Coal liquefaction mechanism using a tritium tracer method

To determine the behavior of hydrogen in tetralin, the reaction of tetralin with tritiated gaseous hydrogen was studied in a flow reactor at 400–450°C, 2.5–9.8 MPa for various residence times. The amount of hydrogen exchange between tetralin and tritiated hydrogen was estimated from the balance of hydrogen and tritium. Although yields of methylindan and naphthalene, and the hydrogen-exchange ratio (HER) of tetralin increased monotonously with residence time, these values were scarcely influenced by the reaction pressure at every temperature. It was thought that the formation of tetralyl radicals in this system would be the rate-determining step for both the conversions of tetralin into methylindan and naphthalene, and the hydrogen exchange of tetralin. Conversions of tetralin into methylindan and naphthalene, and the hydrogen-exchange reaction using the autoclave were very close to those using the flow reactor.     

Hydrolysis of nonionic ester surfactants facilitated by potassium β-glycyrrhizinate: Implication of catalytic functions played by the carboxyl groups

Two different types of methyl esters of β-glycyrrhizinate (GK2) have been prepared to delineate the mechanism of the catalytic action of each carboxyl group of GK2 in the hydrolysis of nonionic fatty acid surfactants. In the acidic pH region of less than 4, the hydrolysis is catalyzed by the carboxyl groups of the sugar moiety, while in the close-to-neutral acidic region, the carboxyl group at the hydrophobic triterpenoid end becomes important in catalysis.     

MILORD: The architecture and the management of linguistically expressed uncertainty

The objective of this article is to describe the MILORD Shell and particularly its architecture and its management of uncertainty. MILORD is an expert systems building tool consisting of two inference engines and an explanation module. the system allows one to perform different calculi of uncertainty on an expert defined set of linguistic terms expressing uncertainty. Each calculus corresponds to specific conjunction, disjunction, and implication operators. the internal representation of each linguistic uncertainty value is a fuzzy subset of the interval [0,1]. the different calculi of uncertainty applied to the set of linguistic terms give, as a result, a fuzzy subset that is approximated, by means of a linguistic approximation process, to a linguistic certainty value belonging to the set of linguistic terms. This linguistic approximation keeps the calculus of uncertainty closed. This has the advantage that, once the linguistic certainty values have been defined, the system computes, off-line, the conjunction, disjunction, and implication operations for all the pairs of linguistic uncertainty values in the term set and stores the results in matrices. Therefore, when MILORD is run, the propagation and combination of uncertainty is performed by simply accessing these precomputed matrices. MILORD also deals with nonmonotonic reasoning in the same framework of uncertainty management. Finally, an application to the diagnosis and treatment of pneumoniae is presented.     

An application of the residual voltage for diagnoses for detecting irradiated degradation of insulating materials

Electrical cables in nuclear power generating stations must be highly reliable. For further improvement of reliability, the development of nondestructive diagnoses seems desirable for cable maintenance. The authors have been studying residual voltage for developing a diagnosis of electrical cables. The purpose of this paper is to give a foundation for development of diagnostic technology for detecting the irradiated degradation; the relations between γ-irradiation dose and the leakage current, the discharge current, and the residual voltage were studied and attempts made to calculate the amount of polarized charge and characteristic dielectric relaxation times by using data on the residual voltage. The calculated results agreed with the results obtained from the leakage current and the discharge current. These results suggest that the residual voltage in diagnostic technology for detecting the irradiated degradation can be employed.     

Effect of fluid motion on radiation-induced polymerization of ethylene in a tubular reactor

The influence of the turbulence of reactant on the radiation-induced polymerization of ethylene in 40 mole-% Freon-114 (C₂Cl₂F₄) was studied using a tubular reactor at 400 kg/cm² and 25°C with a dose rate of 1.3 × 10⁵ rad/hr. At constant linear velocity and tube diameter, the polymer concentration was shown to increase linearly with the reactor tube length. This indicates that the polymerization is in a stationary state. By changing the linear velocity from 3.5 to 42.7 cm/sec and the tube diameter from 5 to 14 mm, the space time yield and the molecular weight of polymer were found to vary between 0.21 and 0.46 mole ethylene/1.-hr and from 5.0×10³ to 10.5×10³, respectively. The space time yield and molecular weight decreased sharply to about one half those in the static polymerization with increasing fluid turbulence and then slowly increased in the highly turbulent state. Similar effects were observed in a tank reactor when the stirring speed was changed.     

Radiation-induced polymerization of ethylene in a pilot plant. I. Bulk process

Radiation-induced bulk polymerization of ethylene was carried out with use of a pilot plant with a 10 liter reactor at pressures of 225–400 kg/cm², temperatures of 30–95°C, ethylene feed rates of 5–28 kg/hr, and dose rate of 3.8 × 10⁵ rad/hr. Characteristics of the process are mild polymerization conditions and capability of producing medium density polyethylene in powder form. The spacetime yield and molecular weight of polymer were in the range of 3.5 to 13.1 g/liter hr and 2.2 × 10⁴ to 14 × 10⁴, respectively. The space-time yield increased with mean residence time and 2.4 powders of pressure, and decreased with temperature. Molecular weight changed similarly with the reaction conditions. These results were consistent with those of the bench plant experiment and the scale effect was small. Polymer deposit to the reactor wall limited a period of continuous operation of the plant. The amount of deposited polymer was increased with the square of reaction time. The rate of polymer deposit was proportional to polymer concentration and to the cube of pressure. The polymer deposit cannot be solved in the bulk process.     

Properties and structure of never-dried cotton fibers. III. Cotton fibers from bolls in early stages of growth

Like other kinds of cotton fibers already studied, American cotton fibers taken from cotton bolls immediately before and after opening show high angles of torsional rotation during ambient humidity changes. Cotton fibers taken from cotton bolls at 19 and 24 days postanthesis show remarkably higher angles of rotation and much lower dry and wet tensile strengths than the fibers taken from cotton bolls immediately before and after opening. The wet tensile strength of cotton fibers at 24 days postanthesis is higher than the dry strength like the fibers taken from bolls immediately before and after opening, but fibers at 19 days postanthesis show almost the same tensile strength in the never-dried, dried, and rewetted states. CP/MAS ¹³C NMR spectroscopy reveals that the never-dried cotton fibers at 19 days or longer postanthesis have high crystallinities. It seems that the degree of crystallinity is somewhat decreased in the dry state and restored by rewetting. The crystallinity increases with the age of growth.     

Effect of a gas–liquid separator on the hydrodynamics and circulation flow regimes in internal‐loop airlift reactors

The role of the gas–liquid separator on hydrodynamic characteristics in an internal‐loop airlift reactor (ALR) was investigated. Both gas holdup and liquid velocity were measured in a 30 dm³ airlift reactor with two different head configurations: with and without an enlarged separator. A magnetic tracer method using a neutrally buoyant magnetic particle as flowfollower was used to measure the liquid velocity in all sections of the internal‐loop airlift reactor. Average liquid circulation velocities in the main parts of the ALR were compared for both reactor configurations. At low air flow rates the separator had no influence on gas holdup, circulation velocity and intensity of turbulence in the downcomer and separator. At higher superficial air velocities, however, the separator design had a decisive effect on the hydrodynamic parameters in the downcomer and the separator. On the other hand, the gas holdup in the riser was only slightly influenced by the separator configuration in the whole range of air flow. Circulation flow regimes, characterising the behaviour of bubbles in the downcomer, were identified and the effect of the separator on these regimes was assessed. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry