Transport of organic acids through polybenzimidazole based membranes by ‘Chemodialysis’

Glucose Fuel Cells and Membranes: A Brief Overview and Literature Analysis

Glucose is a ubiquitous source of energy for nearly all living things, and glucose fuel cells (GFCs) are regarded as a sustainable power source because glucose is renewable, easily available, cheap, abundant, non-toxic and easy-to-store. Numerous efforts have been devoted to developing and improving GFC performance; however, there is still no commercially viable devices on the market. Membranes play an essential role in GFCs for the establishment of a suitable local microenvironment, selective ion conducting and prevention of substrate crossover. However, our knowledge on them is still limited, especially on how to achieve comparable efficacy with that of a biological system. This review article provides the first brief overview on these aspects, particularly keeping in sight the research trends, current challenges, and the future prospects. We aim to bring together literature analysis and technological discussion on GFCs and membranes by using bibliometrics, and provide new ideas for researchers in this field to overcome challenges on developing high-performance GFCs.

A platform technology of recovery of lactic acid from a fermentation broth of novel substrate Zizyphus oenophlia

Lactic acid, a biologically derived compound, exists ubiquitously in nature. Its existence ranges from human being to microorganisms. Having paramount industrial significance, lactic acid should be highly pure, devoid of any contaminants. Hence, development of minimum steps of platform technologies to purify it needs urgent attention. The article proposed a novel and simple process for separation of lactic acid from a potential substrate Zizyphus oenophlia, based on ion exchange chromatography. The process herein involves two steps of purification; firstly a weak anion exchange resin was used to separate lactic acid from other anions present in the broth. This was followed by use of strong cation exchanger which washes out the target molecule (lactic acid) while trapped other cations present in the solution. The selected ion exchangers were Amberlite IRA 96 and Amberlite IR 120. Amberlite IRA 96 retained the lactic acid from the broth while washing away other anions. Maximum binding capacity of the resin was found to 210.46 mg lactic acid/g bead. After the simple two-step purification process, the purity of lactic acid improves up to 99.17 % with a recovery yield of 98.9 %. Upon characterization, formation of only levo rotatory form of lactic acid confirms its easy metabolism by the human system, thus triggering its application towards biomaterial sector.