Insight into the Chemistry of Surfactant-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes, 2009, Vol: 2(1) Pp. 1-10
Benyamin Yadali Jamaloei
[Abstract] [Full Text Article]


New Technologies for Water and Wastewater Treatment: A Survey of Recent Patents, 2008, Vol: 1(1) Pp. 17-26
Berrin Tansel
[Abstract] [Full Text Article]


Review on Patents in Microreactor and Micro Process Engineering, 2008, Vol: 1(1) Pp. 1-16
Volker Hessel, Christoph Knobloch and Holger Löwe
[Abstract] [Full Text Article]


Recent Inventions in Glycerol Transformations and Processing, 2009, Vol: 2(1) Pp. 11-21
M. Olga Guerrero-Pérez, Juana M. Rosas, Jorge Bedia, José Rodríguez-Mirasol and Tomás Cordero
[Abstract] [Full Text Article]


Recent Patents of Nanofiltration Applications in Oil Processing, Desalination, Wastewater and Food Industries, 2009, Vol: 2(1) Pp. 51-66
Altaf A. Hussain and Aiman E. Al-Rawajfeh
[Abstract] [Full Text Article]


A Review of Synthesis and Nanopore Structures of Organic Polymer Aerogels and Carbon Aerogels, 2008, Vol: 1(3) Pp. 192-200
Yousheng Tao, Morinobu Endo and Katsumi Kaneko
[Abstract] [Purchase Article]


Recent Patents on Activated Carbon Production and Applications, 2008, Vol: 1(2) Pp. 126-140
Mohamed Chaker Ncibi, Borhane Mahjoub, Mongi Seffen and Sarra Gaspard
[Abstract] [Purchase Article]


Recent Innovations in Turbulent Mixing with Static Elements, 2008, Vol: 1(1) Pp. 80-87
Alessandro Paglianti
[Abstract] [Full Text Article]


On Generating Uniform Bottom Shear Stress. Part I: A Quantitative Study of Microcosm Chambers, 2008, Vol: 1(3) Pp. 174-191
Arzhang Khalili, Khodayar Javadi, Arash Saidi, Afshin Goharzadeh, Markus Huettel and Bo B. Jørgensen
[Abstract] [Purchase Article]


Current Patents of Dendrimers and Hyperbranched Polymers in Membranes, 2008, Vol: 1(1) Pp. 41-51
Jinrong Wang, Yiyun Cheng and Tongwen Xu
[Abstract] [Full Text Article]




Abstracts


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Insight into the Chemistry of Surfactant-Based Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes, 2009, Vol: 2(1)
Benyamin Yadali Jamaloei

During the past several decades, significant and considerable research has been carried out on secondary and tertiary recovery of trapped residual oil remaining within the producing formations underground despite the efficient, current primary production strategies and methods. Methods have been sought of increasing oil recovery, while revamping and improving the economic viability and efficiency of operations.

One method that has received much attention and intensive study over these past decades is the use of surfactant-based chemical flooding. Initial patents and laboratory tests have shown conclusively that chemical solutions and slugs including surfactants, remove considerable oil from the porous medium normally trapped after initial waterflooding. Oil recovery processes by means of surfactant micellar solutions or microemulsions have included the injection of slugs of varied compositions.

Patents on surfactant-based enhanced oil recovery processes (such as dilute surfactant flooding, surfactant/polymer flooding, and alkaline/surfactant/polymer flooding) have been issued, starting from the 1920’s and particularly after the 1960’s, when the technology was put on a scientific basis. These patents were generally concerned with the chemistry of surfactant-based enhanced oil recovery processes including envisioning the use of chemical solutions (slugs) to decrease the surface tension between oil and the flooding medium, screening of surfactants for oil recovery efficiency, chemical (surfactant) slug designs and formulation to mobilize residual oil, documenting petroleum sulfonates useful in surfactant flooding, and other important factors in the chemistry of surfactant-based chemical flooding processes. Moreover, evaluation and determination of optimum chemical systems (slugs) for the best economics for a specific field application have been disclosed and documented in several large oil companies’ patents in the surfactant-polymer area.

In this article, a full-fledged review of the patents on different aspects of the chemistry of surfactant-based enhanced oil recovery processes is presented.


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New Technologies for Water and Wastewater Treatment: A Survey of Recent Patents, 2008, Vol: 1(1)
Berrin Tansel

The concern over increasing needs for drinking water and awareness for development of systems to improve water quality both for drinking purposes and for effluents from wastewater treatment and industrial facilities have provided incentives to develop new technologies and improve performance of existing technologies. In this paper, the patents on treatment of water and wastewater approved during the period from 1999 to 2007 were reviewed. The patents surveyed were classified into two groups as technologies for water purification systems for drinking water, and technologies for treatment of wastewater. An assessment of the current and future outlook for development of new technologies, methods of treatment, equipment and instruments which can be used for water and wastewater treatment applications are presented.


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Review on Patents in Microreactor and Micro Process Engineering, 2008, Vol: 1(1)
Volker Hessel, Christoph Knobloch and Holger Löwe

During the last five years, the number of patent publications in the field of microreactor engineering has increased steadily and seems now to approach a more constant level. The majority of patents are initiated by German, US, and Japanese inventors or applicants. Even among these, a few chemical companies and institutes have a major share. Initially, the focus was on fabrication, device, and total system related inventions. Meanwhile, an increasing number of process patent publications have been released showing the further stage of implementation of the technique which is moving to micro process engineering. The focus of the patents and published patent applications is on fine-chemical processes.


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Recent Inventions in Glycerol Transformations and Processing, 2009, Vol: 2(1)
M. Olga Guerrero-Pérez, Juana M. Rosas, Jorge Bedia, José Rodríguez-Mirasol and Tomás Cordero

Many patents claiming new processes for the conversion of glycerol into valuable-added chemicals are appearing in recent years as a result of glycerol availability since it is the main by-product in the biodiesel production and in other processes concerning biomass as raw material. In a future biorefinery glycerol will remain as a platform molecule. Present review describes a selection of such patents and shows the potential of glycerol as raw material in such future chemical industries (biorefineries).


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Recent Patents of Nanofiltration Applications in Oil Processing, Desalination, Wastewater and Food Industries, 2009, Vol: 2(1)
Altaf A. Hussain and Aiman E. Al-Rawajfeh

Nanofiltration (NF) lies between reverse osmosis (RO) and ultrafiltration (UF). Nanofiltration membrane carries quite distinctive properties such as pore radius and surface charge density which influences the separation of various solutes. This paper reviews the recent patents available in nanofiltration. In oil processing industry, nanofiltration has been used in recovery of crude oil, where sulfate reduced feed water was introduced. It also leads to the production of useful chemicals. In desalination applications, the nanofiltration has been used as a pretreatment process for reverse osmosis and thermal desalination systems, in former, it removes the biofouling potential components and multivalent ions, which results in increase in product recovery of RO process and in later, it allows to increase the top brine temperature of Multi Effect Distillation (MED) and Multi Stage Flash (MSF), which results in increase in production water and lesser scaling propensity. There is also growing trend that utilization of dual nanofiltration in sea water applications results in reduction in energy and water cost. Utilization of solvent resistant nanofiltration for processing organic solvents under different conditions in petrochemical industries is also discussed. The review also carries the recent patents available in waste water treatment process and food industries.


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A Review of Synthesis and Nanopore Structures of Organic Polymer Aerogels and Carbon Aerogels, 2008, Vol: 1(3)
Yousheng Tao, Morinobu Endo and Katsumi Kaneko

Organic polymer aerogels and carbon aerogels are important nanoporous materials, of which the nanopore structures can be modified by the chemical reactions. These materials have received considerable attention in fundamentals on materials science and commercial applications. This paper discusses with the current patents involving in synthesis and modifications of nanostructures and surfaces of organic polymer aerogels and carbon aerogels. It emphasizes the recent developments in fabrication pathways of lower cost and their applications for template synthesis and nanostructural assembling.


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Recent Patents on Activated Carbon Production and Applications, 2008, Vol: 1(2)
Mohamed Chaker Ncibi, Borhane Mahjoub, Mongi Seffen and Sarra Gaspard

In the present paper, a review of the production methods of activated carbons from various kinds of precursors and their industrial use is presented, based on recently developed patents. The main discussion is divided into two major parts: (i) the activated carbons fabrication industry starting from the choice of the precursor to the activation of the carbonaceous materials and (ii) their diverse applications. Dealing with the activated carbons precursors, recent patents pointed out the beneficial use of several bioresources, agro-industrial wastes, used tires and newspapers for example. In addition, inventors proposed different kinds of fabrication process, with respect to the field in which the activated carbon will be used including wastewater and air treatment, fuel purification and gold recovery. Besides, to enhance the overall economical benefit in using activated carbons, other researchers developed some innovative techniques to regenerate those costly materials, for further utilization of the carbon itself or the recovery of the already sorbed precious compounds. Hence, this review article summarizes recent and important patents relating to the chemical engineering of activated carbons.


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Recent Innovations in Turbulent Mixing with Static Elements, 2008, Vol: 1(1)
Alessandro Paglianti

Static Mixer consists of a number of stationary mixing elements inserted along the direction of flow in a pipe. Each mixing element allows to divide the flow and to recombine it in a geometric sequence.

A lot of static mixers are now available, e.g. Sulzer SMV and SMI, Chemineer KM, the Kenics HEV. These products differ quite considerably and the construction have effects on the manufacturing costs and also on the costs for the inbuilt the mixers in a plant. These well known motionless mixers allow to obtain good performances but usually the mixing length necessary for obtaining the homogeneity is longer than 5-10 pipe diameters. Another important constrain is the maximum permissible pressure loss in the operation.

In the recent years, new products composed of a minimum number of elements, have been launched. These new products have a short inbuilt device length, they require a short mixing path and they have low pressure drops. This review analyzes the behaviour of these new innovative static mixers.


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On Generating Uniform Bottom Shear Stress. Part I: A Quantitative Study of Microcosm Chambers, 2008, Vol: 1(3)
Arzhang Khalili, Khodayar Javadi, Arash Saidi, Afshin Goharzadeh, Markus Huettel and Bo B. Jørgensen

Generating uniform shear stress planes finds a variety of applications in different disciplines such as process engineering, medicine and marine sciences. The focus of this study is to quantify the potential of microcosm chambers, applied in marine applications, in producing shear stress uniformity at the chamber bottom. To do this, computational fluid dynamics was used to simulate the flow pattern, velocity profiles, and shear stress distribution at chamber bottom. The study revealed that the microcosm chambers, such as those presented in the patent of Gust, produce a fully vortical flow, containing acceleration-deceleration zones near the central axis and the outer wall. The results show that the presence of these acceleration-deceleration zones is the major reason for non-uniform shear stress formation at the chamber bottom. Utilizing a suction-injection mechanism and-or attached skirt provides better bottom shear stress profiles compared to a conventional disk-cylinder. In spite of this partial improvement, the addition of a suction-injection device or a skirt attached to the disk provide a partial shear stress uniformity only over the 72% of the bottom area, and are therefore of limited use.


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Current Patents of Dendrimers and Hyperbranched Polymers in Membranes, 2008, Vol: 1(1)
Jinrong Wang, Yiyun Cheng and Tongwen Xu

Dendrimers or other hyperbranched polymers are a new class of artificial polymers with unique properties, such as high degree of branching units, high density of surface functional groups, nano-scaled size, well-defined molecular weight and low-dispersity. These features make them attractive materials in the field of membrane science. This review is a short survey of patents on dendrimers and other hyperbranched polymers in membrane fields such as proton exchange membranes, bipolar membranes, gas separation membranes, and solid-liquid separation membranes, etc.