Public perceptions on artificial intelligence driven disaster management: Evidence from Sydney,Melbourne and Brisbane

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) is being increasingly utilised in disaster management activities. The public is engaged with AI in various ways in these activities. For instance, crowdsourcing applications developed for disaster management to handle the tasks of collecting data through social media platforms, and increasing disaster awareness through serious gaming applications. Nonetheless, there are limited empirical investigations and understanding on public perceptions concerning AI for disaster management. Bridging this knowledge gap is the justification for this paper. The methodological approach adopted involved: Initially, collecting data through an online survey from residents (n = 605) of three major Australian cities; Then, analysis of the data using statistical modelling. The analysis results revealed that: (a) Younger generations have a greater appreciation of opportunities created by AI-driven applications for disaster management; (b) People with tertiary education have a greater understanding of the benefits of AI in managing the pre- and post-disaster phases, and; (c) Public sector administrative and safety workers, who play a vital role in managing disasters, place a greater value on the contributions by AI in disaster management. The study advocates relevant authorities to consider public perceptions in their efforts in integrating AI in disaster management.     

生物质基喷气燃料的生产及应用进展

生物质基喷气燃料是指全部或大部分来源于生物资源的喷气燃料，符合清洁低碳、安全高效的现代能源体系的要求。以生物质基喷气燃料替代传统石油基喷气燃料有助于我国早日实现“碳达峰、碳中和”的远大目标。在阐述生物质基喷气燃料生产工艺的发展历程及生物质基喷气燃料应用现状的基础上，提出高密度的生物质基喷气燃料是未来喷气燃料的发展方向，具有多环结构的生物质是合成高密度生物质基喷气燃料组分的优质原料；同时，总结了高密度生物质基喷气燃料组分生产工艺的研究进展，展望了生物质基喷气燃料未来的发展及挑战。     

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.     

Hydrodynamics study of a fast liquid–liquid oxidation process with in situ gas production in microreactors

Hydrodynamics characteristics of a fast and highly exothermic liquid–liquid oxidation process with in situ gas production in microreactors were studied using a newly developed experimental method. In the adipic acid synthesis through the K/A oil (the mixture of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone) oxidation with nitric acid, bubble generation modes were divided into four categories. The gas production became more intensive, unstable, even explosive with increasing the oil phase feed rate and the temperature. A novel automatic image processing method was developed to monitor the instantaneous velocity online by tracking the gas–liquid interface. The axial velocity at the same location was unstable due to the changing gas production rate. Furthermore, the actual residence time was obtained easily with being only 36% of the space–time minimally, beneficial for establishing accurate kinetics and mass transfer models with time participation. Finally, an empirical correlation was developed to predict the actual residence time under different conditions.     

Techno-economic analysis of a hybrid energy system for CCHP and hydrogen production based on solar energy

A typical problem in Northeast China is that a large amount of surplus electricity has arisen owing to the serious photovoltaic power curtailment phenomenon. To effectively utilize the excess photovoltaic power, a hybrid energy system is proposed that uses surplus electricity to produce hydrogen in this paper. It combines solar energy, hydrogen production system, and Combined Cooling Heating and Power (CCHP) system to realize cooling, heating, power, and hydrogen generation. The system supplies energy for three public buildings in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, and the system configuration with the lowest unit energy cost (0.0615$/kWh) was obtained via optimization. Two comparison strategies were used to evaluate the hybrid energy system in terms of unit energy cost, annual total cost, fossil energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Subsequently, the annual total energy supply, typical daily loads, and cost of the optimized system were analyzed. In conclusion, the system is feasible for small area public buildings, and provides a solution to solve the phenomenon of photovoltaic power curtailment.     

Hydrogen production by supercritical water gasification of lignin over CuO–ZnO catalyst synthesized with different methods

In this study, lignin was gasified in supercritical water with catalysis of CuO–ZnO synthesized by deposition precipitation, co-precipitation and sol-gel methods. Sol-gel synthesized CuO–ZnO showed the highest catalytic performance, and the gasification efficiency was increased by 37.92% with it. The XRD, SEM-EDS and N₂ adsorption/desorption analysis showed that the priority of the sol-gel catalyst was the smallest crystallite size, largest specific surface area and high dispersion. For sol-gel synthesized CuO–ZnO, the increase of CuO/ZnO ratio improved the gasification efficiency but reduced H₂ selectivity. And the catalytic activity was reduced with the calcination temperature above 600 °C due to enlarged crystallites and reduced pores. During sol-gel preparation, both the addition of ethanol and PEG in the solvent reduced the agglomeration and improved the catalytic activity. With CuO–ZnO prepared with 1 g PEG + water as the solvent, the highest H₂ yield of 6.86 mol/kg was obtained, which was over 1.5 times of that without catalyst.     

A columnar regular-porous stainless steel reaction support with high superficial area for hydrogen production

To improve hydrogen production (HP) performance of regular-porous structure (RPS), a columnar RPS with small specific surface area and high superficial area is developed. A numerical simulation model of regular-porous stainless steel structure (RPSSS) is established. Subsequently, heat transfer performance, pressure loss, temperature, methanol concentration, H₂ concentration distributions and HP performance of the columnar RPSSS with small specific surface area and high superficial area and the body-centered cubic RPSSS with high specific surface area and small superficial area are compared. Then, temperature, methanol concentration, H₂ concentration distributions and HP performance of axial and longitudinal size-enlarged columnar RPSSSs are studied. The results show that compared to the body-centered cubic RPSSS, the columnar RPSSS has higher methanol conversion, larger H₂ flow rate and higher CO selectivity. Especially in the condition of 300 °C wall temperature and 12 mL/h methanol-water mixture injection rate (MWMIR), the methanol conversion, H₂ flow rate and CO selectivity of the columnar RPSSS are increased by 12.3%, 9.24% and 30%, respectively, indicating that the superficial area of RPSSS is more important for its HP performance compared to its specific surface area. Compared to the longitudinal size-enlarged columnar RPSSS, the axial size-enlarged columnar RPSSS has higher methanol conversion, larger H₂ flow rate and higher CO selectivity. This research work provides a new method for the optimization of hydrogen production reaction support (HPRS).     

Statistical optimization of operating parameters of microbial electrolysis cell treating dairy industry wastewater using quadratic model to enhance energy generation

The performance of Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) is affected by several operating conditions. Therefore, in the present study, an optimization study was done to determine the working efficiency of MEC in terms of COD (chemical oxygen demand) removal, hydrogen and current generation. Optimization was carried out using a quadratic mathematical model of response surface methodology (RSM). Thirteen sets of experimental runs were performed to optimize the applied voltage and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of single chambered batch fed MEC operated with dairy industry wastewater. The operating conditions (i.e) an applied voltage of 0.8 V and HRT of 2 days that showed a maximum COD removal response was chosen for further studies. The MEC operated at optimized condition (HRT- 2 days and applied voltage- 0.8 V) showed a COD removal efficiency of 95 ± 2%, hydrogen generation of 32 ± 5 mL/L/d, Power density of 152 mW/cm² and current generation of 19 mA. The results of the study implied that RSM, with its high degree of accuracy can be a reliable tool for optimizing the process of wastewater treatment. Also, dairy industry wastewater can be considered to be a potential source to generate hydrogen and energy through MEC at short HRT.     

Study on power generation and Congo red decolorization of 3D conductive PPy-CNT hydrogel in bioelectrochemical system

In this paper, a polypyrrole-carbon nanotube hydrogel (PPy-CNT) with 3D macroporous structure was prepared by secondary growth method. This self-supporting material with good conductivity and biocompatibility can be directly used as anode in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). The prepared material had a uniform structure with rich 3D porosity and showed good water retention performance. The effect of the mass ratio of PPy and CNT in the hydrogel were also investigated to evaluate the electrical performance of MFC. The MFC with 10:1 PPy-CNT hydrogel anode could reached the maximum power density of 3660.25 mW/m3 and the minimal electrochemical reaction impedance of anode was 5.06 Ω. The effects of Congo red concentration, external resistance and suspended activated sludge on decolorazation and electricity generation were also investigated in the MFC with the best performance hydrogel. When the Congo red concentration was 50 mg/L and the external resistance was 200 Ω, the dye decolorization rate and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal rate could reach 94.35% and 42.31% at 48h while the output voltage of MFC was 480 mV. When activated sludge was present, the decolorization rate and COD removal rate could be increased to 99.55% and 48.08% at 48 h. The above results showed that the porous hydrogel anode had broad application prospects in synchronous wastewater treatment and electricity production of MFC.     

Hydrogen production via ammonia decomposition catalyzed by Ni/M–Mo–N (M = Ni,Co) bimetallic nitrides

This study demonstrates the significant improvement in NH₃ decomposition using Ni-decorated M–Mo–N-based catalysts (M = Co and Ni) compared with conventional catalysts. Catalysts are prepared using a mixture of the corresponding metal salts and hexamethylenetetramine, and the impregnation method is used to decorate the Ni-particles on the catalysts. Among all the samples, 10 wt% Ni-decorated Co₃Mo₃N exhibits the highest NH₃ conversion rate (71%) at 500 °C, and the performance remains stable for 30 h of long-term testing. According to the gas chromatography measurements, the H₂/N₂ ratio is approximately 3 in all cases, which is consistent with the theoretical value. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results show that Co₃Mo₃N possesses the highest NH₃ conversion efficiency because of the weaker binding energy of Mo–N. Furthermore, Co₃Mo₃N exhibits a stronger Lewis acidity and higher NH₃ decomposition, which is attributed to the easy breaking of the N–H bond on the Co₃Mo₃N surface.