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Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) was used to investigate the mechanism of chiral selectivity in diastereomeric salt formation of alpha-phenylethylamine with D-tartaric acid and di-p-toluoyl-D-tartaric acid as resolving agents; results indicate that for these systems chiral selectivity occurs only upon crystallisation and chiral interactions in solution were negligible.

This article presents a mathematical model to assess and optimize the separation performance of an enantioselective inclusion complexation-organic solvent nanofiltration process. Enantiomer solubilities, feed concentrations, solvent compositions, permeate solvent volumes, and numbers of nanofiltrations were identified as key factors for process efficiency. The model was first tested by comparing calculated and experimental results for a nonoptimized process, and then, calculations were carried out to select the best operating conditions. An important finding was that the optimal configuration varied with the objective function selected, e.g., resolvability versus yield, with a boundary on product optical purity. The model also suggested that the process efficiency could benefit from diafiltration of the distomer and from the use of higher feed concentrations. However, the latter strategy would result in higher losses of eutomer. To address this drawback, a multistage process was evaluated using the verified process model.

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A membrane-less and mediator-less system was designed and tested with wastewater sample as fuel to generate electricity. Microorganisms were first isolated from the wastewater sample to pure culture and were used as the ‘machinery’ that converts wastewater into energy. The wastewater samples were treated either by sterilization or non-sterilization methods. These tests were run using a modified air-cathode single chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC). By sterilizing the wastewater, the calculated power density was much lower compared to non-sterilized wastewater indicating a significant role of microbial activity in the SCMFC system and substrate availability. Furthermore, mixed culture was observed to give larger power density compared to an individual microbe (18.42 ± 5.84 mW/m2 for mixed culture and 8.82 ± 4.56 mW/m2 to 9.46 ± 4.87 mW/m2 for individual microbe, Bukholderi capecia and Acidovorax sp. respectively) to prove that larger power value could be achieved with a mixed microbial system. In addition, the system proved to remove 68.57% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the wastewater sample tested. In conclusion, the designed SCMFC has been proven capable of power generation and wastewater treatment comparable to other SCMFCs to date.