Traditional Chinese Medicine Extract Properties Incorporated Energy Analysis for Membrane Concentration Processes

Abstract

This work focuses on the energy analysis of the membrane concentration systems that process traditional Chinese medicine extracts with dynamic properties incorporated, particularly for reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD) processes. The evaluation of process energy consumption was achieved by integrating the empirical properties correlations of Brix and other characteristics properties of the feed (e.g., density and heat capacity). The dynamic SEC analysis for RO process was largely dependent on the feed pressure, reported at 50 kWh/m3 at feed pressure of 0.9 MPa with less than 50% water removal. The occurrence of foaming at above 50% water removal caused discrepancies between the simulated flux results and the experimentally acquired results in RO, whereas the estimated dynamic SEC for MD process did not show a strong correlation with the temperatures selected in this study, ranging from 900 to 1000 kWh/m3. This approach can be adapted into the design and zoptimization for the concentration process of other herbal extracts by membrane technologies, allowing comprehensive understanding into the energy analysis in future study.

Comparison of different extraction methods of active ingredients of Chinese medicine and natural products

“…At present, the classical extraction methods of CM and natural products mainly include decoction [25,26], maceration [27][28][29], reflux [30,31], percolation [21], steam distillation [32] and sublimation [33,34]. With the development of modern separation science and equipment, some new technologies such as ultrasonic waveassisted extraction (UAE) [35][36][37][38], microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) [39][40][41][42], supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) [43][44][45][46][47], enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE) [48,23,49], membrane separation extraction (MSE) [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57], ultrafine grinding technology (UGT) [58][59][60][61][62][63][64], microporous resin adsorption technology (MRAT) [65][66][67][68]…”

“…At present, the classical extraction methods of CM and natural products mainly include decoction [25, 26], maceration [27–29], reflux [30, 31], percolation [21], steam distillation [32] and sublimation [33, 34]. With the development of modern separation science and equipment, some new technologies such as ultrasonic wave‐assisted extraction (UAE) [35–38], microwave‐assisted extraction (MAE) [39–42], supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) [43–47], enzyme‐assisted extraction (EAE) [48, 23, 49], membrane separation extraction (MSE) [50–57], ultrafine grinding technology (UGT) [58–64], microporous resin adsorption technology (MRAT) [65–70], semi‐bionic extraction (SBE) [71, 72], immune selective extraction (ISE) [73–77], molecular‐distillation technology [78–82], molecularly‐imprinted polymer extraction (MIPE) [83–88], UPE [89–93], liquid chromatographic extraction (LCE) [94–99], solid‐phase extraction (SPE) [100–107], liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) [108–112], etc. have been given birth to.…”

“…It is mainly used to filter bacteria, particles, macromolecular impurities (colloid, tannin, protein, polysaccharide), small molecular inorganic salts, or decolorization in the extract of CM and natural products. It can replace multiple processes in the traditional alcohol precipitation process, save solvents and recovery equipment, shorten the production cycle, and save energy [50][51][52][53]. According to the pore size, it can be divided into microfiltration membrane, ultrafiltration membrane, nanofiltration membrane, reverse osmosis (RO) membrane, and so on [54].…”

Preparation of Poly(acrylic acid‐co‐acrylamide) Hydrogel‐Modified PVDF Membrane and Its Separation and Antibacterial Properties

“…[12] Membrane separation technology has the characteristics of high efficiency, energy saving, environmental protection, and molecular filtration, since filtration process is simple and easy to control. [13] Therefore, it has been widely used in food industry, [14] pharmaceutical industry, [15] petrochemical industry, [16] paper industry, [17] dyeing and finishing industry, [18] water treatment industry, [19] and other fields, [20][21][22] which has produced great economic and social benefits and becomes one of the most important methods in separation science.…”