Evaluation of biodiesel obtained from cottonseed oil

Esters from vegetable oils have attracted a great deal of interest as substitutes for petrodiesel to reduce dependence on imported petroleum and provide a fuel with more benign environmental properties. In this work biodiesel was prepared from cottonseed oil by transesterification with methanol, using sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium methoxide and potassium methoxide as catalysts. A series of experiments were conducted in order to evaluate the effects of reaction variables such as methanol/oil molar ratio (3:1–15:1), catalyst concentration (0.25–1.50%), temperature (25–65 °C), and stirring intensity (180–600 rpm) to achieve the maximum yield and quality. The optimized variables of 6:1 methanol/oil molar ratio (mol/mol), 0.75% sodium methoxide concentration (wt.%), 65 °C reaction temperature, 600 rpm agitation speed and 90 min reaction time offered the maximum methyl ester yield (96.9%). The obtained fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The fuel properties of cottonseed oil methyl esters (COME), cetane number, kinematic viscosity, oxidative stability, lubricity, cloud point, pour point, cold filter plugging point, flash point, ash content, sulfur content, acid value, copper strip corrosion value, density, higher heating value, methanol content, free and bound glycerol were determined and are discussed in the light of biodiesel standards such as ASTM D6751 and EN 14214.     

Leak area and leakage rate prediction for probabilistic risk assessment of concrete containments under severe core conditions

The fundamental gap in knowledge for estimating release for probabilistic risk assessment of concrete containments subject to beyond design basis loads is in estimating leak areas and leakage rates. By evaluating the available literature and carefully studying the test results, several generic rules are postulated for leak areas and leakage rates of concrete containments. These rules, coupled with theory-based leakage flow equations and empirically-based crack roughness constants, provide a realistic estimate of leak rates through liner tears in concrete containments.     

Soudi Arabian-U.S. Joint agreement for technical cooperation in desalination

The Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) entered into an agreement in 1977 with the U.S. Department of Interior's (USDI) Office of Water Research and Technology for technical cooperation in desalination. Under this agreement, a Joint Team of desalting specialists from SWCC and USDI was formed to work on two major projects under the oversight administration of H.E. the Governor of SWCC.

One of these projects is the establishment of a Research, Development and Training Center to train Saudis in the operations and maintenance of desalting plants, and to carry out R&D directed to the water needs of the Kingdom, thereby lowering the operating and maintenance costs, and increasing the reliability of SWCC plants. The other is a technology development program for very large MSF plants.     

Effect of ultrasonic assisted KOH pretreatment on physiochemical characteristic and anaerobic digestion performance of wheat straw

In this study, ultrasonic field was applied during potassium hydroxide (KOH) pretreatment of wheat straw (WS). Three concentrations of KOH (2%, 4%, and 6%) were tested during pretreatment. The results showed that there was a significant influence of the ultrasonic assisted KOH pretreatment (KOH_Upt) on physiochemical characteristics of WS during pretreatment as well as on digester performance. The pretreatment time was optimized to 36 h for all KOH concentrations. The highest total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) productions (3189 mg·L^-1) from 6% KOH_Upt samples were observed. Similarly, the SEM analysis and FTIR observation revealed that KOH_Upt effectively disrupted the physical morphology of WS and successful breaking of lignin and hemicellulose linkage between carboxyl groups. Moreover, the highest biogasification (555 ml·(g VS_loaded)^-1) and biomethane productions (282 ml·(g VS_loaded)^-1) from 4%KOH_Upt digesters, with 69% of biodegradability, indicated significant availability of organic matter from KOH_Upt. The R² values (0.993-0.998) in Modified Gompertz Model indicated that the model was feasible to predict methane yield for this study. Similarly, the Bo values for 4%KOH_Upt (283.30 ± 2.74 ml·(gVS_loaded)^-1) were also in agreement to the experimental methane yield. These results suggested that ultrasonic addition during KOH pretreatment of WS can effectively increase the organic yield during pretreatment. Moreover, the increase in methane production from 4% KOH_Upt suggested that digester performance can be improved with lower KOH concentrations using this pretreatment.     

Failure investigation on rear water wall tube of boiler

This paper presents failure investigation on the SA210-A1 rear water wall tube by visual site inspection, tube wall thickness measurements and microscopic examination. The rear water wall tube has failed with wide open burst and was situated at the boiler nose lower bent region. On-site wall thickness measurements were performed on all the rear water wall tubes located at the same level of the ruptured tube. The tubes were observed to have experienced significant wall thinning. Microscopic examinations on the failed rupture region and some distance away region of the as-received tubes are also conducted in order to support in determining the failure mechanism and failure root cause. Failure mechanisms are discussed and the findings obtained from the site inspection, wall thickness measurements, microscopic examinations and creep analyses may finally reveal the failure mechanism and main root cause of the failure. The failure mechanism is identified as a result of the combination of the significant localized wall thinning of the rear water wall tube due to fly-ash erosion and a thermally activated process of creep problem due to increasing of temperatures.     

Validation of frey for the safety analysis of LWR fuel using transient fuel rod experiments

The analysis and comparison of severe light water reactor transient experiments are presented from the FREY verification and validation effort. The purpose of this study was to validate the predictive capabilities of the code for severe transient analysis. The FREY code, developed under the sponsorship of the Electric Power Research Institute, uses a two-dimensional finite-element computational method for the thermomechanical analysis of LWR fuel rods under steady state and transient conditions. A total of 10 test fuel rods from experimental programs conducted in both the Power Burst Facility and the Transient Reactor Test Facility have been used in this study. The fuel rods were selected from the following test programs: Power Coolant Mismatch Tests, PCM-2 and PCM-4: Reactivity Initiated Accident Test, RIA 1–2; Loss-of-Coolant Accident Test, LOC-3; First Fuel Rod Failure Test, FRF-1; and Irradiation Effects Test, IE-3. The test programs used in this study cover a large range of code applications for severe transient analysis. The methods used to model the fuel, cladding, and coolant geometry are discussed in addition to experimental data comparisons. The results of the PCM-2, RIA 1–2, and FRF-1 analyses are presented to highlight the full two-dimensional modeling capabilities of FREY and to compare the thermal and mechanical measurements with FREY's prediction. The comparisons show good general agreement, with a tendency for FREY to overpredict the peak cladding surface temperature for a few cases where strong three-dimensional effects have been identified.     

Transient failure of zircaloy cladding

A state of the art study of transient failure of zircaloy reveals that a wide range of failure models exist, and their use in fuel analysis depends upon the type of application. Licensing analyses, for example, employ highly simplified criteria that depict cladding rupture in terms of a single response variable, usually the nominal circumferential stress, as function of temperature; while fuel behavior analyses use more detailed models with varying levels of sophistication. Some of these models, however, are ill-suited for detailed fuel rod analysis computer codes because of their dependence on case-specific parameters; others are limited in their utility because of inherent deficiencies in their theoretical treatment of the phenomena involved. Based on this study, a new zircaloy transient failure model is developed that takes account of the important variables involved in transient phenomena, namely, heating rate, strain rate, temperature, true stress, true strain, and prior condition of the cladding material. The model is particularly suited for detailed fuel rod analysis and thus was implemented in the FREY code.     

ANALYSIS OF USED OIL BY IR-SFECTROSCOPIC AND SYNTHESIS OF DISPERSIONS OF A HIGHLY BASIC PETROLEUM CALCIUM SULFONATE ADDITIVE

Infrared absorptions of TLC subtractions of used motor oil, original oil, base oil and the additive, indicate the transformation of the polar and nonpolar components by further oxidation and oxidative degradation of carbonyl compounds into acids, esters and peroxides. Organic nitrates and nitro compounds were also detected after 2000Km and 3000Km service. The effects of basic calcium sulfonate additives, starting with used oil l000Km, 2000Km, 3000Km service, vacuum distillates of used oils and base oil, were studied. It has been found that the dispersant properties of these sulfonates are profoundly influenced by their structure. The alkalinity of the calcium sulfonate additive was determined by spectroscopic-IR method.