Effect of water on HDS of DBT over a dispersed Mo catalyst using in situ generated hydrogen

A novel process was developed for the bitumen emulsion upgrading, wherein emulsion breaking and upgrading occurred in the same reactor using H₂ generated in situ from the water in the emulsion via the water gas shift reaction (WGSR). In this study, dibenzothiophene (DBT) was chosen as a model compound to investigate the effect of water and in situ H₂ on hydrodesulfurization (HDS). All the experiments were performed in a 1-L autoclave reactor at temperatures between 300 and 380 °C using in situ H₂ and ex situ H₂ (externally supplied H₂) over a dispersed Mo catalyst formed from phosphomolybdic acid (PMA). At very low water content, water was found to promote the HDS reaction in the ex situ H₂ run probably because it facilitates the formation of more active dispersed MoS_x species. At higher water content, however, water inhibits every individual reaction in the reaction network in the HDS of DBT, blocking the hydrogenation pathway more than the hydrogenolysis pathway. The relative reactivity of the in situ and ex situ H₂ depends on the water content present in the reaction system. At an optimized mole ratio of H₂O:CO (1.35), higher HDS activity was observed in the in situ H₂ run compared to ex situ H₂ run, and particularly, the hydrogenation pathway was promoted in the in situ H₂ run.     

Phenolic compounds from vacuum pyrolysis of wood wastes

Various softwood and hardwood bark residues, primary sludges and softwood sawdust residues were processed by vacuum pyrolysis in a laboratory scale batch reactor. The pyrolysis oil, water, charcoal, and gas were recovered and analyzed. The pyrolysis oils were analyzed in details for their content in phenolic compounds after derivatization to their acetyl derivatives. The influence of temperature, heating rate, feedstock bed thickness, particle size and feedstock water pretreatment on the yield of phenols was investigated. The highest yield of phenols was obtained when hardwood bark was soaked in water for 48 hours and pyrolyzed at a temperature of 450°C and a heating rate of 10°C/min. Pyrolysis performance was evaluated in terms of total phenolic yield and composition.     

Prediction of minimum velocity and minimum bed pressure drop for gas-solid fluidization in conical conduits

Experimental investigations have been carried out for spherical and non-spherical particles using beds comprised of single-sized particles and mixtures in the size and particle density ranges of 439 to 1524 μm and 1303 to 4948 kg/m³, respectively. Five conical fluidizers with varying apex angles of 8.86, 14.77, 19.60, 32.0 and 43.2 degrees were used. Experimental values of minimum velocity and bed pressure drop with air as the fluidizing medium have been compared with their respective values obtained from different models available in the literature. Deviations for each chosen model have been presented.     

Polyurethane‐infiltrated carbon foams: A coupling of thermal and mechanical properties

The thermal and mechanical properties of polyurethane‐infiltrated carbon foam of various densities were investigated. By combining the high thermal conductivity of the carbon foam with the mechanical toughness of the pure polyurethane, a mechanically tough composite (relative to the unfilled foam) that could be used at higher temperatures than the polyurethane's degradation was formed. Both the tensile strength and the modulus increased by an order of magnitude for the composites compared to unfilled foam, while the compressive and shear strengths and moduli of the composites approached values exhibited by pure polyurethane. At both 300 and 400°C, the rectangular blocks of pure polyurethane lost their mechanical integrity due to decomposition in air. Thermogravimetric analysis confirms substantial initial weight loss above 290°C. Filled carbon foam blocks, however, maintain their mechanical integrity at both 300 and 400°C indefinitely, although the bulk of the rectangular block mass is polyurethane. Three different carbon foam densities are examined. As expected, the higher density foams show greater heat transfer. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 2348–2355, 2003     

CO2 gasification of wood charcoals derived from vacuum and atmospheric pyrolysis

The gasification of biomass derived char obtained via vacuum and atmospheric pyrolysis of Populus tremuloides has been studied in the ranges of 725–960°C and 0.1 to 6 MPa. CO₂ was used as the oxidizing gas. The results show that char reactivity is influenced by the preheating rates and that pressure effects are significant between 850°C and 950°C. A correlation based on the expression: df/dt = k₀{exp(-E/RT)}(1 - f)^af^βP^yCO₂ was used to fit the experimental data. In general, vacuum pyrolysis derived char showed a higher reactivity than atmospheric pyrolysis chars. An explanation based on a higher oxygen content of the vacuum pyrolysis char is suggested.     

Microwave-Hydrothermal Processing of BiFeO3 and CsAl2PO6

Microwave-hydrothermal (M-H) processing was compared with conventional-hydrothermal (C-H) processing in the crystallization of BiFeO₃ and CsAl₂PO₆ phases. The presence of the microwave field led to accelerated kinetics of the crystallization of both these phases as detected by powder X-ray diffraction. The acceleration of reaction rates under microwave field is expected to lead to energy savings during ceramic processing.     

Plasma and lipoprotein fatty acid composition in glycogen storage disease type I

Nocturnal intragastric feeding has been shown to be an effective means to improve clinical and biochemical features in glycogen storage disease type I (GSD-I). In this study, we investigated the fatty acid patterns in a whole plasma and in circulating lipoproteins in patients on this therapy. The results demonstrated massive concentration of total fatty acids coupled with higher levels of triglycerides, free cholesterol, cholesterol ester and phospholipids. This hyperlipidemia involved all fatty acids without distinction of carbon or bond numbers. However, the increase was more pronounced for saturated than polyunsaturated fatty acids, as was demonstrated by the ratios of both oleic acid to linoleic acid (1.91±0.40 vs 0.80±0.09 in controls) and of ω3+ω6 to ω9 fatty acid families (0.92±0.11 vs 1.66±0.08 in controls). The fatty acid patterns in very low (VLDL), low (LDL) and high (HDL) density lipoprotein showed substantial differences in composition, reflecting an association between an abnormal lipoprotein pattern and essential fatty acid deficiency. Furthermore, GSD-I patients exhibited a significant increase in VLDL (17±2 vs 47±7 mg/dl) and LDL cholesterol (124±7 vs 206±24 mg/dl), coupled with a decrease in HDL cholesterol (49±4 vs 28±3 mg/dl). These data documenting high LDL cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol associated with an increased concentration and proportion of saturated fatty acids suggest that GSD-I patients on nocturnal intragastric feeding are at high risk for atherosclerosis and its complications.     

Seeding effects on crystallization temperatures of cordierite glass powder

The role of solid state epitaxy in the crystallization of nanocomposite cordierite glass to glass ceramic was investigated. The use of isostructural (-cordierite) seeds in cordierite glass led to a lowering in the crystallization temperature to form glass ceramic by about 50 °C compared to the unseeded glass. The use of non-isostructural seeds such as ZrO₂ and TiO₂ did not lower the crystallization temperature of cordierite glass to glass ceramic, and in the case of the TiO₂-seeded glass the crystallization temperature increased by about 50 °C compared to the unseeded-cordierite glass. The lowering in crystallization temperature by-cordierite seeding can be attributed to the nucleation and epitaxial growth mechanism.     

IEVCA: An efficient image encryption technique for IoT applications using 2-D Von-Neumann cellular automata

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Present era is marked by exponential growth in transfer of multimedia data through internet. Most of the Internet-of-Things(IoT) applications send images to...     

A chaotic framework and its application in image encryption

A novel image encryption framework is proposed in this article. A new chaotic map and a pseudorandom bit generator are proposed. Apart from this, a novel image encryption system is designed based on the proposed map and the proposed pseudorandom bit generator. These three are the major contributions of this work that makes a complete cryptosystem. The proposed new chaotic map is proposed which will be known as the ‘RCM map’ and its chaotic property is studied based on Devaney’s theory. The proposed pseudorandom bit generator is tested using the NIST test suite. The proposed method is simple to implement and does not involve any highly complex operations. Moreover, the proposed method is completely lossless, and therefore cent percent of data can be recovered from the encrypted image. The decryption process is also simple to implement i.e. just reverse of the encryption procedure. A scrambling algorithm is also proposed to further enhance the security of the overall system. The simulation, detailed analysis, and comparative studies of the proposed overall image encryption framework will help to understand the strengths and weaknesses of it. The experimental results are very promising and show the prospects of chaos theory and its usage in the field of data security.