Food safety knowledge and climate in the university canteens of three European countries.

The association of food safety knowledge and climate with gender, education level, length of employment, food safety training, and professional role was measured using a 15-item food safety climate survey and a 20-item food safety questionnaire on a sample of 263 employees from 19 small and medium-sized university canteens in Croatia, Hungary, and Portugal. The relationship between knowledge and climate and the demographic determinants of both variables were examined. Food safety knowledge was inadequate (45.

Hybrid Prediction-Driven High-Throughput Sustainability Screening for Advancing Waste-to-Dimethyl Ether Valorization.

Assessing the prospective climate preservation potential of novel, innovative, but immature chemical production techniques is limited by the high number of process synthesis options and the lack of reliable, high-throughput quantitative sustainability pre-screening methods. This study presents the sequential use of data-driven hybrid prediction (ANN-RSM-DOM) to streamline waste-to-dimethyl ether (DME) upcycling using a set of sustainability criteria. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are developed to generate waste valorization experimental results and model the operating space of biorefineries applying the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and sewage sludge (SS).

Extensive comparison of methods for removal of organic halogen compounds from pharmaceutical process wastewaters with life cycle, PESTLE, and multi-criteria decision analyses.

Recycling and disposing wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry are of utmost importance in mitigating chemical waste generation, where unmanaged hazardous waste fluxes could cause massive environmental damage. Air stripping, steam stripping, distillation, and incineration offer significant emission reduction potentials for pharmaceutical applications; however, selecting specific process units is a complicated task due to the high number of influencing screening criteria. The mentioned chemical processes are modelled with the Aspen Plus program.

Life Cycle, PESTLE and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis of Membrane Contactor-Based Nitrogen Recovery Process.

Nitrogen is one of the most critical nutrients in the biosphere, and it is an essential nutrient for plant growth. Nitrogen exists in the atmosphere vastly as a gaseous form, but only reactive nitrogen is usable for plants. It is a valuable resource and worth recovering in the wastewater sector.

Effects of Energy Intensification of Pressure-Swing Distillation on Energy Consumption and Controllability.

The aim of process integration is the efficient use of energy and natural resources. However, process integration can result in a more precise process operation, that is, it influences controllability. Pressure-swing distillation processes are designed for the separation of azeotropic mixtures, but their inherent heat integration option can be utilized to significantly reduce their energy consumption.

Improving green hydrogen production from Chlorella vulgaris via formic acid-mediated hydrothermal carbonisation and neural network modelling.

This study investigates the formic acid-mediated hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) of microalgae biomass to enhance green hydrogen production. The effects of combined severity factor (CSF) and feedstock-to-suspension ratio (FSR) are examined on HTC gas formation, hydrochar yield and quality, and composition of the liquid phase. The hydrothermal conversion of Chlorella vulgaris was investigated in a CSF and FSR range of -2.

N-Propanol Dehydration with Distillation and Pervaporation: Experiments and Modelling.

This work is motivated by a fine chemical industry task where n-propanol should be separated from its aqueous mixture. To accomplish this problem, the pervaporation process intends to apply PERVAP™ 1201 type dehydration membranes and to obtain information about the water removal from an aqueous mixture of n-propanol. Different evaluation parameters (selectivities, separation factors, and total fluxes) were experimentally determined.

Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Study of the Monochlorobenzene-4,6-Dichloropyrimidine Binary System.

The number of newly synthesized and produced organic chemicals has increased extremely quickly. However, the measurements of their physical properties, including their vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) data, are time-consuming. It so happens that there is no physical property data about a brand-new chemical.

Comparison of Controllability Features of Extractive and Pressure Swing Distillations on the Example of Tetrahydrofuran Dewatering.

The controllability study is an integral part of chemical process design. In this work, the controllability of two special distillation techniques, extractive distillation and pressure swing distillation, designed for the separation of azeotropic mixtures is investigated with dynamic tools. The control design interface of Aspen Plus and Matlab are applied for the modeling and evaluation of the two systems.

Development of Anhydrous Ethanol Purification: Reduction of Acetal Content and Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Study of the Ethanol-Acetal Binary System.

Acetaldehyde diethyl acetal (herein called acetal) is an important pollutant of anhydrous ethanol. Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) of an ethanol-acetal binary system was measured using a vapor condensate and liquid circulation VLE still. The experimental data were correlated with Wilson, nonrandom two-liquid (NRTL), and universal quasichemical (UNIQUAC) activity coefficient models, which were found suitable for representing the VLE data.

Facile Preparation of a Laponite/PVA Mixed Matrix Membrane for Efficient and Sustainable Pervaporative Dehydration of C1-C3 Alcohols.

The exfoliation method was applied for the preparation of high-water selective mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), especially for the dehydration of C1-C3 alcohol-water solutions. Herein, a facile and easy method was employed to fabricate physically cross-linked Laponite nanosilicate clay-PVA MMMs without additional cross-linking by a one-step synthesis route for water dehydration from methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol aqueous solutions. The morphologies, chemical structures, thermal stabilities, and surface hydrophilicity of Laponite-PVA MMMs were investigated properly by different characterization techniques.

Pervaporative Dehydration of Methanol Using PVA/Nanoclay Mixed Matrix Membranes: Experiments and Modeling.

Encouraged by the industrial problem of removing water from methanol solutions, a simple exfoliation method is applied to prepare polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/laponite nanoclay mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). The membranes are used for the pervaporative dehydration of the methanol-water solution. The influence of the nanoclay content on the pervaporation performance is investigated.

Improvement of Component Flux Estimating Model for Pervaporation Processes.

Separating non-ideal mixtures by pervaporation (hence PV) is a competitive alternative to most traditional methods, such as distillation, which are based on the vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE). It must be said, in many cases, accurate VLE data are already well known in the literature. They make the method of PV modelling a lot more complicated, and most of the viable models are (semi)empirical and focus on component flux () estimation.

Separation of Alcohol-Water Mixtures by a Combination of Distillation, Hydrophilic and Organophilic Pervaporation Processes.

It can be stated that in the fine chemical industries, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, large amounts of liquid waste and industrial waste solvents are generated during the production technology. Addressing these is a key issue because their disposal often accounts for the largest proportion of the cost of the entire technology. There is need to develop regeneration processes that are financially beneficial to the plant and, if possible, reuse the liquid waste in the spirit of a circular economy, in a particular technology, or possibly elsewhere.

Modelling and Optimisation of Multi-Stage Flash Distillation and Reverse Osmosis for Desalination of Saline Process Wastewater Sources.

Nowadays, there is increasing interest in advanced simulation methods for desalination. The two most common desalination methods are multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) and reverse osmosis (RO). Numerous research works have been published on these separations, however their simulation appears to be difficult due to their complexity, therefore continuous improvement is required.

Membrane Flash Index: Powerful and Perspicuous Help for Efficient Separation System Design.

There are different factors and indices to characterize the performance of a pervaporation membrane, but none of them gives information about their capabilities in the area of liquid separation compared to the most convenient alternative, which is distillation. Membrane flash index (MFLI) can be considered the first and only one that shows if the membrane is more efficient or not than distillation and quantifies this feature too. Therefore, the MFLI helps select the best separation alternative in the case of process design.

Co-Hydrothermal gasification of Chlorella vulgaris and hydrochar: The effects of waste-to-solid biofuel production and blending concentration on biogas generation.

This study investigates enhanced biogas production via co-Hydrothermal gasification (co-HTG) of wet Chlorella vulgaris biomass and hydrochar (HC). Hydrothermal carbonization was applied to valorize struvite containing waste microalgae stream into solid bio-fuel with improved combustion properties. The effects of HC quality and mixing ratio are investigated on biogas yield, composition and carbon conversion ratio.

Hygiene assessments of school kitchens based on the microbiological status of served food.

Background: According to European trends, more children eat at school canteens than ever before, therefore food safety and quality have become increasingly significant in recent years. Nevertheless, there are large differences in food safety levels in different school canteens. We hypothesize that the microbial status of the served meal represents on the general hygiene of the kitchen.