A process integration approach to industrial water conservation: a case study for an Indian starch industry

A case study for water using network of a Starch industry in the state of Gujarat, India, is undertaken with an aim to reduce demineralised water and freshwater flow rates and consequently the wastewater flow rate. The problem was identified as a multi contaminant, reuse and recycle problem. The freshwater consumption and demineralised water consumption were 100 t/h and 51 t/h respectively before modification and the network was dealing with three major contaminants such as total organic content, total dissolved solids and total suspended solids. A program was developed in MATLAB for analysis using Water Pinch. The improved water using network designed for the present work consumed less demineralised and freshwater. The reductions are of the tune of 28% and 64.38% for demineralised and fresh water respectively. Due to alteration in piping, there will be a saving of 406 026 INR per year, which will be utilized for development of efficient environment policy for the company. The entire concept had been implemented on plant level on 1st February-2009 and the reductions are of the tune of 25% and 60% for demineralised and fresh water respectively.     

淀粉接枝改性絮凝剂的制备及对含油废水的应用

选用玉米淀粉与丙烯酰胺为主要原材料,在硝酸铈铵引发下制得绿色天然有机高分子絮凝剂。将制得的絮凝剂用于处理油田含油废水,通过测定处理前后化学需氧量和含油量的变化,考察其絮凝性能。结果表明:反应的最佳投料比确定为淀粉:丙烯酰胺=1:2;反应的投料方式为以液体形式、分多次投加,对含油废水的处理取得了良好的处理效果。     

Biodegradability of organic nanoparticles in the aqueous environment

Synthetic nanoparticles have already been detected in the aquatic environment. Therefore, knowledge on their biodegradability is of utmost importance for risk assessment but such information is currently not available. Therefore, the biodegradability of fullerenes, single, double, multi-walled as well as COOH functionalized carbon nanotubes and cellulose and starch nanocrystals in aqueous environment has been investigated according to OECD standards. The biodegradability of starch and cellulose nanoparticles was also compared with the biodegradability of their macroscopic counterparts. Fullerenes and all carbon nanotubes did not biodegrade at all, while starch and cellulose nanoparticles biodegrade to similar levels as their macroscopic counterparts. However, neither comfortably met the criterion for ready biodegradability (60% after 28 days). The cellulose and starch nanoparticles were also found to degrade faster than their macroscopic counterparts due to their higher surface area. These findings are the first report of biodegradability of organic nanoparticles in the aquatic environment, an important accumulation environment for manmade compounds.     

A Study of Physicomechanical and Morphological Properties of Starch/Poly(vinylalcohol) Based Films

Starch/Poly(vinylalcohol) blends in two different ratios (60:40 and 50:50) were prepared with glycerol as a plasticizer. Films were cast by a solution casting method. One set of films were filled with 10 wt% of unmodified bentonite clay and another set of films were crosslinked with epichlorohydrin in an alkaline medium. The prepared film samples were subjected to X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), mechanical characterization and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Significant changes in the tensile properties were observed depending on the different chemical constituents of the films. The presence of clay and crosslinking with epichlorohydrin were both found to have considerable effect on the morphology and mechanical property of the films. The SEM investigations, XRD analysis and FTIR studies revealed the interaction between the various chemical components of the films.