Philippe M. Heynderickx

Performance of a composite membrane bioreactor for the removal of ethyl acetate from waste air

Ethyl acetate removal from an air stream was carried out by using a flat composite membrane bioreactor. The composite membrane consisted of a dense polydimethylsiloxane top layer with an average thickness of 0.3 μm supported in a porous polyacrylonitrile layer (50 μm). The membrane bioreactor (MBR) was operated during 3 months, and a maximum elimination capacity of 225 g m⁻³ h⁻¹ at an empty bed residence time of 60s was observed. Removal efficiencies higher than 95% were obtained for inlet loads lower than 200 g m⁻³ h⁻¹ and empty bed residence times as short as 15 s. The estimated yield coefficient, determined from the carbon dioxide production, resulted in 0.82 g dry biomass synthesized per gram of ethyl acetate degraded. No data of ethyl acetate treatment in MBR have been found in the literature, but the results illustrate that membrane bioreactors can potentially be a good option for its treatment.

An In-Situ XAS Study of the Structural Changes in a CuO-CeO2/Al2O3 Catalyst during Total Oxidation of Propane

A CuOx‐CeOx/Al2O3 catalyst was studied with in‐situ transmission Cu K XAS for the total oxidation of propane as model reaction for the catalytic elimination of volatile organic compounds. The local Cu structure was determined for the catalyst as such, after pre‐oxidation and after reduction with propane. The catalyst as such has a local CuO structure. No structural effect was observed upon heating in He up to 600°C or after pre‐oxidation at 150°C. A full reduction of the Cu2+ towards metallic Cu0 occurred, when propane was fed to the catalyst. The change in local Cu structure during propane reduction was followed with a time resolution of 1 min. The χ(k) scans appeared as linear combinations of start and end spectra, CuO and Cu structure, respectively. However, careful examination of the XANES edge spectra indicates the presence of a small amount of additional Cu1+ species.

MoO3NPs/ZIF-8 composite material prepared via RCVD for photodegradation of dyes

Toxic wastewaters from the textile industry have made its way into rivers and other waterways, posing a serious health treat on both human and wildlife. Herein, this data set presents the potential use of MoO3 nanoparticles supported on ZIF-8 in the photodegradation of a cationic dye molecule. The data presented in this article report a concise description of experimental conditions for the spray-dried ZIF-8 synthesis and subsequent deposition of MoO3 nanoparticles via rotary chemical vapor deposition (RCVD). The photodegradation and analysis data reviled that the MoO3-NPs@ZIF-8 3 wt% displayed the ability of degrading methylene blue up to 82% and 95% after 180 and 300 min, respectively.

Superposition of artificial experimental error onto calculated time series: Construction of in-silico data sets

The data and complementary information presented here are related to the research in the article of “https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2018.01.027; Chem. Eng. J., 342, 41–51 (2018)”, where sets of in-silico data are constructed to show a novel method for parameter estimation in biodiesel production from triglycerides (Heynderickx et al., 2018) [1]. In this paper, the method for the used error superposition is explained and in order to ensure a ready reproduction by the reader, this work presents the basic steps for superposition of a normally distributed error via a simple Excel® datasheet file.

Spray drying of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks: investigation of crystal formation and properties

High-quality zeolite imidazole frameworks (ZIF-8, ZIF-67, and bimetallic Zn/Co-ZIF) were synthesized using the spray-drying technique and the mechanism of crystal growth during the whole process is discussed. It is also demonstrated that the crystallization mechanism for N-donor containing ditopic imidazolate (IM) ligands forming ZIF structures is divergent from MOF formation applying carboxylate ligands, and their formation using the spray dry method occurs via a unique mechanism. An intermediate amorphous phase was obtained after spray drying the feed solution, and the crystallographic ZIF structure was obtained during immersion in a solvent. Several characterization techniques, such as FTIR, XRD, SEM, porosity analysis, elemental analysis etc., were applied to examine the characteristic properties of materials, including, intermediate compounds and final products. The results proved that the spray drying procedure is a facile, continuous and effective synthetic route to produce MOFs (ZIFs) in higher quantities with high-quality properties such as high porosity, a large surface area, more active catalyst sites, etc. applying a minimum amount of time and energy which is unusual in common synthesis methods of MOFs.