Effect of high temperature and separated combustion on SO2 release characteristics during coal combustion under O2/CO2 atmosphere

This paper studied the effect of high temperature (up to 1873K) and separated combustion mode (volatile combustion and char combustion are separated) on SO₂ release characteristics during pulverized coal combustion under O₂/CO₂ atmosphere. Coal combustion experiments were conducted at different combustion environment temperatures utilizing a high temperature fixed-bed setup. The results show that as temperature rises, the SO₂ release curve is transformed from a single-peak process to a double-peak process. In separated combustion, temperature has little effect on the volatile-SO₂ (SO₂ released during volatile combustion) but brings about a significant effect on char-SO₂ (SO₂ released during char combustion). Char-SO₂ release amount and the ratio of it to fuel-SO₂ release amount (total SO₂ released during coal combustion) increase with temperature rising. The increase of temperature leads to a dramatic decreasing of sulphur mass fixed in the ash and causes SO₂ release amount to rise when temperature is lower than 1573 K. Separated combustion causes a higher SO₂ release amount than coupled combustion (the same as conventional combustion, volatile combustion and char combustion are simultaneous). Thermochemistry equilibrium composition calculation results show that alkali metals and alkaline-earth metals are significant in sulphur retention. CaSO₄ and Na₂SO₄ are the main sulphates at high temperatures.     

中国钢化联产发展现状与前景展望

中国是一个钢铁生产大国,也是一个油气资源相对不足、煤炭资源相对丰富的国家。基于中国能源结构的实际情况,结合钢铁行业和化工行业的发展现状,讨论了钢铁生产各个工序煤气的发生与使用情况,并对钢铁流程副产煤气合成化工产品的现状与潜力进行了分析,指出了存在的问题。结合分析结果,提出了未来可再生能源廉价制氢发展达到一定阶段,钢铁联合企业可以通过“以氢固碳”实现钢铁生产大规模减少CO₂排放的目标,提升其清洁能源转化与高附加值化工产品生产的社会功能。最后,对未来中国钢化联产的发展提出了建议。     

混炼方式对螺旋纳米碳纤维增强天然橡胶复合材料力学性能的影响

采用干法和湿法两种混炼工艺制备了螺旋纳米碳纤维(HCNFs)/炭黑(CB)/天然橡胶(NR)复合材料,通过扫描电镜、拉伸试验机和应变扫描仪分别对所制备复合材料的界面形貌、力学性能和Payne效应进行了测试分析,考察了混炼方式对复合材料宏观力学性能及Payne效应的影响。结果表明,与纯CB填料相比,在干湿两种混炼方式下,添加适量的HCNFs(1～6份)能提高HCNFs/CB/NR复合材料的300%定伸应力、扯断伸长率、拉伸强度和硬度。与干法混炼相比,湿法混炼能明显增强HCNFs/CB/NR复合材料的Payne效应,并提升在HCNFs高添加量(2～6份)条件下的拉伸强度和扯断伸长率,这主要源于湿法混炼能够有效改善HCNFs在橡胶基质中的分散性。     

An Atomistic Understanding of Allosteric Inhibition of Glutamate Racemase: a Dampening of Native Activation Dynamics

Glutamate racemases (GR) are members of the family of bacterial enzymes known as cofactor-independent racemases and epimerases and catalyze the stereoinversion of glutamate. D-amino acids are universally important for the proper construction of viable bacterial cell walls, and thus have been repeatedly validated as attractive targets for novel antimicrobial drug design. Significant aspects of the mechanism of this challenging stereoinversion remain unknown. The current study employs a combination of MD and QM/MM computational approaches to show that the GR from H. pylori must proceed via a pre-activation step, which is dependent on the enzyme's flexibility. This mechanism is starkly different from previously proposed mechanisms. These findings have immediate pharmaceutical relevance, as the H. pylori GR enzyme is a very attractive allosteric drug target. The results presented in this study offer a distinctly novel understanding of how AstraZeneca's lead series of inhibitors cripple the H. pylori GR's native motions, via prevention of this critical chemical pre-activation step. Our experimental studies, using SPR, fluorescence and NMR WaterLOGSY, show that H. pylori GR is not inhibited by the uncompetitive mechanism originally put forward by Lundqvist et al.. The current study supports a deep connection between native enzyme motions and chemical reactivity, which has strong relevance to the field of allosteric drug discovery.     

Airborne bacterial assemblage in a zero carbon building: A case study

Currently, there is little information pertaining to the airborne bacterial communities of green buildings. In this case study, the air bacterial community of a zero carbon building (ZCB) in Hong Kong was characterized by targeting the bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Bacteria associated with the outdoor environment dominated the indoor airborne bacterial assemblage, with a modest contribution from bacteria associated with human skin. Differences in overall community diversity, membership, and composition associated with short (day‐to‐day) and long‐term temporal properties were detected, which may have been driven by specific environmental genera and taxa. Furthermore, time‐decay relationships in community membership (based on unweighted UniFrac distances) and composition (based on weighted UniFrac distances) differed depending on the season and sampling location. A Bayesian source‐tracking approach further supported the importance of adjacent outdoor air bacterial assemblage in sourcing the ZCB indoor bioaerosol. Despite the unique building attributes, the ZCB microbial assemblage detected and its temporal characteristics were not dissimilar to that of conventional built environments investigated previously. Future controlled experiments and microbial assemblage investigations of other ZCBs will undoubtedly uncover additional knowledge related to how airborne bacteria in green buildings may be influenced by their distinctive architectural attributes.     

Activated Carbon Supported CaO from Waste Shells as a Catalyst for Biodiesel Production

In the wake of increasing environmental constraints, this work is aimed at developing a catalyst purely prepared from waste biomass source as the raw material. The catalyst is investigated for its applicability in transesterification of vegetable oil with the objectives: (i) to use waste shells of mollusk as raw material for the preparation of activated carbon and CaO; (ii) to use it as heterogeneous catalyst in the transesterification of waste cooking oil; (iii) to optimize the different parameters affecting the transesterification reaction; and (iv) to study its reusability. Under optimized conditions it was observed that a conversion >90% was possible and the catalyst could be reused five times with a slight loss in activity. This study indicates that the biomass source could also be used as a potential raw material in the synthesis of environmentally benign catalysts.     

Stability analysis and characterization of the nano emulsified Jatropha-curcas-based bio-fuel

This work investigates the suspension duration of the nanosized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) in B20, B50 and B70 blends of Jatropha Methyl ester. The MWCNT and aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) are added to the fuel blends in the proportions of 50 and 100 pmm separately by ultra sonication. The prepared fuel samples are characterized, and turbidity analysis was done to find the stability rate of nano-additives. The outcomes reveal the maximum stability rate for MWCNT and Al₂O₃ as 83.3% and 87.03%, respectively, with 50ppm in B20 over a period of eighteen days. A considerable drop in suspension was observed with the 100 ppm MWCNT and Al₂O₃ biodiesel blends.