MASS TRANSFER IN A RECIPROCATING PLATE BIOREACTOR

An experimental program has been initiated to evaluate the performance of a reciprocating plate bioreactor for its use in viscous fermentations. The investigation is divided into three parts: (1) to study the hydrodynamics within the bioreactor, (2) to determine the axial dispersion coefficient and the overall oxygen mass transfer coefficient as a function of the operating conditions, and (3) the evaluation of a reciprocating plate column as a bioreactor for viscous fermentations. This paper reports on the determination of the axial dispersion coefficient and on the measurement of the overall oxygen transfer coefficient. Experiments were done in water on a semi batch scheme (no water flow) in a 1.26m high and 101.6mm internal diameter column.

It was found that the axial dispersion coefficient is a strong function of the reciprocation speed whereas it is relatively unaffected by the aeration flow rate. The overall oxygen transfer coefficient was determined with two separate methods: (1) the sulfite oxidation method which is based on the conversion of sulfite into sulfate to calculate the overall oxygen transfer coefficient, and (2) the gassing-out method which uses dissolved oxygen responses at various locations inside the column to determine the local mass transfer coefficient. It was found that higher values of the oxygen transfer coefficient prevail within the reciprocating plate bioreactor than in other types of mixing devices, for an identical volumetric power input.     

Axial dispersion in a reciprocating plate column

Axial mixing in a reciprocating plate column with different amplitudes has been investigated for single-phase and two-phase (air-water) systems. Experiments were performed in water in a semi-batch scheme (no water flow) in a 1.26 m high and 101.6 mm internal diameter column. It was found that the axial dispersion coefficient is a strong function of reciprocation speed and amplitude. The presence of gas considerably affects the axial dispersion coefficient but its contribution appears to saturate at low gas flow rates and then, over a large range of gas flow rates, the axial dispersion coefficient was almost constant. Models are proposed based on experimental data to account for the effects of gas superficial velocity, amplitude and reciprocating frequency. The models predictions are compared with experimental data, obtained over a wide range of operating conditions, and the agreement between them was found to be good. A new class of nonlinear models, for which it is not necessary to have a constant dependency on each operating variable, was also used to correlate the axial dispersion coefficient. This new model allows to carry out sensitivity analysis on each operating variable.     

Ant system for reliability optimization of a series system with multiple-choice and budget constraints

Many researchers have shown that insect colonies behavior can be seen as a natural model of collective problem solving. The analogy between the way ants look for food and combinatorial optimization problems has given rise to a new computational paradigm, which is called ant system. This paper presents an application of ant system in a reliability optimization problem for a series system with multiple-choice constraints incorporated at each subsystem, to maximize the system reliability subject to the system budget. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear binary integer programming problem and characterized as an NP-hard problem. This problem is solved by developing and demonstrating a problem-specific ant system algorithm. In this algorithm, solutions of the reliability optimization problem are repeatedly constructed by considering the trace factor and the desirability factor. A local search is used to improve the quality of the solutions obtained by each ant. A penalty factor is introduced to deal with the budget constraint. Simulations have shown that the proposed ant system is efficient with respect to the quality of solutions and the computing time.     

Chemical modification of olive pomace by various esters and silane

The olive pomace was modified chemically to improve the interface between the polymer matrix and the cellulosic fillers. The modification was done using various ester types having the same nature, however, with different chain lengths and one silane. Before the surface treatment, the olive pomace was extracted with acetone to remove contaminants on the surface, using Soxhlet apparatus. The transesterification of olive pomace with the different ester components, i.e., vinyl acetate, vinyl propanoate, and vinyl butanoate, and the condensation reaction with dichlorodimethylsilane was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. Moreover, the treatment of olive pomace with vinyl acetate improves the thermal stability and the sample records higher onset temperature of degradation as measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results obtained indicated also that the reaction between the hydroxyl groups of waste flour and the acetyl, propionyl, pivalyl, and silane groups have occurred. The modified wood flours exhibited a decrease in the hydrophilicity as supported by the lower moisture content. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Mechanical modelling of high speed drilling. 2: predicted and experimental results

In this article experimental results on high-speed drilling are presented. The measurements are compared with the theoretical predictions of thrust force and torque to validate the continuous drilling model using the orthogonal cutting model and the oblique cutting model. This comparison is undertaken for the whole drill, because the lip and chisel edge are not studied separately in the experimental tests.     

Microbial shelf life determination of vacuum-packaged fresh beef treated with polylactic acid, lactic acid, and nisin solutions.

The effectiveness of polylactic acid, lactic acid, nisin, and combinations of the acids and nisin on extending the shelf-life of raw beef was determined. Fresh beef pieces (5 by 5 by 2.5 cm) were dipped in a solution of 2% low molecular weight polylactic acid (LMW-PLA), 2% lactic acid (LA), 200 IU of nisin per ml, or the combinations of nisin in either 2% LMW-PLA or 2% LA. The samples were then drip-dried, vacuum-packaged, and stored at 4 degrees C for up to 56 days. The beef surface pH values and numbers of psychrotrophic aerobic bacteria, psychrotrophic and mesophilic Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas, and Lactobacillus were determined weekly for 56 days. The average surface pH values of the beef samples treated with 2% LMW-PLA or the combination of 200 IU of nisin per ml and 2% LMW-PLA were significantly reduced to 5.19 and 5.17, respectively, at day 0 (P < or = 0.05), while those decontaminated with 2% LA or 200 IU of nisin per ml in 2% LA solution were significantly decreased from 5.62 to 4.98 and 4.96, respectively. The 2% LMW-PLA, 2% LA, or the combinations of each acid and nisin showed immediate inhibitory effects on psychrotrophic aerobic bacteria (1.94, 2.36, 2.59, and 1.76 log reduction, respectively), psychrotrophic Enterobacteriaceae (1.37, 1.86, 1.77, and 1.35 log reduction, respectively), mesophilic Enterobacteriaceae (1.00, 1.00, 0.82, and 0.68 log reduction, respectively), and Pseudomonas (1.77, 1.57, 1.76, and 1.41 log reduction, respectively) on fresh beef (P < or = 0.05). The reduction was evident up to 56 days as seen by the numbers of Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas (P < or = 0.05). Because there was no interaction between treatments and storage times, the data in each period were combined and presented as effect of treatments on overall microbial counts of fresh beef. It was found that 2% LMW-PLA, 2% LA, and the combinations of each acid and nisin significantly lowered the population of the above organisms compared with the untreated control, water, or nisin alone (P < or = 0.05).     

On Boosting the Accuracy of Non-RF to RF Correlation-Based Specification Test Compaction

Several existing methodologies have leveraged the correlation between the non-RF and the RF performances of a circuit in order to predict the latter from the former and, thus, reduce test cost. While this form of specification test compaction eliminates the need for expensive RF measurements, it also comes at the cost of reduced test accuracy, since the retained non-RF measurements and pertinent correlation models do not always suffice for adequately predicting the omitted RF measurements. To alleviate this problem, we explore several methodologies that estimate the confidence in the obtained test outcome. Subsequently, devices for which this confidence is insufficient are retested through the complete specification test suite. As we demonstrate on production test data from a zero-IF down-converter fabricated at IBM, the proposed methodologies overcome the inability of standard specification test compaction methods to reach industrially acceptable test quality levels, and enable efficient exploration of the tradeoff between test accuracy and test cost.     

Adsorption and oxidation of PCP on the surface of magnetite: Kinetic experiments and spectroscopic investigations

The oxidation of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on the surface of magnetite used as heterogeneous catalyst has been investigated under various experimental conditions (initial substrate concentration, H₂O₂ dose, solid loading and temperature) at neutral pH and correlated with the adsorption behavior. The surface reactivity of magnetite was evaluated by conducting the kinetic study of both H₂O₂ decomposition and PCP oxidation experiments. The occurrence of the optimum values of H₂O₂ and magnetite concentrations for the effective degradation of PCP could be explained by the scavenging reactions with H₂O₂ or iron oxide surface. The surface interactions with PCP in the absence and the presence of oxidant can be well described by Langmuir and Langmuir–Hinshelwood models, respectively. All batch experiments indicate that Fenton-like oxidation of PCP was controlled by surface mechanism reaction and the species compete with each other for adsorption on a fixed number of surface active sites. The apparent degradation rate was dominated by the rate of intrinsic chemical reactions on the oxide surface rather than the rate of mass transfer. Raman analysis suggested that the sorbed PCP was removed form magnetite surface at the first stage of oxidation reaction. The mineralization determined by TOC abatement was completed after 7 d, while total dechlorination was achieved at 4 d treatment time. The first reaction of PCP oxidation should be the dechlorination since 90% of chloride was formed at the first 30 h corresponding to the total disappearance of parent compound. All X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Mössbauer spectroscopy and chemical analyses showed that the magnetite catalyst exhibited low iron leaching, good structural stability and no loss of performance in second reaction cycle.     

Effects of broken bars/end-ring connectors and airgapeccentricities on ohmic and core losses of induction motors in ASDsusing a coupled finite element-state space method

In this paper, effects of rotor abnormalities such as broken squirrel-cage bars, broken cage connectors and airgap eccentricity on ohmic and core losses of induction motors are presented. In this investigation, a comprehensive time-stepping coupled finite element-state space (TSCFE-SS) model was fully utilized to compute the time-domain elemental flux density waveforms and various time-domain waveforms of motor winding currents useful for core loss and ohmic loss computations. Such investigation is feasible by use of the TSCFE-SS model due to its intrinsic nature and characteristics. The results obtained from the simulations of an example 1.2-hp induction motor clearly indicate that faults due to broken squirrel-cage bars/end-connectors can increase motor core losses in comparison to the healthy case. The results also give the effect of saturation on the core loss distributions within the cross-section of the motor, and indicate the potential for possible excessive loss concentrations and consequent hot spots near zones of bar and connector breakages in the rotor