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This study deals with the development of antifouling ultrafiltration membranes based on polysulfone (PSF) for wastewater treatment and the concentration and purification of hemicellulose and lignin in the pulp and paper industry. The efficient simple and reproducible technique of PSF membrane modification to increase antifouling performance by simultaneous addition of triblock copolymer polyethylene glycol-polypropylene glycol-polyethylene glycol (Synperonic F108, Mn =14 × 103 g mol−1) to the casting solution and addition of polyacrylic acid (PAA, Mn = 250 × 103 g mol−1) to the coagulation bath is proposed for the first time. The effect of the PAA concentration in the aqueous solution on the PSF/Synperonic F108 membrane structure, surface characteristics, performance, and antifouling stability was investigated. PAA concentrations were varied from 0.35 to 2.0 wt.%. Membrane composition, structure, and topology were investigated by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The addition of PAA into the coagulation bath was revealed to cause the formation of a thicker and denser selective layer with decreasing its pore size and porosity; according to the structural characterization, an interpolymer complex of the two additives was formed on the surface of the PSF membrane. Hydrophilicity of the membrane selective layer surface was shown to increase significantly. The selective layer surface charge was found to become more negative in comparison to the reference membrane. It was shown that PSF/Synperonic F108/PAA membranes are characterized by better antifouling performance in ultrafiltration of humic acid solution and thermomechanical pulp mill (ThMP) process water. Membrane modification with PAA results in higher ThMP process water flux, fouling recovery ratio, and hemicellulose and total lignin rejection compared to the reference PSF/Synperonic F108 membrane. This suggests the possibility of applying the developed membranes for hemicellulose concentration and purification.

We set up a structural model to study credit risk for a portfolio containing several or many credit contracts. The model is based on a jump-diffusion process for the risk factors, i.e. for the company assets. We also include correlations between the companies. We discuss that models of this type have much in common with other problems in statistical physics and in the theory of complex systems. We study a simplified version of our model analytically. Furthermore, we perform extensive numerical simulations for the full model. The observables are the loss distribution of the credit portfolio, its moments and other quantities derived thereof. We compile detailed information about the parameter dependence of these observables. In the course of setting up and analyzing our model, we also give a review of credit risk modeling for a physics audience.

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Molasses is a sugar mill by-product with low value that today is used primarily for animal feed. However, molasses contains large amounts of sucrose which, if purified, could be used for other purposes. In this study, purification by membrane filtration using ceramic tubular ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) was examined. NF purifies sucrose by removing small compounds, whereas UF removes larger compounds. Based on our results, high filtration fluxes could be obtained, and it was possible to clean the membranes sufficiently from fouling compounds. Sucrose was separated from other compounds, but the separation efficiency was generally higher with diluted molasses compared with concentrated molasses. This could be explained by more severe fouling when filtering dilute molasses or potentially due to aggregate formations in the molasses as our analysis showed. Overall, this study shows the potential of ceramic UF and NF membranes for sucrose purification from molasses.