Evaluation of barley and triticale as feed ingredients in growing Iberian pigs: amino acid and carbohydrate ileal digestibility

BACKGROUND: Iberian pig production is linked to the use of the Mediterranean woodland, where the use of local feed resources is of paramount importance for the sustainability of the system. The aim of the present work was to explore the potential of triticale cv. Camarma as compared to barley cv. Esgueva in Iberian pig feeding by studying their respective ileal digestibilities of amino acids and carbohydrates in animals cannulated at the end of the ileum. RESULTS: Leu, Met and Tyr had (P < 0.05) greater standardised ileal digestibilities (SID) in pigs fed triticale diet. There was a trend (P = 0.07) towards greater SID of Thr in pigs fed the barley diet. The least digestible indispensable amino acids were Ile (74.6% SID) for barley and Thr (78.9% SID) for triticale. Except for β‐glucans, apparent ileal digestibilities (AIDs) of individual non‐starch polysaccharide (NSP), sugars and starch were greater in pigs fed triticale (P < 0.05). Nevertheless, total amounts of NSP digested were greater in pigs fed the barley diet (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Overall, triticale cv. Camarma had greater amino acid and carbohydrate AID than barley cv. Esgueva and may represent a valuable grain for Iberian pig feeding. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Effect of process variables on liquid hot water pretreatment of wheat straw for bioconversion to fuel‐ethanol in a batch reactor

BACKGROUND: Crop residues as wheat straw are potential sources for fuel‐ethanol production as an alternative to current production based on starch‐ or sugar‐containing feedstocks. In this work, the effect of liquid hot water (LHW) process parameters, i.e. temperature (170 and 200 °C), residence time (0 and 40 min), solid concentration (5% and 10% (w/v)) and overpressure applied in the reactor (30 bar and no overpressure), on pretreatment of wheat straw was studied using a full factorial experimental design. Pretreatment effectiveness was evaluated based on the composition of the solid and liquid fractions obtained after filtration of pretreated material, and the susceptibility of the solid fraction to enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) using commercial cellulases. RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that only temperature and time, within the limits of the experimental range, have a significant effect on the responses studied. While the effect of pretreatment time in hemicellulose‐derived sugar recovery in prehydrolyzate depends on temperature, EH yield was enhanced as both temperature and time were increased. Maximum EH yield was 96 g glucose per 100 g potential glucose in pretreated residue. Xylan and acetyl groups content remaining in solid residue after pretretament, which were found to be directly correlated, had a marked effect on pretreated substrate degradability. CONCLUSIONS: LHW is an effective pretreatment to enhance the potential of wheat straw as substrate for ethanol production. Maximum hemicellulose‐derived sugar recovery (53% of content in raw material) and EH yield (96% of theoretical) fall within different temperature and time intervals, suggesting separate optimization designs for these responses. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Tunnel Ventilation Analysis Using a Probabilistic Approach: Case Study,Fire in Road Tunnels with Longitudinal Ventilation

Fire Technology - Tunnels are nowadays key elements in transport networks worldwide. To achieve a safe and efficient operation, a proper integration and design of Mechanical, Electrical and...     

Spectral study and classification of worldwide locations considering several multijunction solar cell technologies

Multi‐junction solar cells are widely used in high‐concentration photovoltaic systems (HCPV) attaining the highest efficiencies in photovoltaic energy generation. This technology is more dependent on the spectral variations of the impinging Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) than conventional photovoltaics based on silicon solar cells and consequently demands a deeper knowledge of the solar resource characteristics. This article explores the capabilities of spectral indexes, namely, spectral matching ratios (SMR), to spectrally characterize the annual irradiation reaching a particular location on the Earth and to provide the necessary information for the spectral optimization of a MJ solar cell in that location as a starting point for CPV module spectral tuning. Additionally, the relationship between such indexes and the atmosphere parameters, such as the aerosol optical depth (AOD), precipitable water (PW), and air mass (AM), is discussed using radiative transfer models such as SMARTS to generate the spectrally resolved DNI. The network of ground‐based sun and sky‐scanning radiometers AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) is exploited to obtain the atmosphere parameters for a selected bunch of 34 sites worldwide. Finally, the SMR indexes are obtained for every location, and a comparative analysis is carried out for four architectures of triple junction solar cells, covering both lattice match and metamorphic technologies. The differences found among cell technologies are much less significant than among locations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of silicon bulk lifetime during III–V‐on‐Si multijunction solar cell epitaxial growth

The evolution of Si bulk minority carrier lifetime during the heteroepitaxial growth of III–V on Si multijunction solar cell structures via metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) has been analyzed. In particular, the impact on Si lifetime resulting from the four distinct phases within the overall MOCVD‐based III–V/Si growth process were studied: (1) the Si homoepitaxial emitter/cap layer; (2) GaP heteroepitaxial nucleation; (3) bulk GaP film growth; and (4) thick GaAs_yP_1‐y compositionally graded metamorphic buffer growth. During Phase 1 (Si homoepitaxy), an approximately two order of magnitude reduction in the Si minority carrier lifetime was observed, from about 450 to ≤1 µs. However, following the GaP nucleation (Phase 2) and thicker film (Phase 3) growths, the lifetime was found to increase by about an order of magnitude. The thick GaAs_yP_1‐y graded buffer was then found to provide further recovery back to around the initial starting value. The most likely general mechanism behind the observed lifetime evolution is as follows: lifetime degradation during Si homoepitaxy because of the formation of thermally induced defects within the Si bulk, with subsequent lifetime recovery due to passivation by fast‐diffusing atomic hydrogen coming from precursor pyrolysis, especially the group‐V hydrides (PH₃, AsH₃), during the III–V growth. These results indicate that the MOCVD growth methodology used to create these target III–V/Si solar cell structures has a substantial and dynamic impact on the minority carrier lifetime within the Si substrate. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A bi‐criterion optimization approach for the design and planning of hydrogen supply chains for vehicle use

In this article, we address the design of hydrogen supply chains for vehicle use with economic and environmental concerns. Given a set of available technologies to produce, store, and deliver hydrogen, the problem consists of determining the optimal design of the production‐distribution network capable of satisfying a predefined hydrogen demand. The design task is formulated as a bi‐criterion mixed‐integer linear programming (MILP) problem, which simultaneously accounts for the minimization of cost and environmental impact. The environmental impact is measured through the contribution to climate change made by the hydrogen network operation. The emissions considered in the analysis are those associated with the entire life cycle of the process, and are quantified according to the principles of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). To expedite the search of the Pareto solutions of the problem, we introduce a bi‐level algorithm that exploits its specific structure. A case study that addresses the optimal design of the hydrogen infrastructure needed to fulfill the expected hydrogen demand in Great Britain is introduced to illustrate the capabilities of the proposed approach. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

Integrated multi‐echelon supply chain design with inventories under uncertainty: MINLP models,computational strategies

We address in this article a problem that is of significance to the chemical industry, namely, the optimal design of a multi‐echelon supply chain and the associated inventory systems in the presence of uncertain customer demands. By using the guaranteed service approach to model the multi‐echelon stochastic inventory system, we develop an optimization model to simultaneously determine the transportation, inventory, and network structure of a multi‐echelon supply chain. The model is an MINLP with a nonconvex objective function including bilinear, trilinear, and square root terms. By exploiting the properties of the basic model, we reformulate this problem as a separable concave minimization program. A spatial decomposition algorithm based on the integration of Lagrangean relaxation and piecewise linear approximation is proposed to obtain near global optimal solutions with reasonable computational expense. Examples for specialty chemicals and industrial gas supply chains with up to 15 plants, 100 potential distribution centers, and 200 markets are presented. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

On the electrochemical performance of anthracite-based graphite materials as anodes in lithium-ion batteries

The electrochemical performance as potential negative electrode in lithium-ion batteries of graphite materials that were prepared from two Spanish anthracites of different characteristics by heat treatment in the temperature interval 2400-2800 °C are investigated by galvanostatic cycling. The interlayer spacing, d₀₀₂, and crystallite sizes along the c axis, L_c, and the a axis, L_a, calculated from X-ray diffractometry (XRD) as well as the relative intensity of the Raman D-band, I_D/I_t, are used to assess the degree of structural order of the graphite materials. The galvanostatic cycling are carried out in the 2.1-0.003 V potential range at a constant current and C/10 rate during 50 cycles versus Li/Li⁺. Larger reversible lithium storage capacities are obtained from those anthracite-based graphite materials with higher structural order and crystal orientation. Reasonably good linear correlations were attained between the electrode reversible charge and the materials XRD and Raman crystal parameters. The graphite materials prepared show excellent cyclability as well as low irreversible charge; the reversible capacity being up to ∼250 mA h g⁻¹. From this study, the utilization of anthracite-based graphite materials as negative electrode in lithium-ion batteries appears feasible. Nevertheless, additional work should be done to improve the structural order of the graphite materials prepared and therefore, the reversible capacity.     

Stiffening of Polycarbonate by Addition of a Highly Dispersed and Fibrillated Amorphous Polyamide‐Based Nanocomposite

Ternary systems consisting of blends of polycarbonate (PC) from bisphenol A and minority amounts of an amorphous polyamide reinforced with organically modified nanoclay (naPA), were obtained in the melt state. The nanoclay was widely exfoliated inside the dispersed naPA phase. The dispersed phase exhibited a very fine size (up to 0.36 µm), indicating compatibilization. Compatibilization was attributed to interactions between the aPA and the PC. The nanocomposite showed a lower compatibility than their corresponding blends. This lower compatibility of the nanocomposite was attributed to a hindrance of the interaction by the migrated surfactant of the organoclay. The presence of fibrillation in conjunction with a dispersed nanoclay resulted in additive enhancing effects on the modulus and yield stress. This led to modulus increases up to 46% with respect to that of the neat matrix upon the addition of 25% naPA‐10. Besides exhibiting these remarkable modulus values, these systems show an elongation at break similar to that of the neat PC matrix.

     

生物燃料工厂的能源与水资源的优化(英文)

In this paper we address the topic of energy and water optimization in the production of bioethanol from corn and switchgrass. We show that in order for these manufacturing processes to be attractive, there is a need to go beyond traditional heat integration and water recycling techniques. Thus, we propose a strategy based on mathematical programming techniques to model and optimize the structure of the processes, and perform heat integration including the use of multi-effect distillation columns and integrated water networks to show that the energy efficiency and water consumption in bioethanol plants can be significantly improved. Specifically, under some circumstances energy can even be produced and the water consumption can be reduced below the values required for the production of gasoline.