Production of hydrogen over bimetallic Pt–Ni/δ-Al2O3: I. Indirect partial oxidation of propane

Indirect partial oxidation (IPOX) of propane was studied over bimetallic 0.2 wt.% Pt–15 wt.% Ni/δ-Al₂O₃ catalyst in the 623–743 K temperature range. The unreduced and reduced forms of the catalyst were characterized by ESEM–EDAX and X-ray diffraction (XRD). In the IPOX tests, the effects of steam to carbon ratio (S/C), carbon to oxygen ratio (C/O₂) and residence time (W/F (g_cat h/mol HC)) on the hydrogen production activity, selectivity and product distribution were studied in detail. The effect of temperature program applied (increasing from 623 to 743 K, ITP; decreasing from 743 to 623 K, DTP) during reaction was also tested. The results showed that the Pt–Ni bimetallic system has superior performance characteristics compared to the monometallic catalysts reported in literature. The reason is thought to be the utilization of the catalyst particles as micro heat exchangers during IPOX; the heat generated by Pt sites during exothermic total oxidation (TOX) being readily transferred through the catalyst particles acting as micro heat exchangers to the Ni sites, which promote endothermic steam reforming (SR). The optimal conditions were found as S/C = 3, C/O₂ = 2.70 and W/F = 0.51 g_cat h/mol HC for IPOX of propane on the basis of high hydrogen productivity and selectivity between 623 and 748 K for the experimental conditions tested. The thermo-neutral points obtained showed the sustainability of reaction in terms of energy.     

Functional polyamides. 3. Synthesis and chelating properties of a new poly(amide thioether)

Polymerization of β,β′-(ethylenedithio)dipropionitrile

1 IUPAC name: 4,7-dithiadecane dinitrile.

with formaldehyde in the presence of sulfuric acid was carried out in order to permit the synthesis of polymides containing thioether groups. The obtained poly(amide thioether)s were characterized; they coordinate mercury (II) with a high degree of selectivity.     

Mechanical and viscoelastic properties of polyethylene-based microfibrillated composites from 100% recycled resources

In this study, recycled polyethylene (rPE) based microfibrillated composites (MFCs) were developed while incorporating recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (rPET) and recycled polyamide 6 (rPA) as the reinforcing fibrillar phases at a given weight ratio of 80 wt% (rPE)/20 wt% (rPET or rPA). The blends were first melt processed using a twin-screw extruder. The extrudates were then cold stretched at a drawing ratio of 2.5 to form rPET and rPA fibrillar structures. Next, the pelletized drawn samples were injection molded at the barrel temperatures below the melting temperatures of rPET and rPA. The tensile, three-point bending, impact strength, dynamic thermomechanical, and rheological properties of the fabricated MFCs were analyzed. The effects of injection molding barrel temperature (i.e., 150°C and 190°C) and extrusion melt processing temperature (i.e., 250°C and 275°C) on the generated fibrillar structure and the resultant properties were explored. A strong correlation between the fibrillar morphology and the mechanical properties with the extrusion and injection molding temperatures was observed. Moreover, the ethylene/n-butyl acrylate/glycidyl methacrylate (EnBAGMA) terpolymer and maleic anhydride grafted PE (MAH-g-PE) were, respectively, melt processed with rPE/rPET and rPE/rPA6 blends as compatibilizers. The compatibilizers refined the fibrillar structure and remarkably influenced mechanical properties, specifically the impact strength.     

Performance evaluation of a submerged membrane bioreactor for the treatment of brackish oil and natural gas field produced water

Produced water, which is co-produced during oil and gas manufacturing, represents one of the largest sources of oily wastewaters. Therefore, treatment of this produced water may improve the economic viability and lead to a new source of water for beneficial use. In this study a submerged hollow fiber membrane bioreactor (MBR) has been studied experimentally for the treatment of brackish oil and natural gas field produced water. This type of wastewater is also characterized with relatively moderate to high amount of salt, oil and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). However, the bacteria which are growing in conventional activated sludge and MBR cannot survive at these strict conditions, therefore acclimation of the bacteria is of vital importance. The performance of the biological system, membrane permeability, the rate and extent of TPH biodegradability have been investigated under different sludge age and F/M ratios. The results obtained by gas chromatography analyses showed that the MBR system could be very effective in the removal of TPH from produced water and a significant improvement in the effluent quality was achieved.     

Extending the information delivery manual approach to identify information requirements for performance analysis of HVAC systems

Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems account for more than 15% of the total energy consumption in the US. In order to improve the energy efficiency of HVAC systems, researchers have developed hundreds of algorithms to automatically analyze their performance. However, the complex information, such as configurations of HVAC systems, layouts and materials of building elements and dynamic data from the control systems, required by these algorithms inhibits the process of deploying them in real-world facilities. To address this challenge, we envision a framework that automatically integrates the required information items and provides them to the performance analysis algorithms for HVAC systems. This paper presents an approach to identify and document the information requirements from the publications that describe these algorithms. We extend the Information Delivery Manual (IDM) approach so that the identified information requirements can be mapped to multiple information sources that use various formats and schemas. This paper presents the extensions to the IDM approach and the results of using it to identify information requirements for performance analysis algorithms of HVAC systems.     

The electrical and dielectric characterization of the Co/ZnO-Rods/p-Si heterostructure depending on the frequency

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Zinc oxide (ZnO) rods film was fabricated by homemade and simple spray pyrolysis technique on a p-type silicon (Si) substrate, and the film...     

Different approaches to synthesize carnosine selective imprinted polymers

Selective recognition of proteins by synthetic molecularly imprinted polymers is one of the interesting topics in biosciences. Carnosine (β-alanyl-l-histidine) and related histidine containing peptides are distributed in a wide range of tissues in vertebrate organisms. These peptides have been extensively studied because of their important physiological properties besides their metal chelation property. In this study, preparation of carnosine specific imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the recognition of imidazole containing peptides with and without copper ion is reported. Carnosine and copper–carnosine complex were employed as template molecules where 4-vinylpyridine and ethylenglycol dimethacrylate were chosen as monomer and crosslinker, respectively. The selectivity and binding studies of copper–carnosine imprinted polymer showed high selectivity toward both carnosine (template peptide) and the cupric ion. The selectivity of copper–carnosine imprinted polymer was 65% and carnosine imprinted polymer was approximately 40%. These results indicate that specific recognition of carnosine is depending on the basis of metal coordination     

Catalytic effect of potassium carbonate on carbothermic production of hexagonal boron nitride

Effect of potassium carbonate addition on the carbothermic formation of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) was investigated by keeping the K₂CO₃ added B₂O₃+C mixtures in nitrogen atmosphere at 1400 °C for 40–160 min. K₂CO₃ amount was varied in the range of 10–60 wt% of the B₂O₃+C mixture. Products were subjected to XRD and quantitative analyses, SEM and TEM observations, and particle size measurement. Amount of hBN increased considerably with K₂CO₃ addition; also particle size and crystallinity improved. Catalytic role of K₂CO₃ was suggested as forming a potassium borate melt in which hBN particles form, in addition to carbothermic formation reaction. Effect of K₂CO₃ on increasing the hBN amount decreased when it was used over 40%. This was attributed to the rapid evaporation of the formed potassium borate liquid.     

WCOT: A utility based lifetime metric for wireless sensor networks

Network lifetime is a novel performance metric which is derived in need to evaluate the networks that are composed of nodes with non-replenishable energy sources. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are the primary examples of such networks, in which elongating the network lifetime is the main concern. Optimal WSN design is highly dependent on the application scenario context. Correct quantification of the application specific network lifetime is a must to further optimize the design or to comparatively evaluate the proposed schemes – e.g. a legacy layered design vs. a cross-layer implementation. However, in practice, we observe that the focus is given on proposing sophisticated schemes to increase the energy efficiency, whereas only rudimentary lifetime metrics are employed to evaluate the outcome of this effort which compromises the correctness of the results. To realistically and correctly quantify the lifetime, we propose a utility based lifetime measurement framework called Weighted Cumulative Operational Time (WCOT). WCOT lets users incorporate the application dependence into the lifetime metric through its utility based interface. WCOT performs a weighted summation of time where utility values are the weights. With this mechanism, a more representative lifetime metric which maps the complete network behavior into a numeric value is obtained. This is in contrast with metrics which focus solely on certain milestones of the network functionality to quantify the lifetime which include the first node death, the last node death.