Membrane bioreactors for water reclamation.

Singapore has been using dual membrane technology (MF/UF RO) to produce high-grade water (NEWater) from secondary treated sewage. Membrane bioreactor (MBR) has very high potential and will lead to the further improvement of the productivity and quality of high-grade water. This study was focused on the technical feasibility of MBR system for water reclamation in Singapore, making a comparison between various membrane systems available and to get operational experience in terms of membrane cleaning and other issues. Three MBR plants were built at Bedok Water Reclamation Plant with a design flow of 300 m3/day each. They were commissioned in March 2003. Three different types of submerged membranes were tested. They are Membrane A, plate sheet membrane with pore size of 0.4 microm; Membrane B, hollow fibre membrane with pore size of 0.4 microm; and Membrane C, hollow fibre membrane with pore size of 0.035 microm. The permeate quality of all the three MBR Systems were found equivalent to or better than that of the conventional tertiary treatment by ultrafiltration. MBR permeate TOC was about 2 mg/l lower than UF permeate TOC. GC-MS, GC-ECD and HPLC scan results show that trace organic contaminants in MBR permeate and UF permeate were in the same range. MBR power consumption can be less than 1 kwh/m3. Gel layer or dynamic membrane generated on the submerged membrane surface played an important role for the lower MBR permeate TOC than the supernatant TOC in the membrane tank. Intensive chemical cleaning can temporarily remove this layer. During normal operation conditions, the formation of dynamic membrane may need one day to obtain the steady low TOC levels in MBR permeate.     

Photoluminescence of dysprosium doped antimony-magnesium-strontium-oxyfluoroborate glasses

Dysprosium (Dy³⁺)-doped antimony-magnesium-strontium-oxyfluoroborate (B₂O₃ MgF₂ SrO Sb₂O₃ Dy₂O₃, BMFSrSbD), glasses were synthesized by traditional melt-quenching method. The synthesized samples have been analyzed by X-ray diffraction, optical absorption and fluorescence techniques for deriving various characteristic properties. Emission spectra of Dy³⁺: samples were exhibit three well resolved emission bands at around 482, 575 and 666?nm which originated from the ⁴F_9/2→⁶H_15/2,⁴F_9/2→⁶H_13/2 and ⁴F_9/2→⁶H_11/2 transitions upon excitation of wavelength at 452?nm. Decay curves of the ⁴F_9/2 level of Dy³⁺ ion were display mono-exponential at low Dy³⁺ concentration (0.1?mol%) and deviated to non-exponential behavior at high concentration of Dy³⁺ ions (≥?0.5?mol%). Lifetime of the ⁴F_9/2 level was decreased with increase of Dy³⁺ ions concentration. Chromaticity coordinates (x,y) of Dy³⁺:BMFSrSbD samples were evaluated and represented in CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram, appear in the whitish-yellow region. The results suggest that these glasses could be utilized as a potential candidate for the development of display devices and lasers at a wavelength of 575?nm.     

The effect of laminating factors on the thermal properties of unfired multilayer glass-ceramic and alumina substrates

This paper presents experimental data on heat capacities and thermal conductivities of two ceramic tapes measured using standard ASTM methods. The two ceramic tapes were prepared using alumina and a glass ceramic of aluminum-magnesium silicate with poly(vinyl butyral) binder, and laminated at pressures of 208E5 to 620E5 Pa at two laminating temperatures and times. The measured properties showed that laminating pressures have a greater effect, and that thermal conductivities are affected more than heat capacities. Empirical models have been developed to fit the experimental data. A correlation is developed to express the density of laminated green sheets in terms of the laminating variables—time, temperature, and pressure.     

Opportunistic orthogonal writing on dirty paper

A simple scheme that achieves the capacity and the reliability function of the wideband Costa dirty-paper channel is proposed. The scheme can be interpreted as an opportunistic version of pulse position modulation (PPM). This interpretation suggests a natural generalization of the scheme which we show to achieve the capacity per unit cost of Gel'fand-Pinsker channels with a zero-cost input letter.     

Investigation of effect of protonic acid media on the optical and thermal properties of chemically synthesized poly(o-toluidine)

Conducting polymer, Poly(o-toluidine) was synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization method using different inorganic acids such as HCl, H₂SO₄, HClO₄, HNO₃, H₃PO₄ and H₃BO₃ as protonic acid media. Synthesized polymers were characterized by UV-Visible and FT-IR spectroscopy. Conducting emeraldine salt phase of the polymer has been confirmed with the help of spectroscopic analysis. Thermal stability of these polymers were investigated by thermogravimetric (TG/SDTA) analysis. Increase in conductivity with increase in temperature was observed in all the samples.     

Reliability evaluation of hybrid power markets based on multiple transaction matrix and optimal transaction curtailment

A Monte Carlo simulation technique evaluates the reliability indices of restructured power systems with a hybrid market. A model for optimal transaction curtailment for a contingency state in a hybrid market is developed to incorporate the changes brought about by deregulation. The objective of the contingency optimal transaction curtailment for each individual generation company is to minimise its revenue loss. The problem is formulated as a linear programming problem and solved using an optimisation technique. Customer load curtailment, which is the basic parameter for reliability evaluation, is determined using a load-shedding philosophy which is based on the results of the optimal transaction curtailment by the genco. Supply and demand transactions of the market participants are represented by a transaction matrix. The impact of the firm and nonfirm bilateral and reserve contracts on customer reliabilities have been studied. The technique has been illustrated by application to the IEEE Reliability Test System.     

Bulk ZnO nanorod assemblies fabricated by spin coating of organo-precursor gels on CuO nanowires

Bulk ZnO nanorod assemblies have been successfully fabricated on CuO nanowires through spin coating of organoprecursor gels. A thin film of CuO nanowires was first generated by direct heating of a metallic Cu-foil at 500 °C in an air atmosphere. A stable colloidal organo-precursor sol synthesized by dissolving equimolar zinc acetate dihydrate and monoethanolamine in 2-methoxyethanol was subsequently repeatedly deposited onto the CuO nanowires by spin coating. The formation of ZnO nanorod assemblies was controlled by varying the number of coatings. The average diameter of the ZnO rods was determined to be ～600 nm.     

Scattered data approximation by regular grid weighted smoothing

Scattered data approximation refers to the computation of a multi-dimensional function from measurements obtained from scattered spatial locations. For this problem, the class of methods that adopt a roughness minimization are the best performing ones. These methods are called variational methods and they are capable of handling contrasting levels of sample density. These methods express the required solution as a continuous model containing a weighted sum of thin-plate spline or radial basis functions with centres aligned to the measurement locations, and the weights are specified by a linear system of equations. The main hurdle in this type of method is that the linear system is ill-conditioned. Further, getting the weights that are parameters of the continuous model representing the solution is only a part of the effort. Getting a regular grid image requires re-sampling of the continuous model, which is typically expensive. We develop a computationally efficient and numerically stable method based on roughness minimization. The method leads to an algorithm that uses standard regular grid array operations only, which makes it attractive for parallelization. We demonstrate experimentally that we get these computational advantages only with a little compromise in performance when compared with thin-plate spline methods.     

Preparation and optical properties of indium tin oxide/epoxy nanocomposites with polyglycidyl methacrylate grafted nanoparticles

Visibly highly transparent indium tin oxide (ITO)/epoxy nanocomposites were prepared by dispersing polyglycidyl methacrylate (PGMA) grafted ITO nanoparticles into a commercial epoxy resin. The oleic acid stabilized, highly crystalline, and near monodisperse ITO nanoparticles were synthesized via a nonaqueous synthetic route with multigram batch quantities. An azido-phosphate ligand was synthesized and used to exchange with oleic acid on the ITO surface. The azide terminal group allows for the grafting of epoxy resin compatible PGMA polymer chains via Cu(I) catalyzed alkyne-azide "click" chemistry. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation shows that PGMA grafted ITO particles were homogeneously dispersed within the epoxy matrix. Optical properties of ITO/epoxy nanocomposites with different ITO concentrations were studied with an ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (UV-vis-NIR) spectrometer. All the ITO/epoxy nanocomposites show more than 90% optical transparency in the visible light range and absorption of UV light from 300 to 400 nm. In the near-infrared region, ITO/epoxy nanocomposites demonstrate low transmittance and the infrared (IR) transmission cutoff wavelength of the composites shifts toward the lower wavelength with increased ITO concentration. The ITO/epoxy nanocomposites were applied onto both glass and plastic substrates as visibly transparent and UV/IR opaque optical coatings.     

Rhodium-catalysed reduction of vanadium pentoxide and tungsten trioxide by hydrogen

Hydrogen reduction of V₂O₅ and WO₃ catalysed by rhodium, both in the pure form and supported on kieselguhr, has been studied. The products obtained at 300°C have been identified as VO₂ and H_xWO₃. In situ electrical resistivity measurements on V₂O₅ pellets, both pure and admixed with the catalyst, show an anomalous resistance increase with temperature, perhaps arising from chemisorption and spillover of hydrogen from rhodium.