Cleaning of wastewater for the environment is an emerging issue for the living organism. The separation of oily wastewater, especially emulsified mixtures, is quite challenged due to a large amount of wastewater produced in daily life. In this review, the membrane technology for oily wastewater treatment is presented. In the first part, the global membrane market, the oil spill accidents and their results are discussed. In the second and third parts, the source of oily wastewater and conventional treatment methods are represented. Among all methods, membrane technology is considered the most efficient method in terms of high separation performance and easy to operation process. In the fourth part, we provide an overview of membrane technology, fouling problem, and how to improve the self-cleaning surface using functional groups for effectively treating oily wastewater. The recent development of surface-modified membranes for oily wastewater separation is investigated. It is believed that this review will promote understanding of membrane technology and the development of surface modification strategies for anti-fouling membranes.
We introduce a discrete fracture network model of stationary Darcy flow in fractured rocks. We approximate the fractures by a network of planar circle disks, which is generated on the basis of statistical data obtained from field measurements. We then discretize this network into a mesh consisting of triangular elements placed in three-dimensional space. We use geometrical approximations in fracture planes, which allow for a significant simplification of the final triangular meshes. We consider two-dimensional Darcy flow in each fracture. In order to accurately simulate the channeling effect, we assign to each triangle an aperture defining its hydraulic permeability. For the discretization we use the lowest order Raviart-Thomas mixed finite element method. This method gives quite an accurate velocity field, which is computed directly and which satisfies the mass balance on each triangular element. We demonstrate the use of this method on a model problem with a known analytical solution and describe the generation and triangulation of the fracture network and the computation of fracture flow for a particular real situation.
The mixed-hybrid finite element discretization of Darcy's law and continuity equation describing the potential fluid flow problem in porous media leads to a symmetric indefinite linear system for the pressure and velocity vector components. As a method of solution the reduction to three Schur complement systems based on successive block elimination is considered. The first and second Schur complement matrices are formed eliminating the velocity and pressure variables, respectively, and the third Schur complement matrix is obtained by elimination of a part of Lagrange multipliers that come from the hybridization of a mixed method. The structural properties of these consecutive Schur complement matrices in terms of the discretization parameters are studied in detail. Based on these results the computational complexity of a direct solution method is estimated and compared to the computational cost of the iterative conjugate gradient method applied to Schur complement systems. It is shown that due to special block structure the spectral properties of successive Schur complement matrices do not deteriorate and the approach based on the block elimination and subsequent iterative solution is well justified. Theoretical results are illustrated by numerical experiments.
The antibacterial efficiency of nanofibre composite yarns with an immobilized antibacterial agent was tested. This novel type of nanofibrous composite material combines the good mechanical properties of the core yarn with the high specific surface of the nanofibre shell to gain specific targeted qualities. The main advantages of nanofibre covered composite yarns over the standard planar nanofibre membranes include high tensile strength, a high production rate, and their ability to be processed by standard textile techniques. The presented paper describes a study of the immobilization of an antibacterial agent and its interaction with two types of bacterial colonies. The aim of the study is to assess the applicability of the new composite nanomaterial in antibacterial filtration. During the experimental tests copper(II) oxide particles were immobilized in the polyurethane and polyvinyl butyral nanofibre components of a composite yarn. The antibacterial efficiency was evaluated by using both Gram-negativeEscherichia coliand Gram-positiveStaphylococcus gallinarumbacteria. The results showed that the composite yarn with polyvinyl butyral nanofibres incorporating copper(II) oxide nanoparticles exhibited better antibacterial efficiency compared to the yarn containing the polyurethane nanofibres. The nanofibre/nanoparticle covered composite yarns displayed good antibacterial activity against a number of bacteria.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.