Recent Patents on Chemical Engineering - Volume 5, Issue 3, 2012

Separation of hydrocarbons by degree of branching is a very important issue in the development of suitable technologies for enhancing octane number in gasoline fuels. This separation is usually performed by adsorption processes using molecular sieves; hence, a review of these technologies is on demand. This review is devoted to the experimental results on the separation of branched and non-branched C4-C10 hydrocarbons presented in gasoline by means of molecular sieve materials. Experimental gas and liquid phase studies using adsorbents like silicalite, ZSM-5, beta and Y zeolites, ZSM-22, ZSM-23, mordenite, carbon molecular sieves, metal organic frameworks and other hybrids materials are presented. Separation capabilities in gas and liquid phase experiments on single and multiple hydrocarbon mixtures for several adsorbents were analyzed in order to reach a conclusion regarding the use of this type of materials on a commercial procedure. Nevertheless, according to this research from the vast array of materials tested, only the following adsorbents have been included in patented procedures: ZSM-5, ZSM-11, ZSM-23, NU-85, NU-86, NU-87, SSZ-25, SSZ-37, MCM- 22, ERB-1, ITQ-1, PSH-3 and a PVDC derived CMS. The reason behind this lack of advancement may relay on the need of a coupled state of the art isomerization process for the C5-C10 hydrocarbon feeds, and in the design of a material with high adsorption capacity, high selectivity, and high regeneration properties, capable of enduring the complexity of a real feed separation process.

At present, a large number of research centers and private companies worldwide have been interested in the development of Oxidative Desulfurization (OD) processes to reduce the sulfur levels in transportation fuels. The application of this OD expertise has given rise to innovative technologies, which could be integrated with existing HydroDeSulfurization (HDS) units in a revamp situation for the efficient production of cheap and environmentally friendly fuels. The literature in this area is extensive due to the amount of research performed in the last 10 years. However, there are few reviews addressing different issues of OD. To our knowledge, only a review specific for OD processes has been published previously. In this review, we present and discuss the results obtained in the development of new catalytic systems for OD process, with the aim of understanding the State of the Art based on information published in scientific, technological and patent information sources through bibliometric and content analysis tools, and also integrating the status of the commercial development of the technology. It should be noticed that chemistry process in this technology involves the oxidant system, the catalyst, the reaction conditions, the reactor engineering and the extraction process. After the exhaustive revision of the literature, we found that those technologies have a very good present in research and technology developments and a promising future in terms of the potential of commercial applicability.

In the last few years scientists and engineers have emphasized their study on the development of nanomaterials and their applications in different field. Nanoparticles have a wide range of applications, not only in engineering but also in medical sciences. Nanoparticles are also applicable for environmental applications. Nanomaterials possess some special properties due to their small size. They are very good catalyst as they have high surface area. The main applications in the chemical engineering field are catalyst, sensor, coating, adsorption, drug delivery etc. Despite many advantages, preparation and maintaining the proper size of nanomaterials are the most crucial job. Chemical engineers play a vital role in the development of nanomaterials. The present review elucidates the different nanomaterials, their applications and preparation methods. Outcomes of various patents and research papers have been summarized in this present review.

In the presented patent, wastewater treatment from pine gum resin processing had been studied and the suitable conditions for treating the wastewater were obtained. This patent utilized two processes: the primary treatment of boiler slag adsorption and the secondary treatment of activated sludge biodegradation. Under the primary treatment, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and suspended substances (SS) in the wastewater were examined systematically at various slag's sizes and solution pH values. The suitable technological conditions of the slag adsorption treatment found were boiler slag size of 1.00-1.41 mm and solution pH value of 6.0. The adsorption experimental equilibrium data was found to fit the Langmuir model well, and the breakthrough curve of adsorption column test was also obtained. The effluent treated by the boiler slag adsorption was further treated by activated sludge biodegradation. The effects of aeration time and coagulation/ precipitation time on biodegradation process were studied and the suitable biodegradation conditions obtained were as follows: the coagulation/precipitation time of 60 min, the aeration time of 6 h for COD and aeration time of 8 h for SS, respectively.

Substituted M-type hexaferrites are highly anisotropic ferromagnetic materials. In this paper, we report the synthesis and characterization of BaZr(CoMn)0.5Fe10O19 powder by coprecipitation method. The effects of ethanol in precursor solution and preheating were investigated. The synthesized powders were characterized with X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer. The experimental results indicated that the powder prepared with the water as solvent exhibit high coercivity of 1.30 kOe and a high saturation magnetization of 38.65 emu g-1, and the powder prepared with the water and ethanol as solvent exhibit low coercivity of 1.01 kOe and a low saturation magnetization of 34.25 emu g-1, at applied field of 30 kOe. The preheating at 400 °C also led to some changes in particle morphology and magnetic property for both powders. The present article discussed the useful patents in the field of application and invention of substituted M-type ferrite.