Reducing the environmental impacts of desalination reject brine using modified Solvay process based on calcium oxide

This is the final version. Available from MDPI via the DOI in this record. : In this research, the influence of a variety of operational factors such as the temperature of the reaction, gas flow rate, concentration of NaCl, and the amount of Ca(OH)₂ for reducing the environmental impacts of desalination reject brine using the calcium oxide‐based modified Solvay process were investigated. For this purpose, response surface modeling (RSM) and central compo‐ site design (CCD) were applied. The significance of these factors and their interactions was assessed using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique with a 95% degree of certainty (p < 0.05). Optimal conditions for this process included: a temperature of 10 °C, a Ca(OH)₂/NaCl concentration ratio of 0.36, and a gas flow rate of 800 mL/min. Under these conditions, the maximum sodium removal efficiency from the synthetic sodium chloride solution was 53.51%. Subsequently, by employing the real brine rejected from the desalination unit with a 63 g/L salinity level under optimal conditions, the removal rate of sodium up to 43% was achieved. To investigate the process’s kinetics of Na elimination, three different kinds of kinetics models were applied from zero to second order. R squared values of 0.9101, 0.915, and 0.9141 were obtained in this investigation for zero‐, first‐, and second‐degree kinetic models, respectively, when synthetic reject saline reacted. In contrast, accord‐ ing to R squared’s results with utilizing real rejected brine, the results for the model of kinetics were: R squared = 0.9115, 0.9324, and 0.9532, correspondingly. As a result, the elimination of sodium from real reject brine is consistent with the second‐order kinetic model. According to the findings, the calcium oxide‐based modified Solvay method offers a great deal of promise for desalination of brine rejected from desalination units and reducing their environmental impacts. The primary benefit of this technology is producing a usable solid product (sodium bicarbonate) from sodium chloride in the brine solution

Performance enhancement of specific adsorbents for hardness reduction of drinking water and groundwater

This is the final version. Available from MDPI via the DOI in this record. One of the most advantageous methods for lowering water hardness is the use of low-cost adsorbents. In this research, the effectiveness of natural zeolite (clinoptilolite type), activated carbon, and activated alumina was evaluated. These adsorbents were sequentially modified by NaCl, HCl, and NaCl-HCL to improve their ability to adsorb. The contact time and the amount of adsorbent used in the adsorption process were investigated experimentally to determine their effects. The results indicated that the best contact time for hardness reduction was 90 min, and the best concentrations of adsorbents in drinking water for zeolite, activated carbon, and activated alumina were 40, 60, and 60 g/L, respectively. In addition, for groundwater, these figures were 60, 40, and 40 g/L, respectively. The greatest possible decreases in total hardness under the best conditions by natural zeolite, activated carbon, and activated alumina adsorbents were 93.07%, 30.76%, and 56.92%, respectively, for drinking water and 59.23%, 15.67 %, and 39.72% for groundwater. According to the results obtained from experiments, NaCl-modified zeolite, natural zeolite, and NaCl-HCl-modified activated carbon performed better in terms of parameter reduction. The equilibrium data were well fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model, whereas the kinetic data for the adsorption process were consistent with the pseudo-second-order model. The equilibrium study of the adsorption process by the Morris–Weber model revealed that both chemical and physical adsorption are involved.Bushehr Water & WasteWater Company (Iran

Application of Photo-Fenton, Electro-Fenton, and Photo-Electro-Fenton processes for the treatment of DMSO and DMAC wastewaters

This is the final version. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. Biological treatment, due to the formation of hazardous chemicals to remove organic compounds such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC), has limited potential. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are regarded as a viable alternative for treating molecules containing carbon-hydrogen bonds that cannot be broken down by traditional physico-chemical methods. In this investigation, various AOPs such as Photo-Fenton, Electro-Fenton, and Photo-Electro-Fenton processes were studied to treat wastewaters containing DMSO and DMAC. The effects of the operating parameters, including various initial concentrations of DMSO and DMAC, initial pH, reaction time, different concentrations of Fenton's reagent, power of UV lamp, different concentrations of electrolytes, the distance between electrodes and current intensity, were investigated. The findings of the experiments revealed that a pH of 3 and a reaction time of 120 min were optimal. At 2000 mg L−1 of DMSO, maximum degradation and the final concentration of TOC were 98.64 % and 256.8 mg L−1, respectively, by the Electro-Fenton process under the optimal conditions. The Electro-Fenton process was successful in determining the maximum degradation of DMAC (96.31 %) and the final TOC concentration (10.03 mg L−1) at 250 mg L−1 of DMAC under optimal conditions. Finally, it can be concluded that the Electro-Fenton process was the best process for the efficient removal of DMSO and DMAC. The second step of the kinetic model follows a pseudo-first-order reaction for 250 and 500 mg L−1 of pollutants and obeyed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model for concentrations of 1000, 2000 mg L−1.Bushehr province water company, Ira

Cholangiocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells for disease modeling and drug validation.

The study of biliary disease has been constrained by a lack of primary human cholangiocytes. Here we present an efficient, serum-free protocol for directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells into cholangiocyte-like cells (CLCs). CLCs show functional characteristics of cholangiocytes, including bile acids transfer, alkaline phosphatase activity, γ-glutamyl-transpeptidase activity and physiological responses to secretin, somatostatin and vascular endothelial growth factor. We use CLCs to model in vitro key features of Alagille syndrome, polycystic liver disease and cystic fibrosis (CF)-associated cholangiopathy. Furthermore, we use CLCs generated from healthy individuals and patients with polycystic liver disease to reproduce the effects of the drugs verapamil and octreotide, and we show that the experimental CF drug VX809 rescues the disease phenotype of CF cholangiopathy in vitro. Our differentiation protocol will facilitate the study of biological mechanisms controlling biliary development, as well as disease modeling and drug screening.This work was funded by ERC starting grant Relieve IMDs (L.V., N.H.), the Cambridge Hospitals National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Center (L.V., N.H., F.S.), the Evelyn trust (N.H.) and the EU Fp7 grant TissuGEN (M.CDB.). FS has been supported by an Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust Clinical Research Training Fellowship and a joint MRC-Sparks Clinical Research Training Fellowship.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nbt.327

Setup and use of HepaRG cells in cholestasis research

International audienceSince HepaRG cells can differentiate into well-polarized mature hepatocyte-like cells that synthesize, conjugate, and secrete bile acids, they represent an appropriate surrogate to primary human hepatocytes for investigations on drug-induced cholestasis mechanisms. In this chapter, culture conditions for obtaining HepaRG hepatocytes and the main methods used to detect cholestatic potential of drugs are described. Assays for evaluation of bile canaliculi dynamics and morphology are mainly based on time-lapse and phase-contrast microscopy analysis. Bile acid uptake, trafficking, and efflux are investigated using fluorescent probes. Individual bile acids are quantified in both culture media and cell layers by high-pressure liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry. Preferential cellular accumulation of toxic hydrophobic bile acids is easily evidenced when exogenous primary and secondary bile acids are added to the culture medium. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019