Experimental investigation of a vapor absorption refrigeration system

An experimental investigation of the performance of a commercially available vapor absorption refrigeration (VAR) system is described. The natural gas-fired VAR system uses aqua-ammonia solution with ammonia as the refrigerant and water as the absorbent and has a rated cooling capacity of 10 kW. The unit was extensively modified to allow fluid pressures and temperatures to be measured at strategic points in the system. The mass flow rates of refrigerant, weak solution, and strong solution were also measured. The system as supplied incorporates air-cooled condenser and absorber units. Water-cooled absorber and condenser units were fitted to extend the VAR unit's range of operating conditions by varying the cooling water inlet temperature and/or flow rates to these units. The response of the refrigeration system to variations in chilled water inlet temperature, chilled water level in the evaporator drum, chilled water flow rate, and variable heat input are presented.     

One-step purification of lactoperoxidase from bovine milk by affinity chromatography

Sulphanilamide was determined to be a new inhibitor of lactoperoxidase (LPO) with an IC₅₀ of 0.848.10⁻⁵ M. The K_i for sulphanilamide was determined to be 3.57.10⁻⁵ M and sulphanilamide showed competitive inhibition, which makes it a suitable ligand for constructing a Sepharose 4B-l-tyrosine affinity matrix. The affinity matrix was synthesised by coupling sulphanilamide as the ligand and l-tyrosine as the spacer arm to a cyanogen bromide (CNBr)-activated-Sepharose 4B matrix. Lactoperoxidase was purified 409-fold from the synthesized affinity matrix in a single step, with a yield of 62.3% and a specific activity of 40.9 EU/mg protein. The enzyme activity was measured using ABTS as a chromogenic substrate (pH 6.0). The degree of LPO purification was monitored by SDS–PAGE and its R_z (A₄₁₂/A₂₈₀) value. The R_z value for the purified LPO was found to be 0.7. Maximum binding was achieved and K_m and V_max values were determined.     

Entropy generation minimization on electromagnetohydrodynamic radiative Casson nanofluid flow over a melting Riga plate

Minimizing entropy generation is a technique that helps improve the effectiveness of real processes by studying the associated irreversibility of system performance of nanofluid. This study examines the entropy generation analysis of electromagnetohydrodynamic radiative Casson flow induced by a stretching Riga plate in a non-Darcian porous medium under the influence of internal energy change, Arrhenius activation energy, chemical reaction, and melting heat transfer. The thermophysical features of the fluid are assumed constant in most of the literature. However, this current research bridges this gap by considering viscosity, conductivity, and diffusivity as temperature-dependent variables. Also, the exponential decaying Grinberg term is used as a resistive force in this investigation due to the electromagnetic properties of the Riga plate in the momentum conservation equation. Some suitable dimensionless variables are introduced to remodel the transport equations into unitless ones and then solved numerically by employing Galerkin Weighted Residual Method. Analyses reveal that the Casson parameter declines the fluid velocity, while the existence of the melting parameter has the opposite effect. Also, this article includes some future recommendations.     

Simulation of the transient response of heat driven refrigerators with continuous temperature control Simulation de la réponse transitoire des réfrigérateurs utilisant une source de chaleur avec maîtrise de la température en continu

A theoretical and experimental study is presented and a mathematical model is introduced for a heat driven refrigeration system operating with continuous temperature control. The model consists of a refrigerated space, an absorption refrigerator, operating irreversibly, a temperature sensor and a reference signal, and a power law control action. The steady-state behavior of the absorption refrigerator model is validated by direct comparison between theoretical results and experimental data. The model is then used to identify an optimal thermal conductance allocation, for a fixed total thermal conductance inventory, such that the refrigeration rate is maximized and the ‘pull-down' time is minimized. A simulation of the system operating in a transient mode is carried out to show that closed-loop operation results in a large reduction of fuel consumption, with respect to the ‘on–off' operation. Appropriate dimensionless groups are identified and the generalized results reported in charts using dimensionless variables.     

Vapor Absorption Refrigeration in Road Transport Vehicles

This study includes an experimental investigation into the use of vapor absorption refrigeration (VAR) systems in road transport vehicles using the waste heat in the exhaust gases of the main propulsion unit as the energy source. This would provide an alternative to the conventional vapor compression refrigeration system and its associated internal combustion engine. The performance of a VAR system fired by natural gas is compared with that of the same system driven by engine exhaust gases. This showed that the exhaust-gas-driven system produced the same performance characteristics as the gas-fired system. It also suggested that, with careful design, inserting the VAR system generator into the main engine exhaust system need not impair the performance of the vehicle propulsion unit. A comparison of the capital and running costs of the conventional and proposed alternative system is made. Suggestions are also made regarding operation of the VAR system during off-road∕slow running conditions.     

Optimization of Adaptive Fuzzy Controller for Maximum Power Point Tracking Using Whale Algorithm

The advantage of fuzzy controllers in working with inaccurate and nonlinear inputs is that there is no need for an accurate mathematical model and fast convergence and minimal fluctuations in the maximum power point detector. The capability of online fuzzy tracking systems is maximum power, resistance to radiation and temperature changes, and no need for external sensors to measure radiation intensity and temperature. However, the most important issue is the constant changes in the amount of sunlight that cause the maximum power point to be constantly changing. The controller used in the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit must be able to adapt to the new radiation conditions. Therefore, in this paper, to more accurately track the maximum power point of the solar system and receive more electrical power at its output, an adaptive fuzzy control was proposed, the parameters of which are optimized by the whale algorithm. The studies have repeated under different irradiation conditions and the proposed controller performance has been compared with perturb and observe algorithm (P&O) method, which is a practical and high-performance method. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, the particle swarm algorithm optimized the adaptive fuzzy controller. The simulation results show that the adaptive fuzzy control system performs better than the P&O tracking system. Higher accuracy and consequently more production power at the output of the solar panel is one of the salient features of the proposed control method, which distinguishes it from other methods. On the other hand, the adaptive fuzzy controller optimized by the whale algorithm has been able to perform relatively better than the controller designed by the particle swarm algorithm, which confirms the higher accuracy of the proposed algorithm.     

Optimal Operation of Distributed Generations Considering Demand Response in a Microgrid Using GWO Algorithm

The widespread penetration of distributed energy sources and the use of load response programs, especially in a microgrid, have caused many power system issues, such as control and operation of these networks, to be affected. The control and operation of many small-distributed generation units with different performance characteristics create another challenge for the safe and efficient operation of the microgrid. In this paper, the optimum operation of distributed generation resources and heat and power storage in a microgrid, was performed based on real-time pricing through the proposed gray wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm to reduce the energy supply cost with the microgrid. Distributed generation resources such as solar panels, diesel generators with battery storage, and boiler thermal resources with thermal storage were used in the studied microgrid. Also, a combined heat and power (CHP) unit was used to produce thermal and electrical energy simultaneously. In the simulations, in addition to the gray wolf algorithm, some optimization algorithms have also been used. Then the results of 20 runs for each algorithm confirmed the high accuracy of the proposed GWO algorithm. The results of the simulations indicated that the CHP energy resources must be managed to have a minimum cost of energy supply in the microgrid, considering the demand response program.     

Conductive Supramolecular Polymer Nanocomposites with Tunable Properties to Manipulate Cell Growth and Functions

Synthetic bioactive nanocomposites show great promise in biomedicine for use in tissue growth, wound healing and the potential for bioengineered skin substitutes. Hydrogen-bonded supramolecular polymers (3A-PCL) can be combined with graphite crystals to form graphite/3A-PCL composites with tunable physical properties. When used as a bioactive substrate for cell culture, graphite/3A-PCL composites have an extremely low cytotoxic activity on normal cells and a high structural stability in a medium with red blood cells. A series of in vitro studies demonstrated that the resulting composite substrates can efficiently interact with cell surfaces to promote the adhesion, migration, and proliferation of adherent cells, as well as rapid wound healing ability at the damaged cellular surface. Importantly, placing these substrates under an indirect current electric field at only 0.1 V leads to a marked acceleration in cell growth, a significant increase in total cell numbers, and a remarkable alteration in cell morphology. These results reveal a newly created system with great potential to provide an efficient route for the development of multifunctional bioactive substrates with unique electro-responsiveness to manipulate cell growth and functions.