Investigating the Financial Implications and Viability of Diversified Water Supply Systems in an Urban Water Supply Zone

Water Resources Management - Diversified water supply schemes can reduce both peak demand and overall demand in the urban water supply network. Consequently, they provide benefits to both the water...     

IN-SITU REDUCTION OF A METHANOL SYNTHESIS CATALYST IN A THREE-PHASE SLURRY REACTOR

ABSTRACT

A new method for the reduction of metal oxide catalysts has been developed, for the reduction of the CuO - ZnO - A1203 catalyst for liquid phase methanol synthesis. The reducing agent is a 5% hydrogen in nitrogen mixture and the operation is carried out at 446.09 KPa. This method makes it possible to reduce finely crushed catalyst (-100 + 120 mesh) in a three phase slurry reactor. This method offers several advantages over methods in which the catalyst is reduced in a gas-solid contact mode and then slurried for use. The catalyst has been shown to be very effectively reduced and reaches its full production capacity after reduction.     

Laminar Flow and Heat Transfer to a Non-Newtonian Fluid in an Entrance Region of a Square Duct with Prescribed Constant Axial Wall Heat Flux

Abstract

Forced-convection heat transfer information as a function of the pertinent nondimensional numbers is obtained numerically for laminar incompressible non-Newtonian fluid flow in the entrance region of a square duct with simultaneously developing temperature and velocity profiles for constant axial wall heat flux with uniform peripheral wall temperature. The power-law model characterizes the non-Newtonian behavior.

Finite-difference representations are developed for the equations of the mathematical model, and numerical solutions are obtained assuming uniform inlet velocity and temperature distributions. Results are presented for local and mean Nusselt numbers as functions of the Graetz number and the Prandtl number in the entrance region. Comparisons are made with previous analytical work for Newtonian fluids. The results show a strong effect of the Prandtl number on the Nusselt numbers with fully developed and uniform velocity profiles representing the lower and upper limits, respectively. The results provide a new insight into the true three-dimensional character of the pseudoplastlc fluid flow in the entrance region of a square duct and are accurate.     

Steam reforming of toluene as a biomass tar model compound over CeO2 promoted Ni/CaO–Al2O3 catalytic systems

Steam reforming of toluene as a biomass tar model compound was performed over Ni supported CaO–Al₂O₃ (Ca–Al) and CeO₂ promoted CaO–Al₂O₃ (Ca–Al–Ce) catalysts to explore promotional effect of CeO₂ on Ca–Al support. Among all the catalysts tested, Ni/Ca–Al–Ce(0.2) catalyst gave superior catalytic performance over other catalysts. The basic strength of catalytic supports measured by CO₂ TPD and Hammett indicator methods indicates Ca–Al–Ce(0.2) support has higher surface basicity and base strength compared to Ca–Al and other Ca–Al–Ce(x) supports. Furthermore, CO pulse chemisorption results showed that Ni/Ca–Al–Ce(0.2) catalyst has a higher amount of surface metallic nickel compared to other Ni/Ca–Al–Ce catalysts. TPR analysis reveals that the redox property of CeO₂ can enhance the reducibility of supported nickel species, which is further confirmed using XPS analysis, where addition of CeO₂ enhanced the interaction of Ni species with Ce by reducing the interaction of Ni species with the Al support, resulting in the formation of Ni° rich surface. However, formation of bulk NiO species was also observed for the catalyst having higher amount of CeO_2. TGA analysis on spent catalysts reveals that all CeO₂-containing catalysts generally result in lower carbon formation rates as compared to Ni/Ca–Al catalyst.     

Studies on the photochemical deposition (PCD) of II–VI compound semiconductor thin films of ZnS from aqueous solution

Zinc sulphide (ZnS) thin films were depositedon Indium oxide coaled glass substrates by Photo Chemical Deposition (PCD) with starting precursor of Zinc sulphate and sodium thiosulphate as a source material for Zn and S respectively. In addition the pH was varied (3 to 8) using sulphuric acid by adding up in the precursor. Later the ZnS thin films were annealed at 500°C and it was found that crystalline structure was improved. Zinc blende crystalline structure was observed on the thin films using X-ray diffractometer (XRD). The morphological behavior was observed using Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and it reveals that the size of the grain increases after annealing at 500°C. UV-spectrometer was used to analyze the aqueous solution optical behavior before and after deposition. The average thickness of thin film was estimated as ～1.02 micron measured by stylus profilometer method.     

Assessing Decentralised Water Solutions: Towards a Framework for Adaptive Learning

This paper reports on the use of qualitative analysis to inform a risk analysis framework for decentralised water systems. To realise the benefits from these technologies, a methodology is applied to learn from previous difficulties in implementing and managing them. A workshop process was used to capture stories from industry professionals on difficulties they have encountered in planning and implementation. Qualitative analysis of story narratives revealed stages where there was some type of development process failure; as well as failure modes and factors influencing the difficulties encountered. The analysis also generated insights: difficulties in one part of the development process tends to propagate to subsequent stages; system difficulties most often occurred in the policy stage of development due to institutional inertia and lack of adaptive governance; and the best indicator of problems with a decentralised system was complaints of poor water quality. Furthermore, this paper also provides a method to learn from past difficulties by identifying what data needs to be collected in order to populate a risk model which can be used for improving risk assessment of the development process for decentralised systems. This can provide a basis for better decision making, policy and guidelines; an important factor in mainstream acceptance.     

Geographic variation in the flavour volatiles of Alphonso mango

Alphonso, one of the most popular cultivars of mango in India is known to exhibit geographic variation in the flavour of ripe fruits. To get chemical insight into this difference, volatiles were studied in the ripening fruits of Alphonso mangoes from three cultivation locations in India. Ripe fruits from Deogad had lower content of mono- and sesquiterpenes and higher content of lactones and furanones as compared to the fruits from Dapoli; whereas fruits from Vengurle had average quantities of these chemicals in comparison with Deogad and Dapoli fruits. This variation was clearly reflected as separate clustering of the localities in the Principal Component Analysis. The localities were indistinguishable from each other in terms of raw fruit volatiles. This study exemplifies a case of phenotypic plasticity; since the plants chosen were clonally propagated, such geographic variation in the volatiles can be attributed to varied abiotic conditions at these three localities.     

Efficiency of destruction of waste used in the co-incineration in the rotary kilns

This work presents a study about the efficiency of destruction of industrial waste, used in the co-incineration in rotary kilns of the cement industry, considering the principle of the chemistry equilibrium and the kinetic of the reactions. As an example, it has analysed the burn of one hazardous waste which has in its composition toluene, xylene and dicloroethane. The temperatures of the transformation and the time of the reaction to the formation of sub-products which will originate CO₂, H₂O and HCl, are evaluated. Thus, the formation of the pollutants in the kiln is preliminary estimated and the different forms to control the emissions is also discussed.     

Adsorption of ciprofloxacin and its role for stabilizing multi-walled carbon nanotubes and characterization

In this study, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were dispersed in an aqueous solution using ciprofloxacin (CF) without chemical modification. We found that CF is a useful stabilizer for MWCNTs and the dispersions were stable for more than one month. Scanning electron microscopy, Uv-visible spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV) showed MWCNTs coated with CF molecules. Dry film of MWCNTs/CF was prepared and characterized by SEM, Uv-vis and CV. MWCNTs/CF dry film can be used as a biocompatible platform for other applications including protein and enzyme immobilization.     

Simplified Impedance Model for Adhesively Bonded Piezo-Impedance Transducers

The electromechanical impedance technique employs surface-bonded lead zirconate titanate piezoelectric ceramic patches as impedance transducers for structural health monitoring and nondestructive evaluation. The patches are bonded to the monitored structures using finitely thick adhesive bond layer, which introduces shear lag effect, thus invariably influencing the electromechanical admittance signatures. This paper presents a new simplified impedance model to incorporate shear lag effect into electromechanical admittance formulations, both one-dimensional and two-dimensional. This provides a closed-form analytical solution of the inverse problem, i.e. to derive the true structural impedance from the measured conductance and susceptance signatures, thus an improvement over the existing models. The influence of various parameters (associated with the bond layer) on admittance signatures is investigated using the proposed model and the results compared with existing models. The results show that the new model, which is far simpler than the existing models, models the shear lag phenomenon reasonably well besides providing direct solution of a complex inverse problem.