Chitin deacetylase is the only known enzyme which is able to deacetylate N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units in chitin or chitosan chains. As chitin can hardly be dissolved in organic/inorganic solvents, new solvents are still searched. Ionic liquids are promising for that application and for homophase enzymatic deacetylation. The aim of the work was to investigate the influence of selected ionic liquids on activity of chitin deacetylase.

It has been shown that [Amim] ionic liquids increase the activity of chitin deacetylase. The highest activity was observed for [Amim][Cl]. Ionic liquids with shorter (ethyl (C2)) and longer side chain (buthyl (C4)) only insignificantly influenced the activity of the enzyme. All tested ionic liquids with [Br] anion increased the activity of chitin deacetylase while the [Emim] and [Bmim] cation in combination with [Cl] anion inhibited the activity of the enzyme.

Despite its unique properties (biocompatibility and nontoxicity), chitin itself has limited application. Chitin is completely insoluble in most organic or inorganic solvents what can be beneficial when chitin is investigated as a support for chromatography or enzyme immobilization. These applications require the particles to have an extensive outer surface with a large number of reactive ligands. The increase in specific surface area of chitin particles can be performed by dissolution in ionic liquid and precipitation with water. To increase the number of reactive ligands (amine groups), deacetylation of the surface of chitin particles is necessary. The deacetylation process can be carried out by an enzymatic process with the enzyme, chitin deacetylase. In our investigation, 21 ionic liquids were used for chitin particle structure modification followed by enzymatic deacetylation. Results proved positive effect of modifications with ionic liquid on enzymatic deacetylation of the chitin surface with chitin deacetylase. For 12 samples the deacetylation gave an increase in number of active ligands in comparison to natural chitin. The best results were observed for [Bmim][Br], [Emim][Cl] and [MPpip][Ac]. That could be correlated with an increase in outer surface area by increasing porosity of particles or by structural changes in chitin particles.

This study investigates the influence of four imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) present in wastewater on the activated sludge process. In addition, experiments with inactivated sludge to assess the capacity of this sorbent to remove ILs from the wastewater were conducted. It occurred that the presence of ionic liquids in wastewater reduces biomass growth and size of the sludge flocs. The strongest effect has been found for IL 6 (1-hexyl-2H-3-methyl-4,5-dimethylimidazolium iodide) with the longest alkyl chain length. Also, the degree of ILs removal increases with the alkyl chain length and decreases with the increase of initial concentration of ILs in wastewater. IL 6 reaches the highest degree of ILs removal from wastewater but inhibits the biomass growth and growth of sludge flocs in a greater extent than other tested compounds. Moreover, it was confirmed that newly synthesized ionic liquids can be adsorbed onto inactivated sludge. IL 6 could be adsorbed in a higher degree than other ionic liquids. This adsorption was described by Langmuir isotherm, whereas adsorption of other ionic liquids was described by Freundlich isotherm.

A new concept of an electrostatic spray column for liquid-liquid extraction was investigated. An important problem for separation processes is the presence of azeotropic or close-boiling mixtures in their production, for example heptane with ethanol, since the separation is impossible by ordinary distillation. The use of ionic liquids (IL) as a dispersed solvent specially engineered for any specific organic mixture in terms of selectivity is a key factor to successful separation. As IL present particularly attractive combination of favorable characteristics for the separation of heptane and ethanol, in this work we use 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methyl sulfate [BMIM][MeSO4]. Because of high viscosity and relatively high cost of IL a new technique was introduced, consisting in the electrostatically spray generation to enhance the mass transport between the phases. In order to optimally design the geometry of the contactor a series of numerical simulation was performed. Especially multi-nozzle variants for better exploitation of contactor volume were investigated. Experiments showed excellent possibility of control of the dispersion characteristics by applied voltage and thus control of the rate of extraction. The preliminary simulations based on our mathematical model for a three nozzle variant exhibited visual agreement with the theory of electrostatics.

Room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are a moderately new class of liquid substances that are characterized by a great variety of possible anion-cation combinations giving each of them different properties. For this reason, they have been termed as designer solvents and, as such, they are particularly promising for liquid-liquid extraction, which has been quite intensely studied over the last decade. This paper concentrates on the recent liquid-liquid extraction studies involving ionic liquids, yet focusing strictly on the separation of n-butanol from model aqueous solutions. Such research is undertaken mainly with the intention of facilitating biological butanol production, which is usually carried out through the ABE fermentation process. So far, various sorts of RTILs have been tested for this purpose while mostly ternary liquid-liquid systems have been investigated. The industrial design of liquid-liquid extraction requires prior knowledge of the state of thermodynamic equilibrium and its relation to the process parameters. Such knowledge can be obtained by performing a series of extraction experiments and employing a certain mathematical model to approximate the equilibrium. There are at least a few models available but this paper concentrates primarily on the NRTL equation, which has proven to be one of the most accurate tools for correlating experimental equilibrium data. Thus, all the presented studies have been selected based on the accepted modeling method. The reader is also shown how the NRTL equation can be used to model liquid-liquid systems containing more than three components as it has been the authors’ recent area of expertise.

The corrosion inhibition behaviour of 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium-methanesulphonate (EMIM[MS]) and 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EMIM[Ac]) on API 5L X-52 carbon steel in 2 M HCl was investigated using weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance methods. The corrosion rates of carbon steel decreased in the presence of these ionic liquids. The inhibition efficiencies of the compounds increased with concentration and showed a marginal decrease with a 10°C increase in temperature. Polarization studies showed the compounds to be mixed type inhibitors with stronger anodic character. The adsorption mechanism of both compounds on the metal surface was via physical adsorption and the process obeyed the El-Awardy kinetic-thermodynamic model. The associated activation energy of corrosion and other thermodynamic parameters were calculated to elaborate on the thermodynamics and mechanism of the corrosion inhibition process. EMIM[MS] was found to inhibit the corrosion of carbon steel better than EMIM[Ac] and is attributed to the presence of the highly electronegative sulphur atom in its structure and its larger molecular size.

The nonlinearity parameter B/A, internal pressure, and acoustic impedance are calculated for a room temperature ionic liquid, i.e. for 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide for temperatures from (288.15 to 318.15) K and pressures up to 100 MPa. The B/A calculations are made by means of a thermodynamic method. The decrease of B/A values with the increasing pressure is observed. At the same time B/A is temperature independent in the range studied. The results are compared with corresponding data for organic molecular liquids. The isotherms of internal pressure cross at pressure in the vicinity of 70 MPa, i.e. in this range the internal pressure is temperature independent.

Liquid-liquid extraction provides an environmentally friendly process as an alternative to azeotropic distillation, pervaporation and reverse osmosis because these techniques require the use of large amounts of energy, may involve volatile organic compounds, and operation at high pressure.

Ionic liquids (ILs) continue to gain wide recognition as potential environmentally friendly solvents due to their unique properties. However due to their current high cost, their use in industry is seriously limited without an efficient methodology for recovery and recycle.

In this paper we describe an innovative methodology for a liquid-liquid extraction process based on an electrically induced emulsion of an ionic liquid as the extracting solvent dispersed in an organic mixture. This offers a most efficient exploitation of the solvent. On the other hand we present our own design of a pilot (semi-industrial) scale extractor based on this methodology and which demonstrates effective recovery of the ionic liquid. In order to achieve this goal we used a numerical modelling tool implemented using our own simulation software based on the finite element method. We also used our original previous experience with generating and investigating liquid-liquid electrosprays using phase Doppler anemometry. Finally we present recommendations for contactor geometry and for the preferred operating conditions for the extractor.

Thermodynamic principles for the dissolution of gases in ionic liquids (ILs) and the COSMO-SAC model are presented. Extensive experimental data of Henry’s law constants for CO2, N2 and O2 in ionic liquids at temperatures of 280-363 K are compared with numerical predictions to evaluate the accuracy of the COSMO-SAC model. It is found that Henry’s law constants for CO2 are predicted with an average relative deviation of 13%. Both numerical predictions and experimental data reveal that the solubility of carbon dioxide in ILs increases with an increase in the molar mass of ionic liquids, and is visibly more affected by the anion than by the cation. The calculations also show that the highest solubilities are obtained for [Tf2N]ˉ. Thus, the model can be regarded as a useful tool for the screening of ILs that offer the most favourable CO2 solubilities. The predictions of the COSMOSAC model for N2 and O2 in ILs differ from the pertinent experimental data. In its present form the COSMO-SAC model is not suitable for the estimation of N2 and O2 solubilities in ionic liquids.