A three-column ion-exchange system was designed, fabricated and computer-automated to accommodate a novel 'elution looping' process developed by Dr. Tim Durance (U.B.C. Department of Food Science) during his doctoral studies on the recovery of lysozyme and avidin. This processing technique enhances the simultaneous recovery of these two pharmaceutically important proteins from chicken egg albumen. The processing system prototype was sized to handle throughput rates between approximately five and 300 liters per day of albumen to facilitate both laboratory and small commercial scale work. Very efficient use is made of the ion-exchange resin due to a two-column cascaded feed arrangement. The processing control software was designed to provide flexibility and ease of operation in setting up new and existing method files, allowing for the selection of any column or group of columns to use and providing a 'staged-shutdown' approach toward handling columns fouled with congealed albumen during unattended operation. This approach attempts to maximize the productivity of the system even when one or two of the columns has become fouled with congealed albumen. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of / Graduate

Herein two novel synthetic strategies for the synthesis of sub-millimetre sized core–shell particles comprising a polyelectrolyte core and a porous hydrophobic shell are presented. In the first method, a water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double-emulsion was used as a template for the simultaneous polymerisation of both the internal aqueous and the intermediate oil phases, via suspension polymerisation, leading to the formation of a cross-linked poly(acrylic acid-co-bisacrylamide) core contained in a porous poly(4-tert-butylstyrene-co-divinylbenzene) shell. It was found that the formation of core–shell morphology was favoured by the effect of acrylic acid which was responsible for the selective destabilization of the internal aqueous/oil (W/O) interface. It was found that rapid internal phase coarsening promoted the formation of single-core structures. A rapid gel-point of the oil phase, on the other hand, reduced the internal aqueous phase diffusion towards the external phase. The detrimental effect over internal emulsion stability was replicated using ethanol, 2-propanol, n-butanol and propionic acid which were used as a co-solvent in the internal aqueous phase to promote core/shell morphology formation. The second method involved the use of a flow-focusing device for the formation of monodisperse W/O/W emulsion droplets which were photo-polymerised. Anionic poly(sodium acrylate), poly(sodium vinyl sulfonate), and cationic poly(3-acrylamidopropyl)trimethylammonium chloride) hydrogels were encapsulated within a porous poly(trimethylolpropane triacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate) shell. Control over both particle diameter and shell thickness was achieved by tuning the flow rates of the different phases. The use of these novel hydrogel core/shell particles as novel material for environmental applications, including the scavenging of radionuclides, was investigated. It was found that hydrophilic substances including dyes and metal ions were rapidly adsorbed and encapsulated within the core region after diffusing through the permeable porous shell. Part of the results obtained in this work have been published in the article J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013, 1, 12553-12559.

The problem with which this research is concerned is the determination of inorganic anions and cations with single injection ion chromatography. Direct detection of the separated analyte ions occurs after the analyte ions have passed through ion-exchange resins where they are separated according to their affinity for the ion-exchange resin active sites. The techniques involve the use of essentially a non-suppressed ion chromatographic system followed by a suppressed ion chromatographic system. With this system it is possible to accomplish both qualitative and quantitative determinations.

The first part of this work reports on the investigation of the formation constant of molecular silver chloride using ion exchange techniques. In order to determine the formation constant, it was necessary to develop a method of rinsing the sorbed molecular silver chloride from the resin. It was found that desorption with nitrobenzene would remove the sorbed molecular species. However, the formation constant was not calculated since the nitrobenzene used contained hydrogen ion and chloride ion which removed silver ion as well as the molecular species. In the study of the formation of silver sulfide by the reaction between the thioacetamide and silver ion, it was found that the order of the reaction with respect to silver ion was zero at pH values 0.38 and 1.24. The zero order rate constants at these pH values are 1.66 x 10^-6 moles liters^-1 sec^-1 and 9.16 x 10^-6 moles liters^-1 sec^-1 respectively. Qualitative experiments indicate that there is a change in mechanism at a pH value of approximately two.

Three membrane bioreactors, a low flux filter (LFF), a diafilter (DF), and an ion-exchange (IE) membrane bioreactor were used to treat water polluted with 50 ppm-N nitrate. The three systems were compared in terms of removal efficiency of nitrate, operational complexity, and overall quality of the treated water. In the low flux filter (LFF) membrane bioreactor an hemo-dialysis hollow fiber module was used and operated continuously for 29 days with a constant flux of permeate. The performance of the system was constant during the span of the experiment, which demonstrated that when the module was operated under constant low flux of permeate, the membrane filtration process was not affected by fouling. The removal rate of the LFF was 100% since the treated effluent did not contain nitrate or nitrite. The volumetric denitrification rate was 240 g-N day-1 m-3, which is within the range of denitrification rates obtained in tubular membrane modules. The treated effluent contained acetate, the carbon source of the biological process, and other inorganic nutrients, which showed that operating this ultrafiltration module at controlled flux did not improve the retention of these substances in the bioreactor. The same hemo-dialysis hollow fiber module employed in the LFF system was used in the diafilter (DF) membrane bioreactor. In the DF system, however, the membrane module was used as a contactor that separated the treated water and the bioreactor system, which allowed the transfer of solutes through the membrane porous structure and supported the growth of a biofilm on the membrane surface. The nitrate removal rate of the DF system increased from 76% to 91% during the 17 days assay. Unfortunately, this improvement could be attributed to microbial contamination of the water circuit because significant concentrations of the carbon source, acetate, nutrients, and nitrate were found in the treated effluent. The volumetric denitrification rate of the system was 200 g-N day-1 m-3, and the surface denitrification rate was lower than values previously reported for contactor membrane bioreactors. The results hereby presented do not evidence any advantage of operating the Filtral 20 ® membrane module as a contactor instead of as a filter such as in the LFF system. On the other hand, the third system herein presented, the IE membrane bioreactor, demonstrated several advantages of a contactor configuration but with a non-porous ion exchange membrane module in place of the Filtral 20 ®. As in a contactor system, the anion membrane provided a surface for biofilm growth, facilitated the transport of nitrate, and prevented mixing of treated water and bioreactor medium. Compared to the two previous systems, the most remarkable result of the IE was the reduction of secondary pollution in the treated water. The concentrations of phosphate and ethanol were zero and less than 1% of the concentration in the bioreactor, respectively. In addition, the IE system was less complex than the two other systems because the ion exchange membrane is non-porous. Therefore, unlike with porous contactors, it was not necessary to control the flux of treated water that could be lost through the bioreactor. The average surface denitrification rate of the IE system was 7.0 g-N day-1 m-2, which is higher than what had been reported for other contactor denitrification systems. However, because of the low surface to volume ratio of the membrane module that was used, the volumetric denitrification rate of the IE system was low, equivalent to 65 g-N day-1 m-3. / Master of Science

It is the purpose of this thesis to explore the experimental relationships which exist between Amberlite IR-45 and various carbonyl compounds with the hope that the knowledge obtained may ultimately form the basis of a new separation technique.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>Ion exchange equilibrium data can be used to predict the viability of a proposed process. Ion exchange equilibria have been studied considerably since the 1950's but the complexity of the basic research has tended to reduce its direct usefulness to the practising engineer. This research has been undertaken to determine if a moderately simple method of experimentation and analysis could be applied to predict ion exchange equilibria to within limits of accuracy acceptable to engineers.</p> <p> The first step in the research was to develop a simple mathematical model for a binary system to calculate the selectivity coefficient and resin capacity from batch experiments. The model was successfully applied for the exchange of Na+ with five heavy metal ions: Ni²⁺; Cu²⁺; Cd²⁺; Pb²⁺ and Zn²⁺ on a typical commercial resin (Dowex HCR-W2). The binary parameters were then used to predict the equilibrium values for several ternary systems. From these ternary experiments, it was determined that binary data can be used to predict ternary systems if the selectivity coefficients of the two ions involved are either almost equal or differed by at least a factor of five. A kinetic effect was proposed to explain the discrepancies observed between the predicted and experimental values for the intermediate ratios of selectivity coefficients of the involved ions, although further work is required to confirm this hypothesis.</p> <p> Several packed bed experiments were performed to check some of the results from the binary and ternary system experiments and as exploratory work for future research. These experiments confirmed the capacity data calculated from the binary system experiments and were consistent with the trends observed in the ternary system experiments.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

This dissertation focuses on the preparation of polymeric monolithic capillaries for ion exchange chromatography of peptides and proteins, since polymeric monoliths have shown promise for providing improved protein separations. Characteristics of monolithic columns include low back pressure, simplicity of fabrication and biocompatibility. Preparation of strong and weak cation-exchange monolithic stationary phases in 75 μm I.D. capillaries by direct in situ copolymerization was achieved using various functional monomers including sulfopropyl methacrylate, phosphoric acid 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, bis[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl] phosphate and 2-carboxyethyl acrylate with polyethylene glycol diacrylate and other PEG materials. The resulting monoliths provided excellent ion exchange capillary LC of peptides and proteins with good run-to-run [relative standard deviation (RSD) < 1.99%] and column-to-column (RSD < 5.64%) reproducibilities. Narrow peaks were obtained and peak capacities of over 20 were achieved. Dynamic binding capacities of over 30 mg/mL of column volume for lysozyme were measured. A single monomer was used to synthesize a phosphoric acid containing monolith to improve its stability and reproducibility. The monolith was synthesized from only BMEP in 75 μm I.D. UV transparent fused-silica capillaries by photo-initiated polymerization. A dynamic binding capacity (lysozyme) of approximately 70 mg/mL of column volume was measured. Efficiencies of 52,900 plates/m for peptides and 71,000 plates/m for proteins were obtained under isocratic conditions. Good reproducibilities were achieved. Zwitterionic monolithic columns based on photo-initiated copolymerization of N,N-dimethyl-N-methacryloxyethyl-N-(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium betain and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate were prepared in 75 μm I.D. fused silica capillaries for hydrophilic interaction chromatography. Inverse size exclusion chromatography was used to characterize the pore structure of the resulting monolith. A typical hydrophilic interaction chromatography mechanism was observed when the organic content in the mobile phase was higher than 60%. Good separations of amides, phenols, and benzoic acids were achieved. The effects of mobile phase pH, salt concentration, and organic modifier content on retention were investigated.