Simple Water Level Controller for Irrigation and Drainage Canals

A simple water level controller for irrigation and drainage canals is proposed; the proposed controller has a master-slave structure where the slaves control the flow rates through the control structures. The master controller consists of PI-based controllers for feedback, and a decoupler and feedforward controller that are based on the inversion of a simple dynamic model of the canal system. The applicability of the controller is demonstrated in field experiments.     

Hurdles and solutions for reactions between gas and liquid in a monolithic reactor

In this paper, proof of principle experiments and exploratory work that solves the problem of ensuring that a gaseous and a liquid reactant are available at the catalytically active site at the same time by separating the reaction and the transport of the gaseous reactant. The equipment consisted of an autoclave in which a feed was saturated with hydrogen, a reactor with a catalyst coated on a monolith, a pump to circulate the feed/product stream, and devices to control and monitor the process.

A lot of information of how the process can be practised was gathered during the work. Conversion per pass should be below the amount of hydrogen that can be dissolved in the liquid to avoid coke deposition (and hence deactivation) of the catalyst. The effectiveness of the catalyst coated on the monolith was found to be 100%.

Several variations of the process design and catalysts used were explored. Integration of the monolith with a heat exchanger will obviously allow for the use of the process for very exothermic reactions like (nitro)benzene hydrogenation. A monolith to which Rh-cyclooctadiene-1,2-bis-diphenylfosfino-ethane (a homogeneous catalyst) was tethered was equally active in hydrogenation of 1-hexene as Rh-cyclooctadiene-1,2-bis-diphenylfosfino-ethane tethered to a standard alumina. This allows (fine)chemical producers to repeatedly use the expensive homogeneous catalysts without the need for separation of the catalyst from the reaction mixture.     

Characterization of the {beta}-lactam binding site of penicillin acylase of Escherichia coli by structural and site-directed mutagenesis studies

The binding of penicillin to penicillin acylase was studiedby X-ray crystallography. The structure of the enzyme–substratecomplex was determined after soaking crystals of an inactiveßN241A penicillin acylase mutant with penicillin G.Binding of the substrate induces a conformational change, inwhich the side chains of     

The persuasive effects of personalization through: name mentioning in a smoking cessation message

Mentioning the recipient’s name in a persuasive message is one way to personalize messages in an attempt to increase persuasion. However, this type of personalization may lead to a self-threat that activates defensive reactions and to a subsequent decrease in persuasion. A self-affirmation procedure that induces open-mindedness may prevent this drawback. Smokers were exposed to a message advocating smoking cessation in one of three experimental conditions presenting: A standard text, a text with the recipient’s name incorporated four times, or a text with the recipient’s name incorporated twelve times. The extent to which smokers indicated at pretest to value their health was used as a measure of personal relevance of the message, and tested as a moderator. Half of the smokers was exposed to a self-affirmation procedure before they read the text. The dependent variable was the intention to quit smoking. When health value was moderate, mentioning the recipient’s name twelve times induced a defensive reaction, significantly lowering persuasion. This was supported by the observation that self-affirmation prevented this effect. When health value was high, mentioning the recipient’s name twelve times significantly increased persuasion. However, when self-affirmation was applied, persuasion was significantly lowered. The effects of mentioning the recipient’s name depend on individual differences in personal relevance of the message (health value) before exposure to the message: Name mentioning can increase, but also decrease persuasion, through defensive processes.     

Bench-scale WGS membrane reactor for CO2 capture with co-production of H2

This study investigated the water-gas shift reaction in a bench-scale membrane reactor (M-WGS), where three supported Pd membranes of 44 cm in length and ca. 6 μm in thickness were used, reaching a total membrane surface area of 580.6 cm². The WGS reaction was studied with the syngas mixture: 4.0% CO, 19.2% CO₂, 15.4% H₂O, 1.2% CH₄ and 60.1% H₂, under high temperature/pressure conditions: T = 673 K, p_feed = 20–35 bar(a), p_perm = 15 bar(a), mimicking CO₂ capture with co-production of H₂ in a natural gas fired power plant. High reaction pressure and high permeation of Pd membranes allowed for near complete CO conversion and H₂ recovery. Both the membranes and the membrane reactor demonstrated a long-term stability under the investigated conditions, indicating the potential of M-WGS to substitute conventional systems.     

Effect of different levels of rapidly degradable carbohydrates calculated by a simple rumen model on performance of lactating dairy cows

Aggregating rumen degradation characteristics of different carbohydrate components into the term modeled rapidly degradable carbohydrates (mRDC) can simplify diet formulation by accounting for differences in rate and extent of carbohydrate degradation within and between feedstuffs. This study sought to evaluate responses of lactating dairy cows to diets formulated with increasing levels of mRDC, keeping the supply of other nutrients as constant as possible. The mRDC content of feedstuffs was calculated based on a simple rumen model including soluble, washable, and nonwashable but potentially degradable fractions, as well as the fractional degradation and passage rates, of sugar, starch, neutral detergent fiber, and other carbohydrates. The mRDC term effectively represents the total amount of carbohydrates degraded in the rumen within 2 h after ingestion. Fifty-two lactating Holstein cows (of which 4 were rumen fistulated) were assigned to 4 treatments in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. Treatments were fed as a total mixed ration consisting of 25.4% corn silage, 23.1% grass silage, 11.6% grass hay, and 39.9% concentrate on a dry matter basis. Differences in mRDC were created by exchanging nonforage neutral detergent fiber-rich ingredients (mainly sugar beet pulp) with starch-rich ingredients (mainly wheat) and by exchanging corn (slowly degradable starch) with wheat (rapidly degradable starch) in the concentrate, resulting in 4 treatments that varied in dietary mRDC level of 167, 181, 194, or 208 g/kg of dry matter. Level of mRDC did not affect dry matter intake. Fat- and protein-corrected milk production and milk fat and lactose yield were greatest at 181 mRDC and decreased with further increases in mRDC. Milk protein yield and concentration increased with increasing mRDC level. Mean rumen pH and diurnal variation in ruminal pH did not differ between treatments. Total daily meal time and number of visits per meal were smaller at 181 and 194 mRDC. Despite milk production responses, increasing dietary mRDC levels, while maintaining net energy and intestinal digestible protein as well as other nutrients at similar levels, did not influence rumen pH parameter estimates and had minor effects on feeding behavior. These results indicate that aggregating rapidly degradable carbohydrate content into one term may be a simple way to further improve predictability of production responses in practical diet formulation for lactating dairy cows.     

Stripping medium requirement in continuous countercurrent deodorization

A mathematical formula was derived that allows the stripping steam requirement of the countercurrent deodorization process to be calculated as a function of system pressure, vapor pressure of the pure volatile compound, initial and final volatiles contents, and the number of transfer units (an equipment parameter) of the countercurrent deodorizer. Just as in batch or cross-flow deodorization systems, the steam requirement in countercurrent systems is proportional to the system pressure and inversely proportional to the vapor pressure of the pure volatile compound. Increasing the number of transfer units (for instance, by increasing column height) to more than two makes the countercurrent system require less steam than cross-flow systems with a vaporization efficiency of 0.6. In addition, the short residence time in a countercurrent deodorization column minimizes side reactions and allows the deodorization temperature to be raised without generating unwanted by-products such as trans-isomers and/or oligomers of unsaturated fatty acids. The increased deodorization temperature increases the vapor pressure of the pure volatiles and leads to further savings in stripping medium and motive steam. Countercurrent deodorization systems therefore require less energy than cross-flow deodorization systems and/or produce oil with fewer unwanted by-products.