Effects of enzymatic modification of milk proteins on flavour and textural qualities of set yoghurt

Milk proteins were enzymatically modified, using neutrase and trypsin immobilised on CM‐Sephadex C‐50, to the extent of 3, 4 and 5% degrees of hydrolysis. The neutrase‐treated milk and the trypsin‐treated milk were used separately to prepare set yoghurt. The set yoghurt prepared from neutrase‐treated milk showed an improvement in body, texture and flavour, a faster rate of acid development and a reduction in setting time compared with the control. However, the set yoghurt prepared from trypsin‐treated milk showed either a small or no improvement in textural and sensory properties. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry     

Effect of Natural and Synthetic Surfactant on the Rheology of Light Crude Oil

Comparative effectiveness of natural surfactant extracted from Sapindus mukorossi in laboratory and commercial surfactant Brij 30 was determined. Light crude oil was collected from ONGC, Gujarat, India. Its pour point and viscosity decreased significantly after adding surfactants. Wax crystal structure and crystal size distribution was analyzed using cross polarized light microscope and dynamic light scattering techniques. There was remarkable reduction in radius of wax crystals after addition of both the surfactants. Microscopic studies showed significant change in size and structure of wax crystals favoring reduction in viscosity. The possible mechanism behind improvement of flow properties was also analyzed through FTIR studies.     

Wax Deposition in Flow Lines Under Dynamic Conditions

The wax deposition in the tubing, pipeline, and surface flow line is the major problem in the oil fields. It generates additional pressure drop and causes fauling and ultimately increases the operating cost during production, transportation, and handling of waxy crude oil. In this work, attempts were made to study the wax deposition in the flow lines due to Indian crude oil under dynamic condition. The experimental work was carried out for neat crude oil and pour point depressants treated crude oil at different ambient/surface temperature and pumping/reservoir temperature. It was observed that temperature has significant effect on the wax deposition of the crude oils. From these studies, ideal temperature of crude oil to pump in the pipeline or flow line was determined. The present investigations also furnishes that the selected pour point depressant in this work decreases the wax deposition significantly and may be used for controlling the wax deposition problems in case of Indian crude oil.     

Physical Properties of Petroleum Waxes. I. Effect of Oil Content

Abstract

The effect of oil content on the physical properties of five microcrystalline waxes having widely different oil content have been investigated. It has been observed that the physical properties are affected to a great extent by the variation in oil content. Oil content has a profound effect on viscosity, hardness, and crystallinity of waxes. The effect is not so profound in the case of melting point.     

An experimental analysis of subcooled leakage flow through slits from high pressure high temperature pipelines

The work presented here is an experimental investigation of the critical flashing flow of initially subcooled water through circumferential slits in pipes. The study provides first hand information about the prediction of leak flow rates in piping and pressure vessels retaining high temperature and high pressure. The dedicated experimental facility loop simulates the thermal hydraulic condition of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). The critical flow characteristics found for varying leakage cross sections at different stagnation pressure and different degree of subcooling has been demonstrated in this paper. A marked decrease in mass flux has been found as subcooling decreases for a fixed stagnation pressure. More observation has revealed that the tighter slits or openings with very short duct as small as 0.8 cm flow length have different flow behavior than greater opening dimensions or with longer flow channels or that for nozzles. The critical flow has been seen to occur at higher pressure differentials along the flaws and prominent changes in the flow rate is reported to occur with varying dimensional parameters of the slit or cracks.     

GaAs/Ge solar cell AC parameters under illumination

The ac parameters of GaAs/Ge solar cell were measured under illumination at different cell temperatures using impedance spectroscopy technique. They are compared with the dark measurements. It is found that the cell capacitance is higher and cell resistance is lower under illumination than in dark for all cell terminal voltages. The cell capacitances at the corresponding maximum power point voltage (terminal) do not vary with temperature where as the cell resistance decreases. The cell capacitance under illumination is estimated from the dark cell capacitance and it is in good agreement with the measured illumination data.     

Study of Phase Transition in Hard Microcrystalline Waxes and Wax Blends by Differential Scanning Calorimetry

Phase transition temperature and associated energies in hard high melting microcrystalline waxes and its various blend with paraffin wax (melting range from 60 to 97°C) have been determined by DSC in both heating and cooling mode. The dependence of these on the composition and properties of waxes have been analyzed. The solid liquid transition temperature obtained by DSC has been compared with ASTM drop melting point of these wax samples. The present study has demonstrated that DSC can be of great use in identifying whether the wax sample is blend of different waxes or not.     

Metal hydride material requirements for automotive hydrogen storage systems

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has published a progression of technical targets to be satisfied by on-board rechargeable hydrogen storage systems in light-duty vehicles. By combining simplified storage system and vehicle models with interpolated data from metal hydride databases, we obtain material-level requirements for metal hydrides that can be assembled into systems that satisfy the DOE targets for 2017. We assume minimal balance-of-plant components for systems with and without a hydrogen combustion loop for supplemental heating. Tank weight and volume are driven by the stringent requirements for refueling time. The resulting requirements suggest that, at least for this specific application, no current on-board rechargeable metal hydride satisfies these requirements.     

Efficient composite bipolar plate reinforced with carbon fiber and graphene for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

The composite bipolar plates are developed using natural graphite, carbon black, and carbon fiber, along with 1% graphene with phenol formaldehyde (resole) resin. The graphene is developed by thermo-chemical exfoliation of natural graphite and characterized by XRD, Raman, FESEM, and AFM analyses. The synthesized graphene is monolayer graphene with a minimum thickness of 1 Å. The bipolar plates are developed using compression molding technique and thoroughly characterized considering stringent benchmarks (US-DOE and Plug Power Inc.) for PEMFC viz., electrical conductivity, flexural strength, deflection at mid-point, and corrosion current density. The composite bipolar plate showed excellent corrosion resistance to the rigorous fuel cell environment. All the required properties are achieved by the developed composite bipolar plate for PEMFC application. The fuel cell is fabricated with the developed bipolar plate and the performance of the fuel cell is studied. The incorporation of graphene has improved the fuel cell performance significantly.     

Controlled degradation of highly compacted sodium alanate pellets

Compaction of sodium alanate doped with 3 mol% titanium chloride (TiCl₃) into rigid cylindrical pellets improves thermal conductivity, density and volumetric hydrogen capacity of a traditionally poorly conductive material. However, hydrogen cycling of alanate pellets results in significant expansion which counteracts the advantages of compaction. Restricting the area in which pellets can expand into minimizes these losses with no adverse effect to cycling capacity. Confined pellets had a 50% less decrease in density over 30 cycles, 5 times greater thermal conductivity within 10 cycles and maintain structural integrity through 50 cycles compared to free pellets. In addition, pellets within mechanical confinement fused into a rigid stack within the first few hydrogen cycles thereby reducing surface contact resistance between pellets by 3.5 times. Improved thermal conductivity and heat transfer through a pellet bed of materials such as complex metal hydrides, is a key aspect for on-board storage applications.