The recognition of an enteropathy caused by olmesartan is recent. It was first described in 2012 by the Mayo Clinic, which presented 22 clinical cases. Olmesartan is a highly prescribed drug and the differential diagnosis of a sprue-like enteropathy is very wide, so it is important to be aware of this pathology.We report a case of a 67-years-old man, with arterial hypertension under treatment with olmesartan, with a 4-months history of diarrhea and weight lost. He was admitted three times in our Department during this period of time. An initial diagnosis was made of lymphocytic colitis but he did not respond to treatment with corticosteroids. There was a high suspicion of celiac disease, so the patient started a gluten-free diet but still there were no symptomatic changes. The patient underwent several blood and imaging tests which were negative. Due to the suspicion of an enteropathy caused by drugs, olmesartan was stopped and the patient showed a significant improvement of his symptoms.The exact pathophysiology of this entity remains to be elucidated. It may affect all gastrointestinal tract and mimic a refractory celiac disease as well as a lymphocytic colitis due to similar symptoms and histology. It is expected more cases like this in the future due to high use of olmesartan in current clinical practice.So, it is important to all gastroenterologists to be aware of this pathology and take it into consideration when putting together a differential diagnosis.

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Continuous synthesis and refining of biodiesel (FAME) using a laboratory scale bench scale unit was explored. The unit consists of three major parts: (i) a continuous centrifugal contactor separator (CCCS) to perform the reaction between sunflower oil and methanol; (ii) a washing unit for the crude FAME with water/acetic acid consisting of a mixer and a liquid-liquid separator; and (iii) a FAME drying unit with air. The continuous setup was successfully used for a 4 h runtime without any operational issues. The CCCS was operated at an oil flow rate of 32 mL/min, rotational speed of 35 Hz, 60°C, a catalyst concentration of 1.2% w/w and a methanol flow rate of 10 mL/min. The flow rate of water (containing 1% w/w acetic acid) for the biodiesel washing unit was 10 mL/min (20°C); the air flow rate (5% humidity) was set at 12 L/min. After 4 h runtime, approximately 7 kg of refined FAME was produced from a cumulative sunflower oil feed of 7.07 kg. The ester content of the refined FAME was 98% w/w (GC). Other relevant product properties were also determined and most were shown to meet the ASTM specifications. The refining section was modelled and optimised using ASPEN software.Practical applications: Synthesis and refining of sunflower biodiesel was successfully performed in a dedicated bench scale unit using centrifugal contactor separator technology. Besides for large scale biodiesel production, this technology has particularly potential to be applied in small mobile biodiesel units due to the compact size, robustness, flexibility in operation and high volumetric productivity of the CCCS devices.

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