Two-stage pyrolysis of heavy oils. 3. Pyrolysis of tar-sand bitumens. Relation between ethylene yield and structural characteristics of heavy oils

Thermal cracking of tar-sand bitumens has been carried out using a two-stage pyrolysis reactor with temperature zones of 440°C and 750–800°C, respectively. Feedstocks were pyrolysed in the first stage into cracked oils, which were carried to the second stage for subsequent pyrolysis. Only 12–14 wt% of ethylene was obtained from tar-sand bitumens at the residence time of 1.2 s in the second stage, although 27 and 16 wt% were obtained from Taching and Iranian heavy vacuum residues, respectively. The tar-sand bitumens contain shorter paraffinic straight-chains and have more branched molecules than the vacuum residues of petroleum. A straight-chain paraffin index is proposed, with which a good correlation was obtained between ethylene yield and the fraction of straight-chain paraffin carbons in the heavy oil.     

Balanced corpus of contemporary written Japanese

The balanced corpus of contemporary written Japanese (BCCWJ) is Japan’s first 100 million words balanced corpus. It consists of three subcorpora (publication subcorpus, library subcorpus, and special-purpose subcorpus) and covers a wide range of text registers including books in general, magazines, newspapers, governmental white papers, best-selling books, an internet bulletin-board, a blog, school textbooks, minutes of the national diet, publicity newsletters of local governments, laws, and poetry verses. A random sampling technique is utilized whenever possible in order to maximize the representativeness of the corpus. The corpus is annotated in terms of dual POS analysis, document structure, and bibliographical information. The BCCWJ is currently accessible in three different ways including Chunagon a web-based interface to the dual POS analysis data. Lastly, results of some pilot evaluation of the corpus with respect to the textual diversity are reported. The analyses include POS distribution, word-class distribution, entropy of orthography, sentence length, and variation of the adjective predicate. High textual diversity is observed in all these analyses.     

Reduction of fatty acid hydroperoxides by human parotid saliva

Arachidonic acid hydroperoxide (15-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid; 15-HPETE) was introduced into human parotid saliva and incubated at 37°C. Straight phase high-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the reaction mixture showed that 15-HPETE was detoxified to its reduced form, 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, in the presence of glutathione. Therefore, it is concluded that human parotid saliva possesses fatty acid hydroperoxide-reducing ability. However, its effectiveness was found to be lower than that of blood plasma.     

Investigation of Ozone Loss Rate Influenced by the Surface Material of a Discharge Chamber

Decay characteristics of ozone concentration in oxygen in a chamber with three types of wall material (stainless steel, copper, and aluminum) are measured using the 254 nm photoabsorption method. Effective lifetimes of ozone are estimated from decay curves of ozone concentration. These values depend on the wall material: They are largest for stainless steel and smallest for aluminum. The relationship between effective lifetime and gas pressure is investigated precisely to determine three values. The equivalent diffusion coefficient of ozone in oxygen and the reflection coefficient of ozone at the wall correspond to the loss rate of ozone at the wall. The collisional loss (quenching) rate coefficient of ozone in oxygen is also determined.     

Triterpene alcohols and sterols of Spanish olive oil

Nine Spanish olive oils, including three each of virgin (pressed oil), refined virgin, and B-residue (solvent-extracted pomace oil) oils from different commercial sources, have been analyzed for their unsaponifiable matter (USM). Four sterolic fractions separated from the oils have been analyzed by preparative thin-layer chromatography (TLC); these fractions are triterpene alcohols, 4-methylsterols, sterols and triterpene dialcohols. The compositions of the four sterolic fractions were determined as their acetates by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) on an OV-17 glass capillary column. Identification of each component was carried out by argentation TLC, GLC and combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS); 44 components were identified, of which four: 24-methylene-31-nor-9(11)-lanostenol, 24-methyl-31-nor-E-23-dehydrocycloartanol, 24-ethyl-E-23-dehydrolophenol and 5,E-23-stigmastadienol, were considered to be new sterols from natural sources. Several characteristics, including the content of triteterpene dialcohols in the USM and that of C-24(28) unsaturated sterols in each of the four sterolic fractions, which can be used to distinguish between virgin and B-residue olive oils, were observed.     

Microwave-assisted desulfurization of NOx storage-reduction catalyst

The activity of NO_x storage-reduction (NSR) catalysts is greatly reduced by sulfur poisoning, caused by the SO₂ present in the exhaust stream. Desorption of sulfur species from poisoned NSR catalysts occurs at temperatures in excess of 600 °C using reducing atmospheres and conventional heating. In this work, microwave (MW) heating has been used to promote desulfurization of poisoned NSR catalysts. The experiments were carried out by heating the catalyst with MW radiation and using hydrogen as the reducing gas. Desorption of H₂S at 200 °C was observed. Desorption at even lower temperatures (150 °C) was observed when water was introduced to the system. In the presence of water, sulfur species desorbed as both H₂S and SO₂. An overall reduction of sulfur species of about 60% was obtained. The use of MW heating proves to be an efficient way to achieve regeneration of poisoned NSR catalysts.     

Hydrophobic effects on protein/nucleic acid interaction: enhancement of substrate binding by mutating tyrosine 45 to tryptophan in ribonuclease Tl

Hydrophobic effects on binding of ribonuclease Tl to guaninebases of several ribonucleotides have been proved by mutatinga hydrophobic residue at the recognition site and by measuringthe effect on binding. Mutation of a hydrophobic surface residueto a more hydrophobic residue (Tyr45 – Trp) enhances thebinding to ribonucleotides, including mononucleotide inhibitorand product, and a synthetic substrate-analog trinudeotide aswell as the binding to dinucleotide substrates and RNA. Enhancementson binding to non-substrate ribonucleotides by the mutationhave been observed with free energy changes ranging from –2.2 to – 3 .9 kJ/mol. These changes are in good agreementwith that of substrate binding, –2.3 kJ/mol, which iscalculated from Michaelis constants obtained from kinetic studies.It is shown, by comparing the observed and calculated changesin binding free energy with differences in the observed transferfree energy changes of the amino acid side chains from organicsolvents to water, that the enhancement observed on guaninebinding comes from the difference in the hydrophobic effectsof the side chains of tyrosine and tryptophan. Furthermore,a linear relationship between nucleolytic activities and hydrophobicityof the residues (Ala, Phe, Tyr, Trp) at position 45 is observed.The mutation could not change substantially the base specificityof RNase Tl, which exhibits a prime requirement for guaninebases of substrates.     

Drying characteristics of porous material immersed in a bed of hygroscopic porous particles fluidized under reduced pressure

A relatively large wet material was immersed in a fluidized bed of hygroscopic porous particle (silica gel beads) under reduced pressure. And then the drying characteristics were compared with those in the case of inert particle (glass beads). The comparison of drying characteristics is performed experimentally and theoretically. In calculation, the water transfer from the sample to the fluidized bed was considered. The calculation results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The effects of the operational conditions (the pressure in the drying chamber and the temperature of the drying gas) on the drying characteristics were also examined in both fluidizing particles.The drying finishes earlier in the case of hygroscopic porous particle than in the case of inert particle regardless of pressure in the drying chamber, since the water transfer from the sample facilitates the drying in the case of hygroscopic porous particles. The temperature decrement in drying appears in the case of inert particle. This phenomenon is also observed in the case of hygroscopic porous particle, but the decrement degree of the temperature is much smaller than that in the case of inert particle. The difference of the minimum temperature in the sample in drying between the cases of hygroscopic porous particle and inert particle is very slight for different pressures in the drying chamber.     

Mechanisms of aerosol deposition in a nasal model

Total and regional aerosol deposition were investigated in a model of a normal human nasal airway. Contributions of fluid turbulence and particle inertia were evaluated using monodisperse aerosols. At fixed turbulent flow conditions, deposition percentage increased with particle size greater than 1 μm, suggesting that turbulent inertial deposition is a primary mechanism.

With same size aerosol, deposition increased with increasing fluid turbulence but its contribution was less with larger size aerosol. Turbulent diffusion was the dominant transport mechanism for particles less than 1 μm, where deposition decreased with particle size. Two major deposition sites were visualized with radio-aerosol in the anterior region of the nasal airway. One is close to the ostium internum where turbulent eddies are well developed, and the other is the anterior region of the middle turbinate where direction of airflow changes from upward to horizontal.     

Carbon-13 NMR spectroscopic analysis of 24-methyl-Δ5,22-sterols in rape and mustard seed oils

24-Methylcholesta-5,E-22-dien-3β-ol (C₂₈ Δ^5,22-sterol) was separated from the unsaponifiable matters of the following eight seed oils of Brassica species:Brassica campestris (candle I and II and torch),B. napus (tower and midas),B. juncea (brown and oriental mustards), andB. alba (yellow mustard). The configuration at C-24 methyl group of the respective sterols was evaluated by¹³C NMR spectroscopy. All the C₂₈ Δ^5,22-sterols in the Brassica seed oils were found to contain the C-24 epimer of brassicasterol,trans-22-dehydrocampesterol, in the range of ca. 10–30%.