Degradation of magenta dye using cavitation-based transducers to glass marble: Lab to semi-pilot scale operations.

In the present work, the degradation of magenta dye has been investigated using ultrasonic (US) and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation at a laboratory scale. Additionally, the investigation was conducted at a semi-pilot scale by employing hydrodynamic cavitation and a novel air-marble cavitation reactor. Initially, optimization studies such as the effect of initial dye concentration and catalyst loading of TiO2 and MnO2 followed by the effect of combined catalyst loading (TiO2 /MnO2 ) on the extent of degradation have been studied at a capacity of 3 L. It was observed that the US irradiation results in 87.1% and 68.2% of degradation, whereas the UV irradiation results in 79.8% and 56.4% extent of degradation at 1 g/l of TiO2 and 0.8 g/l of MnO2 , respectively. The maximum degradation was 92.1% at the combined loading of 0.6 g/l (1:0.8; TiO2 :MnO2 ) using US irradiation with a capacity of 3 L and 81.3% using a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor with a semi-pilot scale capacity of 7 L. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) analysis also showed the highest COD removal of 92% at a small scale using the US irradiation and 76% at a semi-pilot scale using hydrodynamic cavitation. On a small scale, the cost of a US/TiO2 + MnO2 treatment scheme is US$ 0.01/L, whereas on a semi-pilot scale using HC/TiO2 + MnO2 , the cost is US$ 0.04/L. Both of these treatment schemes offer viable pathways for degradation based on energy and economic assessments. Overall, the current work has clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the cavitational reactor for the efficient degradation of magenta dye from lab to semi-pilot scale operation. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Small-scale dye containing wastewater treatment using ultrasound and ultraviolet irradiation Combined use of catalysts at large-scale operations with novel cavitation techniques Novel cavitation techniques studied for dye degradation. Energy efficiency and cost analysis evaluated for AOPs studies.

Acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation assisted hydrolysis and valorisation of waste human hair for the enrichment of amino acids.

Hair waste in large amount is produced in India from temples and saloons, India alone exported approximately 1 million kg of hair in 2010. Incineration and degradation of waste human hair leads to environmental concerns. The hydrothermal process is a conventional method for the production of hair hydrolysate. The hydrothermal process is carried out at a very high temperature and pressure, which causes the degradation of heat-sensitive essential amino acids, thereby depleting the nutritional value. This work deals with alkaline hydrolysis of human hair using acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation, and comparison with the conventional method. The optimal operating conditions for highest efficiency was observed, for the hydrolysis of 1 g of sample hairs in 100 mL of solution, at 4:1 (KOH: hair) ratio, soaking time of 24 h, the ultrasonic power density of 600 W dm-3 (20 KHz frequency and input power 200 W) or hydrodynamic cavitation inlet pressure of 4 or 7 bars. Cavitation results in rupture of disulfide linkages in proteins and mechanical effects lead to cleavage of several hydrogen bonds breaking the keratin sheet structure in hair. Breakdown of bonds leads to a decrease in viscosity of the solution. 10% and 6% reduction in viscosity is obtained at optimal conditions for ultrasonic and hydrodynamic cavitation treatment, respectively. FTIR analysis of produced hair hydrolysate confirmed that the disulfide bonds in hair proteins are broken down during cavitation. The amino acid of hair hydrolysate, prepared using cavitation, has a relatively higher digestibility and nutritional value due to the enhancement of amino-acid content, confirmed using amino acid analysis. Cavitation assisted hair hydrolysate has a potential application in agricultural engineering as a fertilizer for improvement of the quality of the soil and land. Cavitation based hair hydrolysate can also be used as an environmentally friendly and economical source of essential amino acids and digestibles for animal or poultry feed.

Structural characterization of cellulose pulp in aqueous NMMO solution under the process conditions of lyocell slurry.

A systematic structural characterization of dissolving grade cellulose pulp in aqueous NMMO solution is performed under the process conditions of lyocell slurry. Different types of cellulosic pulps such as hard/soft wood and acid sulfite/kraft sulphate pulps are used for the present study. The structural changes of pulp in lyocell slurry at different temperatures are characterized in terms of dimension, interstitial spaces, crystallinity using Optical (weight and thickness gain), SEM and XRD measurement technique, respectively. It was observed that kraft sulphate pulp has higher weight gain and lower thickness gain compared to acid sulphite pulps due to its pulping process chemistry. These results are further supported by SEM and XRD analysis. It is also found that above 50 °C, hardwood kraft sulphate pulp shows homogeneous and consistent swelling compared to other pulp combinations. These findings are commercially useful, because, homogeneous swelling of pulp is one of the essential parameters of slurry preparation.

Effect of ultrasound treatment on swelling behavior of cellulose in aqueous N-methyl-morpholine-N-oxide solution.

The present study deals with the effect of ultrasound on the swelling and dissolution behavior of the cellulose pulp. Hardwood, acid sulfite cellulose pulp sheets were sonicated at different temperatures, operated at a fixed frequency (37 kHz) and power (320 W) to break the intermolecular forces and hydrogen bonds of crystalline region. The obtained samples were evaluated for crystallinity, intrinsic viscosity, molecular weight (MW), molecular weight distribution (MWD) and surface morphology. It was observed that the crystallinity reduced from 61.9 to 18.9% after 20 min of ultrasound treatment at 30 °C, which was equivalent to the swelling at 75 °C for 20 min without the use of ultrasound frequency. It was also found that ultrasound pre-treatment significantly decreased the particle size of the slurry and shortened the dissolution time and temperature requirement without affecting the cellulose solution quality.

Energy efficient room temperature synthesis of cardanol-based novolac resin using acoustic cavitation.

The present study deals with synthesis of cardanol-cased novolac (CBN) resin by the condensation reaction between cardanol and formaldehyde using acoustic cavitation. It is a step-growth polymerization which occurs in the presence of an acid catalyst such as adipic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid, sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid. CBN was also synthesised by a conventional method for the sake of comparison of techniques. The effect of molar ratio, effect of catalyst, effect of different catalyst and effect of power on the conversion to CBN has been studied. The synthesised CBN was characterized using the Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (FTIR), Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). The reaction was monitored by the Acid value, free formaldehyde content and viscosity of the synthesised product. The reaction time required for the conventionally synthesised CBN was 5 h (300 min) with 120 °C as an operating temperature while sonochemically the time reduced to 30 min at room temperature. The amount of time and energy saved can be quantified. Ultrasound facilitated synthesis was found to be an energy efficient and time-saving method for the synthesis of novolac resin.

A critical review on textile wastewater treatments: Possible approaches.

Waste water is a major environmental impediment for the growth of the textile industry besides the other minor issues like solid waste and resource waste management. Textile industry uses many kinds of synthetic dyes and discharge large amounts of highly colored wastewater as the uptake of these dyes by fabrics is very poor. This highly colored textile wastewater severely affects photosynthetic function in plant. It also has an impact on aquatic life due to low light penetration and oxygen consumption. It may also be lethal to certain forms of marine life due to the occurrence of component metals and chlorine present in the synthetic dyes. So, this textile wastewater must be treated before their discharge. In this article, different treatment methods to treat the textile wastewater have been presented along with cost per unit volume of treated water. Treatment methods discussed in this paper involve oxidation methods (cavitation, photocatalytic oxidation, ozone, H2O2, fentons process), physical methods (adsorption and filtration), biological methods (fungi, algae, bacteria, microbial fuel cell). This review article will also recommend the possible remedial measures to treat different types of effluent generated from each textile operation.

Intensification of degradation of methomyl (carbamate group pesticide) by using the combination of ultrasonic cavitation and process intensifying additives.

In the present work, the degradation of methomyl has been carried out by using the ultrasound cavitation (US) and its combination with H2O2, Fenton and photo-Fenton process. The study of effect of operating pH and ultrasound power density has indicated that maximum extent of degradation of 28.57% could be obtained at the optimal pH of 2.5 and power density of 0.155 W/mL. Application of US in combination with H2O2, Fenton and photo-Fenton process has further accelerated the rate of degradation of methomyl with complete degradation of methomyl in 27 min, 18 min and 9 min respectively. Mineralization study has proved that a combination of US and photo-Fenton process is the most effective process with maximum extent of mineralization of 78.8%. Comparison of energy efficiency and cost effectiveness of various processes has indicated that the electrical cost of 79892.34Rs./m(3) for ultrasonic degradation of methomyl has drastically reduced to 2277.00Rs./m(3), 1518.00Rs./m(3) and 807.58Rs./m(3) by using US in combination with H2O2, Fenton and photo-Fenton process respectively. The cost analysis has also indicated that the combination of US and photo-Fenton process is the most energy efficient and cost effective process.

Kinetics of biological decolorisation of anthraquinone based Reactive Blue 19 using an isolated strain of Enterobacter sp.F NCIM 5545.

In the present study, an attempt was made to evaluate the bacterial decolorisation of Reactive Blue 19 by an Enterobacter sp.F which was isolated from a mixed culture from anaerobic digester for biogas production. Phenotypic characterization and phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequencing comparisons indicate that Enterobacter sp.F was 99.7% similar to Enterobacter cloacae ATCC13047. The kinetics of Reactive Blue 19 dye decolorisation by bacterium had been estimated. Effects of substrate concentration, oxygen, temperature, pH, glucose and glucose to microbe weight ratio on the rate of decolorisation were investigated to understand key factor that determines the performance of dye decolorisation. The maximum decolorisation efficiency of Reactive Blue 19 was 90% over period of 24 h for optimized parameter. To the best of our knowledge, this research study is the report where Enterobacter sp.F has been reported with about 90% decolorizing ability against anthraquinone based Reactive Blue 19 dye.

Degradation of reactive orange 4 dye using hydrodynamic cavitation based hybrid techniques.

In the present work, degradation of reactive orange 4 dye (RO4) has been investigated using hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) and in combination with other AOP's. In the hybrid techniques, combination of hydrodynamic cavitation and other oxidizing agents such as H2O2 and ozone have been used to get the enhanced degradation efficiency through HC device. The hydrodynamic cavitation was first optimized in terms of different operating parameters such as operating inlet pressure, cavitation number and pH of the operating medium to get the maximum degradation of RO4. Following the optimization of HC parameters, the degradation of RO4 was carried out using the combination of HC with H2O2 and ozone. It has been found that the efficiency of the HC can be improved significantly by combining it with H2O2 and ozone. The mineralization rate of RO4 increases considerably with 14.67% mineralization taking place using HC alone increases to 31.90% by combining it with H2O2 and further increases to 76.25% through the combination of HC and ozone. The synergetic coefficient of greater than one for the hybrid processes of HC+H2O2 and HC+Ozone has suggested that the combination of HC with other oxidizing agents is better than the individual processes for the degradation of dye effluent containing RO4. The combination of HC with ozone proves to be the most energy efficient method for the degradation of RO4 as compared to HC alone and the hybrid process of HC and H2O2.

Synergetic effect of combination of AOP's (hydrodynamic cavitation and H2O2) on the degradation of neonicotinoid class of insecticide.

In the present work, degradation of imidacloprid (neonicotinoid class of insecticide) in aqueous solution has been systematically investigated using hydrodynamic cavitation and combination of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) and H2O2. Initially, effect of different operating parameters such as inlet pressure to the cavitating device (5-20 bar) and operating pH (2-7.5) has been investigated. Optimization of process parameters was followed by the study of effect of combination of HC and H2O2 process on the rate of degradation of imidacloprid. Significant enhancement in the rate of degradation of imidacloprid has been observed using HC+H2O2 process which lead to a complete degradation of imidacloprid in 45 min of operation using optimal molar ratio of imidacloprid:H2O2 as 1:40. Substantial synergetic effect has been observed using HC+H2O2 process which confer the synergetic coefficient of 22.79. An attempt has been made to investigate and compare the energy efficiency and extent of mineralization of individual and combined processes applied in the present work. Identification of the byproducts formed during degradation of imidacloprid has also been done using LC-MS analysis. The present work has established a fact that hydrodynamic cavitation in combination with H2O2 can be effectively used for degradation of imidacloprid.

Comparative material study and synthesis of 4-(4-nitrophenyl)oxazol-2-amine via sonochemical and thermal method.

The present paper deals with the synthesis of aminooxazole derivatives via thermal and ultrasonic methods using deep eutectic solvent as medium. It was observed that ultrasound-assisted method gave 90% yield in just 8min as against 3.5h required to get 69% yield by thermal method. One of the compounds 4-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3-oxazol-2-amine synthesized by both methods were subjected to material characterization study via XRD, TGA and SEM analysis. It was observed that use of ultrasound not only increased the rate of reaction but also improved the quality of product obtained. The crystallinity of the product from ultrasound method was 21.12% whereas thermal method fetched only 8.33% crystallinity thereby improving crystallinity by almost 60%. In addition, sonochemical synthesis also saved more than 70% energy as depicted by energy calculations.

Ultrasound and deep eutectic solvent (DES): a novel blend of techniques for rapid and energy efficient synthesis of oxazoles.

The present work deals with the synthesis of novel oxazole compounds by using effective combination of ultrasound (US) and deep eutectic solvent (DES). The reaction was also conducted by thermal method (NUS) and the comparative studies are provided. It was observed that applying ultrasound not only improved yields and reduced reaction times but also saved more than 85% energy as shown by energy consumption calculations. The advantages of using DES as reaction medium is highlighted from the fact that it is bio-degradable, non-toxic, recyclable and could be easily prepared using inexpensive raw materials. The recyclability for DES was studied wherein it was found that ultrasound has no negative effects on DES even up to four runs. In addition, the present work is the first report on the combinative use of DES and US in organic synthesis.

Room temperature synthesis of crystalline CeO2 nanopowder: advantage of sonochemical method over conventional method.

In the present study, nano-sized ceria (CeO(2)) powders were prepared using conventional and sonochemically assisted precipitation method, without any stabilizers, using cerium nitrate as a starting material and sodium hydroxide as a precipitating agent. The synthesized ceria powders were characterized by XRD, TGA and SEM to determine crystallite size, % crystallinity, thermal weight loss and shape respectively. It was found that the crystallite size obtained in both the synthesis methods were below 30 nm. It was also found that sonochemical synthesis method is energy efficient method saving more than 92% of energy as compared to that utilized by the conventional synthesis method. There was also a significant reduction in the reaction duration.

Cavitation milling of natural cellulose to nanofibrils.

Cavitation holds the promise of a new and exciting approach to fabricate both top down and bottom up nanostructures. Cavitation bubbles are created when a liquid boils under less than atmospheric pressure. The collapse process occurs supersonically and generates a host of physical and chemical effects. We have made an attempt to fabricate natural cellulose material using hydrodynamic as well as acoustic cavitation. The cellulose material having initial size of 63 micron was used for the experiments. 1% (w/v) slurry of cellulose sample was circulated through the hydrodynamic cavitation device or devices (orifice) for 6h. The average velocity of the fluid through the device was 10.81m/s while average pressure applied was 7.8 kg/cm(2). Cavitation number was found to be 2.61. The average particle size obtained after treatment was 1.36 micron. This hydrodynamically processed sample was sonicated for 1h 50 min. The average size of ultrasonically processed particles was found to be 301 nm. Further, the cellulose particles were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to see the effect of cavitation on crystallinity (X(c)) as well as on melting temperature (T(m)). Cellulose structures consist of amorphous as well as crystalline regions. The initial raw sample was 86.56% crystalline but due to the effect of cavitation, the crystallinity reduced to 37.76%. Also the melting temperature (T(m)) was found to be reduced from 101.78 degrees C of the original to 60.13 degrees C of the processed sample. SEM images for the cellulose (processed and unprocessed) shows the status and fiber-fiber alignment and its orientation with each other. Finally cavitation has proved to be very efficient tool for reduction in size from millimeter to nano scale for highly crystalline materials.