Effective beneficiation of low content nickel ferrous laterite using fluxing agent through Na2SO4 selective reduction

To address the issue of high energy employment and un-green processing in limonitic laterites extraction, selective reduction using Na₂SO₄ additive with the introduction of different fluxes including quicklime, dolomite, and limestone followed by magnetic separation was studied. The objective of the research was to find out the influence of fluxes in optimizing ferronickel product of reduction. The reduction process was carried out at 1400 °C for 6 hours and the obtained product was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), emission dispersive x-ray (EDX), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) to image the morphology, determine the composition, and examine the mineralogical structure. Result showed that the employment of fluxes exhibited positive effect in improving the product. The highest nickel grade was 21.68 % using limestone flux, while the most promising recovery was 93.73 % utilizing dolomite flux. Meanwhile, mineralogical assessment also proved that the ascending of nickel content is due to the formation of troilite (FeS) as the result of synergy between Na₂SO₄ additives and carbonate minerals from fluxes. This result exhibits a notable performance of fluxes for improving the product of selective reduction.     

新型镍基镁渣催化重整松木热解挥发分焦油析出特性研究

采用过量浸渍法制备了镍基镁渣催化剂，并在小型气流床气化炉上开展了松木热解挥发分的催化重整研究。评估了煅烧/催化温度、镍含量和水碳比对焦油组分的影响，同时在不同煅烧/催化温度下与Ni/γ-Al₂O₃催化剂进行了裂解焦油性能的对比。采用比表面积测试（BET）、X射线衍射（XRD）、扫描电镜（SEM）和透射电镜（TEM）对催化剂进行了表征。结果表明，当镍含量为3%，煅烧/催化温度为800℃，水碳比为0.5时，镍基镁渣催化剂表现出最优异的催化裂解焦油能力：大幅度降低了重质多环芳烃的相对含量，并且焦油转化率达到95.69%，同时焦油露点温度降至40.2℃。XRD结果表明，Ni、Fe、Ca、Mg相互作用可以形成多种活性中心，进而协同提高催化剂活性。     

Morphology‐dependent electrochemical performance of nitrogen‐doped carbon dots@polyaniline hybrids for supercapacitors

In this work, the binary N‐CDs@PANI hybrids were fabricated by introducing zero‐dimensional nitrogen‐doped carbon dots (N‐CDs) into reticulated PANI. Firstly, N‐CDs were prepared by one‐pot microwave method, and then, the N‐CDs were introduced into in situ oxidative polymerization of aniline (ANI) monomer. The N‐CDs with abundant functional groups and high electronic cloud density played a significant role in guiding the polyaniline‐ordered growth into intriguing morphologies. Moreover, morphology‐dependent electrochemical performances of N‐CDs@PANI hybrids were investigated and N‐CDs improve static interaction and enhance the special capacitances in the N‐CDs@PANI hybrids. Especially, the specific capacitance of PC4 hybrid can reach 785 F g^?1, which exceed that of pure PANI (274 F g^?1) at current density of 0.5 A g^?1 according to three‐electrode measurement. And the capacitance retention of the PC4 hybrid still keeps 70% after 2000 cycles of charge and discharge. The N‐CDs@PANI hybrids can have potential applications in electrode materials, supercapacitors, nonlinear optics, and microwave absorption.     

Clean hydrogen generation and storage strategies via CO2 utilization into chemicals and fuels: A review

Hydrogen becomes one of the most clean energy sources. The major issues on hydrogen are lack of practical clean and high‐temperature processes and possible practical storage of clean hydrogen. An energy intensive of clean hydrogen storage via chemical and liquid fuel production route is the current demand. This article reviewed the most recent research for hydrogen (H₂) production by using several methods, such as thermochemical process, thermal decomposition, biological approaches, electrolysis, and photocatalytic method. H₂ storage types, including physical and chemical approaches, were also reviewed. The produced H₂ was stored as valuable chemicals and fuels via CO₂ hydrogenation reaction. Reactor designs are the illustrated number of design ranging from the fixed bed to the continuous stirred tank reactor. Catalyst type, catalytic system, and the related mechanism of CO₂ hydrogenation reaction to form alcohol, alkanes, and carboxylic acid were also discussed in detail.     

Effects of metal support interaction on dry reforming of methane over Ni/Ce-Al2O3 catalysts

Dry (CO₂) reforming of methane is conducted over two newly synthesized Ni20/Ce-γAl₂O₃ and Ni20/Ce-meso-Al₂O₃ catalysts. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicated that Ni20/Ce-meso-Al₂O₃ exhibits a better dispersion of nickel, while Ni20/Ce-γAl₂O₃ has larger amounts of nickel crystallites. The temperature programmed desorption (TPD) kinetics analysis indicated that Ni20/Ce-meso-Al₂O₃ had a lesser metal-support interaction than the Ni20/Ce-γAl₂O₃. The thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) indicated that the incorporation of ceria into the Al₂O₃ matrix helps to stabilize Ni20/Ce-meso-Al₂O₃ during dry reforming of methane. The temperature programmed reduction (TPR) indicated that the synthesized catalysts were sufficiently reducible below 750 °C. A fixed bed reactor evaluation (at 750 °C) showed that both catalysts can facilitate methane reforming to syngas with minimal coking throughout the 30 hours time-on-stream (TOS). However, Ni20/Ce-meso-Al₂O₃ is more promising in terms of prolonged stability for dry reforming applications. Moreover, the syngas yield for Ni20/Ce-γAl₂O₃ is close to equilibrium prediction during the first 1 hour of reaction time.     

LiAlH4–ZrCl4 mixtures for hydrogen release at near room temperature

The dehydrogenation temperature of LiAlH₄ was significantly reduced by the production of mixtures with ZrCl₄. Stoichiometric 4:1, and 5 mol % mixtures of LiAlH₄ and ZrCl₄ were produced by ball milling at room temperature and ?196 °C, and tested for dehydrogenation at low temperature. Cryogenic ball-milling resulted in an effective way to produce reactive mixtures for hydrogen release; because of achieving small aggregates size (5–20 μm) in 10 min of cryomilling while preventing substantial decomposition during preparation. Dehydrogenation reaction in the mixtures LiAlH₄/ZrCl₄ started around 31–47 °C under different heating rates. Partial dehydrogenation was proved at 70 °C: 4.4 wt % for the 5 mol% ZrCl₄–LiAlH₄ mixture, and 3.4 wt % for the best 4:1 stoichiometric mixture. Complete dehydrogenation up to 250 °C released 6.4 wt% and 4.1 wt%, respectively. Dehydrogenation reactions are exothermic, and the LiAlH₄/ZrCl₄ mixtures are unstable and difficult to handle. The activation energy of the exothermic reactions was estimated as 113.5 ± 9.8 kJ/mol and 40.6 ± 6.6 kJ/mol for 4LiAlH₄+ZrCl₄ and 5%mol ZrCl₄+LiAlH₄ samples milled in cryogenic conditions, respectively. The dehydrogenation pathway was changed in the LiAlH₄/ZrCl₄ mixtures as compared to pure LiAlH₄. Dehydrogenation reaction is proposed to form Al, LiCl, Zr, and H₂ as main products. Modification of the dehydrogenation reaction of LiAlH₄ was achieved at the cost of reducing the total hydrogen release capacity.     

Hydrogen production costs of a polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis powered by a renewable hybrid system

In this work, a novel approach related to the production of hydrogen using a polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis powered by a renewable hybrid system is proposed. The investigation is carried out by establishing energy balances in the different components constituting the combined renewable system. A mathematical model to predict the production of electricity and hydrogen is proposed. The discrepancies between the numerical results and those from the literature review do not exceed 7%. The results show that the overall efficiency and the capacity factor of the combined renewable system without thermal storage are 20 and 34%, respectively. The levelized cost of hydrogen also is 6.86 US$/kg. The effect of certain physical parameters such as optical efficiency, water electrolysis temperature, unit electrolysis capital cost and solar multiple on the performance of the combined system is investigated. The results show that the performance of hydrogen production is optimal when the solar installation is three times oversized. The results also show that the levelized cost of hydrogen for the optimal sized is 4.07 US$/kg. Finally, the proposed combined system can produce low cost hydrogen and compete with hybrid sulfur thermochemical cycles, conventional photovoltaic installations, concentrated photovoltaic thermal systems and wind farms developed in all regions of the world.     

Research on the hot surface ignition of hydrogen‐air mixture under different influencing factors

To further reveal the pre‐ignition characteristics of hydrogen internal combustion engine, the effect of hot surface characteristic parameters on the ignition characteristics of hydrogen‐air mixture was investigated in this research. Based on the prototype of the constant volume combustion bomb with an overhead glow plug, the duration from the heating of the hot surface to the combustion of hydrogen‐air mixture, the so‐called heating duration, was firstly researched under different fuel‐air equivalence ratio, initial temperature, initial pressure, hot surface temperature, and hot surface area, and the influence of each factor on the heating duration was analyzed. The results show that the order of the effect of each factor on the hot surface ignition is as follows: hot surface temperature > initial pressure of hydrogen‐air mixture > equivalent ratio > initial temperature of hydrogen‐air mixture > hot surface area. The influence of the hot surface characteristic parameters on the heating duration was further analyzed in detail. On this basis, the relationship among the critical ignition temperature, the heating duration and the hot surface area was researched and established. The results show that the heating duration is the only major factor affecting the critical ignition temperature. Finally, the research results were applied to analysis the pre‐ignition in hydrogen internal combustion engine.     

Enhancement of biohydrogen production from sustainable orange peel wastes using Enterobacter species isolated from domestic wastewater

Five facultative anaerobic bacterial isolates were recovered from domestic wastewater. These isolates were identified based on the 16S rRNA as Enterobacter aerogenes (one isolate), Enterobacter cloacae (two isolates), and Cronobacter sakazakii (three isolates). These isolates were examined for their potential to evolve hydrogen on a glucose medium. The most potent hydrogen‐producing isolates, E aerogenes (KY549389) and E cloacae (KY524293), were examined for their capacity to generate hydrogen, acetone, butanol, and ethanol using orange peel (OP) hydrolysate. OP powder was pretreated with n‐hexane to remove the toxicity of d ‐limonene. Different concentrations (4%, 6%, and 8% w/v) of limonene‐free OP were subjected to the boiling water (temperature of 100°C) or acid (HCl) treatments. The maximum fermentative H₂ production of 1700 and 1620 mL/L was obtained from 6% OP hydrolysate extracted with boiling water using facultative anaerobic E aerogenes (KY549389) and E cloacae (KY524293), respectively. Hydrogen production efficiency was 0.99 and 1.19 mol H₂/mol glucose for E aerogenes and E cloacae, respectively. The total fermentative acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE) generated by E aerogenes and E cloacae were 0.78 and 0.38 g/L including acetone (0.05 and 0.04 g/L), butanol (0.011 and 0.013 g/L), and ethanol (0.71 and 0.32 g/L), respectively. The maximum ABE productivity was 0.01 and 0.005 g/L/h generated at 60 g/L OP hydrolysate by E aerogenes and E cloacae, respectively. These strains were positive for nitrogen fixation (nitrogenase) capability estimated by the acetylene reduction assay. Application of OP hydrolysate without the addition of any nutritional components or reducing agent is considered an eco‐friendly, economical, and commercial substrate for desired biofuel production.