Bio-inspired counter-current multiplier for enrichment of solutes

Abstract

Improving the efficiency of gas separation technology is a challenge facing modern industry, since existing methods for gas separation, including hollow-fiber membrane contactors, vacuum swing adsorption, and cryogenic distillation, represents a significant portion of the world’s energy consumption. Here, we report an enhancement in the release rate of carbon dioxide and oxygen of a thermal swing gas desorption unit using a counter-current amplification method inspired by fish. Differing from a conventional counter-current extraction system, counter-current amplification makes use of parallel capture fluid channels separated by a semipermeable membrane in addition to the semipermeable membrane separating the capture fluid channel and the gas release channel. The membrane separating the incoming and outgoing fluid channels allows gas that would normally exit the system to remain in the desorption unit. We demonstrate the system using both resistive heating and photothermal heating. With resistive heating, an increase in release rate of 240% was observed compared to an equivalent counter-current extraction system.

A method to automatically push keywords for biological information searching in bio-inspired design

“…Based on min-max normalization, 34 the similarity values calculated by equation (2) and equation ( 3) are normalized, respectively.…”

“…The sign of their distance is negative. (2) The distance between functional verbs and functional nouns is not constant. For ''release protein,'' the distance between the functional verb ''release'' and the functional noun ''protein'' is 1.…”

“…According to equation (2), the similarities between functional verbs and ''adjust'' are calculated. These…”

“…Bio-inspired design, generally, utilizes design knowledge discovered in biological information to solve engineering problems, 1 which offers great potential to create innovative solutions. [2][3][4][5][6] It has significantly impacted on engineering design field. [7][8][9][10][11] In recent years, many researchers have begun to mine design knowledge related to engineering requirements from biological information.…”

Rapid synchronized fabrication of vascularized thermosets and composites

“…The replication of such pervasive vascular networks in engineered tissues and organoids for improving cellular proliferation 3 – 5 , studying fluid flow 6 , and pneumatic actuation 7 has garnered significant interest in therapeutics, prosthetics, and soft robotics 3 – 6 . Vascular and porous synthetic materials are also used for electrical insulation in microelectronics 8 , gas exchange in synthetic devices 9 , 10 , thermal management in heat exchangers and fiber-reinforced composites 11 , 12 , chemical reactions in flow batteries and microreactors 13 – 15 , and material regeneration in self-healing structures 16 , 17 .…”