HAp powders have been reported. Despite this fact, it is important to develop new methods providing precise control over the reaction and having potential to scale-up. The main motivation for the current paper is a view of continuous synthesis methods toward medical application of produced hydroxyapatite, especially in the form of nanoparticles.

The aim of this article is to present a modern method of convective drying intensification caused by the external action of ultrasound. The purpose of this study is to discover the mechanism of ultrasonic interaction between the solid skeleton and the moisture in pores. This knowledge may help to explain the enhancement of drying mechanism affected by ultrasound, particularly with respect to biological products like fruits and vegetables. The experimental kinetics tests were conducted in a hybrid dryer equipped with a new ultrasonic generator. The drying kinetics curves determined on the basis of drying model developed by the author were validated with those by the ones obtained from experimental tests. The intensification of heat and mass transfer processes due to ultrasound induced heating effect and vibration effect are analysed. The obtained results allow to state that ultrasound makes drying processes more effective and enhance the drying efficiency of biological products without significant elevation of their temperature.

A novel absorbing pervaporation hybrid technique has been evaluated experimentally for the recovery of ammonia from the gas mixture in a recycle loop of synthesis plants. This process of hybridization brings together the combination of energy-efficient membrane gas separation based on poly(dimethylsiloxane) poly(diphenylsilsesquioxane) with a high selective sorption technique where a water solution with polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400) was used as the liquid absorbent. Process efficiency was studied using the pure and mixed gases. The influence of PEG-400 content in aqueous solutions on process selectivity and separation efficiency was studied. The ammonia recovery efficiency evaluation of an absorbing pervaporation technique was performed and compared with the conventional membrane gas separation. It was shown that the absorbing pervaporation technique outperforms the conventional membrane method in the whole range of productivity, producing the ammonia with a purity of 99.93 vol.% using the PEG 80 wt.% solution. The proposed method may be considered as an attractive solution in the optimization of the Haber process.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a compound responsible for the greenhouse effect. One of the methods of CO2 capture from the gas stream is adsorption process. In this paper, the adsorption equilibrium isotherms of CO2 on zeolite 13X were measured at different temperatures (293.15 K, 303.15 K, 313.15 K, 323.15 K, 333.15 K, 348.15 K, 373.15 K, 393.15 K) and under pressures up to 2 MPa. These data were obtained using an Intelligent Gravimetric Analyzer (IGA-002, Hiden Isochema, UK). Selected multitemperature adsorption isotherm equations, namely Toth, Langmuir–Freundlich, and, Langmuir were correlated with experimental data.

The aim of this work was to investigate the influence of distilled water flowrate in two different porousmembrane modules on the size of generated nitrogen nanobubbles. Modules had different diameter and number of membrane tubes inside the module. As bubbles are cut off from the membrane surface by a shear stress induced by the liquid flow, the change in the linear liquid velocity should result in a change of the generated bubble diameter. For both modules, higher flowrate of liquid induced generation of smaller bubbles, which was consistent with our expectations. This effect can help us in generation of bubbles of desired size.