Investments into forest biorefineries under different price and policy structures

Increasing scarcity of oil reserves and the high CO₂ emissions from using oil have contributed to the development of renewable biofuels. Pulp and paper mill integrated forest biorefineries offer one important means to increase biofuel production. This study analyzes the effects of policies to support biofuel production in the pulp and paper sector. We study the relative effectiveness of three biofuel supporting policy instruments, namely production subsidy, input subsidy and investment subsidy. We present a partial equilibrium pulp and paper market model with a biorefinery investment option. A numerical model is used to evaluate the impacts of policy instruments on wood prices, as well as input choices and investment strategies of pulp and paper industries. The data represent the Finnish pulp and paper sector. We evaluate the values and direct costs of the policy instruments in a situation of exogenous biofuel production targets. The direct costs of input and investment subsidies are higher than those of a production subsidy. With all the policy instruments, Finnish pulp and paper mills would invest in wood-gasifying technology, instead of black liquor based one. The number of biorefinery units is dependent on the subsidy type — investment and input subsidies are likely to result in more numerous but smaller biofuel production units than a production subsidy. With all the policy instruments the demand for wood increases in Finland leading to higher wood prices. This, in turn, could reflect negatively on the profitability of the pulp and paper industries. To a significant degree, the model and the results can be generalized to other countries and markets where integrated pulp and paper mills are operating.     

An analysis of hydrogen production from renewable electricity sources

Three aspects of producing hydrogen via renewable electricity sources are analyzed to determine the potential for solar and wind hydrogen production pathways: a renewable hydrogen resource assessment, a cost analysis of hydrogen production via electrolysis, and the annual energy requirements of producing hydrogen for refueling. The results indicate that ample resources exist to produce transportation fuel from wind and solar power. However, hydrogen prices are highly dependent on electricity prices. For renewables to produce hydrogen at $2 kg⁻¹, using electrolyzers available in 2004, electricity prices would have to be less than $0.01 kWh⁻¹. Additionally, energy requirements for hydrogen refueling stations are in excess of 20 GWh/year. It may be challenging for dedicated renewable systems at the filling station to meet such requirements. Therefore, while plentiful resources exist to provide clean electricity for the production of hydrogen for transportation fuel, challenges remain to identify optimum economic and technical configurations to provide renewable energy to distributed hydrogen refueling stations.     

Heterogeneous oligonucleotide-hybridization assay based on hot electron-induced electrochemiluminescence of a rhodamine label at oxide-coated aluminum and silicon electrodes

This paper describes a heterogeneous oligonucleotide-hybridization assay based on hot electron-induced electrochemiluminescence (HECL) of a rhodamine label. Thin oxide-film coated aluminum and silicon electrodes were modified with an aminosilane layer and derivatized with short, 15-mer oligonucleotides via diisothiocyanate coupling. Target oligonucleotides were conjugated with tetramethylrhodamine (TAMRA) dye at their amino modified 5′ end and hybridization was detected using HECL of TAMRA. Preliminary results indicate sensitivity down to picomolar level and low nonspecific adsorption. The sensitivity was better on oxide-coated silicon compared to oxide-coated aluminum electrodes and two-base pair mismatched hybrids were successfully discriminated. The experimental results presented here might be useful for the design of disposable electrochemiluminescent DNA biosensors.     

Environmental stress cracking of a chemical nature in a PBT/PBA co‐poly(ester ester)

The Environmental Stress Cracking (ESC) of a poly(butylene terephthalate)/poly(butylene adipate) (PBT/PBA) copoly(ester ester) was studied by constant‐load time‐to‐failure (TTF) tests performed on sharply notched tensile specimens in water and phosphoric acid solution at 353 K. For comparison, tests were also performed in air at the same temperature. It was found that the time to failure is significantly reduced both in water and in an acid solution as compared with air. ESC implies a mutual intensification of the destructive effect of loading and environment. Owing to the intrinsic hydrolytic instability of polyesters, a failure mechanism due to hydrolysis has to be excluded here to prove the ESC. Therefore the ESC test results are compared with measurements of the exclusive influence of hydrolysis on the degradation of mechanical properties. It was found that the PBT/PBA copoly(ester ester) tested is susceptible to environmental stress cracking in water and even more in a phosphoric acid solution, both at 353 K. From the comparison of the influence of water and a phosphoric acid solution on the time to failure, it was concluded that the ESC of PBT/PBA copoly(ester ester) in a phosphoric acid solution is mainly of a chemical nature. Polym. Eng. Sci. 44:1319–1327, 2004. © 2004 Society of Plastics Engineers.     

Detection of infrequent and multiple K-ras mutations in human tumors and tumor-adjacent tissues

A sensitive method was developed and applied to examine the distribution of K-ras gene mutations in histologically differing areas of lung tissues obtained from lung cancer patients. This method, which combines polymerase chain reaction (PCR), mutation allele enrichment (MAE), and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), allows detection of one K-ras mutant allele present in 10(4) to 10(5) wild-type alleles. It was applied to analyze mutations in codon 12 of the K-ras gene in 43 tissue sites microdissected from paraffin-embedded sections obtained from 8 archival cases of lung cancer, all previously shown to have codon 12 K-ras mutations by direct sequencing. In four cases, mutations were detected only in the tumor, while in the other four cases, the same mutations were also found in tissues adjacent to tumors, using the MAE + DGGE method. No mutations were detected among normal-appearing cells in areas distant from the tumors in any of the cases studied. These findings demonstrate that K-ras mutations can be detected at low frequencies in normal-appearing cells from tissues adjacent to the tumor in some lung cancer cases. In addition, this approach also allowed detection of multiple mutations in colorectal tissues obtained from colorectal cancer patients. Thus, the MAE + DGGE method may be applicable to study of K-ras mutations in premalignant or morphologically suspicious lesions in bronchial mucosa or other types of human cancer.     

Effects of gelatine type and concentration on the shelf-life stability and quality of marshmallows

The effects of gelatine concentration, bloom strength, and origin on the quality and shelf-life stability of marshmallows were studied. All six sample treatments were carried out under accelerated storage conditions of 25 °C and 75% relative humidity (RH) for 25 weeks. Gelatine A 150 bloom had the highest viscosity because of its highest concentration (2.54%), lowest density and greatest amount of moisture loss producing the hardest marshmallows. Hardness and water activity measurements correlate for all sample treatments indicating that moisture loss is the main mechanism for hardening. With the exception of Gelatine B 2.2%, sugar crystallisation may have occurred in all sample treatments at week 20 which would have an impact on hardness as well. Gel network formation may be contributing towards hardness in Gelatine B 2.2% as there was an increase in hardness but no changes were perceived in water activity.     

Synthesis of cobalt nanoparticles to enhance magnetic permeability of metal–polymer composites

Metallic cobalt nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrogen reduction method. Particles were coated in situ with carbon by adding ethene to reaction flow. Particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray emission, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and BET method. The observed cobalt particle size distributions in different cobalt batches produced with unvarying reaction parameters was reproducible: The mean diameter of primary cobalt particle varied only 5% from the mean value of 76 nm in different batches. Increased carbon precursor concentration decreased mean diameter of cobalt particles to 17 nm. The produced nanoparticles were used as filler material in 0–3 type metal–polymer composites. Composite samples with varying filler loading were fabricated with mixing extrusion and injection moulding techniques. The magnetic properties of the fabricated composites were measured up to 1 GHz. In order to analyse the particle distribution in composite matrix and its effect on magnetic properties the microstructure was studied.     

Membrane response model for ion-selective electrodes operated by controlled-potential thin-layer coulometry

The electrochemical response behavior of controlled-potential thin-layer coulometric sensors based on solvent polymeric membranes doped with ionophores is elucidated by numerical simulation. This treatment forms the theoretical basis for the design of potentially recalibration-free ion-selective chemical sensors that operate by exhaustive coulometry. Mass transport is assumed to occur primarily by diffusion in each bulk phase, and interfacial ion exchange with interfering ions is described with modern ion-selective electrode theory. The ion-selective membrane is assumed to contain an ion exchanger that can form concentration gradients as a result of transmembrane ion fluxes. It is shown that the diffusion of ions in the membrane phase will become rate limiting for membrane components with diffusion coefficients of 10(-8) cm(2) s(-1) that are typical for traditional ion-selective electrode formulations. This characteristic may be advantageous for sample thicknesses of 20 μm or less, where otherwise exhaustive depletion occurs too quickly to be distinguishable from nonfaradic processes. In most other cases, however, it will be necessary to formulate membrane materials that permit much faster diffusion characteristics. Indeed, the simulations give guidance on sensor design for sample concentrations that approach millimolar levels. The treatment also considers interferences from ions of the same charge sign as the analyte ion, and it is shown that the required selectivity for a given analysis must be about 1 order of magnitude higher than in direct potentiometry. This is because the coulometric exhaustive depletion process occurs only for the analyte ion, not for the interfering one, and to avoid interference, the required selectivity must be maintained even if the sample contains a fraction of the original analyte levels.