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Crystals
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Membrane-Assisted Crystallization
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Membrane-Assisted Crystallization

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2016)

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Gianluca Di Profio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Consiglio Nazionale delle Riceche (CNR), Istituto per la Tecnologia delle Membrane (ITM), Università della Calabria, Via Pietro Bucci Cubo 17/C, Rende, CS, Italy
Interests: membrane science and technology; crystallization—fundamentals and operations; water treatment processes; membranes materials—design and development; bioseparation and downstream processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to inform you about the new Special Issue of the journal Crystals, on the topic, “Membrane-assisted crystallization”.

Today, the utilization of membrane technology to perform well-controlled crystallization operations is becoming a great opportunity. Enhanced regulation of supersaturation profile in a solution and its generation rate, and the contribution of the membrane surface as engineered heteronucleants, have demonstrated the potentials of this technology to increase control over crystalline features, such as morphology, shape, size, size distribution, polymorphism, purity, and improved continuous operation. Furthermore, the modularity of membrane operations, and the easy scale-up or scale-down in the diverse fields of application, make membrane-assisted technology the most promising tool to perform continuous crystallization in the manufacturing of high added-value products in the logic of the process intensification strategy.

In this, the present Special Issue of Crystals aims to gather the most recent developments in the field by also exploring the future potentials provided by this fascinating technology. Application of such equipment in protein crystallization, manufacture of solid-state pharmaceuticals in downstream stages, recovery of potentially valuable products from brines or waste streams of industrial productions, recovery of crystals in the scenario of CO2 capture, are only some examples of topics of interest related to this Special Issue.

Accordingly, I am pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue by submitting your recent work.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With my best regards,

Gianluca Di Profio
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Membrane-assisted crystallization
  • Membrane distillation crystallization
  • Membrane crystallization
  • Zero-discharge
  • Brine concentration
  • Controlled crystallization
  • Supersaturation control
  • Crystallization

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

4471 KiB  
Article
Effect of Diazotated Sulphonated Polystyrene Films on the Calcium Oxalate Crystallization
by Patricio Vásquez-Quitral, Javier Toledo Arana, Maria Cristina Miras, Diego Fernando Acevedo, Cesar Alfredo Barbero and Andrónico Neira-Carrillo
Crystals 2017, 7(3), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst7030070 - 28 Feb 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5560
Abstract
Pathological crystallization of calcium oxalate (CaOx) inside the urinary tract is called calculi or kidney stone (Urolithiasis). CaOx exhibits three crystalline types in nature: CaOx monohydrate COM, dihydrate COD and trihydrate COT. COD and COM are often found in urinary calculi, particularly COM. [...] Read more.
Pathological crystallization of calcium oxalate (CaOx) inside the urinary tract is called calculi or kidney stone (Urolithiasis). CaOx exhibits three crystalline types in nature: CaOx monohydrate COM, dihydrate COD and trihydrate COT. COD and COM are often found in urinary calculi, particularly COM. Langmuir monolayers, membrane vesicles, phospholipids’ micelles, among others, have been adopted as simplified biomimetic template-models to study in vitro the urolithiasis through CaOx. The nucleation and crystal growth of COM on self-assembled lipid monolayers have revealed that the negatively charged phosphatidylserine interface is a strong promoter of COM. Herein, we describe the synthesis and physicochemical characterization of diazotated sulphonated polystyrene films (DSPFs), prepared from various aminocompounds varying their polarity degree i.e., polar, non-polar and acidic DSPF derivatives. We also used these DSPFs as polymeric templates in crystallization experiments of CaOx in vitro. Images obtained by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy confirmed the precipitation of COM crystals on the DSPF surface. The employment of functionalized polymeric films as templates for CaOx crystallization represents a viable approach for understanding inorganic mineralization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Membrane-Assisted Crystallization)
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2117 KiB  
Article
Integrated Membrane Desalination Systems with Membrane Crystallization Units for Resource Recovery: A New Approach for Mining from the Sea
by Cejna Anna Quist-Jensen, Francesca Macedonio and Enrico Drioli
Crystals 2016, 6(4), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst6040036 - 01 Apr 2016
Cited by 64 | Viewed by 9342
Abstract
The mining industry is facing problems of clean production in terms of mineral processing, pollution, water consumption, and renewable energy. An interesting outlook can be to combine the mining industry with membrane-based desalination in the logic of mining from the sea. In fact, [...] Read more.
The mining industry is facing problems of clean production in terms of mineral processing, pollution, water consumption, and renewable energy. An interesting outlook can be to combine the mining industry with membrane-based desalination in the logic of mining from the sea. In fact, several of the drawbacks found in both mining and desalination can be minimized or overcome, which includes hindering mineral depletion, water production instead of water consumption, smart usage of brine instead of disposal, and low energy consumption, etc. Recently, membrane crystallization (MCr) has been developed to recover minerals from highly concentrated solutions. This study suggests MCr for the treatment of nanofiltration (NF) retentate and reverse osmosis (RO) brine leaving membrane-based desalination system. Thermodynamic modeling has been carried out to predict at which water recovery factor and which amount of minerals can be recovered. Theoretical results deviate only 2.09% from experimental results. Multivalent components such as barium, strontium, and magnesium are easier to recover from NF retentate with respect to RO brine. KCl and NiCl2 might be recovered from both NF retentate and RO brine, whereas lithium can only be recovered from RO brine. Moreover, copper and manganese compounds might also be recovered from desalination brine in perspectives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Membrane-Assisted Crystallization)
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9106 KiB  
Article
Degradation of Polypropylene Membranes Applied in Membrane Distillation Crystallizer
by Marek Gryta
Crystals 2016, 6(4), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst6040033 - 28 Mar 2016
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5937
Abstract
The studies on the resistance to degradation of capillary polypropylene membranes assembled in a membrane crystallizer were performed. The supersaturation state of salt was achieved by evaporation of water from the NaCl saturated solutions using membrane distillation process. A high feed temperature (363 [...] Read more.
The studies on the resistance to degradation of capillary polypropylene membranes assembled in a membrane crystallizer were performed. The supersaturation state of salt was achieved by evaporation of water from the NaCl saturated solutions using membrane distillation process. A high feed temperature (363 K) was used in order to enhance the degradation effects and to shorten the test times. Salt crystallization was carried out by the application of batch or fluidized bed crystallizer. A significant membrane scaling was observed regardless of the method of realized crystallization. The SEM-EDS, DSC, and FTIR methods were used for investigations of polypropylene degradation. The salt crystallization onto the membrane surface accelerated polypropylene degradation. Due to a polymer degradation, the presence of carbonyl groups on the membranes’ surface was identified. Besides the changes in the chemical structure a significant mechanical damage of the membranes, mainly caused by the internal scaling, was also found. As a result, the membranes were severely damaged after 150 h of process operation. A high level of salt rejection was maintained despite damage to the external membrane surface. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Membrane-Assisted Crystallization)
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