Multiple Tank Explosions in an Edible‐Oil Refinery Plant: A Case Study

Multiple explosions occurred when five workers were acting on a footbridge structure at the top of crude olive pomace oil tanks. Welding on the tank roofs was performed without previously cleaning the tanks stopping their operation. First, one of the several ～ 650‐m³ reservoirs exploded, provoking a pool fire that spread throughout the tank farm. Roughly 1 h later, two other reservoirs exploded causing the launching of missiles to a distance of 60–80 m and a huge fire that extended throughout the entire tank farm. Four workers were killed instantaneously. The explosion was caused by the unusually high content of hexane in the crude olive pomace oil and, hence, by the inefficiency of the desolventization process which creates a flammable and explosive oil from a combustible one.     

Thermal,mechanical, and water vapor barrier behavior of polypropylene composite containing modified kaolinite

Polypropylene composites containing modified kaolinite were prepared using melt processing and the morphological, thermal, mechanical and their water barrier properties were analyzed. To improve compatibility with polypropylene, kaolinite was modified with silane as a coupling agent. Characterization techniques (X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy) confirmed the effective grafting of these compounds on the surface and edges of the kaolinite with no functionalization on the inner surface. The differential scanning calorimetry and X‐ray diffraction techniques demonstrated that the addition of grafted kaolinite affected the iPP crystallinity. The thermogravimetric analysis helped to determine the thermal stability of the composites, being this, dependent on the amount of kaolinite and silane. The stress–strain tests demonstrated an increase in Young's modulus and obtained a 70% reduction in water vapor permeation. These improvements were mainly related to the increased compatibility between the iPP/Kaol interfaces promoted by the silane. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45785.     

Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity of Moscatel Dessert Wines from the Setúbal Region in Portugal

Moscatel wines from Setúbal were analyzed for their total phenolic (mean value 1,243 mg gallic acid equivalents/L), and total flavonoid (mean value 248 mg catechin/L) composition by spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods were used to quantify phenolic compounds as benzoic acids, cinnamic acids, stilbens, and some flavonoids. Antioxidant activity of the wines was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH; mean value 70.7% inhibition), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP; mean value 3,098 mg of Trolox equivalents/L) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC; mean value 10,724 μmol/L) assays. Results were analyzed using principal component analysis which allowed samples to be grouped in terms of both winemaking producer and vintage. By plotting correlation loadings, it was possible to understand which variables were responsible for sample distribution. The correlation between results obtained for variables show that, in general, total flavonoid content is a better estimation of antioxidant activity in Moscatel samples (r _{ORAC/flavonoids} = 0.832, r _{FRAP/flavonoids} = 0.677) than total phenolic content (r _{ORAC/phenolics} = 0.680, r _{FRAP/phenolics} = 0.372). No major correlations were detected for DPPH assay results (r _{DPPH/flavonoids} = 0.283, r _{DPPH/phenolics} = 0.271). Chromatographic profiles showed important differences among Moscatel wines. Gallic acid contents and results of antioxidant activity tests were strongly correlated (r values in the range 0.74–0.92). Correlations of the results obtained for antioxidant activity tests with contents of other phenolic compounds such as ethyl caffeate, ethyl gallate, caffeic acid, protocatechuic acid, and t-caftaric acid depend on sample and type of test employed. Presented at the “AOAC Europe section international workshop: Enforcement of European Legislation on Food and Water: Analytical and Toxicological Aspects”, in Lisbon, April 2008, and published in abstract form.     

Characterisation of bottom ash from municipal solid waste incineration in Catalonia

Bottom ash from municipal solid waste incinerator plants in Catalonia was characterised to investigate some alternatives for its utilisation and their potential environmental impact. After a detailed chemical and mineralogical characterisation, physical and geotechnical properties were investigated. The study focused on the use of bottom ash as an aggregate substitute in pavement applications. The results show that this material may be successfully used as a compacted material in unbound road sub‐bases. According to Spanish Specifications for road construction, bottom ash complies with the technical requirements for sub‐bases. Data obtained from the leaching test satisfy the limit values established by Catalan Specifications for bottom ash utilisation. The use of bottom ash in the envisaged application should therefore not result in any environmental impact. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

3DComplete: Efficient completeness inspection using a 2.5D color scanner

In this paper, we present a low-cost and highly configurable quality inspection system capable of capturing 2.5D color data, created using off-the-shelf machine vision components, open-source software libraries, and a combination of standard and novel algorithms for 2.5D data processing. The system uses laser triangulation to capture 3D depth, in parallel with a color camera and a line light projector to capture color texture, which are then combined into a color 2.5D model in real-time.     

Fast RGB-D people tracking for service robots

Service robots have to robustly follow and interact with humans. In this paper, we propose a very fast multi-people tracking algorithm designed to be applied on mobile service robots. Our approach exploits RGB-D data and can run in real-time at very high frame rate on a standard laptop without the need for a GPU implementation. It also features a novel depth-based sub-clustering method which allows to detect people within groups or even standing near walls. Moreover, for limiting drifts and track ID switches, an online learning appearance classifier is proposed featuring a three-term joint likelihood. We compared the performances of our system with a number of state-of-the-art tracking algorithms on two public datasets acquired with three static Kinects and a moving stereo pair, respectively. In order to validate the 3D accuracy of our system, we created a new dataset in which RGB-D data are acquired by a moving robot. We made publicly available this dataset which is not only annotated by hand, but the ground-truth position of people and robot are acquired with a motion capture system in order to evaluate tracking accuracy and precision in 3D coordinates. Results of experiments on these datasets are presented, showing that, even without the need for a GPU, our approach achieves state-of-the-art accuracy and superior speed.     

Synthesis and characterization of semi‐interpenetrating networks based on poly(dimethylsiloxane) and poly(vinyl alcohol)

Semi‐interpenetrating networks (Semi‐IPNs) with different compositions were prepared from poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) by the sol‐gel process in this study. The characterization of the PDMS/PVA semi‐IPN was carried out using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and swelling measurements. The presence of PVA domains dispersed in the PDMS network disrupted the network and allowed PDMS to crystallize, as observed by the crystallization and melting peaks in the DSC analyses. Because of the presence of hydrophilic (? OH) and hydrophobic (Si? (CH₃)₂) domains, there was an appropriate hydrophylic/hydrophobic balance in the semi‐IPNs prepared, which led to a maximum equilibrium water content of ～ 14 wt % without a loss in the ability to swell less polar solvents. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

BTEX plume dynamics following an ethanol blend release: geochemical footprint and thermodynamic constraints on natural attenuation

In this 10 year study, Brazilian gasoline (100 L, containing 24% ethanol by volume) was released to a sandy aquifer to evaluate the natural attenuation of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and total xylenes (BTEX) in the presence of ethanol. Groundwater concentrations of BTEX, ethanol, and degradation products (e.g., acetate and methane) were measured over the entire plume using an array of monitoring well clusters, to quantify changes in plume mass and region of influence. Ethanol biodegradation coincided with the development of methanogenic conditions while acetate (a common anaerobic metabolite) accumulated. The benzene plume expanded beyond the 30 m long monitored area and began to recede after 2.7 years, when ethanol had disappeared. Theoretical calculations suggest that the transient accumulation of acetate (up to 166 mg L(-1)) may have hindered the thermodynamic feasibility of benzene degradation under methanogenic conditions. Yet, benzene removal proceeded relatively fast compared to literature values (and faster than the alkylbenzenes present at this site) after acetate concentrations had decreased below inhibitory levels. Thus, site investigations of ethanol blend releases should consider monitoring acetate concentrations. Overall, this study shows that inhibitory effects of ethanol and acetate are relatively short-lived, and demonstrates that monitored natural attenuation can be a viable option to deal with ethanol blend releases.     

Mutations of SURF-1 in Leigh disease associated with cytochrome c oxidase deficiency

Leigh disease associated with cytochrome c oxidase deficiency (LD[COX-]) is one of the most common disorders of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, in infancy and childhood. No mutations in any of the genes encoding the COX-protein subunits have been identified in LD(COX-) patients. Using complementation assays based on the fusion of LD(COX-) cell lines with several rodent/human rho0 hybrids, we demonstrated that the COX phenotype was rescued by the presence of a normal human chromosome 9. Linkage analysis restricted the disease locus to the subtelomeric region of chromosome 9q, within the 7-cM interval between markers D9S1847 and D9S1826. Candidate genes within this region include SURF-1, the yeast homologue (SHY-1) of which encodes a mitochondrial protein necessary for the maintenance of COX activity and respiration. Sequence analysis of SURF-1 revealed mutations in numerous DNA samples from LD(COX-) patients, indicating that this gene is responsible for the major complementation group in this important mitochondrial disorder.     

Correlations between composition and crystallinity of LDPE/HDPE blends

DMTA, DSC, WAXS and density were used to quantify the crystallinity and crystallite dimensions of specific grades of LDPE/HDPE blends. In virtue of the close agreement of the results obtained with the three techniques, an average degree of crystallinity was calculated, allowing the establishment of quantitative relationships between composition and crystallinity, and shifting of the α-relaxation. Dimensions along the 110 and 200 planes were also correlated with shifting of the α-transition.