Highly Stable COF‐Supported Co/Co(OH)2 Nanoparticles Heterogeneous Catalyst for Reduction of Nitrile/Nitro Compounds under Mild Conditions

Ordered nanoporosity in covalent organic framework (COF) offers excellent opportunity for property development. Loading nanoparticles (nPs) onto them is one approach to introducing tailor‐made properties into a COF. Here, a COF–Co/Co(OH)₂ composite containing about 16 wt% of <6 nm sized Co/Co(OH)₂ nPs is prepared on a N‐rich COF support that catalyzes the release of theoretical equivalence of H₂ from readily available, safe, and cheap NaBH₄. Furthermore, the released H₂ is utilized for the hydrogenation of nitrile and nitro compounds to amines under ambient conditions in a facile one‐pot reaction. The COF “by choice” is built from “methoxy” functionalized dialdehydes which is crucial in enabling the complete retention of the COF structure under the conditions of the catalysis, where the regular Schiff bonds would have hydrolyzed. The N‐rich binding pockets in the COF ensure strong nP–COF interactions, which provides stability and enables catalyst recycling. Modeling studies reveal the crucial role played by the COF in exposing the active facets and thereby in controlling the activation of the reducing agent. Additionally, via density functional theory, we provide a rational explanation for how these COFs can stabilize nanoparticles which grow beyond the limiting pore size of the COF and yet result in a truly stable heterogeneous catalyst – a ubiquitous observation. The study underscores the versatility of COF as a heterogeneous support for developing cheap and highly active nonnoble metal catalysts.     

某钒钛磁铁精矿深度还原-磁选试验研究

以河北承德某铁品位为61.08%，TiO2品位为7.66%的钒钛磁铁精矿为研究对象，进行了钒钛磁铁精矿深度还原-磁选试验研究。考察了还原温度、还原时间、C/O摩尔比、CaCO3添加量对还原产物和分选指标的影响。在还原温度为1350℃、还原时间120min、C/O摩尔比2.5、CaCO3添加量为16%、磁选场强为85mT的条件下，可以得到全铁品位为87.19%、铁回收率为82.62%的磁性产品和TiO2品位18.76%、TiO2回收率为79.40%非磁性产品。由还原产物的金属化率与XRD分析得知，钛磁铁矿向铁氧化物、钛氧化物和金属铁的转化较难发生，适当增加CaCO3的用量，能促进钛磁铁矿向CaTiO3、铁氧化物和金属铁的转化。      

循环水替代7℃水在氯乙烯精馏装置中的应用研究

详细计算了PVC生产精馏系统换热设备的热负荷、循环水量及运行成本,认为通过调整系统的运行温度和压力,精馏装置使用循环水替代7℃水具有可行性,这将有利于突破能耗高的技术瓶颈,最大程度地发挥节能降耗、减污增效的潜能。     

An integrated dimensionality reduction and surrogate optimization approach for plant-wide chemical process operation

With liquefied natural gas becoming increasingly prevalent as a flexible source of energy, the design and optimization of industrial refrigeration cycles becomes even more important. In this article, we propose an integrated surrogate modeling and optimization framework to model and optimize the complex CryoMan Cascade refrigeration cycle. Dimensionality reduction techniques are used to reduce the large number of process decision variables which are subsequently supplied to an array of Gaussian processes, modeling both the process objective as well as feasibility constraints. Through iterative resampling of the rigorous model, this data-driven surrogate is continually refined and subsequently optimized. This approach was not only able to improve on the results of directly optimizing the process flow sheet but also located the set of optimal operating conditions in only 2 h as opposed to the original 3 weeks, facilitating its use in the operational optimization and enhanced process design of large-scale industrial chemical systems.     

Preparation of iron and nitrogen co-doped carbon material Fe/N-CCM-T for oxygen reduction reaction

In this paper, iron and nitrogen co-doped carbon material with nanotube structure (Fe/N-C_CM-T) was synthesized by pyrolyzing a mixture of Fe salt, chitosan and melamine and displayed high electrocatalytic performance for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The structure of the Fe/N-C_CM-T was characterized and their ORR performance in alkaline media was investigated by linear sweep voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. Fe/N-C_CM-T displayed better ORR performance than other carbon materials like Fe/N-C_C-800. The Fe/N-C_CM-800 with a large surface area (302.5 m²/g) especially exhibited the best ORR electrocatalytic performance among the prepared carbon materials, which was also proved by its similar Tafel slope (76 mV decade^?1) to Pt/C catalyst (74 mV decade^?1). Fe/N-C_CM-800 showed similar ORR activity as commercial Pt/C catalyst, but superior tolerance to methanol and stability. Such high ORR performance of the Fe/N-C_CM-T can be attributed to its nanotube structure, high specific surface area (SSA), high graphitic-N and pyridinic-N contents.     

Process parameter dependencies of continuous and pulsed laser modes on surface polishing of additive manufactured aluminium AlSi10Mg parts

Laser powder bed fusion is a well-established 3D printing technique for metal alloys, but exhibits a poor surface quality. Laser polishing provides the possibility of a fast contact-free and fully-automatable surface treatment. This paper deals with the experimental investigation of laser polishing of laser powder bed fusion parts made of aluminium AlSi10Mg. Laser polishing is done with a 4 kW solid state disc laser in combination with a multi-axis system and a one dimensional scanner optic. The laser is operated at continuous and pulsed operation mode. The parameter study reveals a high dependency of the achievable roughness on the laser beam intensity, the track and pulse overlap, the energy density and the number of polishing passes and polishing directions. Pulsed laser polishing mode with up to four passes from different directions revealed the lowest surface roughness of 0.14 μm Ra. With respect to the initial average surface roughness of Ra = 8.03 μm a reduction of the surface roughness of greater than 98 % could be achieved. Polishing with continuous laser radiation at one polishing pass resulted in Ra = 0.23 μm at an area rate of 20 cm²/min. Laser polishing using four passes achieved a further improvement up to Ra = 0.14 μm.     

Invited review: Potential antiobesity effect of fermented dairy products

The growing prevalence of obesity affects millions of people around the world and has gained increased attention over the years because it is associated with the development of other chronic degenerative diseases. Different organizations recommend lifestyle changes to treat obesity; nevertheless, other strategies in addition to lifestyle changes have recently been suggested. One of these strategies is the use of probiotics in fermented dairy products; however, a need exists to review the different studies available related to the potential antiobesity effect of these products. Because probiotic fermented dairy products that support weight management are not available in the market, there is a great opportunity for the development of functional dairy products with new lactic acid bacteria that may present this added health benefit. Thus, the purpose of this overview is to highlight the importance of probiotic fermented dairy products as potential antiobesogenic functional foods and present in vitro and in vivo studies required before this kind of product may be introduced to the market. Overall, most studies attributed the antiobesity effect of fermented dairy foods to the probiotic strains present; however, bioactive peptides released during milk fermentation may also be responsible for this effect.     

Perovskite ceramic oxide as an efficient electrocatalyst for nitrogen fixation

The electrochemical conversion of N₂ to NH₃ is an interesting research topic as it provided an alternative and energy-saving method compared with the traditional way of NH₃ production. Although different materials have been proposed for N₂ reduction, the use of defects in oxides was only reported recently and the relevant working mechanism was not fully revealed. In this study, Sr was used as the dopant for LaFeO₃ to create oxygen vacancies, forming the Sr-doped LFO (La_0.5Sr_0.5FeO_3-δ) perovskite oxide. The La_0.5Sr_0.5FeO_3-δ ceramic oxide used as a catalyst achieves an NH₃ yield of 11.51 μgh^?1 mg^?1 and the desirable faradic efficiency (F.E.) of 0.54% at ?0.6 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), which surpassed that of LaFeO₃ nanoparticles. The ¹⁵N isotope labeling method was employed to prove the La_0.5Sr_0.5FeO_3-δ catalyst had the function of converting N₂ into NH₃ under the electrolysis condition. The first principle calculations were used to investigate the mechanism at the atomistic level, revealing that the free energy barriers changed significantly with the introduction of oxygen vacancies that accelerated the overall nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) procedure.     

A machine learning‐based operational control framework for reducing energy consumption of an amine‐based gas sweetening process

This study proposes a data‐driven operational control framework using machine learning‐based predictive modeling with the aim of decreasing the energy consumption of a natural gas sweetening process. This multi‐stage framework is composed of the following steps: (a) a clustering algorithm based on Density‐Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise methodology is implemented to characterize the sampling space of all possible states of the operation and to determine the operational modes of the gas sweetening unit, (b) the lowest steam consumption of each operational mode is selected as a reference for operational control of the gas sweetening process, and (c) a number of high‐accuracy regression models are developed using the Gradient Boosting Machines algorithm for predicting the controlled parameters and output variables. This framework presents an operational control strategy that provides actionable insights about the energy performance of the current operations of the unit and also suggests the potential of energy saving for gas treating plant operators. The ultimate goal is to leverage this data‐driven strategy in order to identify the achievable energy conservation opportunity in such plants. The dataset for this research study consists of 29 817 records that were sampled over the course of 3 years from a gas train in the South Pars Gas Complex. Furthermore, our offline analysis demonstrates that there is a potential of 8% energy saving, equivalent to 5 760 000 Nm³ of natural gas consumption reduction, which can be achieved by mapping the steam consumption states of the unit to the best energy performances predicted by the proposed framework.