Impact assessment of the increase in fossil fuel prices on the global energy system,with and without CO2 concentration stabilization

It is important to evaluate impacts of fossil fuel price hikes and climate stabilization that force the global energy system to adopt alternative and efficient technologies by routing future energy system dynamics into a different technology roadmap. Hence, a high-regional-resolution and technology-rich DNE21+ model is used for the simulation of some price-hike scenarios for the period from 2000 to 2030 by increasing the ordinate of cost–potential curve of crude oil, natural gas and coal by 55 US$(00)/bbl, 3.8 US$(00)/kcf and 56 US$(00)/tonne, respectively, above their reference values; and 550 ppmv stabilization is implemented by carbon limitation from 6998 to 8250 MtC/yr. This study detected that hike in fossil fuel prices acts as an anti-catalyst for human-induced anthropogenic emissions and alleviates heavy dependency upon fossil fuels. Further, it partially solves problems of climate change by reducing CO₂ emission levels (23%), reflects human behavior through energy conservation (1.4 Gtoe), calls for efficiency improvement (7%), adopts more efficient and alternative technologies, compared to reference; however, with 550 ppmv stabilization, energy conservation rises to 1.6 Gtoe, demands 16% higher efficiency improvement and reduces CO₂ emission by 36%, relative to reference.     

A new control method of a resonant switched‐capacitor converter and the application for balancing of the split DC voltages in a multilevel inverter

This paper proposes a new voltage‐balancing circuit for the split DC voltages in a diode‐clamped five‐level inverter. The proposed circuit is based on a resonant switched‐capacitor converter (RSCC), which consists of two half‐bridge inverters, a resonant inductor, and a resonant capacitor. A new phase‐shift control of the RSCC is proposed to improve voltage balancing performance. Theoretical analysis reveals the rating of the RSCC and stored energy in the resonant inductor. Experimental results confirm the reduction of the inductor to one‐tenth in volume compared to a conventional voltage‐balancing circuit based on buck‐boost topology. Moreover, the proposed phase‐shift control has demonstrated that it is possible to eliminate the voltage deviation between the DC capacitors. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 168(2): 69–79, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20719     

Cellular proteins of Microcystis aeruginosa inhibiting coagulation with polyaluminum chloride

Cyanobacterial growth in semi-closed water areas such as reservoirs brings about a coagulation inhibition in a drinking water treatment system, but the inhibitory substances and mechanisms involved have yet to be elucidated. In this study, proteins having a high affinity with polyaluminum chloride (PACl) were isolated from organic substances produced by Microcystis aeruginosa with the affinity chromatography technique. Both extracellular organic matter (EOM) and cellular organic matter (COM) disturbed the flocculation of suspended kaolin with PACl, but it was likely that nonproteinous substances in EOM cause the reduction of coagulation effciency. In contrast, proteins in COM were obtained as possible inhibitory substances for the coagulation with PACl. These proteins could consume PACl in the coagulation process due to the formation of chelate complexes between these inhibitory proteins and the coagulant. The consumption of PACl by cyanobacterial proteins could be one of the important causes of the increase in coagulant demand.     

Graphene oxide as dyestuffs for the creation of electrically conductive fabrics

Graphene oxide (GO) was immobilized on the surfaces of acrylic yarns through a conventional dyeing approach. The GO dyed yarns and/or the fabric were immersed in an aqueous sodium hydrosulfite solution at around 363 K for 30 min, which converted the GO into graphene. The graphene created a graphitic-coloured and electrically conductive thin layer over each yarn in the fabric. Data on the electrical conductance of the yarns versus temperature (30-300 K) fit well with the so-called fluctuation-induced tunneling model, which suggests that the graphene layer belongs to a continuously interconnected network. Values of the electrical resistivity ranged from 10² to 10¹⁰ Ohm/cm, as verified by the content of graphene in the conductive layer.     

Generalized block-lifting factorization of M-channel biorthogonal filter banks for lossy-to-lossless image coding

Generalized block-lifting factorization of M-channel (M > 2) biorthogonal filter banks (BOFBs) for lossy-to-lossless image coding is presented in this paper. Since the proposed block-lifting structure is more general than the conventional lifting factorizations and does NOT require many restrictions such as paraunitary, number of channels, and McMillan degree in each building block unlike the conventional lifting factorizations, its coding gain is higher than that of the previous methods. Several proposed BOFBs are designed and applied to image coding. Comparing the results with conventional lossy-to-lossless image coding structures, including the 5/3- and 9/7-tap discrete wavelet transforms in JPEG 2000 and a 4 × 8 hierarchical lapped biorthogonal transform in JPEG XR, the proposed BOFBs achieve better result in both objective measure and perceptual visual quality for the images with a lot of high-frequency components.     

ATR-FTIR and SEM Gradient Study of Poly(2-ethylhexyl acrylate)/Poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoro acetone) Blends

The segregation structure and the gradient structure of poly(2-ethylhexylacrylate) (P2-EHA)/poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoro acetone) [P(VDF-HFA)] blends were confirmed by ATR-FTIR and SEM. For the P2-EHA/P(VDF-HFA) (50/50) blend, the P(VDF-HFA) and P2-EHA layers were observed at the free surface side and bottom side, respectively. The gradient structure was obtained for the P2-EHA/P(VDF-HFA) (30/70) blend. The domain morphology of a cross section of the P2-EHA/P(VDF-HFA) (50/50) blend was dramatically changed by the thickness of the blend film. Finally, we propose that the segregation structure and gradient structure formed in P2-EHA/ P(VDF-HFA) blends were caused by surface tension difference, rate of phase separation, rate of solvent evaporation, and molecular weight difference.     

Transparent thermoplastic resin with electron beam cross‐linking

The mechanical, thermal and optical properties of a transparent thermoplastic resin which is based on non‐crystalline nylon with cross‐linking agents were improved by electron beam (EB) irradiation cross‐linking. When the EB irradiation power was increased, the yield stress improved by 34% and the glass transformation temperature increased from 116 to 165°C. Transformation from the brittle to the ductile state was observed by the dependence of a strange elastic module on the temperature and EB irradiation power. Above the glass transformation temperature, an optical element produced using this resin could maintain its shape. The birefringence decreased when the EB irradiation power was increased. The decrease of the birefringence was dependent on the initial birefringence value before EB cross‐linking. The molecular orientation was relaxed by EB cross‐linking. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Mechanism underlying specificity of proteins targeting inorganic materials

Adhesion force analysis using atomic force microscopy clearly revealed for the first time the mechanism underlying the specific binding between a titanium surface and ferritin possessing the sequence of Ti-binding peptide in its N-terminal domain. Our results proved that the specific binding is due to double electrostatic bonds between charged residue and surface groups of the substrate. Furthermore, it is also demonstrated that the accretion of surfactant reduces nonspecific interactions, dramatically enhancing the selectivity and specificity of Ti-binding peptide.     

Application of beam emission spectroscopy to NBI plasmas of Heliotron J

This paper describes the application of the beam emission spectroscopy (BES) to Heliotron J, having the nonsymmetrical helical-magnetic-axis configuration. The spectral and spatial profile of the beam emission has been estimated by the numerical calculation taking the collisional excitation processes between plasmas (electrons/ions) and beam atoms. Two sets of the sightlines with good spatial resolution are presented. One is the optimized viewing chords which have 20 sightlines and observe the whole plasma region with the spatial resolution Δρ less than ±0.055 using the newly designed viewing port. The other is 15 sightlines from the present viewing port of Heliotron J for the preliminary measurement to discuss the feasibility of the density fluctuation measurement by BES. The beam emission has been measured by a monochromator with a CCD camera. A good consistency has been obtained between the spectral profiles of the beam emission measured by the monochromator and the beam emission spectrum deduced by the model calculation. An avalanche photodiode with an interference filter system was also used to evaluate the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the beam emission in the present experimental setup. The modification of the optical system is being planned to improve the S/N ratio, which will enable us to estimate the density fluctuation in Heliotron J.