Authenticity green coffee bean species and geographical origin using near-infrared spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

To prevent the adulteration of agricultural resources and provide a solution to enhance the green coffee bean supply chain, authentication using the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique was investigated. Partial least square with discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) models combined with various preprocessing methods were built from NIR spectra of 153 Vietnamese green coffee samples. The model combined with the standard normal variate and the first order of derivative yielded excellent performance in predicting coffee species with the error cross-validation of 0.0261. PLS-DA model of mean centre and first-order derivative spectra also yielded good performance in verifying geographical indication of green coffee with the error of 0.0656. By contrast, the predicting abilities of post-harvest methods were poor. The overall results showed a high potential of the NIRS in online authentication practices.     

Anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and FOG with sewage sludge – realising its potential in Ireland

The severe environmental pollution in many countries is caused by indiscriminate discharge of large quantities of food waste (FW), fat oil and grease (FOG) and sewage sludge (SS) to the environment. There are many possible treatment routes, but anaerobic digestion (AD) is now well accepted for treating several kinds of organic wastes. But AD of FW alone presents some operational challenges because of substrates and variability. Anaerobic co-digestion of two or more substrates is better than single substrate digestion. This can use a plant’s unused capacity, in line with the trend to renewable energy. Co-digestion technology, although well established in many European countries, is still in its infancy in Ireland. There are problems with different regulatory arrangements. They should be resolved. The paper reviews anaerobic co-digestion technology is reviewed, with special focus on possible application in Ireland.     

Controlling thickness to tune performance of high-mobility transparent conducting films deposited from Ga-doped ZnO ceramic target

Structure modification has been found to tune significantly the transparent-conducting performance, especially mobility and conductivity of hydrogenated Ga-doped ZnO (HGZO) films. The strong correlation between film thickness and mobility of the films is revealed. The mobility increases quickly with increasing the thickness from 350 to 900 nm, and then tends to be saturated at further thicknesses. A higher mobility than 50 cm²/Vs can be achieved, which is an extra-high value for polycrystalline ZnO films deposited by using the sputtering technique. The thickness-dependent mobility originates from scatterings on grain boundaries and dislocation-induced defects controlled by thin-film growth. Based on the Volmer-Weber model, an expansion model is built up to describe the thickness-dependent crystal growth of the HGZO films, especially at the thick films. As a result, the 800 nm-thick HGZO film obtains the highest performance with high mobility of 51.5 cm²/Vs, low resistivity of 5.3 × 10^?4 Ωcm, and good transmittance of 83.3 %.     

Effect of Supports and Promoters on the Performance of Ni-Based Catalysts in Ethanol Steam Reforming

Ethanol steam reforming (ESR) is one of the potential processes to convert ethanol into valuable products. Hydrogen produced from ESR is considered as green energy for the future and can be an excellent alternative to fossil fuels with the aim of mitigating the greenhouse gas effect. The ESR process has been well studied, using transition metals as catalysts coupled with both acidic and basic oxides as supports. Among various reported transition metals, Ni is an inexpensive material with activity comparable to that of noble metals, showing promising ethanol conversion and hydrogen yields. Additionally, different promoters and supports were utilized to enhance the hydrogen yield and the catalyst stability. This review summarizes and discusses the influences of the supports and promoters of Ni-based catalysts on the ESR process.     

Advanced Surface of Fibrous Activated Carbon Immobilized with FeO/TiO2 for Photocatalytic Evolution of Hydrogen under Visible Light

FeO-doped TiO₂ nanoparticle photocatalysts were immobilized onto the surface of fibrous activated carbon (ACF) via a sol-gel process. As an adsorbent and photocatalyst, FeO-TiO₂ on immobilized ACFs (FeO-TiO₂/ACF) greatly improved the photocatalysis rate of hydrogen production as compared with pure TiO₂ and ACF-TiO₂ under UV irradiation and visible light. The addition of ACFs surface significantly reduced the photogenerated pairs of electrons-hole recombination, thereby promoting the photocatalysis action of doped photo-metal oxides of FeO-TiO₂. Co-doping of FeO onto the lattice of the TiO₂ approach can improve the absorption activity of visible light through photo-metal oxide of TiO₂ and further enhance hydrogen production under visible light. The photocatalytic fabrics (FeO-TiO₂/ACF) were effortlessly split out from the experimental solution for re-utilization and exhibited high stability even after five complete regeneration cycles.     

Negation as failure for disjunctive logic programming

We generalize the Negation-as-Failure procedure for disjunctive logic programming. Then we compare our method with related methods in the literature. We also propose a new completion theory for disjunctive logic programs which allows some program clauses to have inclusive meaning and the others exclusive meaning.     

The maximum bit rates of soliton communication systems with lumpedamplifiers and filters in different distances

The maximum bit rate of a soliton communication system with lumped amplifiers and optical filters is considered. When the dispersion of the fiber varies from one amplifier spacing to another amplifier spacing, the maximum bit rate is significantly reduced. To overcome the effect, the amplitude of the soliton is amplified so that it is still the average soliton corresponding to the fiber dispersion for an amplifier spacing. Thus, the maximum bit rate is only slightly less than that without the dispersion variations. For a given distance, the maximum bit rate limited by the stability and soliton interaction is obtained. The result is compared with that limited by the Gordon-Haus effect. For shorter transmission distance, the maximum bit rate is limited by the stability and soliton interaction. For longer transmission distance, the maximum bit rate is limited by the Gordon-Haus effect     

Experimental data and approximate estimation for dissociation time of hydrate plugs

New experimental data coupled with a numerical model and an approximate solution are proposed to predict dissociation time of hydrate plugs in oil sub-sea pipelines. The experimental hydrate plugs are dissociated by the method of symmetric depressurisation, both in a specially designed apparatus and a classical batch reactor. The agreement between the estimation of the model and the experimental data and the simplicity of the approximate equation presents an advantage in estimating the time of hydrate plug dissociation in pipelines.     

Contribution a l'etude du polymorphisme de Ga2S3: Structure cristalline de Mn0,23Ga1,85S3

The Mn_0.23Ga_1.85S₃ phase belongs to the solid solution $\text{ф}{}_0$, stable at low temperature in the Ga₂S₃MnS system. It is hexagonal superstructure of the wurtzite, with the Ga₂S₃α′ type ($\text{a}\text{= 6.397}\text{A}\text{?}$; $\text{c}\text{= 18.027}\text{A}\text{?}$Z = 6; space groupe P6₁ or P6₅). Its crystal structure has been refined by the least squares method to a final R = 0.06 with 323 independant reflections. This structure is closely related to Ga₂S₃ α described by Hahn and Frank, and differs only by the partial occupation of the vacant metal site of Ga₂S₃ by Mn atoms in statistical disorder.