Liquid yield from juniper and mesquite bio‐fuel gasification

Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and redberry juniper (Juniperus pinchotii) are two woody species which dominate uncultivated lands in the south central Great Plains, USA (Texas, Oklahoma) and may have potential for bioenergy utilization. In this study, these two biomasses were gasified in an adiabatic, updraft fixed‐bed gasifier using air as medium. The products include low heating value gas and liquid tar yield. The effects of fuel moisture content and the equivalence ratio (ER) on liquid yields including heavy tar and light tar and higher heating value (HHV) of the producer gas were investigated. It was found that updraft gasifiers produce a large amount of tar, in a range of 100 g/Nm³ of gas produced. As the equivalence ratio (ER) increased (i.e. more rich char conditions), peak temperature (T_peak) within the bed decreased due to the lesser partial oxidization. The liquid yield showed peak value with change in moisture content between 6 and 24%. Heavy tar is a very high quality fuel with a higher heating value of over 29 MJ/kg on a dry, ash‐free (DAF) basis which is a slightly higher than that of ethanol. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simplified method for optimal design of solar water heating systems based on life-cycle energy analysis

Significant energy mismatch exists in solar water heating systems as the time and amount of solar energy supply are usually different from that of hot water demand. Using a hot water storage tank can reduce or eliminate such mismatch in short term while it is difficult to avoid this mismatch in long term. In many optimal design and life-cycle analysis methods, the energy mismatch is ignored which causes the system performance to be overestimated and also misleads the optimal design of the system. This paper presents a simplified method for optimizing the key parameters of solar water heating systems based on life-cycle energy analysis. This optimal method considering the energy mismatch phenomenon can be implemented through two steps. In the first step, a simplified energy model based hourly energy matching different components of the system, is developed for determining the operating performance of system with different solar collector areas and water storage volumes. In the second step, the law of diminishing marginal utility is employed to determine the optimum size of the system. The optimum size is identified when the maximal life-cycle net energy saving is achieved. A case study on the application of the proposed method in a building is presented as well.     

Aflatoxin contamination and exposure in processed cereal-based complementary foods for infants and young children in greater Accra,Ghana

In the study, aflatoxin levels were assessed in thirty five (35) cereal-based food products intended for infants and young children. Additionally, the results showed that 71% of the processed foods intended for infants contained AFB₁ (0.18 ± 0.01 to 36.10 ± 0.32 μgkg⁻¹) levels higher than the European Union permissible limits of 0.1 μg kg⁻¹. Aflatoxin intake was estimated using aflatoxin levels in the food products and the estimated individual consumption rates. The study also revealed mixed cereals as having the highest intake of aflatoxin B₁ contaminants (0.005–0.852 μgkg⁻¹bw d⁻¹; 0.004–0.657 μgkg⁻¹bwd⁻¹) with mean estimated daily intake (EDI) of 0.23 ± 0.16 μgkg⁻¹bwd⁻¹ and 0.153 ± 0.13 μgkg⁻¹bwd⁻¹ for infants and young children respectively. The estimated AFT intake recorded for infants and young children for all the cereal-based food ranged from 0.005 to 1.054 μgkg⁻¹bwd⁻¹ and 0.004–0.838 μgkg⁻¹bwd⁻¹ respectively.     

高速钢轧辊表面氧化膜研究

借助Gleeble 3500模拟机模拟了高速钢轧辊服役时表面工作层温度的升高,得到了循环加热冷却30次、50次及100次后试样表面的氧化膜。为对比分析,对高铬铸铁轧辊进行了循环50次的试验。利用扫描电子显微镜、X射线衍射分析仪、原子力显微镜对循环氧化后的试样表面氧化产物及其形貌进行了分析。结果表明:随着循环次数增加,高速钢轧辊氧化程度加剧,氧化膜更加致密;同样循环次数下,高铬铸铁轧辊氧化程度要比高速钢严重且氧化膜的粗糙度也大于高速钢。     

Microwave-enhanced hydrolysis of poultry feather to produce amino acid

Poultry feather was hydrolyzed at relatively mild high temperature ranging from 433 to 473 K and autogenous pressure by intensification of microwave heating. The hydrolysate mainly contains arginine, alanine, threonine, glycine, praline, serine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, cystine and tyrosine, which corresponds with hydrochloric acid catalytic hydrolysis. Based on the orthogonal experimental result, the total yield of amino acid attains about 54.72% with feather containing about 71.83% keratin at optimum reaction condition of temperature 473 K, time 20 min and weight ratio of water/feather 37.5. The high yield of amino acid and high efficiency of hydrolysis indicate that the microwave has better intensification on hydrolysis comparing with traditional strong acid catalytic or sub-critical hydrolysis. The apparent activation energies (E_a) are 85.12 and 63.00 kJ/mol as to the hydrolysis of feather and the degradation of produced amino acid with consecutive pseudo-first-order reaction kinetic model, and the great decrease of the values comparing with non-microwave heating should be the reason of the enhanced effect of microwave.     

真空热处理炉布料矩阵优化仿真分析

为了获得更高的加热效率和更好的温度均匀性,采用有限元软件建立了真空热处理炉加热过程仿真模型,并耦合PID算法用于温度控制。通过与实测温度对比,验证了仿真模型的准确性。借助该模型,模拟研究了布料矩阵对两种典型形状零件在真空热处理炉内加热特性的影响。模拟装炉时基于零件几何形状特征,对圆棒形工件采用顺排、叉排和环形排列3种形式,对圆盘形工件采用横排式和竖排式。研究结果表明:尽管零件形状和数量相同,但是随着布料矩阵的变化,加热效率和温度均匀性都会改变。对于圆棒形工件,采用环形排列不仅可以提高内部工件的加热速率,而且相较于叉排式可以将最大温差减小36 ℃;对于圆盘形工件,由水平式改为竖直式布料可以将最大温差由248 ℃减小至171 ℃。     

Ice aluminum debonding with induction heating#

The strong ice bonding to solid surfaces makes deicing such surfaces a challenging task. In this study, a heat flux will be induced into the interlayer of the ice and in this case aluminum. With a high heat flux it is possible to obtain a small liquid layer between the ice and the aluminum. In metallic materials the heat flux can be induced with an electromagnetic field via induction heating. The thickness of the heated metal layer depends on the frequency applied for the induction heating. High frequencies result in very thin layers of metal heated and hence represent an energy efficient method for de-icing the metal surface. The reduction of the energy consumption for deicing is the main goal. One application is the ice removal in ice slurry generators in this study. Compared to ice removal (scraped surface ice slurry generators) induction heating deicing offers energy and maintenance saving potential.     

钢轨交流闪光焊接过程过梁爆破特征分析

以高速摄影技术作为主要研究手段，研究钢轨交流闪光焊接过程过梁爆破特征，并结合热成像系统采集焊接过程温度场，以此为数据基础定量分析了钢轨交流闪光焊接过梁爆破特征. 结果表明,钢轨交流脉动闪光焊接工艺模式下，加速闪光阶段具有几个阶段中最高的闪光频次46.93次/s，脉动闪光阶段具有最低的闪光频次11.07次/s；连续闪光阶段闪光烈度为0.009 2 mm/次，是几个阶段中最强的，脉动阶段的闪光烈度最弱，为0.003 8 mm/次；从闪光加热因子来看，脉动阶段最高，符合了该阶段积累热量的主要目的；加速闪光阶段最低，是由于该阶段为了制造保护气氛产生的气化过梁带走了较多的热量；从闪光均匀度看，闪光最不均匀的阶段是闪平阶段，最均匀的阶段是脉动阶段，这恰恰说明了两待焊端面的微观平行情况在闪平阶段最差、脉动阶段最佳.     

Effects of Newtonian heating and thermal radiation on micropolar ferrofluid flow past a stretching surface: Spectral quasi‐linearization method

This study article addressesthe flow and heat transfer characteristics of a magnetite Fe₃O₄ micropolar ferrofluid flow past a stretching sheet. For practical interest, thermal radiation, Newtonian heating, and a heat source or sink are considered in this investigation. A useful Tiwari‐Das nanofluid model is considered to analyze the microstructure and inertial characteristics of the water‐based nanofluids containing iron oxide. The dimensionless nonlinear ordinary differential equations are solved by employing suitable similarity variables. The resulting nonlinear system is solved by the spectral quasi‐linearization method. The effects of different nondimensional parameters on various profiles are shown graphically and explored in detail. It is found that the micropolar ferrofluid exhibits a higher energy distribution than that of a classical micropolar fluid. Compared to the classical micropolar liquid, local skin‐friction is more significant for the micropolar magnetite ferrofluid. In the presence of Newtonian heating, the thermal behavior of the micropolar nanofluid is remarkably better than that of the classical micropolar fluid.     

Actions of viscous dissipation and Ohmic heating on bidirectional flow of a magneto-Prandtl nanofluid with prescribed heat and mass fluxes

The present contribution determines the impacts of viscous dissipation and Ohmic heating with magnetic coating on Prandtl nanofluid flow driven by an unsteady bidirectionally moveable surface. Random motion of nanoparticles and thermophoretic diffusion are elaborated through a two-phase nanofluid model. The novelty of the investigation is fortified by prescribed heat flux and prescribed mass flux mechanisms. The appropriate combination of variables leads to a system of strong nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The formulated nonlinear system is then tackled by an efficient numerical scheme, namely, the Keller–Box method. Nanoliquid-temperature and mass-concentration distributions are conferred through various plots with the impacts of miscellaneous-arising parameters. The rates of heat and mass transferences are also discussed through tables. The thermal states of the nanomaterial and mass concentration are reduced for incremental amounts of the unsteady factor, ratio parameter, elastic parameter, and Prandtl fluid parameter. Moreover, escalating amounts of the Brownian parameter, Eckert number, magnetic factor, and thermophoresis parameter enhances the temperature of the nanoliquid. An error analysis is also presented to predict the efficiency of the method used for the computational work.