Investigation on drying of middle distillate by Pervaporation

The drying of middle distillate (MD), from which diesel fuel is made, by Pervaporation (PV) was experimentally investigated in a laboratory plant applying organic membranes. The work was conducted in cooperation with a refinery in which MD is catalytically desulphurized by hydrogenation. The H2S formed is separated by steam stripping. The resulting water content in the MD is removed by decanting and subsequent vacuum drying. The objective was to investigate whether drying to low ppm water content is technically possible by the process of PV and to find out about the feasibility of replacing the vacuum drying by PV to save energy. The drying to low ppm water content was accomplished successfully. Permeate total and pure water fluxes are reported. Economic estimations compared vacuum drying costs taken from an existing plant with a design for a full scale multi-module PV plant. The run time of a plant for the point, at which energy savings make up for higher investment costs is estimated.     

Aktive Aufbauneigung als Rückmeldekanal bei Querführungsassistenz über entkoppelte Lenkaktorik

Forschung im Ingenieurwesen - Eingriffe von Fahrerassistenzsystemen (FAS) mittels Lenkmomentenüberlagerung sind mit Nachteilen verbunden (z. B. Fahrerbevormundung). Hingegen stoßen...     

Flash and Breakdown: Thermal Runaway and Dielectric Breakdown as Competing Mechanisms During Flash Sintering of Barium Titanate

Herein, hot-spot generation in bulk barium titanate samples is investigated during controlled current ramping at various rates using in situ dilatometry. The incubation of the flash event is separated from dielectric breakdown at high current densities, which has previously been attributed to cause flash incubation in barium titanate. The lower boundary of the onset temperature of the flash event in barium titanate is investigated through conventional flash experiments at high electric fields. Despite incubating through thermal runaway, the lower boundary does not coincide with the Debye temperature of barium titanate.     

Accelerating all-pairs shortest path algorithms for bipartite graphs on graphics processing units

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Bipartite graphs are used to model and represent many real-world problems in biological and physical sciences. Finding shortest paths in bipartite graphs is an...     

Understanding the Design Elements Affecting User Acceptance of Intelligent Agents: Past,Present and Future

Information Systems Frontiers - Intelligent agents (IAs) are permeating both business and society. However, interacting with IAs poses challenges moving beyond technological limitations towards the...     

Fast Simultaneous Angle,Wedge, and Beam Intensity Optimization in Inverse Radiotherapy Planning

We present a new fast radiotherapy planning algorithm which determines approximatively optimal gantry and table angles, kinds of wedges, leaf positions and intensities simultaneously in a global way. Other parameters are optimized only independently of each other. The algorithm uses an elaborate field management and field reduction. Beam intensities are determined via a variant of a projected Newton method of Bertsekas. The objective function is a standard piecewise quadratic penalty function, but it is built with efficient upper bounds which are calculated during the optimization process. Instead of pencil beams, basic leaf positions are included. The algorithm is implemented in the new beam modelling and dose optimization module Homo OptiS.Supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.     

Impact Wear Study of Lubricated Contacts

Pivotal hammer type impact testers are used in an experimental study of repetitively impacted lubricated contacts. Various steels are used in one- and two-body wear modes; the rate process of wear is investigated with respect to the impact parameters (normal and tangential approach velocity), and lubricant viscosity. For normal impact, a boundary lubrication system forms, but superimposed sliding speeds with a viscous lubricant tend to create an elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) condition, greatly resisting wear. Approximate measurable wear equations are derived for cylindrical striking surfaces.     

Synthesis of novel monomeric cyanine dyes containing mercapto and thioacetyl substituents for nucleic acid detection

Fifteen novel mono-, di- and tricationic monomeric monomethine cyanine dyes, bearing mercapto and thioacetyl substituents, useful for nucleic acid detection are described. All derivatives absorb in the region 417–508 nm and have molar absorptivities of 61 000–101 300 l mol⁻¹ cm⁻¹. The products were characterized by ¹H NMR, HPLC–MS and elemental analysis.     

Determination of cholesterol oxidation products in raw and processed beef and pork preparations

The effect of pan-frying on the formation of cholesterol oxidation products (COPs) in different processed meat samples (beef patties, braised meat, and fillets of pork) was studied. Samples were pan-fried with or without addition of oil. Different unsaturated oils (olive oil, corn oil or partly hydrogenated plant oil) were used throughout the study. After extraction, seven toxicologically relevant COPs were analyzed using LC–MS. Prior to heat processing up to 6.7 mg COPs/kg extracted fat could be detected in the raw material. Neither the cholestanetriol nor 25-hydroxycholesterol, which are the most cytotoxic COPs in vitro, were detectable in any sample. Differences in the COPs contents were observed between beef (up to 16.5 mg/kg extracted fat) and pork (up to 22.2 mg/kg extracted fat) samples. In prepared samples higher COPs content was noted compared with raw samples. Generally, a certain order of COPs increase dependent on the plant oil used could be recognized: corn oil < partially hydrogenated plant oil < olive oil. It appears that short heating time, mild heating conditions, and the use of fresh and shortly stored raw materials keep COPs levels low.     

A comparison of methods to estimate water-holding capacity in post-rigor porcine muscle

Water-holding capacity (WHC) of muscle is important because it affects both qualitative and quantitative aspects of meat and meat products. For assessment of WHC under field and laboratory conditions, there are several methods available, but they have not been compared in a single experiment to determine accuracy and repeatibility. The Longissimus dorsi from each of 28 porcine loins representing three distinct levels of WHC (DFD, PSE, normal) was separated into eighteen parts that were randomly assigned to individual methods. The following methods were compared: Grau-Hamm and Braunschweiger-Gerät filter paper press techniques using five approaches of evaluation for each method; transmission per cent; swelling due to added water; centrifugation; 48-h fresh and cooked shrink: imbibition of surface fluids, kapillar volumeter, permittivity; and score or weight of surface fluids accumulating on filter paper. Results indicated that most methods separated the three muscle types. However, the cooking loss tests failed to differentiate between PSE and normal samples, and the transmission, imbibition and pressed fluid methods did not always distinguish between DFD and normal. The tests that appeared to be most reliable included drip loss originating from size-standardized samples, swelling of homogenized samples by added water and absorption of surface fluids on filter paper.