Oil Spill Cleanup from Sea Water by Sorbent Materials

Three sorbents were compared in order to determine their potential for oil spill cleanup. Polypropylene nonwoven web, rice hull, and bagasse with two different particle sizes were evaluated in terms of oil sorption capacities and oil recovery efficiencies. Polypropylene can sorb almost 7 to 9 times its weight from different oils. Bagasse, 18 to 45 mesh size, follows polypropylene as the second sorbent in oil spill cleanup. Bagasse, 14 to 18 mesh size, and rice hull have comparable oil sorption capacities, which are lower than those of the two former sorbents. It was found that oil viscosity plays an important role in oil sorption by sorbents. All adsorbents used in this work could remove the oil from the surface of the water preferentially.     

Design of explicit model predictive control for constrained linear systems with disturbances

On-line model predictive control approaches require the online solution of an optimization problem. In contrast, the explicit model predictive control moves major part of computation offline. Therefore, eMPC enables one to implement a MPC in real time for wide range of fast systems. The eMPC approach requires the exact system model and results a piecewise affine control law defined on a polyhedral partition in the state space. As an important limitation, disturbances may reduce performance of the explicit model predictive control. This paper presents efficient approach for handling the problem of using eMPC for constrained systems with disturbances. It proposes an approach to improve performance of the closed loop system by designing a suitable state and disturbance estimator. Conditions for observability of the disturbances are considered and it is depicted that applying the disturbance’s estimation leads to rejection of the response error. It is also shown that the proposed approach prevents the reduction of feasible space. Simulation results illustrate the advantages of this approach.     

Using hash tables to manage the time-storage complexity in a point location problem: Application to explicit model predictive control

The online computational burden of linear model predictive control (MPC) can be moved offline by using multi-parametric programming, so-called explicit MPC. The solution to the explicit MPC problem is a piecewise affine (PWA) state feedback function defined over a polyhedral subdivision of the set of feasible states. The online evaluation of such a control law needs to determine the polyhedral region in which the current state lies. This procedure is called point location; its computational complexity is challenging, and determines the minimum possible sampling time of the system. A new flexible algorithm is proposed which enables the designer to trade off between time and storage complexities. Utilizing the concept of hash tables and the associated hash functions, the proposed method solves an aggregated point location problem that overcomes prohibitive complexity growth with the number of polyhedral regions, while the storage–processing trade-off can be optimized via scaling parameters. The flexibility and power of this approach is supported by several numerical examples.     

Analytical design of optimal trajectory with dynamic load-carrying capacity for cable-suspended manipulator

This paper describes the development of an approach for trajectory planning of cable-suspended parallel robots using optimal control approach. A prototype has been built, and tests have been carried out to verify the theoretical results. This paper briefly illustrates this device and presents some initial tests. The final dynamic equations are organized in a closed form similar to serial manipulator equations. Dynamic load-carrying capacity problem is converted into a trajectory optimization problem which is fundamentally a constrained nonlinear optimization problem. The problem is formulated using optimal control theory, and the ideas are analyzed using Pontryagin’s minimum principle. The optimal solutions are found by solving the corresponding nonlinear two-point boundary value problems. The main objective is to find the manipulator load-carrying capacity in point-to-point task by considering actuator torque while cable forces are positive.     

Heavy paraffin dehydrogenation and hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline: Effects of operating conditions

Auto-thermal heat exchanger configurations are recognized as a novel concept in process intensification. In the current study, the influence of operating conditions in a novel coupling reactor with radial-flow pattern is investigated for heavy paraffin dehydrogenation process. Catalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene to aniline takes place in the exothermic side and supplies the necessary heat for the endothermic dehydrogenation of heavy paraffin reaction. The performance of the reactor is numerically investigated for various key operating variables, such as inlet molar flow rates of exothermic and endothermic streams, number of subsections, and exothermic side angle. The reactor performance is analyzed based on temperature, olefin production rate, and nitrobenzene conversion.     

CO<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>-free hydrogen and carbon nanofibers production by methane decomposition over nickel-alumina catalysts

Nickel catalysts supported on mesoporous nanocrystalline gamma alumina with various nickel loadings were prepared and employed for thermocatalytic decomposition of methane into CO _x -free hydrogen and carbon nanofibers. The prepared catalysts with different nickel contents exhibited mesoporous structure with high surface area in the range of 121.3 to 66.2m²g^?1. Increasing in nickel content decreased the pore volume and increased the crystallite size. The catalytic results revealed that the nickel content and operating temperature both play important roles on the catalytic performance of the prepared catalysts. The results showed that increasing in reaction temperature increased the initial conversion of catalysts and significantly decreased the catalyst lifetime. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of the spent catalysts evaluated at different temperatures revealed the formation of intertwined carbon filaments. The results showed that increasing in reaction temperature decreased the diameters of nanofibers and increased the formation of encapsulating carbon.     

Investigation on Microstructure,Wear Behavior and Microhardness of Al−Si/SiC Nanocomposite

Aluminum matrix nano-composites have been widely used in various fields such as aerospace, automobile, and packing industries. In this study, the effect of nano-SiC content on the microst-ructure, wear resistance and micro-hardness of Al–Si/SiC nano-composite was investigated. In this regard, Al–Si matrix was reinforced by different amounts of nano-SiC: 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 3, 5, 10 wt %. The results showed that with increasing the nano-SiC weight ratio, nano-particles are agglomerated and unsuitable sintering increases the porosity, as pores and cavities. For more than 1.5% weight ratio of nano-SiC in the matrix, the wear resistance and the micro-hardness decreased. The results of the wear test, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and worn surfaces showed that the dominant wear mechanism is controlled by nano-SiC contents. This study indicated that with adding nano-SiC particles more than the optimal content, wear resistance and micro-hardness of Al–Si/SiC nano-composite increased more than twice.     

Comparative study of adsorption properties of Turkish fly ashes. II. The case of chromium (VI) and cadmium (II)

The purpose of the study described in this paper was to compare the removal of Cr(VI) and Cd(II) from an aqueous solution using two different Turkish fly ashes; Afsin-Elbistan and Seyitomer as adsorbents. The influence of four parameters (contact time, solution pH, initial metal concentration in solution and ash quality) on the removal at 20+/-2 degrees C was studied. Fly ashes were found to have a higher adsorption capacity for the adsorption of Cd(II) as compared to Cr(VI) and both Cr(VI) and Cd(II) required an equilibrium time of 2h. The adsorption of Cr(VI) was higher at pH 4.0 for Afsin-Elbistan fly ash (25.46%) and pH 3.0 for Seyitomer fly ash (30.91%) while Cd(II) was adsorbed to a greater extent (98.43% for Afsin-Elbistan fly ash and 65.24% for Seyitomer fly ash) at pH 7.0. The adsorption of Cd(II) increased with an increase in the concentrations of these metals in solution while Cr(VI) adsorption decreased by both fly ashes. The lime (crystalline CaO) content in fly ash seemed to be a significant factor in influencing Cr(VI) and Cd(II) ions removal. The linear forms of the Langmuir and Freundlich equations were utilised for experiments with metal concentrations of 55+/-2mg/l for Cr(VI) and 6+/-0.2mg/l for Cd(II) as functions of solution pH (3.0-8.0). The adsorption of Cr(VI) on both fly ashes was not described by both the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms while Cd(II) adsorption on both fly ashes satisfied only the Langmuir isotherm model. The adsorption capacities of both fly ashes were nearly three times less than that of activated carbon for the removal of Cr(VI) while Afsin-Elbistan fly ash with high-calcium content was as effective as activated carbon for the removal of Cd(II). Therefore, there are possibilities for use the adsorption of Cd(II) ions onto fly ash with high-calcium content in practical applications in Turkey.     

Comparison between enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and cytotoxic cross-match procedures for detecting IgG anti-donor antibodies

BACKGROUND: Disadvantages inherent to complement-dependent cytotoxicity cross-match (CDC XM) methods are the requirements for complement and viable target cells, detection of antibodies (Abs) against non-HLA antigens, and subjective scoring. Cross-Stat (SangStat Medical Corp., Menlo Park, CA), a recently developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay XM procedure for the detection of IgG anti-donor HLA Abs, is theoretically devoid of these flaws. METHODS: We compared results of Cross-Stat and our standard anti-human globulin (AHG)-enhanced CDC XM procedure on 524 sera from 230 transplant candidates, which were evaluated against 51 cadaveric donors. RESULTS: There was a significant correlation between AHG-CDC IgG XM and Cross-Stat results (P<0.001). For false negative sera, repeat AHG-CDC IgG XMs were still positive after platelet absorption, indicating that the Abs present were either non-HLA Abs or anti-HLA class II. Flow cytometry testing of false positive sera usually (42/62) substantiated Cross-Stat results, indicating that the discrepancy with AHG-CDC IgG XM is caused by greater sensitivity of Cross-Stat. Relative to the AHG-CDC XM, the sensitivity of Cross-Stat was 100%, the specificity was 93%, the positive predictive value was 73%, and the negative predictive value was 100%. A technical shortcoming of the Cross-Stat assay is that the frequency of indeterminate samples in the assays was 15%. Among 49 Cross-Stat negative vs. 13 Cross-Stat positive primary cadaveric renal allograft recipients (all AHG-CDC IgG-XM negative), there was no statistical difference in overall graft survival. CONCLUSION: Given the important theoretical advantages of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based XM methods over the CDC XM, however, further testing of the clinical relevance of the Cross-Stat is warranted.