Comparative study of the elimination of toluene vapours in twin biotrickling filters using two microorganisms Bacillus cereus S1 and S2

BACKGROUND: To investigate the microbial degradation performance of organic pollutants in the atmosphere using a biotrickling filter, two microorganism strains, Bacillus cereus S1 and Bacillus cereus S2, were selected, identified and inoculated into a twin biotrickling filter for comparison. RESULTS: Both strains showed good performance towards the degradation of model organic pollutants when gas flow rates ranged from 100 to 600 L h⁻¹. For S1, the total maximum removal efficiency (RE) of toluene was maintained nearly 100% not only at gas flow rates of 100 L h⁻¹ corresponding to empty bed residence time (EBRT) 199.44 s, but also at gas flow rates of 200 L h⁻¹ (EBRT = 99.72 s) and 300 L h⁻¹ (EBRT = 66.48 s). However, S2 had a much lower degradation capability; near 100% removal efficiency was obtained only at the gas flow rate of 100 L h⁻¹ although both bacteria belong to the same Bacillus cereus. With further increase in gas flow rate, the total REs for both S1 and S2 decreased slightly at first and then dropped sharply to 46% and 35%, respectively, at an EBRT of 33.24 s, corresponding to a gas flow rate of 600 L h⁻¹. Starvation for between 2 and 10 days resulted in the re‐acclimation times of both strains ranging between 1.0 and 15.5 h. CONCLUSION: Strain S1 would be a better choice for inoculation into a biotrickling filter than strain S2, because of its much higher toluene removal capacity and rapid recovery to full performance. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Equilibrium and crystallographic measurements of the binary tetrahydrofuran and helium clathrate hydrates

Clathrate compounds are crystalline materials formed by a physical interaction between host and relatively light guest molecules. Various types of nano-sized cages surrounded by host frameworks exist in the highly unique crystalline structures and free guest molecules are entrapped in an open host-guest network. Recently, we reported two peculiar phenomena, swapping and tuning, naturally occurring in the hydrate cages. Helium, one of the smallest light guest molecules, must be the challengeable material in the sense of physics and moreover possesses versatile applications in the field of superconductivity technology and thermonuclear industry. In this regard, we attempted for the first time to synthesize helium hydrates at moderate temperature and pressure conditions. According to inclusion phenomena, helium itself normally cannot form clathrate hydrates due to being too small molecularly without the help of hydrate former molecules (sI, sII, and sH formers). In this study, the hydrate equilibria of the binary clathrate hydrate containing tetrahydrofuran, helium, and water were determined at 2, 3, 5.56 THF mol%. Direct volumetric measurements were also carried out to confirm the exact amount of helium captured in the hydrate cages. Finally, the crystalline structure of the formed mixed hydrates was identified by powder X-ray diffraction, resulting in structure II.     

Strength and fracture toughness of nano and micron-silica particles bidispersed epoxy composites: evaluated by fragility parameter

In this study, we discuss the composition effect of 240 nm and 1.56 μm-silica particles on strength and fracture toughness by examining two parameters, fragility and glass transition temperature, that were derived from the thermo-viscoelasticity measurements. Experimental results showed that the composites had a lower fragility with higher strength and fracture toughness as the content of nanoparticles was increased regardless of glass transition temperature. The improvement in mechanical properties from adding nanoparticles was definitely explained by the fragility represented the heterogeneity in polymer matrix, and this was related to the interaction between particles and matrix. The fragility was found to be an effective parameter for evaluating strength and fracture toughness of epoxy composite containing a bidispersion of nano and micron-silica particles.     

Algorithms for multiprocessor scheduling with two job lengths and allocation restrictions

A variant of the High Multiplicity Multiprocessor Scheduling Problem with C job lengths is considered, in which jobs can be processed only by machines not greater than a given index. When C=2, polynomial algorithms are proposed, for the feasibility version of the problem and for maximizing the number of scheduled jobs.     

Refactoring and converting a TTCN-2 test suite

When deploying TTCN-3 at Nokia, we converted two TTCN-2 test systems to TTCN-3. We explain to which extend we have been able to do the conversion automatically. The conversion tool used provided a syntactically and semantically correct conversion of the TTCN-2 code. We define some improvements made on the tool to increase readability and maintainability of the resulting code. We cover aspects of converting also the non-TTCN-2 parts and describe the experiences we made as a set of lessons learnt.     

Signature analysis and defect detection in layered manufacturing of ceramic sensors and actuators

This paper presents the concept of a process signature for the use of online signature analysis and defect detection in the layered manufacturing (LM) of ceramic sensors and actuators. To achieve the high quality of parts built by the fused deposition of ceramics (FDC), an online process-monitoring system is implemented to detect the processing defects. Using a process signature extracted from the image of a layer captured by the monitoring system, an ideal image is created that is then compared to the original image to detect and identify the defects. Some results of signature analysis and defect detection for single-material and multi-material parts are also presented.Received: 22 July 1999, Accepted: 21 October 2001, Published online: 29 October 2003 Correspondence to: Mohsen A. JafariThis work was supported by the Office of Naval Research under grant # N-0014-96-1-1175. Ref. US Patent # S-5738817, April 14, 1998.     

A new efficient numerical method and the dynamic analysis of composite laminates with piezoelectric layers

Firstly, a numerical method for the inversion of Laplace transform is developed and its accuracy is shown through examples. Then, a state-vector equation for the dynamic problems of piezoelectric plates is deduced directly from a modified mixed variational principle for piezoelectric bodies and its exact solution for the dynamic problems of simply supported rectangle piezoelectric plate is simply given. For multilayered hybrid plates, we derive the solution in terms of the propagator matrices. The techniques accounts for the compatibility of generalized displacements and generalized stresses on the interface both the elastic layers and piezoelectric layers, and the transverse shear deformation and the rotary inertia of laminate are also considered in the global algebraic equation of structure. Meanwhile, there is no restriction on the thickness and the number of layers. As an application of the numerical inversion of Laplace transform presented in this paper, typical numerical examples of the harmonic vibration and transient response are proposed and discussed. Since the highly accurate numerical results, they can serve as benchmarks to test various thick plate theories and various numerical methods, such as the finite and boundary element methods for transient response problems.