Innovative in situ investigations using synchrotron‐based micro tomography and molecular dynamics simulation for fouling assessment in ceramic membranes for dairy and food industry

Abstract

Proteins in dairy streams result in organic fouling and function loss for ceramic membrane's porous structure. Synchrotron‐based X‐ray microtomography (SR‐µCT) is a new method with a high signal to noise ratio and accordingly significant level of accuracy. The goal of this study was to perform an in situ assessment of ceramic membrane fouling in the dairy stream filtration process, using SR‐µCT. This study attempted to assess porosity variation and membrane fouling through different layers from the top, middle, and bottom layers of the ceramic microfiltration membrane before and after skimming milk filtration. Molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) was used for depth understanding of milk protein interactions with the ceramic membrane. Fouling was found to be more intense on the top of the ceramic membrane even though the top layer was slightly more porous, which indicates that top layers were more prone to fouling. A regression model was derived to correlate the porosity loss due to membrane fouling at different membrane thicknesses. The MDS results showed more affinity of the milk proteins to the ceramic membrane compared to water molecules. The MDS studies showed how the presence of the milk's protein macromolecules could change the hydrophilicity trend on the membrane's surface.

Aminolysis-Based Zwitterionic Immobilization on Polyethersulfone Membranes for Enhanced Hemocompatibility: Experimental, Computational, and Ex Vivo Investigations

“…Dreiding forcefield is an old potential, yet the authors were trying to model both polymeric and biological structures, which could be covered by the same forcefield. We have published other papers using the same force field [38,59], and we have published one with the same methodology, which was in agreement with our molecular docking simulations as well [37]. Several other papers are using the force field, despite its age [60][61][62][63].…”

Investigation on Human Serum Protein Depositions Inside Polyvinylidene Fluoride-Based Dialysis Membrane Layers Using Synchrotron Radiation Micro-Computed Tomography (SR-μCT)

“…Thus, spherical particles were used for conjugation with HSA, rods (sphericity ratio 0.85) were used for conjugation with FB, and cylinders (sphericity ratio 0.91) were used for conjugation with TRF. Detailed information about membrane imaging and radiograph representation with membrane division into layers and regions is described in our recent papers [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Membrane thickness was modeled with 10 regions of interest (ROIs), as shown in Figure 2 c. Region 1 represents the very top membrane surface.…”

A Comparative Assessment of Human Serum Proteins Interactions with Hemodialysis Clinical Membranes using Molecular Dynamics Simulation

“…Simulations with similar time steps are being used for membrane separation technology for prediction and comparison purposes. [35,43,44] Three simulations were performed for each system to consider different angles of the protein in the system interacting with the polymeric structure. The reported result for each system is the average of the simulations.…”