Combined technology for decreasing nitrogen oxide emissions upon the combustion of fuel oil

It was demonstrated that the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO _x ) and other pollutants can be decreased by combining operating practices and chemical methods: the combustion of fuel oil as an oil-water emulsion and the low-temperature noncatalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides with the use of a special activating additive. For the first time, a decrease in the NO _x content of gas mixtures by 60–90% at a temperature of 400–500°C without the use of catalysts was found.     

A study of collimation and extraction of the U-70 accelerator beam using an axially oriented crystal

Extraction and collimation of the 50-GeV proton beam with a bent silicon crystal at the U-70 accelerator of the Institute for High Energy Physics (Protvino, Russia) was investigated. Until recently, proton beam extraction (and collimation) from accelerators has been effected using crystals with the (111) or (110) plane orientation, when the beam propagates far from the crystal axes. In the described experiment, the silicon crystal was oriented so that the proton beam was incident on it near the 〈110〉 axis. Under these conditions, a part of the beam was deflected by the crystal owing to the dynamic chaos phenomenon. The maximum beam extraction efficiency was as high as ~80%.     

Hydrogen as an activating fuel for a tidal power plant

Ocean tides, as an environmentally clean and inexhaustible natural source of energy, can be used as one alternative for replacing fossil fuels. But because the tides are dependent on the moon phases, which do not always coincide with the time of human activity, tidal projects usually require a special system for the accumulation of energy for off-peak periods. The production of hydrogen by electrolysis can be considered one such system. This paper outlines the method by which hydrogen produced during off-peak tidal power plant operation can be used as an activating fuel to furnish the same plant during the peak-load demands.With our approach (see [1]) the energy of the tide is converted into the energy of compressed air by means of specialized chambers which are put on the ocean bed. Ocean water from the dammed region passes through the chamber where it works as a natural piston compressing air in the upper part of the closure. For the peak periods the compressed air can be heated by combustion of the stored hydrogen, and expanded through high-speed gas turbine generators. For the off-peak periods, the energy of non-heated compressed air is used for the production of the hydrogen fuel. In this case the total electric output of the power plant would be decreased somewhat because the losses of the energy would be taken for the production of the hydrogen fuel.     

Annealing of Radiation and Electrostatic-Discharge Damages in Semiconductor Devices

Categories and mechanisms of radiation-damage annealing in semiconductor devices are discussed. The annealing of electrostatic-discharge damages, a phenomenon discovered by the authors, is investigated experimentally. It is shown that methods for annealing the latter damages can be categorized in the same way.