Kinetics of zinc oxide formation from zinc sulfide by reaction with lime in the presence of water vapor

A novel reaction scheme for transforming certain metal sulfides to the corresponding oxides has been developed. In this process, steam oxidizes the sulfide into the oxide, and the hydrogen sulfide produced reacts with lime to form calcium sulfide and regenerate steam. There is no net consumption or generation of gaseous species. Thus, the overall reaction can be carried out in a closed system as far as the gas phase is concerned. This eliminates the possibility of emitting hydrogen sulfide out of the reactor. Only certain metal sulfides are thermodynamically amenable to this treatment. In this paper, the reaction of ZnS to ZnO by this scheme is described, together with a detailed formulation of the rate equation for the overall reaction based on the kinetics of the component gas-solid reactions. Although the present work was done with CaO, other suitable oxides may be used in its place. A further potential application of this process is to the selective oxidation of certain sulfide(s) from complex sulfide ores as a treatment prior to the separation of minerals.     

Development and simulation studies of an unsteady state biofilter model for the treatment of cyclic air emissions of an α‐pinene gas stream

This paper describes the development and simulation of an unsteady state biofilter model used to predict dynamic behaviour of cyclically‐operated biofilters and compares it with experimental results obtained from three, parallel, bench‐scale biofilters treating both periodically fluctuating concentrations and constant concentrations of an α‐pinene‐laden gas stream. The dynamic model, using kinetic parameters estimated from the constant concentration biofilter, was able to predict the performance of cyclic biofilters operating at short cycle periods (ie, in the order of minutes and hours). Steady state kinetic data from a constant concentration biofilter can be used to predict unsteady state biofilter operation. At a 24 h cycle period, the dynamic model compared well with experimental results. For long cycle periods (ie, hours and days), removal efficiency decreased after periods of non‐loading: the longer the period of non‐loading, the poorer the biofilter's performance at the re‐commencement of pollutant loading. At longer time scales the model did not effectively predict transient behaviour, as adsorption and changes in kinetic parameters were not accounted for. Modelling results showed that similar biofiltration performance for the cyclic and constant concentration biofiltration of α‐pinene is expected for biofilters operating solely in the first order kinetics regime. Poorer performance for cyclic biofilters following Monod kinetics spanning the entire kinetics range is expected as the cycle amplitude increases. The most important parameters affecting the performance of a cyclically‐operated biofilter with short cycle periods are: amplitude of cyclic fluctuations, C_{g, max}/C_g, relative value of the half‐saturation constant in the Monod expression, K_s, and effective diffusivity of α‐pinene in the biofilm, D_e. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Ultrasound‐activated Knoevenagel condensation of malononitrile with carbonylic compounds catalysed by alkaline‐doped saponites

α,β‐Unsaturated nitriles have been synthesized by Knoevenagel condensation of a carbonylic compound with malononitrile, assisted by sonochemical irradiation. Two alkaline‐promoted clays (Li⁺‐ and Cs⁺‐exchanged saponites) have been employed as catalysts. The influence of the carbonylic compound (benzaldehyde or cyclohexanone) and the use of a solvent on the catalytic activity have been studied. Remarkable increase in the conversion values has been found when the reaction is activated by ultrasound, as compared with the thermal activation. In this green, solvent‐free procedure, α,β‐unsaturated nitriles have been produced in very high yields (97%) when the Cs⁺‐saponite is used as catalyst. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

A 4-MB on-chip L2 cache for a 90-nm 1.6-GHz 64-bit microprocessor

A 4-MB L2 data cache was implemented for a 64-bit 1.6-GHz SPARC(r) RISC microprocessor. Static sense amplifiers were used in the SRAM arrays and for global data repeaters, resulting in robust and flexible timing operation. Elimination of the global clock grid over the SRAM array saves power, enabled by combining the clock information with array select signals. Redundancy was implemented flexibly, with shift circuits outside the main data array for area efficiency. The chip integrates 315 million transistors and uses an 8-metal-layer 90-nm CMOS process.     

Single fundamental mode photonic crystal vertical cavity laser with improved output power

The single fundamental mode output power of photonic crystal vertical cavity lasers is improved by varying sizes of oxide apertures and defect lasing apertures. A maximum output power of 3.1 mW in the fundamental mode has been achieved with a new fabrication process that involves only focused ion beam etching to create holes in selectively oxidised VCSELs.     

Investigation of texture effect on visual colour difference evaluation

The texture effect on visual colour difference evaluation was investigated in this study. Five colour centers were selected and textured colour pairs were generated using scanned textile woven fabrics and colour‐mapping technique. The textured and solid colour pairs were then displayed on a characterized cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor for colour difference evaluation. The colour difference values for the pairs with texture patterns are equal to 5.0 CIELAB units in lightness direction. The texture level was represented by the half‐width of histogram, which is called texture strength in this study. High correlation was found between texture strength and visual colour difference for textured colour pairs, which indicates that an increasing of 10 units of texture strength in luminance would cause a decreasing of 0.25 units visual difference for the five colour centers. The ratio of visual difference between textured and solid colour pairs also indicates a high parametric effect of texture. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 341–347, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.     

Nutrient removal performance of an anaerobic–anoxic–aerobic process as a function of influent C/P ratio

The laboratory scale anaerobic–anoxic–aerobic (A²O) process fed with synthetic brewage wastewater was designed to investigate the effects of changing feed C/P ratio on the performance of biological nutrient removal (BNR) processes. In the experiment, the influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration was kept at approximately 300 mg L^?1 while the total phosphorus concentration was varied to obtain the desired C/P ratio. Results showed that when the C/P ratio was lower than 32, phosphorus removal efficiency increased as C/P ratio increased linearly, while when the C/P ratio was higher than 32, the P removal efficiency was maintained at 90–98%, and effluent P concentration was lower than 0.5 mg L^?1. However, regardless of the C/P ratio, excellent COD removal (90% or higher) and good total nitrogen removal (75–84%) were maintained throughout the experiments. It was also found that very good linear correlation was obtained between COD uptake per unit P released in the anaerobic zone and C/P ratio. In addition, the P content in the wasted activated sludge increased with the decrease in the C/P ratio. Based on the results, it was recommended that the wastewater C/P ratio and its effects be incorporated into BNR design and operational procedures, appropriate C/P ratios were used to achieve the effluent treatment goals. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Joint data rate and power allocation for lifetime maximization in interference limited ad hoc networks

In this paper, we consider the following problem in the wireless ad hoc network: Given a set of paths between source and destination, how to divide the data flow among the paths and how to control the transmission rates, times, and powers of the individual links in order to maximize the operation time of the worst network node. If all nodes are of equal importance, the operation time of the worst node is also the lifetime of the network. By solving the problem, our aim is to investigate how the network lifetime is affected by link conditions such as the maximum transmission power of a node and the peak data rate of a link. For the purpose, we start from a system model that incorporates the carrier to interference ratio (CIR) into a variable data rate of a link. With this, we can develop an iterative algorithm for the lifetime maximization, which resembles to the distributed power control in cellular systems. Numerical examples on the iterative algorithm are included to illustrate the network lifetime as a function of the maximum transmission power and the peak data rate.     

Rheological properties of polypropylene modified by high‐intensity ultrasonic waves

A new method using high‐intensity ultrasonic waves, instead of peroxide‐aided reactive extrusion, was applied to modify a linear polypropylene into a branched structure. The ultrasonic waves induced chain scission and created reactive macromolecules of polypropylene successfully in the melt state without any peroxide. To enhance and control the recombination reaction during sonication, a multifunctional agent and an antioxidant were used. The rheological property measurements clearly confirmed that the modified polypropylene had a nonlinear branched structure. It showed shear‐thinning behaviors in its viscosities at low frequencies, high elastic behaviors in Cole–Cole plots, and a high rheological polydispersity index in comparison with a linear polypropylene. The degradation or recombination of polypropylene was adequately controlled by an antioxidant, which stabilized the structure during sonication. Also, the use of an antioxidant was quite effective in improving the extrusion processability by delaying the instability of the extrudate to a higher shear rate. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2006