Selective Removal of Carbon Dioxide from Wet CO2/H2 Mixtures via Facilitated Transport Membranes containing Amine Blends as Carriers

The selective separation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from a wet gaseous mixture of CO₂/H₂ through facilitated transport membranes containing immobilized aqueous solutions of monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), ethylenediamine (EDA) and monoprotonated ethylenediamine (EDAH⁺) and their blends was experimentally investigated. The effect of CO₂ partial pressure, amine concentration, feed side pressure and amine species on the CO₂ and H₂ permeances were studied. The CO₂ permeability through amine solution membranes decreased with increasing CO₂ feed partial pressure but the H₂ permeance was almost independent of the H₂ partial pressure. A comparison of experimental results showed that single or blended amines with low viscosity and a moderate equilibrium constant, i.e., large forward and reverse reaction rate of CO₂‐amine, are suitable for effective separation of CO₂. The permeability of CO₂ generally increased with an increase in amine concentration, although this increase may be compromised by the salting out effect and decrease in diffusivities of species. The results obtained indicated that CO₂ permeance across a variety of amines are in the order of DEA (2 M) > MD (2 M) > MD (1 M) > MEA (2 M) > MEA (4 M) > MD (4 M) > DEA (1 M) > DEA (4 M) > MEA (1 M) for various concentrations of MEA + DEA blend and are in the order of EDAH⁺ (2 M) > DEA (2 M) > MH (2 M) > DH (2 M) > ED (2 M) > EDA (2 M) > MEA (2 M) for various blends of amine.     

Estimation of the thermohydraulic efficiency of swirlers at small Reynolds numbers

To estimate the thermohydraulic efficiency of different types of swirlers of heat exchange in pipes, we have generalized the experimental data, which has made it possible to determine the optimal range of Reynolds numbers and the optimal geometric sizes of swirlers. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 82, No. 1, pp. 23–30, January–February, 2009.     

Model-order reduction using variational balanced truncation with spectral shaping

This paper presents a spectrally weighted balanced truncation (SBT) technique for tightly coupled integrated circuit interconnects, when the interconnect circuit parameters change as a result of statistical variations in the manufacturing process. The salient features of this algorithm are the inclusion of the parameter variation in the RLCK interconnect, the guaranteed passivity of the reduced transfer function, and the availability of provable spectrally weighted error bounds for the reduced-order system. This paper shows that the variational balanced truncation technique produces reduced systems that accurately follow the time- and frequency-domain responses of the original system when variations in the circuit parameters are taken into consideration. Experimental results show that the new variational SBT attains, in average, 30% more accuracy than the variational Krylov-subspace-based model-order reduction techniques.     

Numerical Simulation of Non-cooperative and Cooperative Equilibrium Solutions for a Stochastic Government Debt Stabilization Game

Computational Economics - In this article, we consider the impact uncertainty has on policies and realization of targets aimed at the stabilization of government debt. The problem is motivated by...     

Design of a Modified Wilkinson Power Divider with Size Reduction and Harmonics Suppression using Triangle-Shaped Resonators

Wireless Personal Communications - Over the past few years, Internet of Things security has attracted the attention of many researchers due to its challenging and constrained nature. Particularly...     

An optimization method based on the Legendre wavelets for 3D rotating,squeezing and stretching magnetohydrodymanic flow in a channel with porous wall

In this paper, the 3D flow in a rotating channel with the lower permeable stretching wall is investigated. The unsteady squeezing flow in the presence of transverse magnetic flux is mathematically modeled by utilizing Navier-Stokes equations. A new optimal wavelet method based on coupling the Legendre wavelets and the hat functions with some auxiliary convergence-control parameters is proposed to solve the obtained fourth-order system of nonlinear differential equations. In the proposed method, the residual function and its error of norm two are employed for converting the main problem into an optimization one to optimally choose the auxiliary convergence-control parameters. The main idea behind this approach is to reduce solving such problems to those of solving optimization ones which greatly simplifies the problem and also leads to obtaining a good approximate solution for the problem under consideration.

     

Can phosphorus fertilisers alone increase levels of soil nitrogen in New Zealand hill country pastures?

In New Zealand grazed pastures, nitrogen (N) fixation by clover is the traditional method of supplying N to the grasses that make up the bulk of the pasture sward. In order to stimulate satisfactory clover growth, phosphorus (P) fertilisers are applied at levels which are generally more than adequate for grass requirements. These legumes then provided N through biological nitrogen fixation. However, studies conducted in New Zealand hill country pastures have revealed that these pastures are still highly N responsive. These results draw attention to a key issue with respect to N fertility in hill country pasture and the question arises as to the value of large P fertiliser applications to overcome N deficiency through clover growth. Here we used modelling approach to evaluate the effectiveness of adding P fertilisers to stimulate clover growth for improving soil N status in hill country pastures and to explore why the hill pastures are N responsive. In addition an attempt was made to explore the potential of fertiliser N in hill pastures based on the current model outcomes and the measured values of pasture production under non-limiting N.     

Assessment of pitting corrosion in bare and passivated (wet scCO2-induced patination and chemical passivation) hot-dip galvanized steel samples with SVET,FTIR, and SEM (EDS)

In this study, the local electrochemical activity of untreated and passivated (natural or chemical passivation) zinc specimens was observed during immersion in a 0.1-M NaCl solution. The localized anodic activity during the exposure, measured with the scanning vibrating electrode technique, was linked to zinc dissolution by the pitting corrosion mechanism. It was correlated to specific corrosion products characterized by Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR) microscopy. FTIR molecule maps were produced from individual pitting corrosion sites (100–200 µm in width). With argon ion beam milling and latest energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) technology, element maps with a high spatial resolution (≪100 nm) were recorded from abrasion- and beam-sensitive corrosion products, showing a residual layer structure. This study demonstrates the capability of FTIR mapping, cross-section polishing, and state-of-the-art scanning electron microscopy imaging, and EDS element mapping to produce high-resolution elemental, molecular, and visual information about pitting corrosion mechanisms on a hot-dip galvanized steel sample.     

Preparation and utilization of microporous molecularly imprinted polymer for sustained release of tetracycline

A polyacrylate tetracycline (TC) selective microporous molecularly imprinted polymer was prepared in three different porogenic solvents (chloroform, acetonitrile, and methanol) via precipitation polymerization, using methacrylic acid monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate crosslinker, and TC as template. In all three solvents this method produced microporous particles in the scale range (200–400 nm), simply, quickly, cleanly, and in good yield. The effect of polarity of porogenic solvents on binding capacity was investigated. The imprinted polymer prepared in chloroform gave much higher binding capacity (K_D = 198.6) for TC than the polymers prepared in acetonitrile (K_D = 133.2) or methanol (K_D = 104.7). The selectivity of imprinted polymers was evaluated by rebinding other structurally similar compounds. The results clearly indicated that the imprinted acrylate polymer exhibits an excellent selectivity toward TC, and has better ability to control the release of TC than the non‐imprinted polymer.© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Development of Poly(aniline-co-o-toluidine)/TiO2 nanocomposite coatings for low carbon steel corrosion in 3.5% NaCl solution

Chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline (AN) and o-toluidine (OT) for the synthesis of copolymer, Poly(AN-co-OT) and its composite with TiO₂ nanoparticles, Poly(AN-co-OT)/TiO₂ employing ammonium persulfate as an oxidant and HCl as an external dopant were carried out. The homopolymers, Polyaniline and Poly(o-toluidine) were also prepared by following similar method. The synthesized polymers were characterized with FTIR spectroscopy, XRD/SEM/TEM analysis. The anticorrosive coatings were synthesized in dimethyl sulfoxide solution by dissolving synthesized polymers, and then were applied on low-carbon steel (LCS) samples using epoxy binder. The anticorrosive potential of the polymer coatings containing copolymer, copolymer-nanocomposite and homopolymers on LCS was evaluated in 3.5% NaCl at a temperature of 30?°C by open circuit potential, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarization measurements. It was observed that the nanocomposite coating increases the protection efficacy by providing better barrier properties against corrosion as compared with neat copolymer and homopolymers coatings. The morphology of the coatings before and after 60 days LCS immersion in 3.5% NaCl solution was determined using SEM.