Study of fragment yields, fission and neutron production in lead targets induced by intermediate energy protons

A review of the experiments on neutron production in thin and thick lead targets and those involving fission reactions and nuclear fragment emission from various targets performed with proton beams from the Dubna synchrophasotron is given. Two different experimental methods, TOF and SSNTD, were used in the measurements. A dependence of the results on proton energy and target type is discussed.     

Sustainability in energy production

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy -     

Carbon and nitrogen trade-offs in biomass energy production

This contribution provides an overview of carbon (CFs) and nitrogen footprints (NFs) concerning their measures and impacts on the ecosystem and human health. The adversarial relationship between them is illustrated by the three biomass energy production applications, which substitute fossil energy production applications: (i) domestic wood combustion where different fossil energy sources (natural gas, coal, and fuel oil) are supplemented, (ii) bioethanol production from corn grain via the dry-grind process, where petrol is supplemented, and (iii) rape methyl ester production from rape seed oil via catalytic trans-esterification, where diesel is supplemented. The life cycle assessment is applied to assess the CFs and NFs resulting from different energy production applications from ‘cradle-to-grave’ span. The results highlighted that all biomass-derived energy generations have lower CFs and higher NFs whilst, on the other hand, fossil energies have higher CFs and lower NFs.     

Analysis of methane yields from energy crops and agricultural by-products and estimation of energy potential from sustainable crop rotation systems in EU-27

Currently an increasing demand for renewable energy can be observed. A part of this demand could be covered by the production of energy from agrarian biomass. Due to the limited availability of arable land, food and feed production are starting to compete for agrarian resources. A way out of this dilemma is to develop concepts that are based on otherwise unused agrarian biomass like straw and include new technologies for the fermentation of lignocellulosic biomass. In this paper, the energy potentials of two different cropping systems are compared. In the energy-based crop rotation system all crops were used either for biogas or ethanol production. In the biorefinery-based approach, the various crops were used in cascades for the production of food as well as feed. Experimental laboratory work and field trials were combined to calculate energy and biomass yields of the crops under investigation. The results demonstrate that steam explosion pretreatment of wheat straw led to a 30% increase in the specific methane yield. The calculated energy output of the biorefinery-based crop rotation system amounted to a total of 126 GJ ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. Extrapolating this energy output to the total arable land of the EU-27 member states, 13,608 PJ of energy could be produced. Therefore, biorefinery-based crop rotation systems could provide approximately three times more energy to the European population than energy-based crop rotation systems.     

Hadron cascades induced by electron and photon beams in the GeV energy range

We consider the calculation of high energy hadron cascades induced by electron and photon beams in the GeV energy range. The most important source of high energy hadrons is the hadronic interaction of photons from the primary electron-photon shower. The hadronic interaction of high energy photons is described by the vector meson dominance model and by a Monte Carlo version of the dual multistring fragmentation model. The results of the calculation are compared to experimental data on hadron production in photon-proton collisions and on the hadron production by electron beams on targets. The electron beam induced hadron cascade is calculated in extended materials.     

Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer in nanopipets: improving distance resolution and concentration range

In recent years fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) has widely been used to measure distances, binding, and distance dynamics at the single-molecule (sm) level. Some basic constraints of smFRET are the limited distance resolution owing to low photon statistics and the restriction to high affinity interactions. We demonstrate that by confining molecules in nanopipets with an inner diameter of approximately 100 nm at the tip, FRET can be measured with improved photon statistics and at up to 50-fold higher concentrations. The flow of the donor/acceptor (Cy3B/ATTO647N) labeled double-stranded DNA conjugates was established by electrokinetic forces. Because of the small inner diameter of the nanopipet, every molecule passing the tip is detected applying alternating laser excitation (ALEX). Thus, the technique offers the advantage to study interactions with smaller association constants (<10(9) M-1) using minute sample amounts (<5 microL). The improved photon statistics reduces shot-noise contributions and results in sharper FRET distributions. Experimental results are supported by Monte Carlo simulations which also explain the occurrence of two populations in burst size distributions measured in nanopipet experiments. Because of the confinement of the molecules in nanopipets, the widths of FRET histograms are reduced to a degree where shot-noise is not the only limiting factor but also conformational dynamics of the linkers used to attach the chromophores have to be considered. In addition, our experiments emphasize the influence of photoinduced dark states on both the mean energy transfer efficiency and the width of FRET histograms.     

Magnetoresistance and variable range hopping conductivity in n-CuInSe2

Variable range hopping conduction of Mott type is observed in n-type CuInSe₂ in two temperature ranges. These are below 20 K and the other, above this temperature, up to 45 K, that have different values of the parameters ρ_o and T_o in the relation ρ = ρ_o exp [T_o/T]^S. This type of conduction is also found at different fixed magnetic field up to 35 T. The temperature and magnetic field dependence of the magnetoresistance in both weak and strong field regimes are analyzed in the framework of the Efros and Shklovskii model. The observed departure of the hopping parameters at low temperatures from the expected theoretical prediction is explained as due to the presence of negative magnetoresistance at lower fields and the effect of saturation of the positive magnetoresistance at higher fields.     

利用生物信息数据库克隆玉米基因PIS2与MFSP全长

利用玉米表达序列标签数据库(dbEST)电子克隆了玉米基因PIS2的cDNA全长,并采用反转录聚合酶链反应(RT-PCR)技术得到了包含该基因完整开放阅读框(ORF)的cDNA序列;借助水稻非冗余核酸数据库联合应用电子克隆技术和RT-PCR技术克隆得到玉米主易化子超家族蛋白基因MFSP的cDNA全长,并进一步利用植物基因组数据库(PlantGDB)快速地获得了该基因的基因组全长序列.研究证实,充分利用分子生物信息数据库,可以简便地克隆得到玉米目的基因的cDNA乃至基因组全长序列.     

Alanine response to proton beams in the 1.6-6.1 MeV energy range

Alanine response to low-energy protons was studied with alanine dosemeters of 2 mm thickness, irradiated with proton beams of energy in the 1.6-6.1 MeV range. The detector's range-averaged relative effectiveness to 60Co radiation ranged from 0.61 to 0.65. For fluence values up to 5 x 10(10) protons x cm(-2), the alanine response was linear.     

Robust multi-objective optimization for energy production scheduling in microgrids

In order to achieve better economic and environmental benefits of microgrids (MGs) under multiple uncertainties in renewable energy resources and loads, a novel energy production scheduling method is proposed based on robust multi-objective optimization with minimax criterion. Firstly, a mixed integer minimax multi-objective formulation is developed to capture uncertainties as well as minimize economic and environmental objectives. Secondly, the primal problem is decomposed into a bi-level optimization problem, which attempts to seek robust scheduling scheme set under the worst-case realization of uncertainties in a multi-objective framework. Finally, a hierarchical meta-heuristic solution strategy, including multi-objective cross entropy algorithm and δ+ indicator, is designed to solve the reconstructed problem. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheduling method can effectively attenuate the disturbance of uncertainties as well as reduce energy costs and emissions, as compared with single-objective robust optimization and multi-objective optimization scheduling approaches. This study could offer useful insights which help decision-makers balance robustness and comprehensive benefits in the operation of MGs.     

Improvements to the solar cell efficiency and production yields of low-lifetime wafers with effective phosphorus gettering

This research focuses on the improvement of solar cell efficiencies in low-lifetime wafers by implementing an appropriate gettering method of the diffusion process. The study also considers a reduction in the value of the reverse current at −12 V, an important electrical parameter related to the hot-spot heating of solar cells and modules, to improve the product's quality during commercial mass production. A practical solar cell production case study is examined to illustrate the use of the proposed method. The results of this case study indicate that variable-temperature gettering significantly improves solar cell efficiencies by 0.14% compared to constant-temperature methods when the wafer quality is poor. Moreover, this study finds that variable-temperature gettering raises production yields of low quality wafers by more than 30% by restraining the measurement value of the reverse current at −12 V during solar cell manufacturing.     

Exergy efficiency improvement in hydrogen production process by recovery of chemical energy versus thermal energy

Exergy analysis is recently being employed as one of the preferred methods to improve the design performance of a system and to achieve overall sustainability. Exergy is mainly composed of physical or thermo-mechanical and chemical components and a single stream can possess one or more forms of exergy. Where there is exergy lost in unused chemical streams or wasted energy, the recovery of exergy would reduce losses and increase the second law efficiency of the process. In many chemical process plants such as hydrogen (H₂), ammonia, nitric acid, etc., there is a potential to recover waste or excess heat by process heat exchange or by generating utilities. For a process like steam–methane (CH₄) reforming (SMR), exergy efficiency can be improved by recovering the available excess heat partially or fully in the form of chemical energy or thermal energy. This paper presents the generalised system analysis to show that the recovery of exergy in the form of chemical energy is better than in thermal energy form due to fewer losses and higher efficiency. The concept is illustrated with the example of a simple combustion system with excess heat in which saving fuel proves to be more exergy efficient than generating utility. The approach is applied to an industrial case study of H₂-producing SMR plant with two modified cases of steam generation and recycling portion of unconverted CH₄ as feed. In the case study, heat exchanger network is treated as a separate process component and a simple methodology is proposed to calculate the exergy losses for the same. The results of the case study prove that the recovery of chemical energy is more efficient than that of thermal energy from an exergy perspective.     

Evaluation of silicon neutron resonance parameters in the thermal to 1800 keV energy range

Because silicon is a major constituent of concrete and soil, neutron and gamma ray information on silicon is important for reactor shielding and criticality safety calculations. Therefore, much effort was put into the ENDF/B-VI evaluation for the three stable isotopes of silicon. The neutron capture cross section of natural silicon was recently measured at the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator (ORELA) in the energy range 1-700 keV. Using the ENDF/B-VI evaluation for initial values, a new evaluation of the resonance parameters was performed by adding the results of the ORELA capture measurements to the experimental database. The computer code SAMMY was used for the analysis of the experimental data; the new version of SAMMY allows accurate calculations of the self-shielding and multiple scattering effects in the capture measurements. The accuracy of the radiative capture widths of the resonances was improved by this analysis. Accurate values of the s-, p- and d-wave neutron strength functions were also obtained. Although the resonance capture component of the present evaluation is 2-3 times smaller than that in ENDF/B-VI, the total capture cross section is much larger, at least for energies >250 keV, because the direct capture component contributes values of the same order of magnitude as the resonance component. The direct component was not taken into account in the ENDF/B-VI evaluation and was calculated for the first time in the present evaluation.     

Automated targeting model for aggregate planning in production and energy supply chains

Aggregate planning aims to maximize profit for a supply chain while satisfying its demand. In this work, the automated targeting model (ATM) that was originally developed for resource conservation network is extended for use in aggregate planning for production and energy supply chains. The ATM is an optimization framework that is based on the insight-based technique of pinch analysis, with the philosophy in setting target(s) ahead of detailed planning. Being an optimization framework, the ATM offers other advantages than conventional pinch analysis technique by incorporating more case-specific constraints, and is able to handle more complex optimization problems. Three literature examples and an industrial polymer production case study are solved to show the robustness of ATM.