The high rate of population growth in developing countries is expected to cause a severe fresh-water shortage in the forthcoming years with potential devastating consequences. A major obstacle in the establishment of water-purification systems in such areas is the operational cost due to high operational energy demands. Also, the more energy that is consumed, the higher air pollution intensity ...

A thermal fouling study was undertaken using three sour Canadian crude oils. Experiments were carried out in a recirculation fouling loop, equipped with an annular (HTRI) electrically heated probe. Fluids at pressures of about 10001340 kPa under a nitrogen atmosphere were re-circulated at a velocity of 0.75 m/s for periods of 48 hours, and the decline in heat transfer coefficient followed under...

Fructose transporter GLUT5 is overexpressed in breast cancer cell lines, but not in healthy tissue. Micelles based on fructose, which were found to be low fouling, showed a high uptake by breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells), but only negligible uptake by macrophages.

Chemical vapor deposition polymerization was used to deposit a novel maleimide-functionalized poly-p-xylylene coating on various substrates. The coated substrates are readily able to undergo thiol-maleimide click reaction under mild conditions. Applications using this coating technology are highlighted in low-protein-fouling modification as well as manipulated attachments and growth of bovine a...

one of the barriers during whey filtration using uf membrane is the fouling phenomenon of the membrane, which is caused by whey proteins. in this work, the uf membranes were prepared using polysufone (psf), dimethyl formamide (dmf), 1 wt.% poly vinyl pyrrolidone (pvp) and different concentrations of licl via phase inversion induced by immersion precipitation. the prepared membranes were charact...

The growing need for clean drinking water worldwide is one of the pressing issues of this century. The World Health Organization estimates that in 2005, 1.6 million children under the age of 5 died from causes due to unsafe drinking water. Low-pressure membrane filtration systems are likely to play an important role in water purification and reuse strategies. While these systems have low-cost a...

Burning coal in power plants produces significant amounts of deposits like fouling and slagging on boiler surfaces which contributes to the overall poor performance of the power plants (by reducing electricity generation capacity, decreasing boiler efficiency and increasing overall maintenance cost). Recent research and development on boiler fouling and slagging problems, with the current preve...

The crude organic extracts of the endemic gorgonian Phyllogorgia dilatata and two sponge species Aplysina fulva and Mycale microsigmatosa were evaluated for anti-fouling properties through field experiments. To investigate this property in ecologically meaningful conditions, crude extracts from these invertebrates were incorporated at concentrations naturally found in these marine organisms int...

In the last decades, membrane processes have gained a significant share of the market for wastewater purification. Although the product (i.e., purified water) is not of high added value, these processes are feasible both technically and from an economic point of view, provided the flux is relatively high and that membrane fouling is strongly inhibited. By controlling membrane fouling, the membr...

Biofouling is a serious problem in marine aquaculture and it has a number of negative impacts including increased forces on aquaculture structures and reduced water exchange across nets. This in turn affects the behavior of fish cages in waves and currents and has an impact on the water volume and quality inside net pens. Even though these negative effects are acknowledged by the research commu...