Potential of membrane distillation in seawater desalination: Thermal efficiency, sensitivity study and cost estimation

In a controlled release system a drug, pesticide, or other bio-active agent is incorporated into a carrier, generally a polymeric material. The rate of release of the substance is determined by the properties of the polymer itself and is only weakly dependent on environmental factors (such as the pH of bodily fluids). Controlled release systems are capable of delivering substances slowly and continuously for up to several years.

Chemical and Physical Structure of Polymers as Carriers for Controlled Release of Bioactive Agents: A Review

In modeling subsurface contaminant transport, sorption is often simplified by assuming instantaneous equilibrium, isotherm linearity, and sorption‐desorption singularity. Data exhibiting behavior that deviates from that predicted by this simple model have been reported, challenging the validity of these assumptions. This nonideal sorptive behavior has been attributed to several different factors, including kinetic sorption reactions, diffusive mass transfer resistances, isotherm nonlinearity, and sorption‐desorption nonsingularity. These factors are examined and their relative impact on contaminant transport is evaluated. For hydrophobic organic compounds, physical nonequilibrium (i.e., rate‐limited mass‐transfer in aggregated or layered systems) and intraorganic matter diffusion (rate‐limited diffusion within the sorbent organic matter matrix) are probably the predominant factors causing nonideality. The relative importance of these factors is scale‐dependent. For smaller scale systems, mass‐transfer lim...

Sorption nonideality during organic contaminant transport in porous media

The concept of tortuosity is used to characterize the structure of porous media, to estimate their electrical and hydraulic conductivity, and to study the travel time and length for tracer dispersion, but different types of tortuosity—geometric, hydraulic, electrical, and diffusive—have been used essentially interchangeably in the literature. Here, we critically review the tortuosity models developed empirically, analytically, and numerically for flow in both saturated and unsaturated porous media. We emphasize that the proposed tortuosity models are distinct and thus may not be used interchangeably. Given the variety of models that have been developed, and the sharp differences between some of them, no consensus has emerged unifying the models in a coherent way. Related treatments of tortuosity are found in the literature on porous catalysts. In such materials, nonlinear reactions ordinarily accompany transport, and the effective diffusivity within the pore space in the presence of the reactions is distinct from the one in their absence. Thus, because tortuosity may be defined as the ratio of the effective diffusivities in the bulk material and within the pore space, a careful treatment of tortuosity may need to distinguish between transport with and without reactions. This complication is ultimately relevant to soils as well, because bioremediation and biodegradation in soils are always accompanied by nonlinear reactions. Common models of tortuosity include both logarithmic functions and power laws. In many cases, the differences between the logarithmic and power-law phenomenologies are not great, but power laws can usually be reconciled with percolation concepts. Invoking percolation theory provides both insight into the origin of the power functions and a framework for understanding differences between tortuosity models.

N. Wakao

Papers

Diffusion in catalyst pellets