Summary In this paper, the effect of natural organic matters (NOMs), which are typically present in river and seawater, on the power generation of reverse electrodialysis was studied. Bovine serum albumin, humic acid, and sodium alginate were used as models of NOMs. A NOM model was added to concentrated salt water, diluted salt water, and/or both of them. Power density was used to measure the resulted power generation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope were used to characterize the presence of NOMs on the membrane surfaces. The effect of NOMs on the generated power density was clearly observed. This effect was influenced by the NOM's type, the NOMs concentration, and the compartment in which NOMs are added. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope data confirmed that NOMs are deposited on both anion and cation exchange membrane surfaces. While all NOMs added to concentrated salt water did not influence the generated power density, different power density behavior was resulted from the different NOMs added to diluted salt water, where NOMs could increase or decrease or remain the generated power density. Thus, besides NOM's type, the salt concentration is very critical to determine the effect of NOMs on the generated power density. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The huge amount of wheat import causes efforts to find substitutes for wheat flour are very important in Indonesia. In this work, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L)) flour was physically and chemically modified. The physical modification was performed by heat treatment and/or addition of a foodstuff having high protein content (soybean or green beans flour). Heat treatment was conducted by heating in an oven at temperature of 100°C, 110°C and 120°C for various times (14, 15, and 16 hours). The chemical modification was carried out by addition of acetic acid (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% v/v) followed by heating at temperature of 60°C, 70°C, and 80°C. The unmodified and modified sorghum flour were then characterized in term of swelling power and solubility. Overall, sorghum modification by physical and chemical treatment increases both swelling power and solubility. The physical modification shows that modified sorghum flour by heating (only) at 100°C for 15 hours has swelling power was 12.39% and percent of solubility was 2.3%, which is closer to wheat flour than other physical modifications. The chemical modification by addition of acetic acid 15% v/v followed by heating at temperature of 70°C resulted in modified sorghum with the swelling power of 12.31, which approaches the swelling power of wheat flour (12.84).

Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is a renewable energy-generating SGE technique using energy from salinity gradients. This research investigates the effect of membrane and feed characteristics on reverse electrodialysis (RED) power generation. Some investigations on the process parameters effect for the complement of the main study were also conducted. The generated power of RED was measured using power density analysis. The experiments were performed using artificial seawater varied from 0 to 1 g/L NaCl for diluted salt water and from 0 to 40 g/L NaCl for concentrated salt water. In a study of ions type, NaCl non-pa is used to represent monovalent ions, and MgSO4 represents divalent ions. The results showed that the highest voltage generation is 2.004 volts by 14 cells number of the RED membrane utilizing a RED self-made laboratory scale. The power density was enhanced by raising the flow rate (0.10 L/min), concentration difference (40 g/L), and the presence of electrode rinse solution. Further, the ion type (monovalent, divalent, and multivalent) influenced the resulting RED power density, where the divalent ion (MgSO4) 's power density was greater than that of the monovalent ion (NaCl). The resistance and selectivity of the membrane were the major keys for the power generation of RED