This method provides readily and slowly hydrolyzable biodegradable

organic matter fractions. (C) 2010 Society of Chemical Industry”
“BACKGROUND: Ceramic membranes have received more attention than polymeric membranes for the separation and purification of bio-products owing to their superior chemical, mechanical and thermal properties. Commercially available ceramic membranes are too expensive. This could be overcome by fabricating membranes using low-cost raw materials. The aim of this work is to fabricate a low-cost gamma-Al2O3-clay composite membrane and evaluate its potential for the separation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a function of pH, feed concentration and LY2603618 applied pressure. To achieve this, the membrane support is prepared using low-cost clay mixtures instead of very expensive alumina, zirconia and titania materials. The H 89 cost of the membrane can be further

reduced by preparing a gamma-alumina surface layer on the clay support using boehmite sol synthesized from inexpensive aluminium chloride instead of expensive aluminium alkoxide using a dip-coating technique.

RESULTS: The pore size distribution of the gamma-Al2O3-clay composite membrane varied from 5.4-13.6 nm. The membrane was prepared using stable boehmite sol of narrow particle size distribution and mean particle size 30.9 nm. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the surface of the gamma-Al2O3-clay composite membrane is defect-free. The pure water permeability of the support and the composite membrane were found AZD8055 datasheet to be 4.838 x 10(-6) and 2.357 x 10(-7) m(3) m(-2) s(-1) kPa(-1),

respectively. The maximum rejection of BSA protein was found to be 95%. It was observed that the separation performance of the membrane in terms of flux and rejection strongly depends on the electrostatic interaction between the protein and charged membrane.

CONCLUSION: The successively prepared gamma-Al2O3-clay composite membrane proved to possess good potential for the separation of BSA with high yield and could be employed as a low cost alternate to expensive ceramic membranes. (C) 2009 Society of Chemical Industry”
“BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of coupling photocatalysis and a biological treatment for the removal of azo dyes from aqueous effluents. Biological processes do not always appear relevant for dyes removal, owing to the low or total absence of biodegradability of this class of pollutants.

RESULTS: During photocatalysis pre-treatment, a decrease in the chemical oxygen demand (COD) indicated oxidation of the target compound and thus a change in the chemical structure; better biodegradability or less toxicity could then be expected. However, the concomitant decrease in dissolved organic carbon (DOC), characteristic of a high mineralization yield, led to nearly constant COD: DOC ratios, which was unfavorable for an increase in biodegradability.