Simultaneous harvesting and cell disruption of microalgae using ozone bubbles: optimization and characterization study for biodiesel production

In the present study, ozone was introduced as an alternative approach to harvest and disrupt microalgae cells (Chlorella vulgaris) simultaneously for biodiesel production. At the optimum ozonation conditions (6.14 g·h^–1 ozone concentration, 30 min ozonation time, 1 L·min^–1 of ozone flowrate at medium pH of 10 and temperature of 30 °C), the sedimentation efficiency of microalgae cells increased significantly from 12.56% to 68.62%. It was observed that the microalgae cells aggregated to form flocs after pre-treated with ozone due to the increment of surface charge from –20 to –6.59 mV. Besides, ozone had successfully disrupted the microalgae cells and resulted in efficient lipid extraction, which was 1.9 times higher than the control sample. The extracted microalgae lipid was mainly consisted of methyl palmitate (C16:0), methyl oleate (C18:1) and methyl linolenate (C18:3), making it suitable for biodiesel production. Finally, utilization of recycled culture media after ozonation pre-treatment showed robust growth of microalgae, in which the biomass yield was maintained in the range of 0.796 to 0.879 g·h^–1 for 5 cycles of cultivation.     

Conventional and ionized magnetron sputter‐deposition of nanocrystalline titanium diboride thin films

Titanium diboride has many interesting physical and chemical properties that make it attractive as a tribological coating material. We focus our study on the relationship between hardness, crystal structure and processing parameters for TiB₂ thin films produced by conventional and ionized magnetron sputtering. When synthesized by conventional magnetron sputtering, TiB₂ films with the highest degree of crystallinity have the highest hardness and are obtainable at an optimum combination of argon pressure and substrate bias. The films also show strong (0001) texture. Such high degree of crystallinity can be obtained without substrate bias by ionized magnetron sputtering, in which enhanced ionization of the plasma is obtained by inductively coupling RF power in the region between the magnetron target and the substrate. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Mining interesting sequential patterns for intelligent systems

Mining sequential patterns means to discover sequential purchasing behaviors of most customers from a large number of customer transactions. Past transaction data can be analyzed to discover customer purchasing behaviors such that the quality of business decisions can be improved. However, the size of the transaction database can be very large. It is very time consuming to find all the sequential patterns from a large database, and users may be only interested in some sequential patterns. Moreover, the criteria of the discovered sequential patterns for user requirements may not be the same. Many uninteresting sequential patterns for user requirements can be generated when traditional mining methods are applied. Hence, a data mining language needs to be provided such that users can query only knowledge of interest to them from a large database of customer transactions. In this article, a data mining language is presented. From the data mining language, users can specify the items of interest and the criteria of the sequential patterns to be discovered. Also, an efficient data mining technique is proposed to extract the sequential patterns according to the users' requests. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 20: 73–87, 2005.     

The mechanism of electrodeposition of acrylic resin on aluminium

A mechanism for the electrodeposition of acrylic resin on aluminium is proposed, based on experimental studies of acid value, anodic gas evaluation and anodic film resistance. The mechanism can be expressed as Alf Al³⁺ + 3e 2Al³⁺ + 3H₂Of Al₂O₃ + 6H⁺ 2Al³⁺ + 6H₂Of 2Al(OH)₃ + 6H⁺ H⁺ + RCOC^– f RCOOH. This is different from the mechanism for zinc and steel, where it is metal ions from anodic dissolution which neutralize the macro-ions and cause a deposit on the anode surface.     

The Novel Additive 1‐Naphthalenethiol Opens a New Processing Route to Efficiency‐Enhanced Polymer Solar Cells

Polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on fullerene derivatives often require additives to optimize active layer morphology. Here, the novel additive 1‐naphthalenethiol (SH‐na) is proposed for processing the PSC active layer of PTB7:PC₇₁BM. Spin‐casting with SH‐na as additive achieves a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.3%, compared to 6.7% for preparations containing the conventional 1,8‐diiodooctane additive. Dipping of the active layer into a methanol solution of critical SH‐na concentration increases the PCE further to 8.75%. This is mainly due to an improved open‐circuit voltage (from 0.72 to 0.79 V) together with a high achieved fill factor of 0.70. The improved PCE is correlated to the morphology optimization according to measurements of grazing incidence small/wide‐angle X‐ray scattering, neutron reflectivity, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The integrated results suggest that the halogen‐free additive SH‐na can form hydrogen bonds with both PTB7 and PC₇₁BM, resulting in substantially improved PTB7 crystallization and multi‐length‐scale PC₇₁BM dispersion for appropriate aggregation and networks. The subsequent dipping treatment with SH‐na further modifies the active layer morphology for a more PC₇₁BM‐enriched surface and better PC₇₁BM networks in the bulk film for an optimized electron‐to‐hole mobility ratio of 2.04, hence resulting in improved device performance.     

Quaternion Feedback Attitude Control Design: A Nonlinear H∞ Approach

The paper presents a quaternion feedback attitude control law for spacecraft attitude maneuver. A nonlinear feedback controller is designed to achieve L₂ gain performance, i.e., the resulting closed‐loop system is designed such that the L₂ gain from the exogenous disturbance to the performance measure is less than a scalar. The solution of the nonlinear H_∞ control problem is known to be related to the existence of a solution to the Hamilton‐Jacobi inequality. In the paper, a solution for spacecraft attitude control is conjectured and shown to satisfy the H_∞ criterion. The result generalizes existing methods in two regards: the proposed Hamilton‐Jacobi function is more general than existing ones and the resulting controller contains a nonlinear term that can be used to address the nonlinear couplings between quaternion terms. The method is applied to the ROCSAT‐3 orbit raising control problem to verify its effectiveness.     

Lightweight Aggregates from Industrial Sludge–Marine Clay Mixes

Waste disposal problems are often the result of rapid industrial and economic developments in land-scarce municipalities. Waste utilization could be a viable choice to alleviate the problems by transforming wastes into useful products while conserving natural resources. Previous studies by the writers indicated that in the process of thermal conversion of industrial sludge and dredged marine clay mixes into concrete aggregates, pyro-expansion and bloating were often exhibited by the aggregates. The expansion and bloating mechanisms, however, have not been looked into in greater detail. This research examines the petrology of sintered industrial sludge–marine clay aggregates in order to better understand the mechanisms leading to pyro-expansion and bloating of the aggregates. The study would enable development of an efficient and cost-effective bloating methodology for lightweight aggregate production. Main factors investigated were sludge–clay mix proportions, firing temperatures, and salt additives. The investigation revealed that firing at temperatures of 1,200 and 1,300°C produced aggregates of lower specific gravity in the range of 0.5–1.6. The highest aggregate porosity can be achieved at 1,200°C with a clay content of 50%. Scanning electron microscope images indicated that the intrinsic lightweight characteristic of the aggregates could be attributed to large pores within a dense surrounding matrix. The effect of lightweight structures may be ascribed to the release of volatile substances at each respective peak endothermic transitions during firing. The release of substances in vapor form required a large amount of energy, which resulted in the peak endothermic transitions that correspond to the formation of the porous lightweight structures. The results suggested that it is possible to promote pores formation in the production of aggregates possessing lightweight characteristics through careful control of temperature and the selection of sludge–clay proportion.     

A critical review on global trends in biogas scenario with its up-gradation techniques for fuel cell and future perspectives

Renewable biogas production technology is an excellent method for eradication of greenhouse gas emission and thereby reducing global warming. This review discusses extensively on global biomass potential, energy need and method of satisfying the energy demand through sustainable techniques. One of the best alternative technological developments for the conversion of waste into useful energy is anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. It is recognized as one among leading green energy to manage the environmental and meet the current energy tasks to tackle globally. Generally, biogas can be utilized for cooking, heat and electricity generation. In order to extend the scope of application, traces of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide has to be removed by several upgrading technologies to produce high purity methane (90%). This study discusses on biogas up-gradation using physical and chemical absorption, membrane separation, cryogenic separation, hybrid technology etc. Among the various up-gradation techniques, hybrid technology yields methane purity of 97%. In addition, this work reviews about benefits and problems in anaerobic integrated Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) with latest real-world achievement in SOFC. Several SOFC systems with dynamic model development were reviewed based on efficiency of power generation. SOFC generates 45% more electricity than generator with heat engine. This review extends the scope for further research in biogas upgradation and global warming mitigation potential with carbon credits.