Possible Directions in Recycling Crystal Production Waste

Methods are proposed for regeneration and subsequent recycling of waste generated in lead crystal production, such as diamond cutting and chemical polishing slime and acid sewage neutralization waste. The specified methods provide for additional economic effects and substantial environmental improvement and make it possible to produce new types of materials (a complex lead-bearing material, low-melting glasses, foam materials).__________Translated from Steklo i Keramika, No. 1, pp. 12 – 14, January, 2005.     

On the possibility of PID control of the standard inertial and oscillatory plants

Stability-optimal solutions were established for the problem of control of the aperiodic, delay, and oscillatory plants approximated by the dynamic models representing a serial connection of the inertial units, inertial delay unit, and inertial units with oscillatory unit.     

LSB Dithering in MASH Delta–Sigma D/A Converters

Theoretical sufficient conditions are presented that ensure that the quantization noise from every constituent digital delta-sigma (DeltaSigma) modulator in a multistage digital DeltaSigma modulator is asymptotically white and uncorrelated with the input. The conditions also determine if spectral shape can be imparted to the dither's contribution to the power spectral density of the multistage digital DeltaSigma modulator's output. A large class of popular multistage digital DeltaSigma modulators that satisfy the conditions are identified and tabulated for easy reference     

Yield of products from catalytic cracking of vacuum gasoils

In catalytic cracking of vacuum gasoils, the yields of products are correlated with their hydrogen content. A correlation that allows predicting the yields of products of this process was elaborated based on the results of cracking of 11 gasoils of different origin and data on their density, refractive index, and 50% distillation temperature. However, it is not possible to predict the octane number of the naphtha obtained in cracking with the group hydrocarbon composition of the feedstock. __________ Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 4, pp. 31–34, July–August, 2007.     

Impact of Preferential P-Diffusion Along the Grain Boundaries on Fine-Grained Polysilicon Solar Cells

Thin-film polysilicon solar cells are a promising low-cost alternative for bulk silicon solar cells due to their reduced material thickness. Recently, we showed that the use of an amorphous silicon/polycrystalline silicon heterojunction emitter instead of a diffused homojunction emitter led to a boost in the open-circuit voltage by 90 mV. Now, we present a full evidence that shows that this improvement is related to the absence of dopant smearing along the grain boundaries. By using scanning spreading resistance microscopy, we found an enlargement of the junction area by a factor of five in case of a homojunction. The tips of the dopant spikes represent lowly doped areas with an enhanced recombination.     

Enzymatic Firming of Processed Red Pepper by Means of Exogenous Pectinesterase

The objective of this investigation was to demonstrate that the firmness of a commercial vegetable product, diced and frozen red pepper (Capsicum annum var. Sendt), could be improved by the use of exogenous pectinesterase in an industrially relevant process. The diced pepper pieces 10 × 10 × 7 mm³ were infused under vacuum with a commercially available pectinesterase. The range of optimal process conditions was: 15-20°C, 45 min infusion time, a 10-25 mM CaCl₂ infusion brine, a w/w ratio of pepper fruit to infusion brine of 1.5:1, and an enzyme dosage of 30-60 pectinesterase units (PEU) per kg pepper fruit. The firmness as measured by back extrusion was improved by a factor of two to three. The effect of firming was robust and conserved after freezing and heating in a simulated household cooking process. The firming process seems easily adaptable to industrial conditions and may be applicable to other vegetable and fruit products.     

Direct Instantaneous Torque Control in Direct Drive Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors—a New Approach

In this paper, a novel direct instantaneous torque control scheme for a direct drive (DD) permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is presented. A hybrid control structure combining the internal model principle and the variable structure control (VSC) approach is proposed. First, a variable structure torque controller is adopted to regulate the torque angle increment according to the torque feedback error. Second, the appropriate control voltage vector is determined using the reference stator flux vector and the estimated dynamic back electromotive force (EMF) vector, as an internal model, in a deadbeat control manner. Subsequently, better disturbance rejection can be obtained with the proposed cascaded control structure. To robustly obtain the instantaneous torque and flux information, a robust adaptive motor model is proposed. The Lyapunov stability theory is used to analyze the stability of the augmented robust adaptive motor model and to give a guideline for tuning model parameters. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed instantaneous torque control scheme.