Experimental study of bubble formation in a glass-forming liquid doped with cerium oxide

This work aims to study the mechanisms of oxygen bubble formation coming from redox reaction of a polyvalent element incorporated in a glass melt. Borosilicate glass composition is selected for its use as a glass matrix for nuclear waste conditioning. Cerium is selected as a polyvalent element as it may be found in nuclear waste. The chosen material is characterized in terms of physical properties which influence bubble formation and growth. A postmortem optical microscope approach is used to observe bubbles in the investigated material after thermal treatment for varying temperatures (900°C-1100°C) and durations. To support the understanding of oxygen bubble formation, cerium speciation by X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and bubble gas composition are experimentally evaluated. In this article, we indicate how bubbles are formed in the investigated glass melt system. It is also demonstrated that the mechanisms that govern bubble evolution are fundamentally the same and that the plot's optimum points are strongly influenced by the temperature. These last statements are confirmed by considering some bubble features, such as bubble mean density and bubble mean diameter evolutions, and normalizing the experimental time using a characteristic residence time (t_η) obtaining thereafter a dimensionless time, which is a function of the glass melt properties obtained by the physical characterizations. The impact of temperature and time on bubble formation is described.     

Kinetic study of hydrogen sulfide absorption in aqueous chlorine solution

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is currently removed from gaseous effluents by chemical scrubbing using water. Chlorine is a top-grade oxidant, reacting with H₂S with a fast kinetic rate and enhancing its mass transfer rate. To design, optimize and scale-up scrubbers, knowledge of the reaction kinetics and mechanism is requested. This study investigates the H₂S oxidation rate by reactive absorption in a mechanically agitated gas–liquid reactor. Mass transfer (gas and liquid sides mass transfer coefficients) and hydrodynamic (interfacial area) performances of the gas–liquid reactor were measured using appropriated physical or chemical absorption methods. The accuracy of these parameters was checked by modeling the H₂S absorption in water without oxidant. A sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the model. Finally, reactive absorption of H₂S in chlorine solution for acidic or circumneutral pH allowed to investigate the kinetics of reaction. The overall oxidation mechanism could be described assuming that H₂S is oxidized irreversibly by both hypochlorite anion ClO⁻ (k = 6.75 × 10⁶ L mol⁻¹ s⁻¹) and hypochlorous acid ClOH (k = 1.62 × 10⁵ L mol⁻¹ s⁻¹).     

Lipid oxidation products of heated soybeans as a possible cause of protection from ruminal biohydrogenation

Heating oilseeds has been shown to improve the milk fatty acid profile when given to dairy cows, compared to raw oilseeds. However, results from published studies are conflicting. The conditions of heating and storage of the oilseeds could be responsible for these differences, probably partly through their effects on lipid oxidation, the products of which could act on ruminal biohydrogenation (BH). Thus, 15 different treatments were applied to ground soybeans: three levels of heating (no heating, 30 min at 110 or 150°C) × 5 ambient storage durations (0, 1, 2, 4, or 6 months). Soybeans were incubated in vitro with ruminal fluid for 6 h. Triacylglycerol (TAG) polymers, hydroperoxides and hydroxyacids (HOA), aldehydes, and fatty acids were assayed in soybeans and ruminal culture. No TAG polymer was detected in any treatment. Soybeans stored for a long time had a high content of HOA, whereas those heated at 150°C, whatever the storage duration, had high aldehyde contents. The percentage disappearance of cis‐9,cis‐12 18:2 and cis‐9,cis‐12,cis‐15 18:3 in incubates decreased significantly in cultures with heated soybeans, especially at 150°C, suggesting that this partial protection of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from BH was at least in part linked to the aldehyde content of the heated soybeans. Practical applications: Oilseeds given to ruminants are often heated, and heat treatment is known to generate oxidation products. Knowing what oxidation products influence ruminal biohydrogenation of unsaturated fatty acids could result in technological processes allowing a better transfer of unsaturated fatty acids from oilseeds to ruminant products.     

Potential of ionic liquids for VOC absorption and biodegradation in multiphase systems

This work aims to evaluate the feasibility of using imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) in the design of multiphase bioreactors for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The IL affinity for three model VOCs (dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide and toluene) was evaluated by means of the dimensionless partition coefficient (K). It was observed that ILs showed K values comparable to typical liquid solvents used in multiphase bioreactors for VOC biodegradation (K values ranged from 0.009 to 0.011, 0.0012 to 0.0013 and 0.00061 to 0.00096 for dimethyl sulfide, dimethyl disulfide and toluene, respectively). Toxicity tests showed that both ILs at concentrations of 5% and 10% (v/v) inhibited the glucose uptake of an activated sludge during approximately 24 h. After such lag period, the microorganisms were able to recover its metabolic activity. However, VOC biodegradation experiments showed that ILs at 5% (v/v) were toxic for the activated sludge and a toxic synergistic effect of the IL–VOC combination likely occurred. After acclimation to the target VOCs, only the toluene biodegradation capacity was significantly increased in the presence of ILs. These toxic effects represent a key drawback for the potential of IL-based multiphase systems devoted to VOC biodegradation. Therefore, this study suggests that microbial acclimation only to the VOCs is not enough to get an efficient biodegradation in multiphase systems including ILs as non-aqueous phases.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of a phase change material: Thermal-energy storage and release

The application of phase change materials (PCMs) for solar thermal-energy storage capacities has received considerable attention in recent years due to their large storage capacity and isothermal nature of the storage process. This study deals with the comparison of numerical and experimental results for a PCM conditioned in a parallelepipedic polyefin envelope to be used in passive solar walls. The experimental results were obtained by use of a genuine set-up involving heat flux sensors and thermocouples mounted on two vertical aluminium exchanger plates squeezing the samples. Numerical predictions were obtained with a custom one-dimensional Fortran code and a two-dimensional use of Fluent. Both methods showed a very good agreement with experimental observations for the melting process (?5%). However during solidification, both numerical codes failed to predict the phase change process accurately, the maximal relative error was as high as 57% (with an average of 8%).     

Determination of the E-pO stability diagram of plutonium in the molten LiCl-KCl eutectic at 450 °C

Plutonium trichloride solution in the molten LiCl-KCl eutectic was prepared by carbochlorination of plutonium oxide. Kinetics of this reaction was compared in different conditions in the range of 443-550 °C. Using this molten salt solution, the redox potential of the Pu(III)/Pu couple at inert tungsten electrode was measured at 450 °C by electromotive force measurement and was found to be E′^○ = −2.76 V vs. the Cl_2(g)(1 atm)/Cl⁻ reference electrode (molar fraction scale). Reaction between plutonium trichloride and oxide ions was studied by potentiometric titration, using yttria stabilized electrodes. In our experimental conditions, the titration curves indicate the precipitation of the sesquioxide Pu₂O₃. The solubility product cologarithm calculated from these curves is found to be pK_s(Pu₂O₃) = 22.8 ± 1.1 (molality scale). Using the experimentally obtained values for E′^○, activity coefficient and pK_s joined to the published thermodynamic data, the stability phase diagram of the Pu-O species was then drawn.     

Refinement-oriented probability for CSP

Jones and Plotkin give a general construction for forming a probabilistic powerdomain over any directed-complete partial order [Jon90, JoP89]. We apply their technique to the failures/divergences semantic model for Communicating Sequential Processes [Hoa85].The resulting probabilistic model supports a new binary operator, probabilistic choice, and retains all operators of CSP including its two existing forms of choice. An advantage of using the general construction is that it is easy to see which CSP identities remain true in the probabilistic model. A surprising consequence however is that probabilistic choice distributes through all other operators; such algebraic mobility means that the syntactic position of the choice operator gives little information about when the choice actually must occur. That in turn leads to some interesting interaction between probability and nondeterminism.A simple communications protocol is used to illustrate the probabilistic algebra, and several suggestions are made for accommodating and controlling nondeterminism when probability is present.All authors are members of the Programming Research Group; McIver and Seidel are supported by the EPSRC.0