Resumo em Inglês:

Protein expression in transgenic plants is considered one of the most promising approaches for producing pharmaceutical proteins. As has happened with other recombinant protein production schemes, the downstream processing (dsp) of these proteins produced in plants is key to the technical and economic success of large-scale applications. Since dsp of proteins produced transgenically in plants has not been extensively studied, it is necessary to broaden the investigation in this field in order to more precisely evaluate the commercial feasibility of this route of expression. In this work, we studied the substitution of an IMAC chromatographic step, described in previous work (Azzoni et al., 2002), with ion-exchange chromatography on SP Sepharose Fast Flow resin as the second step in the purification of recombinant aprotinin from transgenic maize seed. The main goal of this second purification step is to separate the recombinant aprotinin from the native corn trypsin inhibitor. Analysis of the adsorption isotherms determined at 25°C under different conditions allowed selection of 0.020 M Tris pH 8.5 as the adsorption buffer. The cation-exchange chromatographic process produced a high-purity aprotinin that was more than ten times more concentrated than that generated using an IMAC step.

Resumo em Inglês:

Although protein crystallization is a unit operation with potentially high separation factors, it has not been widely used in industry. Protein crystallization studies and practices have hitherto been largely limited to crystallography protocols. Knowledge of the behaviour of protein in solution would help to overcome empiric limitations in protein crystallisation. Thus, dissolution of porcine insulin and hen egg white lysozyme was studied and an unusual variation in solute concentration, with a concentration peak for short dissolution times, was verified. Polymorphic behaviour of protein in solution was observed, which altered physical properties such as solubility.

Resumo em Inglês:

Fe-ZSM-5 catalysts were prepared by ion exchange in aqueous medium or in the solid state and tested in the catalytic reduction of NO with iso-butane. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XANES, EXAFS), temperature-programmed reduction by H2 (H2-TPR) and Mössbauer spectroscopy (MÖS-S) were used for sample characterisation. Irrespective of the method used in catalyst preparation, EPR, XANES and MÖS-S showed Fe atoms in the oxidation state of 3+. MÖS-S and H2-TPR data on Fe-ZSM-5 prepared by ion exchange in the solid state allowed quantification of a lower hematite (Fe2O3) concentration and a higher proportion of Fe cations than samples prepared in an aqueous medium. In all the catalysts studied these Fe cations were the active sites in the reduction of NO to N2 and in the oxidation of iso-butane. It is further suggested that coordination of Fe species is another important aspect to be considered in their behaviour.

Resumo em Inglês:

Chitosan microspheres of a small particle size and with good sphericity were prepared by a spray-drying method followed by treatment with a cross-linking agent. Owing to restrictions on the use of cross-linked chitosan microspheres in the pharmaceutical field, d,l-glyceraldehyde, a biocompatible reatant was used. The parameters studied affecting extent of cross-linking were cross-linking time and concentration of the cross-linking agent. Glutaraldehyde, the aldehyde most frequently employed as chemical cross-linking agent for proteins, was also used as a control. The cross-linked spray-dried chitosan microspheres were analyzed with respect to their morphological aspects, particle size, zeta potential and water uptake capacity. It was found that an increase either in d,l-glyceraldehyde concentration or in duration of cross-linking caused a decrease in both the swelling capacity and the zeta potential of the chitosan microspheres. Compared to glutaraldehyde, d,l-glyceraldehyde appears to be a good cross-linking agent for chitosan microspheres with the advantage that it is nontoxic.

Resumo em Inglês:

This work presents an analysis of the changes observed in granule characteristics of sludge in the treatment of synthetic wastewater at a concentration of about 500 mgCOD/L in batch, fed-batch (ASBR) and continuous (UASB) bench-scale reactors under similar experimental conditions. Physical and microbiological properties of the granules were characterized as average particle size and sedimentation time and by optical and epifluorescence microscopy. Several samples were analyzed in order to identify the morphologies. Granules from sequencing batch and fed-batch reactors, either with or without mechanical mixing, did not undergo any physical or microbiological changes. However, during the experiment granules from the UASB reactor agglomerated due to the formation and accumulation of a viscous material, probably of microbial origin, when operated at low superficial velocities (0.072, 0.10 and 0.19 m/h). When the superficial velocity was increased to 8.0-10.0 m/h by means of liquid-phase recirculation, the granules from the UASB reactor underwent flocculation and the microbiological characteristics changed in such a way that the equilibrium of microbial diversity in the inoculum was not maintained. As a result, the only reactor that maintained efficiency and good solids retention during the assays was the ASBR, showing that there is a correlation between maintenance of microbial diversity and operating mode in the case of anaerobic treatment of low-strength wastewaters.

Resumo em Inglês:

A synthetic rubber powder was used to adsorb the residual oil in palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME is the wastewater produced by the palm oil industry. It is a colloidal suspension which is 95-96% water, 0.6-0.7% oil and 4-5% total solids including 2-4% suspended solids originating in the mixing of sterilizer condensate, separator sludge and hydrocyclone wastewater. POME contains 4,000 mg dm-3 of oil and grease, which is relatively high compared to the limit of only 50 mg dm-3 set by the Malaysian Department of Environment. A bench-scale study of the adsorption of residual oil in POME using synthetic rubber powder was conducted using a jar test apparatus. The adsorption process was studied by varying parameters affecting the process. The parameters were adsorbent dosage, mixing speed, mixing time and pH. The optimum values of the parameters were obtained. It was found that almost 88% removal of residual oil was obtained with an adsorbent dosage of 30 mg dm-3 and mixing speed of 150 rpm for 3 hr at a pH 7. Adsorption equilibrium was also studied, and it was found that the adsorption process on the synthetic rubber powder fit the Freundlich isotherm model.

Resumo em Inglês:

Chromium is a pollutant present in tannery wastewater, its removal is necessary for protection of the environment. Penisetum purpureum, Brancharia decumbens and Phragmites australis were grown hydroponically in experimental gravel beds to determine their potential for the phytoremediation of solutions containing 10 and 20 mg Cr dm-3. These concentrations, similar to tannery wastewater after initial physico-chemical treatment were used with the aim of developing an economic secondary treatment to protect the environment. All the systems achieved removal efficiencies of 97 - 99.6% within 24 hours. P. purpureum and B. decumbens removed 78.1% and 68.5% respectively within the first hour. Both P. purpureum and B. decumbens were tolerant of the concentrations of chromium applied, but P. purpureum showed the greatest potential because its faster growth and larger biomass achieved a much greater chromium removal over the whole length of time of the experiment.

Resumo em Inglês:

Isotope separation with a gas centrifuge is a very complex process. Development and optimization of a gas centrifuge requires experimentation. These data contain experimental errors, and like other experimental data, there may be some gross errors, also known as outliers. The detection of outliers in gas centrifuge experimental data is quite complicated because there is not enough repetition for precise statistical determination and the physical equations may be applied only to control of the mass flow. Moreover, the concentrations are poorly predicted by phenomenological models. This paper presents the application of a three-layer feed-forward neural network to the detection of outliers in analysis of performed on a very extensive experiment.

Resumo em Inglês:

Neural networks currently play a major role in the modeling, control and optimization of polymerization processes and in polymer resin development. This paper is a brief tutorial on simple and practical procedures that can help in selecting and training neural networks and addresses complex cases where the application of neural networks has been successful in the field of polymerization.

Resumo em Inglês:

The kinetics of Fe2O3->FeO reaction was investigated. The thermogravimetric (TGA) data covered the reduction of hematite both by pure species (nitrogen diluted CO or H2) and by their mixture. The conventional analysis has indicated that initially the reduction of hematite is a complex, surface controlled process, however once a thin layer of lower oxidation state iron oxides (magnetite, wüstite) is formed on the surface, it changes to diffusion control. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has proved to be a convenient tool for modeling of this complex, heterogeneous reaction runs within the both (kinetic and diffusion) regions, correctly considering influence of temperature and gas composition effects and their complex interactions. ANN's model shows the capability to mimic some extreme (minimum) of the reaction rate within the determined temperature window, while the Arrhenius dependency is of limited use.

Resumo em Inglês:

Propane oxidation and reduction of NO to N2 with propane under oxidative conditions on a Cu-Al-MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieve and Cu-ZSM-5 zeolites were studied. Both types of catalysts were prepared by ion exchange in aqueous solutions of copper acetate and characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen sorption measurement, diffuse reflectance ultra-violet spectroscopy (DRS-UV), diffuse reflectance infra-red Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) of the adsorption of CO on Cu+ and temperature-programmed reduction with hydrogen (H2-TPR). The NO reduction was performed between 200 and 500 ºC using a GHSV = 42,000 h-1. H2-TPR data showed that in the prepared Cu-Al-MCM-41 all the Cu atoms are on the surface of the mesopores as highly dispersed CuO, which results in a decrease in specific surface area and in mesopore volume. H2-TPR together with DRIFTS data provided evidence that in Cu/ZSM-5 catalysts, Cu atoms are found as two different Cu2+ cations: Cualpha2+ and Cubeta2+, which are located on charge compensation sites, and their thermo-redox properties were different from those of Cu atoms in Cu-Al-MCM-41. The specific activity of the Cu2+ exchangeable cations in Cu-ZSM-5, irrespective of their nature, was much greater than that of the Cu2+ in Cu-Al-MCM-41, where they are found as CuO.

Resumo em Inglês:

The hydrodynamic parameters were determined for two different three-phase systems (fluidized-bed and trickle-bed) through the experimental evaluation of the dynamic residence time distribution in the gas or liquid phase. For different fluid phase flow rates the fluidized-bed system was operated with a tracer in the gas phase and in the trickle-bed with a tracer in the liquid phase. The analysis of the processes was achieved through the application of different models representing the dynamic behavior of tracers present in the gas and liquid phases with a simulation of experimental operations of the three-phase reactors. The transfer functions developed for the two systems made it possible to estimate the hydrodynamic parameters providing the gas holdup (2.22 x 10-2 to 8.42 x 10-2) and the gas phase Peclet number (54.18 to 41.20) for the fluidized-bed and the liquid holdup (0.16 to 0.25), the liquid phase Peclet number (20.37 to 4.52) and wetting efficiency (0.34 to 0.56) for the trickle-bed.

Resumo em Inglês:

Separation of aromatic C8 compounds by distillation is a difficult task due to the low relative volatilities of the compounds and to the high degree of purity required of the final commercial products. For rigorous simulation and optimization of this separation, the use of a model capable of describing vapor-liquid equilibria accurately is necessary. Nevertheless, experimental data are not available for all binaries at atmospheric pressure. Vapor-liquid equilibria data for binary mixtures were isobarically obtained with a modified Fischer cell at 100.65 kPa. The vapor and liquid phase compositions were analyzed with a gas chromatograph. The methodology was initially tested for cyclo-hexane+n-heptane data; results obtained are similar to other data in the literature. Data for xylene binary mixtures were then obtained, and after testing, were considered to be thermodynamically consistent. Experimental data were regressed with Aspen Plus® 10.1 and binary interaction parameters were reported for the most frequently used activity coefficient models and for the classic mixing rules of two cubic equations of state.

Resumo em Inglês:

Liquid-liquid extraction using aqueous two-phase systems is a highly efficient technique for separation and purification of biomolecules due to the mild properties of both liquid phases. Reliable data on the phase behavior of these systems are essential for the design and operation of new separation processes; several authors reported phase diagrams for polymer-polymer systems, but data on polymer-salt systems are still relatively scarce. In this work, experimental liquid-liquid equilibrium data on water + polyethylene glycol 8000 + magnesium sulfate and water + polyethylene glycol 8000 + sodium sulfate aqueous two-phase systems were obtained at 35°C. Both equilibrium phases were analyzed by lyophilization and ashing. Experimental results were correlated with a mass-fraction-based NRTL activity coefficient model. New interaction parameters were estimated with the Simplex method. The mean deviations between the experimental and calculated compositions in both equilibrium phases is about 2%.

Resumo em Inglês:

The UNIQUAC model for the excess Gibbs energy is modified using chemical theory to account for chain-like association occurring in self-associating compounds such as alcohols. The equation considers the alcohol to be a mixture of clusters in chemical equilibrium. The UNIQUAC equation is used to model the behavior of the mixture of clusters, with size and surface parameters related to the number of alcohol molecules involved in their formation. The values of association enthalpy and entropy were obtained through fitting vapor pressure data. The model is used to correlate phase behavior of alcohol-hydrocarbon mixtures at low pressures, presenting excellent results in bubble point calculations. A further extension was made to allow for cross-association, the formation of a hydrogen bond between the molecules of an alcohol and an active solute. This extension was used to model alcohol-aromatic mixtures with equally good results.

Resumo em Inglês:

The mass transfer process in a perforated rotating disc contactor (PRDC) using a polymer-polymer aqueous two-phase system was investigated. The results show that the efficiency did not show a regular trend with the increase of the dispersed phase velocity and increased with the rotation velocity. The separation efficiency was higher for three rotating discs than for four discs. The increase in tie-line length decreased the efficiency. The separation efficiency reached high values, about 96% under conditions studied in this work.