A new estimating method of minimum miscibility pressure as a key parameter in designing CO2 gas injection process

Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is an important key parameter for designing any gas flooding project in enhancing oil recovery, whereas the injection must be operated at or above (MMP). This parameter will be determined before any field trial, because it is important for operator to plan suitable surface facilities and to develop injection conditions. MMP may be reliably estimated by traditional laboratory techniques, which are very costly and time consuming. Various empirical correlations for the estimation of MMP are available in literature however using them is not reliable as each correlation relates to a unique reservoir and fluid conditions. Hence none of these correlations can be used with enough confidence to estimate (MMP) and applying them is prone to errors. Therefore, the objective of this article is to search for a quick and sturdy mathematical correlation for the mathematical determination of (MMP) based on regression analysis within a shorter period of time. Finally, a comparison between the (MMP) calculated from the proposed correlation and the published ones was presented. Results ensure that the suggested new (MMP) correlation is the more accurate one.     

Ligand‐Free Synthesis of Aluminum‐Doped Zinc Oxide Nanocrystals and their Use as Optical Spacers in Color‐Tuned Highly Efficient Organic Solar Cells

The color of polymer solar cells using an opaque electrode is given by the reflected light, which depends on the composition and thickness of each layer of the device. Metal‐oxide‐based optical spacers are intensively studied in polymer solar cells aiming to optimize the light absorption. However, the low conductivity of materials such as ZnO and TiO₂ limits the thickness of such optical spacers to tenths of nanometers. A novel synthesis route of cluster‐free Al‐doped ZnO (AZO) nanocrystals (NCs) is presented for solution processing of highly conductive layers without the need of temperature annealing, including thick optical spacers on top of polymer blends. The processing of 80 nm thick optical spacers based on AZO nanocrystal solutions on top of 200 nm thick polymer blend layer is demonstrated leading to improved photocurrent density of 17% compared to solar cells using standard active layers of 90 nm in combination with thin ZnO‐based optical spacers. These AZO NCs also open new opportunities for the processing of high‐efficiency color tuned solar cells. For the first time, it is shown that applying solution‐processed thick optical spacer with polymer blends of different thicknesses can process solar cells of similar efficiency over 7% but of different colors.     

Predicting axial piston pump performance using neural networks

A neural network model for an axial piston pump (bent-axis design) is derived in this paper. The model uses data obtained from an experimental setup. The purpose of this ongoing study is the reduction of the power loss at high pressures. However, at the beginning, a study is being done to predict the behavior of the current design of the pump. The neural network model has a feedforward architecture and uses the Levenberg–Marquardt optimization technique in the training process. The model was able to predict the behavior of the pump accurately.     

Assessment of Mineralogical,Textural, and Water Chemistry Changes During Long-Distance Tailings-Slurry Transport

An exploratory study demonstrated that subtle changes in solids and process water were caused by long-distance turbulent transport of tailings from the concentrator to the impoundment of a Cu (Mo) porphyry copper deposit. Slurry water chemical analysis was complemented by modelling potential phase precipitation or dissolution and speciation of dissolved metals. It was found that transport did not affect major insoluble mineral phases. However, the degrees of liberation of several phyllosilicates, as determined by automated mineralogy, were reduced close to the impoundment, which points to separation of clay particles from tectosilicate surfaces by the turbulence; this also was observed by SEM examination of micro-aggregate specimens. Reduction of maximum particle sizes, increased N2 monolayer adsorption, and resultant specific surface areas indicate that transport modified the micro-aggregates. Major element water chemistry is controlled by the presence of soluble mineral phases, such as gypsum, and reagents, such as lime, in the flotation process. Changes in the dissolved concentrations of some elements could potentially affect tailings deportment in the impoundment. Increased concentrations of Al may affect the clay settling behaviour, while Mo and As levels will require treatment prior to the discharge of water from the tailings impoundment. This study demonstrated that systematic scrutiny of tailings slurries leaving the concentrator and before entering the impoundment can be potentially useful, though care will have to be exercised to replicate sample handling and analytical conditions, during any long-term monitoring.     

Silicon Nanoparticles Produced by Two-Step Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Ablation in Ethanol for Enhanced Blue Emission Properties

In this work, we introduce a facile method of laser ablation to synthesize silicon rich oxide nanoparticles colloid with blue-green emissions. The method includes a two-step nanosecond pulsed laser ablation of silicon in ethanol. First, the micro-porous layer is formed on the silicon surface by laser ablation of the target, followed by ablating the oxidized micro-porous silicon to prepare the nanoparticles dispersed in ethanol. The nanoparticles interface structure exhibit the crystalline of quartz and non-stoichiometric oxide in suboxide phase of the SiO1.5 as examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-vis spectrophotometry and X-ray diffraction pattern. Study of the colloid photoluminescence properties reveals that the coupling of silicon nanocrystals and interfacial states may play important role in the blue emission mechanism of the colloid. Our results support that the radiative recombination at the interfacial localized states of Si/SiO1.5 can easily occur in the colloid resulting the blue emission peak at the wavelength of 425 nm. In other words, a more effective pathway is provided for excited electrons in the colloid including occurrence of excitations in silicon nanocrystal states and emission in the interfacial states. This method avoids any toxic by-product during the synthesis of colloid and can be used for the commercial-scale production of silicon nanoparticles as the blue emission material.     

Kinetic study of crude oil-to-chemicals via steam-enhanced catalytic cracking in a fixed-bed reactor

This study presents new experimental results on the direct conversion of crude oil to chemicals via steam-enhanced catalytic cracking. We have organized the experimental results with a kinetics model using crude oil and steam co-feed in a fixed-bed flow reactor at reaction temperatures of 625, 650, and 675°C over the Ce-Fe/ZSM-5 catalyst. The model let us find optimum conditions for crude oil conversion, and the order of the steam cracking reaction was 2.0 for heavy oil fractions and 1.0 for light oil fractions. The estimated activation energies for the steam cracking reactions ranged between 20 and 200 kJ/mol. Interestingly, the results from kinetic modelling helped in identifying a maximum yield of light olefins at an optimized residence time in the reactor at each temperature level. An equal propylene and ethylene yield was observed between 650 and 670°C, indicating a transition from dominating catalytic cracking at a lower temperature to a dominating thermal cracking at a higher temperature. The results illustrate that steam-enhanced catalytic cracking can be utilized to effectively convert crude oil into basic chemicals (52.1% C2-C4 light olefins and naphtha) at a moderate severity (650°C) as compared to the conventional high-temperature steam cracking process.     

Development of a Correlation Test Specimen for Highly Deformable Adhesive Systems

A new adhesive test specimen design was developed which embodied several key attributes, the most important of which was inclusion of tension, mixed-mode, and shear deformation mechanisms. The specimen design was easy to manufacture, required only simple tension testing equipment to test, and provided simple specimen geometry and boundary conditions for use in finite element model correlation exercises. By design, the individual failure points for each of the deformation mechanisms within the test specimen were separated and could be related directly to characteristics of the force versus displacement information from the experimental test. Finite element predictions using a Gurson constitutive model with element deletion at failure were generated and compared with experimental test results. It was found that while the order of failure modes within the prediction was the same as that found within the test, the element deletion technique yielded an abrupt change between failure modes not seen in the experimental test, and that a more complex numerical representation of failure would be a valuable development. Overall, the test specimen development was successful in providing a simple and repeatable method by which complex cohesive failure modes in a bonded system could be evaluated and correlated back to predictive tests.     

Synthesis and characterization of new molecular imprinting poly[1-(N,N-bis-carboxymethyl)amino-3-allylglycerol-co-dimethylacrylamide] for selective sorption and determination of cefuroxime sodium in biological and pharmaceutical samples

Two molecular imprinting polymers (MIPs) based on solution and suspension polymerization were prepared with 1-(N,N-bis-carboxymethyl)amino-3-allylglycerol and N,N-dimethylacrylamide as functional monomers, and copper ion-cefuroxime sodium complex as the template. The imprinted polymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, elemental analysis, Brunauer, Emmett and Teller method and scanning electron microscopy. The effects of the analytical parameters such as sample pH, contact time on sorption capacity of the polymeric sorbent and interfering drugs were investigated and compared for both polymers with different polymerization methods. The imprinted polymer sorbent was selective for the template. The profile of cefuroxime sodium uptake by the both sorbents reflects good accessibility of the active sites in the imprinted polymer sorbents. The equilibrium adsorption data of cefuroxime sodium on polymeric sorbents were analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Redlich–Peterson isotherm models. The developed method was utilized for determination of cefuroxime sodium in pharmaceutical and fluids biological samples like human plasma and urine by high performance liquid chromatography with satisfactory results.     

Effect of cellulose acetate/cellulose triacetate ratio on reverse osmosis blend membrane performance

Surface functionalization and modification including the grafting process are effective approaches to improve and enhance the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane performance. This work is aimed to synthesize grafted/crosslinked cellulose acetate (CA)/cellulose triacetate (CTA) blend RO membranes using N-isopropylacrylamide (N-IPAAm) as a monomer and N,N-methylene bisacrylamide (MBAAm) as a crosslinker. The morphology of these membranes was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and their surface roughness was characterized by atomic force microscopy. The performance of these membranes was evaluated through measuring two major parameters of salt rejection and water flux using RO unit at variable operating pressures. It was noted that the surface average roughness obviously decreased from 148 nm for the pure CA/CTA blend membrane with 2.5% CTA to 110 nm and 87 nm for the grafted N-IPAAm and grafted/crosslinked N-IPAAM/MBAAm/CA/CTA-RO membranes, respectively. Moreover, the contact angle decreased from 51.98° to 47.6° and 43.8° after the grafting and crosslinking process. The salt rejection of the grafted CA/CTA-RO membrane by 0.1% N-IPAAm produced the highest value of 98.12% and the water flux was 3.29 L/m²h at 10 bar.