Olefins from conventional and heavy feedstocks: Energy use in steam cracking and alternative processes

Steam cracking for the production of light olefins, such as ethylene and propylene, is the single most energy-consuming process in the chemical industry. This paper reviews conventional steam cracking and innovative olefin technologies in terms of energy efficiency. It is found that the pyrolysis section of a naphtha steam cracker alone consumes approximately 65% of the total process energy and approximately 75% of the total exergy loss. A family portrait of olefin technologies by feedstocks is drawn to search for alternatives. An overview of state-of-the-art naphtha cracking technologies shows that approximately 20% savings on the current average process energy use are possible. Advanced naphtha cracking technologies in the pyrolysis section, such as advanced coil and furnace materials, could together lead to up to approximately 20% savings on the process energy use by state-of-the-art technologies. Improvements in the compression and separation sections could together lead to up to approximately 15% savings. Alternative processes, i.e. catalytic olefin technologies, can save up to approximately 20%.     

Towards hybrid Triple Helix indicators: A study of university-related patents and a survey of academic inventors

This paper presents work directed at capturing the entrepreneurial and collaborative activity of university researchers. The Triple Helix points to the emergence of the entrepreneurial university as well as to an increasing overlay of activities in universities, industry and government. This study explores ways in which patent-based metrics could be utilized in a Triple Helix context, and how hybrid indicators could be developed by combining patent with survey data. More specifically, it aims to develop indicators that connect technological inventiveness of university researchers to both funding organizations and users, as well as to entrepreneurial activities by academics. The paper develops a simplified model of the innovation process to benchmark the relevance of the indicators to the Triple Helix. An analysis of Finnish academic patents illustrates that patent data can already provide useful indicators but, on its own, cannot provide information about how academic patents are interconnected with government or industry through funding or utilization links. An exclusive analysis of patents can point to patent concentrations on certain universities, to inventors and assignees, or to potential gaps in translating applied science into industrial technology. However, the patent data had to be combined with an inventor survey in order to relate academic patents more to their Triple Helix environment. The survey indicated that most patented academic inventions are connected to (often publicly funded) scientific research by the inventors and tend to be utilized in large firms rather than in start-up companies founded by academic entrepreneurs.     

Ultraviolet chambers based on integrating spheres for use in artificial weathering

Laboratory ultraviolet (UV) chambers are widely used to obtain weathering data for a wide range of commercial polymer products including coatings, textiles, elastomers, plastics, and polymeric composites. Although numerous improvements have been made in the design of UV chambers over the last 80 years, the reproducibility of the exposure results from these chambers has remained elusive. This lack of reproducibility is attributed to systematic errors in their design, operation, and control which prevent direct comparisons of the performance of materials exposed in the same environment, comparisons of the performance of the same material exposed in different laboratories, and the comparison of field and laboratory results. This paper describes an innovative UV chamber design based on integrating sphere technology that greatly reduces the magnitude of these errors, as well as provides additional experimental capabilities. Presented at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Federation of Societies for Coatings Technology, on November 4–7, 2001, in Atlanta, GA. Building Materials Division. Gaithersburg, MD. Freeport, TX.     

Natural isotope fractionation in the discrimination of sugar origins

More than 500 carbohydrate samples have been characterised by hydrogen, carbon and oxygen isotopic parameters measured on ethanol and water resulting from controlled fermentation. Different chemical states of the carbohydrate pool have been considered: polysaccharides from cereals, tubers and leguminosae (maize, sorghum, rice, wheat, barley, potato, bean), glucose, fructose and sucrose from fruits (pineapple, citrus, apple, soft fruits), sucrose from sugar plants (beet, cane). The overall carbon-13 content of ethanol and the deuterium and oxygen-18 contents of water before fermentation were determined by mass spectrometry of isotope ratios whereas the investigation of site-specific natural isotope fractionation by deuterium NMR has provided access to the deuterium contents in the methyl (I) and methylene (II) sites of ethanol. The results have been analysed in the multidimensional space of these isotopic variables. Hierarchical clustering, principal component and discriminant analyses have been performed. Among fruits, for example, the pineapple group exhibits a 100% discrimination with respect to the apple and citrus groups which are themselves well distinguished. A still higher discrimination is reached between the three groups, citrus, cane and beet, and the addition of 10% exogenous cane or beet sucrose to citrus juice is unambiguously detected.     

An adaptive analog continuous-time CMOS biquadratic filter

An adaptive analog continuous-time biquadratic filter is realized in a 2-μm digital CMOS process for operation at 300 kHz. The biquad implements the notch, bandpass and low-pass transfer functions. The only parameter adapted is the resonant frequency of the biquad, which is identical to the notch frequency and the bandpass center frequency. The update method is based on a least-means-square algorithm which adapts the notch frequency to minimize the power at the notch filter output. The actual update is modified to reduce the circuit complexity to one biquad and one correlator. When the filter is tracking a sinusoid, this update generates a ripple-free gradient that decreases tracking error. Applications include phase-frequency detectors, FM demodulators (linear and frequency shift keying), clock extractors, and frequency acquisition aids for phase-locked loops and Costas loops. Measured results from experimental prototypes are presented. Nonidealities of an all-analog implementation are discussed, along with suggestions to improve performance     

Computer-aided analysis of free-running microwave oscillators

The authors present a newly developed free-running steady-state oscillator analysis algorithm suited to large-signal oscillator analysis. Kurokawa's oscillation condition is coupled with the modified nodal admittance form of the circuit equations to avoid degenerate solutions. The algorithm was implemented by using both harmonic balance and frequency-domain spectral balance techniques. It was used in the simulation of monolithically integrated varactor-tuned MESFET oscillator. Good agreement between simulated power and oscillation frequency results was obtained     

Prebiotic synthesis of sequential peptides on the Hadean beach by a molecular engine working with nitrogen oxides as energy sources

Addressing the still open question of the prebiotic origin of sequential macromolecules (peptides, nucleic acids) on the primitive Earth, we describe a molecular engine (the primary pump), which works at ambient temperature and continuously generates, elongates and complexifies sequential peptides. This new scenario is based on a cyclic reaction sequence, whose keystep is the activation of amino acids into their N‐carboxyanhydrides (NCA) through nitrosation by NOx. This process could have taken place on tidal beaches; it requires a buffered ocean, emerged land and a nitrosating atmosphere. With the help of geochemical studies and computer simulations of atmosphere photochemistry, we show that the primitive Earth during the Hadean may have satisfied all these requirements. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry.     

Income and expenditure in a spatial economy

The question explored in this paper is whether the center attracts more spending by all agents in a spatial economy than do peripheral locations, and why this might be so. This is the macroeconomics pendant to the microeconomic concern with accessibility.This paper is the result of discussions on the subject of time and space in economics with my good friend, Tonu Puu. I dedicate it to the memory of another dear friend, Claude Ponsard.     

Fabrication and performance of parallel-addressed InGaN micro-LED arrays

High-performance, two-dimensional arrays of parallel-addressed InGaN blue micro-light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with individual element diameters of 8, 12, and 20 /spl mu/m, respectively, and overall dimensions 490 /spl times/490 /spl mu/m, have been fabricated. In order to overcome the difficulty of interconnecting multiple device elements with sufficient step-height coverage for contact metallization, a novel scheme involving the etching of sloped-sidewalls has been developed. The devices have current-voltage (I-V) characteristics approaching those of broad-area reference LEDs fabricated from the same wafer, and give comparable (3-mW) light output in the forward direction to the reference LEDs, despite much lower active area. The external efficiencies of the micro-LED arrays improve as the dimensions of the individual elements are scaled down. This is attributed to scattering at the etched sidewalls of in-plane propagating photons into the forward direction.