AMMONIA CATALYZED ORGANOSOLV DELIGNIFICATION OF POPLAR

A parametric investigation of NH₄OH catalyzed solvent delignification of poplar was conducted to define pretreatment conditions which would yield an optimal separation of the biomass components and an enzymatic susceptible solid carbohydrate phase. Delignification parameters of interest included concentration of NH₄OH, time and temperature of the reaction, and type of solvent. The addition of 0.82 M NH₄OH to the delignification liquor increased lignin removal and decreased carbohydrate degradation, but increasing NH₄OH concentration had no additional effect. At lower reaction temperatures, the extent of delignification increased with reaction time; at higher temperatures, a “relignification” of the pretreated wood was observed. The delignification and hemicellulose solubilization were modelled and rate constants reported. No major difference between three potential pulping solvents—ethanol, butanol, phenol—was observed. The enzymatic susceptibility of pretreated wood samples was approximately 6-fold greater than that of the untreated poplar. UV absorbance was used to qualitatively characterize the soiubilized lignins.     

Concentration of tocopherols from soybean sludge by supercritical carbon dioxide

A supercritical fluid extraction method has been applied to test the feasibility of tocopherol concentration from soybean sludge with carbon dioxide at temperatures and pressures ranging from 35 to 70°C and 200 to 400 bar, respectively. The supercritical solubility of the esterified soybean sludge was over 4–6 times greater than that of the original soybean sludge. By a simple batch-type one-stage method the tocopherols in the esterified soybean sludge could be concentrated up to 40 wt%. The overall results of the present study show that soybean sludge initially containing about 13–14 wt% tocopherols may require a countercurrent multistage column to be highly and effectively concentrated.     

High catalytic activity of PdOx/MnO2 for CO oxidation and importance of oxidation state of Mn

PdO_x/MnO₂ has been examined as a catalyst for CO oxidation using a conventional flow reactor at reaction temperatures between 50 and 150°C. In the reaction conditions of GHSV (gashourlyspacevelocity) of 1.22 × 10⁵/h and CO concentration of 2000 ppm, PdO_x/MnO₂ showed higher catalytic activity compared with PdO_x/Mn₂O₃, which had been previously reported as an effective catalyst due to the cooperative action of Pd and Mn₂O₃ for this reaction. The reason for higher activity of PdO_x/MnO₂ than PdO_x/Mn₂O₃ has been investigated using TPR (temperatureprogrammed reduction) and XPS studies. TPR showed that PdO_x/MnO₂ could be reduced by CO at much lower temperature than PdO_x/Mn₂O₃. During the experiment of reduction and oxidation, XPS showed that the valence of Mn in the PdO_x/MnO₂ was between 4+ and 3+, which is higher than that of Mn in the PdO_x/Mn₂O₃ catalyst of which the valence has been reported to be between 3+ and 2+. It is known that in this catalyst system the support supplies oxygen onto Pd, where the oxidation occurs with adsorbed CO, and the ability of the support to provide oxygen improves the performance of the catalyst. Therefore, it was concluded that the readiness of MnO₂ to be reduced with maintaining a higher oxidation state showed higher CO oxidation activity than Mn₂O₃ as support for PdO_x.     

Effect of extrusion temperature on elongational flow behavior of PVC melt

The effect of the sample extrusion temperature between 160° and 180°C on the elongational flow properties of a low molecular weight suspension PVC (unplasticized) has been studied with the Rheometrics Extensional Rheometer. The results of both the tensile creep measurements at a constant stress of 24 KPa and the stretching experiment at a constant strain rate of 0.01 sec^?1 indicated the existence of a rheological transition at 185°C marked by the dual valued flow activation energy and also by the temperature dependence of the tensile stress-strain curves. Increasing extrusion temperature increased both the flow activation energy and the extensional viscosity below the transition temperature.     

An Analytical Approach to Creating Multitouch Gesture Vocabularies in Mobile Devices: A Case Study for Mobile Web Browsing Gestures

This study proposes an analytical approach to the creation of multitouch control-gesture vocabularies applicable to mobile devices. The approach consists of four steps: (a) identifying target commands, (b) extracting gesture features of the target commands, (c) analyzing usage patterns based on elements that consist of multitouch gestures, and (d) creating gesture vocabularies based on the gesture features and elements. Usefulness and practicality of the proposed approach were validated in a case study. The case study created 11 mobile web browsing gestures to improve short-cut interactions. Six volunteers created gestures based on systematic procedures and practical methods. A total of 314 gestures were created in the case study, and the results were compared with those of a previous study that used an empirical approach to design control gestures. The proposed approach helped designers to create appropriate gestures for various commands on mobile devices. It was very practicable for all designers, including even novice users.     

Interaction of CETP inhibitory peptide and lipoprotein substrates in cholesteryl ester transfer assay: relationship between association properties and inhibitory activities

In a previous study, CETP inhibitory peptide (3 kDa) was isolated from hog plasma. The peptide, synthesized chemically according to the amino acid sequence of the 3-kDa peptide (designated P₂₈), showed CETP inhibitory activity both in vitro and in vivo [Cho et al. (1998) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1391, 133–144]. We report herein further unique features of P₂₈ when it was associated with the cholesteryl ester (CE)-donor and-acceptor lipoproteins. Lipoprotein substrates with P₂₈ present in both HDL (as a CE-donor) and LDL (as a CE-acceptor) served as poor substrates, with CE-transfer activity decreased up to 60% compared to normal substrates without P₂₈. P₂₈ was found to be located in HDL fractions of hog plasma and showed the same electromobility as that visualized by PAGE on 7% polyacrylamide gel under nondenaturing conditions. Addition of apolipoprotein A-1 (apoA-1) or apoB antibody to a normal CE-transfer mixture did not alter CE-transfer activity. However, addition of apoA-1 or −B antibody to a CETP-inhibition mixture decreased the inhibitory activity of P₂₈ by ca. 20%. Western blot analysis revealed that P₂₈ was associated only with human and hog HDL among several lipoproteins purified from human, hog, and rabbit. CFTP-inhibition assays with various lipoprotein substrates revealed that P₂₈ exhibited substrate-specific inhibitory activity. The inhibitory activity of P₂₈ was highly dependent on the type of lipoprotein substrate (whether CE-donor or-acceptor); P₂₈ inhibited CE transfer from HDL to LDL, but it did not inhibit CE transfer from HDL to HDL.     

Experiments of a prototype wind-driven reverse osmosis desalination system with feedback control

A prototype wind-powered reverse osmosis desalination system was constructed and tested on Coconut Island off the northern coast of Oahu, Hawaii, for brackish water desalination. The system has four major subsystems: a multi-vaned windmill/pump, a flow/pressure stabilizer, a reverse osmosis module, and a control mechanism. The feedback control mechanism, developed by this study, allowed this prototype system to be operated satisfactorily under mild ambient wind of 5 m/s or less. No auxiliary power source was needed. The system operational data showed that at an average wind speed of 5 m/s, brackish feedwater at a total dissolved solids concentration of 3000 mg/1 and at a flow rate of 13 1/min could be processed by this system. The average rejection rate of this prototype system was 97% and the average recovery ratio was 20%. The energy efficiency of the system was measured at 3 5%, which is comparable to the typical energy efficiency of well-operated multi-vaned windmills. Generally, the system's energy efficiency decreases as wind speed increases.     

Dissipative structures of autocatalytic reactions in tubular flow reactors

Dissipative structures of autocatalytic reactions with initially uniform concentrations are studied in tubular flow reactors. A unique steady state exists in a continuous stirred tank reactor. Linear stability analysis predicts either a stable node, a focus or an unstable saddle-focus. Sustained oscillations around the unstable focus can occur for high values of Damköhler number. In distributed parameter systems, travelling, standing or complex oscillatory waves are detected. For low values of Damköhler number, travelling waves with pseudo-constant patterns are observed. With intermediate values of Damköhler number, single or multiple standing waves are obtained. The temporal behavior indicates also the appearance of retriggering or echo waves. For high values of Damköhler number, both single peak and complex multipeak oscillations are found. In the cell model, both regular oscillations near the inlet and chaotic behavior downstream are observed. In the dispersion model, higher Peclet numbers eliminate the oscillations. The spatial profile shows a train of pulsating waves for the discret model and a single pulsating or solitary wave for the continuous model.     

Fluidized bed combustion of high ash anthracite: Analysis of combustion efficiency and particle size distribution

Fluidized bed combustion of high ash anthracite (HAA) was experimentally studied. The combustor consists of 0.25 m ID bed, and auxiliary equipments for coal feeding, ash removal, lemperature control, etc. Experimental results elucidate main cause of fuel loss to be elutriation of fines (i.e., flyash) containing unburned carbon. However, detailed balances of particle size distribution show majority of carbon in flyash comes from fines contained in the feed instead of attrition of coarse particles. The latter is the main source of flyash for conventional coal. The difference is due to much smaller attrition rate of HAA; feed HAA particles do not shrink much in size by combustion and attrition.     

Power Smoothing of a Variable-speed Wind Turbine Generator

This paper presents a power-smoothing scheme of a variable-speed wind turbine generator (VSWTG) that employs separate control gains for the over-frequency section (OFS) and under-frequency section (UFS). In the proposed scheme, an additional proportional control loop based on the system frequency deviation operating in conjunction with maximum power point tracking operation is used. In the OFS, to improve the energy-storing capability, the scheme suggests the gain of the frequency deviation control loop, which is set to be monotonously decreasing with the rotor speed while being significantly larger than that in the UFS. In the UFS, to improve the energy-releasing capability while preventing over-deceleration, the gain of the frequency deviation control loop is set to be a linear function of the rotor speed. The simulation results under continuously varying wind speeds with different wind patterns and wind speeds clearly demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly mitigates the output power fluctuations of a VSWTG. The proposed scheme keeps the frequency within a narrow range, thereby reducing the required primary frequency control reserve for regulating the frequency under normal operations.