Experimental investigation of an improved version of the four-step magnesium-chlorine cycle

In this paper, an experimental study is undertaken to capture HCl in dry form in order to decrease the power consumption of the four-step Mg-Cl cycle using MgO as the capturing agent. A new experimental method is developed to capture HCl from its mixture with steam, and liberate HCl in a dry form. Several cases are studied to observe HCl capture performance, including testing of the resulting substances in detail using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests. The results of these experiments show 30.8% HCl capture by solid MgO particles in a semi-batch packed bed reactor design with an uncertainty value of ±1.17%. The XRD results indicate that an optimum reactor temperature of ～275 °C is critical to prevent the process from side reactions and undesired products. The experimental results are adapted to the four-step Mg-Cl cycle to form a final design with HCl capture.     

Global robust stability analysis of neural networks with multiple time delays

Global robust convergence properties of continuous-time neural networks with discrete delays are studied. By employing suitable Lyapunov functionals, we derive a set of delay-independent sufficient conditions for the existence, uniqueness, and global robust asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point. The conditions can be easily verified as they can be expressed in terms of the network parameters only. Some numerical examples are given to compare our results with previous robust stability results derived in the literature. One of our main results is shown to improve and generalize a previously published result. Other results proved to establish a new set of robust stability criteria for delayed neural networks.     

Carcass measurements and meat quality characteristics of dairy suckling kids compared to an indigenous genotype

Effects of genotype on carcass measurements and meat quality were investigated by using 24 suckling kids from Turkish Saanen, Gokceada and Maltese breeds. Carcass quality characteristics of indigenous kids (Gokceada) were lower than those of dairy type (Turkish Saanen and Maltese) kids. Breed effect on ultimate meat pH, cooking loss, drip loss and Warner Bratzler shear force values were not significant. Meat samples from Turkish Saanen kids had higher redness (at 0, 1 and 24 h) and yellowness (at 24 h) values than Gokceada kids (P < 0.05). Breed had no significant effect on sensory characteristics except flavour intensity. Flavour intensity scores given to meat samples of Maltese kids were higher than those of Turkish Saanen and Gokceada kids (P < 0.01). In conclusion, dairy type breeds should be considered for meat production as well, with meat from Maltese kids potentially offering better colour and flavour intensity than that of Turkish Saanen kids.     

Carcass measurements and meat quality of Turkish Merino,Ramlic, Kivircik,Chios and Imroz lambs raised under an intensive production system

Effect of breed on carcass measurements and meat quality characteristics were investigated by using 46 lambs from Turkish Merino, Ramlic, Kivircik, Chios and Imroz breeds. Chios and Imroz carcasses had smaller values for carcass quality characteristics. Breed had no significant effect on pH at 45 min and 24 h post-mortem, water holding capacity and cooking loss. Kivircik and Imroz lambs had lower Warner Bratzler shear force values than those of Ramlic and Turkish Merino lambs (P < 0.01). Meat samples from Kivircik lambs had the highest redness value. Differences among breeds for sensory characteristics, except tenderness were not significant. Tenderness scores given to meat samples of Kivircik lambs were significantly higher (P < 0.01) than those of Turkish Merino, Ramlic and Imroz lambs. Indigenous Kivircik breed, which had high carcass quality as those of improved breeds, might be considered for production of better quality meat in Marmara Region of Turkey.     

Survey for co-occurrence of ochratoxin A and aflatoxin B1 in dried figs in Turkey by using a single laboratory-validated alkaline extraction method for ochratoxin A

A survey was carried out to determine the co-occurrence of ochratoxin A and aflatoxin B1 in dried figs from Turkey. Samples from two seasons of crops (2003 and 2004) intended for export to the European Union and the 2004 crop obtained from the domestic Turkish market were analyzed. Affinity column cleanup methods were employed for determining separately ochratoxin A and aflatoxin B1, but for ochratoxin A an alkaline extraction procedure was employed (in contrast to the conventionally employed acidic extraction), which gave consistently higher toxin recovery. In-house validation of the ochratoxin A method gave a limit of detection of 0.15 ng/g and a limit of quantification of 0.5 ng/g with a repeatability of 5.8% in the range 5 to 10 ng/g (with a mean recovery of 94% for spiked samples). Positive results for ochratoxin A were confirmed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. For the 2003 export figs (58 samples), 7 samples contained only aflatoxin B1, 2 samples contained only ochratoxin A, and 2 samples contained both toxins (with maximum concentrations of 35.1 ng/g for aflatoxin B1 and 13.0 ng/g for ochratoxin A). Similarly for the 2004 export figs (41 samples), 16 samples contained only aflatoxin B1, 4 samples contained only ochratoxin A, and 2 samples contained both toxins (with maximum concentrations of 20.6 ng/g for aflatoxin B1 and 26.3 ng/g for ochratoxin A). Of 20 retail samples of dried figs from Turkey, only one sample contained ochratoxin A (2.0 ng/g) and none were contaminated with aflatoxin B1. This survey revealed a 14 to 15% incidence of occurrence of ochratoxin A for 2 years, which is higher than previously reported.     

Analytical prediction of pressure loss through a sudden-expansion in two-phase pneumatic conveying lines

Estimation of separation or minor pressure losses for pipe fittings of a pneumatic conveying system at design stage is critical as much as determination of frictional pressure losses through it. The flow in many pneumatic conveying systems is a two-phase flow; it is so complex and difficult to be investigated by experimental techniques. The static pressure recovery and the minor loss coefficient through an axis-symmetric, circular cross-section, sudden-expansion fitting of a horizontal pneumatic conveying line with air–solid particle flow are analytically studied. The theoretical models proposed in the literature are scarce, and do not confirm the experimental studies. The well-known homogeneous and separated flow models proposed in the literature are initially applied to the case by means of mass and momentum conservation laws. The predictions of both the models on the pressure recovery were compared with the experimental and the numerical data in the literature and a bad agreement was observed between them; therefore, a new original analytical model is proposed by the present study. The new model is called as the slip flow model, which takes into account the slip velocity between gas and solid phases evaluated by coupling the well-known separated flow model with the empirical slip ratio predictions in the literature. The predictions of the proposed slip flow model on both the pressure recovery and minor loss coefficient are found in good agreement with the corresponding data in the literature.     

Thermodynamic assessment of gas removal systems for single-flash geothermal power plants

Geothermal fluids contain non-condensable gases (NCGs) at various amounts. NCGs flow to a conventional geothermal power plant (GPP) with steam phase and should be withdrawn from the condenser by a gas removal system to prevent increase in condenser pressure and consequently decrease in power generation. Therefore, to remove NCGs from the system is critical especially at high NCG fractions. In this study, the net power output and specific steam consumption of a single-flash GPP is evaluated depending on the separator pressure, NCG fraction and wet bulb temperature of the environment, and three different conventional gas removal options which are two-stage steam jet ejector system, two-stage hybrid system and two-stage compressor system. A simulation code is written in EES to model the plant for each option. The model uses the data of Kizildere Geothermal Power Plant (KGPP) – Turkey, which is a single-flash plant with extremely high NCG fraction, to allow a comparison between the results of the modelling and the operational data of an actual single-flash GPP. Under given conditions, thermodynamic analysis resulted that NCG fraction is the most significant factor on GPP performance and the compressor system is the most efficient and robust option where the influence of the NCG fraction is limited.     

Energy and exergy analysis of a PV-T integrated ethanol PEM electrolyzer

A photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) integrated ethanol proton exchange membrane electrolyzer (PEME) was proposed as a low-energy consuming energy storage option for renewable-sourced electricity as well as a way for simultaneous chemical production in this study. Energy and exergy analyses were applied to each component of the system (e.g., pumps, heat exchanger, PV-T, PEME, and separation unit (SPU)) and the whole system to assess the system performance. The mathematical modelling of the whole system along with its main components except for the SPU was done using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software package while the SPU was modelled through the ASPEN Plus. A detailed modelling of the PEME was also included. The effects of the PV-T and PEME parameters on energy and exergy efficiencies of the system were evaluated while the improvement potentials and scale up options were discussed. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the proposed system at the optimum operation of the PEME and under average climatic conditions in the city of Izmir, Turkey were determined to be 27.8% and 3.1%, respectively. Energy and exergy efficiencies of the system were mainly regulated by the PV-T and PEME, whose energy and exergy efficiencies were 40.6%, 56.6% and 13.8%, 14.1%, respectively. Effective PEME parameters for energy and exergy efficiencies of the system were membrane conductivity, membrane thickness, anode catalyst and the operation temperature of the PEME. By changing the PV-T and PEME parameters and by scale-up, energy and exergy efficiencies of the system could be improved.     

Link prediction in evolving heterogeneous networks using the NARX neural networks

In this article, we propose a novel multivariate method for link prediction in evolving heterogeneous networks using a Nonlinear Autoregressive Neural Network with External Inputs (NARX). The proposed method combines (1) correlations between different link types; (2) the effects of different topological local and global similarity measures in different time periods; (3) nonlinear temporal evolution information; (4) the effects of the creation, preservation or removal of the links between the node pairs in consecutive time periods. We evaluate the performance of link prediction in terms of different AUC measures. Experiments on real networks demonstrate that the proposed multivariate method using NARX outperforms the previous temporal methods using univariate time series in different test cases.