Production,characterization and development of standards for biodiesel — A review

Biodiesel is being promoted worldwide as a supplement and alternative automotive fuel for petroleum diesel in spite of several technological, economical and social barriers. This has provided an impetus for new research to overcome these deterrents in its production, to establish its quality criteria (standards), and to develop superior analytical methods for quality control and quality assessment of biodiesel in production and entire distribution chain until consumed by end user. The present review paper briefly covers the production, characterization and standardization of biodiesel, having relevance to the preparation of certified reference materials (CRMs) of biodiesel.     

Mixed Convection Effect on Melting from a Vertical Plate Embedded in Porous Medium with Soret and Dufour Effects

The present work analyzed the impact of mixed convection on melting from a vertical flat plate embedded in porous medium in the presence of Dufour and Soret effects. The partial differential equations governing the problem under consideration have been transformed by a similarity transformation into a system of ordinary differential equation which is solved numerically by Runge–Kutta–Gill methods. Dimensionless velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles are presented graphically for various values of the Dufour number (Df), Soret number (Sr), melting parameter (M), and buoyancy parameter (Gr/Re). During the investigation, it was found that the melting phenomenon decreases the local Nusselt number and local Sherwood number at the solid–liquid interface. Also, it is interesting to note that the velocity as well as temperature increases while the concentration decreases with an increase in the Dufour number Df (or simultaneous decrease in the Soret number Sr). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 43(7): 667–676, 2014; Published online 3 October 2013 in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21113     

MHD natural convection heat and mass transfer flow over an inclined porous plate with thermophoresis and nonlinear thermal radiation effects

This study examined magnetohydrodynamic natural convection mass and heat transfer flow of an electrically conducting and viscous incompressible fluid over an inclined porous plate with thermophoresis, suction/injection, and uniform magnetic field. The mathematical model governing the fluid behavior surrounding an inclined plate is solved through the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg fourth–fifth order after utilizing the shooting method. The implication of active dimensionless parameters in the governing equations is fully discussed in detail. The results obtained show that, in the existence of nonlinear thermal radiation and suction/injection, the heat transfer rises with the increase in the angle of inclination but it decreases with the mass transfer and plate shear stress. Furthermore, the heat transfer rate experiences a serious setback due to the increase in the buoyancy force but improves the plate shear stress. The mass transfer is directly proportional to the thermophoresis effect. In addition, Particle suction increases the velocity and temperature curves while it declines the concentration profile, but the opposite is valid for injection. Nonlinear thermal radiation positively affects the temperature, velocity, and concentration profiles. The Lorentz force suppresses the fluid transport and retard the rate of particle concentration, but promotes the fluid temperature distribution. It is also deduced that increasing the rate of particle suction from 0 to 1, accounts for over 76% increase in the particle deposition at the plate surface. However, increasing the rate of particle injection from 0.004 to 0.250 accounts for an over 83% decrease in the particle deposition at the plate surface.     

Characterisation of lactose crystallised in acidified aqueous ethanol

Three types of crystalline lactose hydrates having melting points (MP) of 218°C, 195°C and 169°C were crystallised from 680 ml litre^?1 ethanol solution with a lactose to solvent ratio of 1:14-1:24 at three pH values, ～ 4, 2.5 and 1.3. The three types were characterised on the basis of their optical rotation, phase transition and X-ray powder diffraction pattern. The samples with high and low MP were α-lactose hydrates whereas that with the intermediate MP (195°C) was a hydrated lactose containing both α- and β-forms.     

Real Time Automation and Ratio Control Using PLC & SCADA in Industry 4.0

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems play a critical role in the management and regulation of critical infrastructure. SCADA systems brings us closer to the real-time application world. All process and equipment control capability is typically provided by a Distributed Control System (DCS) in industries such as power stations, agricultural systems, chemical and water treatment plants. Instead of control through DCS, this paper proposes a SCADA and PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) system to control the ratio control division and the assembly line division inside the chemical plant. A specific design and implementation method for development of SCADA/PLC based real time ratio control and automated assembly line system in a chemical plant is introduced. The assembly line division is further divided into sorting stage, filling stage and the auxiliary stage, which includes the capping unit, labelling unit and then the storage. In the ratio control division, we have defined the levels inside the mixer and ratio of the raw materials through human machine interface (HMI) panel. The ratio of raw materials is kept constant on the basis of flow rates of wild stream and manipulated stream. There is a flexibility in defining new levels and the ratios of the raw materials inside the mixer. But here we taken the predefined levels (low, medium, high) and ratios (3:4, 2:1, 2:5). Control valves are used for regulating the flow of the compositions. In the assembly line division, the containers are sorted on the basis of size and type of material used i.e., big sized metallic containers and small sized non-metallic containers by inductive and capacitive proximity sensors. All the processes are facilitated with laser beam type or reflective type sensors on the conveyor system. Building a highly stable and dependable PLC/SCADA system instead of Distributed Control System is required to achieve automatic management and control of chemical industry processes to reduce waste manpower and physical resources, as well as to improve worker safety.     

Computationally efficient joint imperceptible image watermarking and JPEG compression: a green computing approach

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper presents a computationally efficient joint imperceptible image watermarking and joint photographic experts group (JPEG) compression scheme. In recent...     

Analyzing and Optimizing Cooperative Communication for in Vivo WBAN

Wireless Personal Communications - The emerging Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has a great potential to strengthen health care sector, as it paves ways for the development of new services and...     

On linear waveguides of square and triangular lattice strips: an application of Chebyshev polynomials

An analysis of the linear waves in infinitely-long square and triangular lattice strips of identical particles with nearest neighbour interactions for all combinations of fixed and free boundary conditions, as well as the periodic boundary, is presented. Expressions for the dispersion relations and the associated normal modes in these waveguides are provided in the paper; some of which are expressed implicitly in terms of certain linear combinations of the Chebyshev polynomials. The effect of next-nearest-neighbour interaction is also included for the square lattice waveguides. It is found that localized propagating waves, so called surface wave modes, occur in the triangular lattice strips, as well as square lattice strips with next-nearest-neighbour interactions, when either or both boundaries are free. In this paper, the even and odd modes are also discussed separately, wherever applicable. Graphical illustrations of the dispersion curves are included for all waveguides. The discrete waveguides analysed in the paper have broad applications in physics and engineering, including their merit in classical problems in elasticity, acoustics and electromagnetism, as well as recent technological issues involving various transport phenomena in quasi-one-dimensional nano-structures.     

Obstacles facing the diffusion of drip irrigation technology in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco

We examined how the background (urban/rural) of 282 tertiary students influenced their attitudes and actions including their use of natural areas. Most considered that protection of natural spaces was ‘important’. Childhood residence influenced time spent in natural areas as young adults. When time spent in natural spaces was compared with residence status, non‐urban dwellers more frequently visited natural areas than urban dwellers. Rural residents who visited natural spaces were likely to visit more frequently than urban dwellers. The different types of passive recreation carried out in natural spaces and whether the student was involved in environmental restoration activities were not matters influenced by residence status, although there was a difference as between passive or active recreation in natural spaces. Over 80% of participants considered that ‘protection of the natural environment’ was more important than the cost of fresh produce, reduced taxes, fuel prices or ‘better use of recycled material’.