Located in Tiantai County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, along the eastern coast of China, Huaji Environmental Protection is an international company specializing in the production of high-temperature filter materials and dust filter bags.
On August 10th, the NJTech-China-A team visited Huaji Environmental Protection and had an in-depth exchange with Liu Xia, seeking advice on industrial knowledge related to filter fabrics and their production and sales. Through our discussions, we discovered that their concept of environmental protection aligns well with our team's use of filter fabrics and activated carbon for adsorption. We also learned that the lifespan of filter fabrics can be vary, with some lasting up to three years, but typically around one year. Additionally, China spends billions of yuan each year to handle filter bags. These relatively short lifespan and high disposal filter costs further emphasize the necessity for our team's research on the degradation of filter fabrics and the market demand for cost-effective methods of treatment. Surprisingly, we found that polyester filter fabrics had the lowest price but the highest production and sales volume among their products.
During this exchange, we gained a better understanding of the current production and sales situation in the filter fabric market, as well as the demand for filter fabric degradation. This has provided us with further insights and a clearer plan for our project.
In order to understand the production process and market conditions of filter cloth, the HP group of NJTech-China-A team visited the Filter Cloth Innovation Research and Development Center in the industrial park of Jiangbei New District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.We hope we can get feedback and suggestions from the industry on our project.
As a national high-tech enterprise specializing in the research and development, production, sales and technical services of filter materials, the filter R & D center maintains a rapid development trend, not only has a number of branches in China, but also has strategic partners and agents with more than 50 countries and regions around the world such as the United States and Russia.
The director introduced that they take "filtration" as a comprehensive attitude, and can use different technical solutions according to the unique performance of different fibers and the filtration needs of customers, so as to produce personalized and cost-effective filter cloth.
Subsequently, we visited the professional filter material technology research and development center, as well as dust testing laboratory, fabric testing room and other departments. With the director's explanation, we have a deeper understanding of the production process of filter cloth. There are three stages and nine links in the whole production process of filter cloth.The first stage is cloth making, including combing, laying nets and needling. The second stage is post-treatment, including setting, chemical treatment, singeing, PTFE coating; The third stage is cutting storage, including cutting winding and packaging storage. From the rigorous filtration production process, we deeply understand the responsibility as a scientific researcher.
In addition, the director also stressed that the details of making the filter cloth are particularly important. For example, the scientific surface treatment of the filter material can effectively reduce the shrinkage in the use of cloth. Removing the surface floss can not only improve the filtration accuracy, but also enhance the high temperature resistance of the filter material, so that dust is easier to clean.
Through the investigation, we not only have a more detailed and in-depth understanding of the production process of the filter cloth, but also realize the ingenuity of the researchers in the research and development center. We will apply the knowledge learned from the research to our research projects, and establish a sense of innovation to improve and innovate the projects. With a strong sense of social responsibility, we will take concrete actions to reduce water and air pollution, continuously improve the ecological environment, and commit ourselves to global environmental protection and emission reduction.
With Dr.Zhou from Nanjing Tech University
To facilitate the smooth progress of our experiment, we established contact with Dr.Zhou, hoping that he could address our experimental issues and provide guidance. During our conversation with Dr.Zhou, we came to understand that under low voltage, concentrated gel can smoothly and uniformly run protein bands into a straight line. This greatly aids in obtaining clear results for our experiment. Additionally, the conical flask system is smaller and easier to control compared to the fermentation tank. The oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the fermentation tank are higher than those in the conical flask and other laboratory culture systems. Consequently, the bacterial culture with the signal peptide could grow normally in the conical flask, but failed to replicate the experimental results in the fermentation tank. This explains the continuous failures encountered in the experiment, prompting the researchers in the experimental group to consistently record and improve in subsequent trials. Furthermore, Dr.Zhou patiently addressed our questions and proposed measures for improving our experimental design. When optimizing the conditions for soluble expression induction, it is important to consider the structural properties of the protein itself, as well as the impact of time and temperature on induction. During the process of microbial transcription and translation, proteins fold and form spatial structures. Inducing at low temperatures can extend the time for protein folding, ensuring proper folding, but the duration of induction should not be excessively long as it may cause bacterial senescence. Regarding temperature settings,Dr.Zhou suggested implementing a temperature and time gradient for induction. Increasing the induction temperature accelerates protein folding during translation, leading to improper folding and a negative impact on induction effectiveness. The recommended concentration for the inducer is generally 0.5 mM, ensuring induction effectiveness while minimizing toxicity to the bacteria and cost. If other inducer concentrations are required in the experiment, they should be calculated separately. These suggestions have had a positive impact on improving the success rate of our experiment.
One major issue we encountered was the extremely low protein concentration after mutation and purification. Dr.Zhou suggested increasing the loading amount for SDS-PAGE and concentrating the protein sample through ultrafiltration to enhance the concentration. This approach indeed yielded notable results. As for the discrepancy between running protein gels of the supernatant, precipitate, and purified enzyme obtained from bacteria with integrated domains, and the almost invisible bands after purification,Dr.Zhou informed us about the rigorous process of running protein gels. It involves thoroughly cleaning the gel plate in advance before casting the gel, and preparing the electrophoresis solution freshly to avoid the presence of low molecular weight contaminants. This ensures that the resulting gel is clear and intact.
The above encompasses part of our discussion with Dr.Zhou. Through our conversation, we have gained new insights for improving the experimental procedure. We are grateful to Dr.Zhou for engaging in multiple discussions with us specifically addressing the experimental aspects.
