Continuous salt precipitation and separation from supercritical water. Part 2. Type 2 salts and mixtures of two salts

Using a continuously operated laboratory plant for the catalytic hydrothermal gasification of biomass featuring a supercritical water salt separator we investigated the separation performance of three different binary type 2 salt-water mixtures and three ternary salt-water mixtures that consisted either of two type 1 salts or two type 2 salts dissolved in water. It turned out that a concentrated salt brine could not be recovered at the salt separator for the binary type 2 salt-water mixtures of Na₂CO₃, Na₂SO₄, and K₂SO₄. These salts precipitate as solids from supercritical water and thus lead to salt deposits inside the salt separator vessel.The ternary mixtures of two type 1 salts dissolved in water (KH₂PO₄-K₂HPO₄-H₂O and three different mixtures of NaNO₃-K₂CO₃-water) exhibited a separation performance similar to the binary solutions of type 1 salts that were discussed in Part 1 of this article. However, the mixtures showed separation performances that were different from the corresponding single salt solutions.It was also possible to recover a concentrated brine when feeding solutions containing the two type 2 salts Na₂CO₃ and K₂SO₄. For these mixtures a certain amount of the type 1 salt K₂CO₃ might form in supercritical water leading to salt separation efficiencies up to 95% for these mixtures.     

Children's ideas about the environmental impact of cars: a cross age study

The ideas of children about the environmental impact of vehicle emissions have been explored using a precoded questionnaire. The children were from British National Curriculum Years 7 (age 11/12 years), 9 (age 13/14) and 11 (age 15/16). Even in the oldest group only about half of the children appreciated the advantages of smaller, well‐maintained cars; this could have practical implication if not corrected in the adult population. Children seemed well aware of the environmental problems, smog, Acid Rain and Global Warming, to which vehicle emissions contribute, but these are part of an over‐generalised model which children employ in which cars are envisaged as contributing to other problems such as Ozone Layer depletion. We suggest that the use of the generic term ‘pollution’ to describe a wide range of environmental insults and the use of the word ‘environment’ in a non‐defined way might hinder children's differentiation of the different causes of separate environmental problems. The gaps in children's knowledge of the different components of vehicle emissions may reflect and exacerbate this difficulty. Ironically, children have a regard for the environmental and an interest in cars, and a combination of these enthusiasms may provide an opportunity for environmental education and curriculum science teaching.     

Aging and task switching: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 26 published articles (with 36 independent participant groups) was conducted to analyze the relationship between task-switching effects and aging. Latency served as the dependent measure. Multilevel modeling was used to test for additive and multiplicative complexity effects in local and global switch costs. Global task switching was found to add 1 or more stages to processing and resulted in a marked age deficit. Local task-switching costs, on the other hand, showed a multiplicative complexity effect but no specific attention-related age deficits. Cueing or switch predictability did not affect age differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fabrication of switchable liquid crystal devices using surface relief gratings in photopolymer

Holographically recorded surface relief gratings in dry, self-developing acrylamide based photopolymer were used to fabricate two types of switchable liquid crystal (LC) device. One is an electrically switchable LC diffraction grating and the other is an electrically switchable polarization rotator. The electrically switchable diffraction grating was characterized by measuring the dependence of the intensity in the first diffracted order on the applied electric field. The polarization rotator was characterized by studying the influence of the applied electric field on the twist angle and the variation of intensity in the zero and the first orders of diffraction.     

Robust consensus control with guaranteed rate of convergence using second-order Hurwitz polynomials

This paper considers homogeneous networks of general, linear time-invariant, second-order systems. We consider linear feedback controllers and require that the directed graph associated with the network contains a spanning tree and systems are stabilisable. We show that consensus with a guaranteed rate of convergence can always be achieved using linear state feedback. To achieve this, we provide a new and simple derivation of the conditions for a second-order polynomial with complex coefficients to be Hurwitz. We apply this result to obtain necessary and sufficient conditions to achieve consensus with networks whose graph Laplacian matrix may have complex eigenvalues. Based on the conditions found, methods to compute feedback gains are proposed. We show that gains can be chosen such that consensus is achieved robustly over a variety of communication structures and system dynamics. We also consider the use of static output feedback.     

Agglomeration and productivity: evidence from firm-level data

Do agglomerations stimulate productivity? An extensive literature on agglomeration economies, or urban increasing returns, has analyzed this question with aggregated spatial data. This paper estimates the relationship between agglomeration and productivity at the firm level using static and dynamic models. It makes use of a rich dataset comprising register information on all manufacturing firms in Sweden with 10 or more employees over the period 1997–2004. Three things emerge. First, firms located in larger regions are more productive when controlling for size, human capital, physical capital, ownership structure, import and export, industry classification, and time trend. Second, results from dynamic panel estimations suggests a learning effect in that agglomeration enhances firms’ productivity. Third, the role of agglomeration phenomena does not seem to have a clear coupling to firm size.     

Upward-looking ground-penetrating radar for monitoring snowpack stratigraphy

Operational remote monitoring of snowpack stratigraphy, melt water intrusions and their evolution with time for forecasting snowpack stability is not possible to date. Determination of the spatial variability of snowpack conditions on various scales requires a number of point measurements with various methods. These methods are either destructive or do not provide information about the internal structure of the snowpack. The application of a remotely controlled non-destructive sensor system would help to gain a higher spatio-temporal resolution about information of the snowpack. In this study we present results from upward-looking ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys from horizontal caves dug in the front wall of snow pits at the bottom of the snowpack. GPR data are compared with vertical profiles of snow hardness and density, obtained in the snow pit. Data were acquired in different areas with varying snow conditions with various GPR impulse systems, frequencies and polarizations. Radar experiments with high frequencies (> 1 GHz) detect internal layers in the snowpack in dry snow, but fail to provide clear reflections at the upper snow-air transition because of attenuation. In wet snow, the radar signals < 1 GHz are capable to penetrate a meter-thick snowpack and detect the snow surface, although the signal is strongly attenuated. Analysis of reflection phases and magnitudes allows interpretation of their physical origin in terms of changes in electrical permittivity. Varying antenna polarization causes a strongly different signal response, likely caused by the snow-pit wall present in our set-up. Forward calculation of density-based reflection coefficients between neighboring layers of varying hardness yields ambiguous results in terms of correspondence with observed radar reflections apart except for interferences of neighboring reflections. Moreover, we identify several pitfalls for future applications. The system set-up used here represents a basis for further developments towards a system, which is capable of improving information on the spatial and temporal snowpack characteristics.