Biobutanol: science,engineering, and economics

Among several liquid alternative fuels, biobutanol has shown great promise because of its very similar properties to gasoline. This review provides an overview of research activities in acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) fermentation over the past two and a half decades. We have addressed seven important facets of ABE fermentation, viz. biochemistry, microbial cultures, alternative substrates, solvent recovery, fermentation mode and reactor designs, mathematical modeling, and economics. Development of mutant strains having higher yield, selectivity and tolerance to inhibition, and search for cheap alternative substrates for fermentation are most important thrust areas in biobutanol production. New and efficient processes have been developed for in situ removal and recovery of the ABE solvents. Several rigorous kinetic and physiological models for fermentation have been formulated, which form useful tool for optimization of the process. These research activities have been reviewed in this paper. Finally, we have summarized studies on the economic viability of large‐scale ABE fermentation processes employing various process designs, substrates, and microbial cultures. With the use of new strains, inexpensive substrates, and superior reactor designs, economic potential of ABE fermentation has been found to be highly attractive. Research efforts in science, engineering, and economics of ABE fermentation have brought biobutanol close to commercialization as liquid alternate fuel. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of Long-Term Thermal Exposures on Microstructure and Impression Creep in 304HCu Grade Austenitic Stainless Steel

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - This paper presents the results of microstructural evolution and mechanical properties in 304H Cu grade austenite stainless (SS 304HCu) during long-term...     

Computational study of 5<Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis> transition metal mononitrides and monoborides using density functional method

5d-metal mononitrides and monoborides viz. X-N and X-B (X = La, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg) are studied using density functional method based B3LYP functional with LANL2DZ and SDD basis set. The lowest spin state, electron affinities, ionization potentials and binding energies for mononitrides and monoborides are obtained. The electronic state and electronic configuration of mononitrides and monoborides are discussed. Orbitals involved in bond formation are identified. The properties of mononitrides and monoborides are compared. It is found that 5d-metal atoms form stronger bond with nitrogen atom than the boron atom. The range of binding energy, electron affinity and ionization potential is wider for mononitrides than that for monoborides. The properties of 5d-metal mononitrides and 3d-metal mononitrides are also compared. The binding energies for the former are lower than those for the latter.     

Physical and frictional properties of non-treated and steam exploded barley, canola, oat and wheat straw grinds

During storage and handling, accurate knowledge of the physical and frictional behaviors of biomass grinds is essential for the efficient design of equipment. Therefore, experiments were performed on non-treated and steam exploded barley, canola, oat and wheat straw grinds to determine their coefficient of internal friction and cohesion at three hammer mill screen sizes of 6.4, 3.2 and 1.6 mm, three normal stress values of 9.8, 19.6 and 39.2 kPa at 10% moisture content (wb). At any specific hammer mill screen size, the geometric mean particle size and bulk density of non-treated straw was significantly larger than steam exploded straw. The bulk density of ground straw significantly increased with a decrease in hammer mill screen sizes. The steam exploded straw grinds resulted in higher coefficient of internal friction compared to non-treated straw grinds primarily because of lower bulk densities. The coefficient of friction for non-treated barley, canola, oat and wheat straw were in the range of 0.505 to 0.584, 0.661 to 0.665, 0.498 to 0.590, and 0.532 to 0.591, respectively. Similarly, the coefficient of friction for steam exploded barley, canola, oat and wheat straw were in the range of 0.562 to 0.738, 0.708 to 0.841, 0.660 to 0.860, and 0.616 to 1.036, respectively, which were higher than non-treated straw of the kind. Power, logarithmic or exponential equations were developed to predict the coefficient of internal friction and cohesion with respect to average geometric mean particle sizes for non-treated and steam explode barley, canola, oat and wheat straw grinds.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel poly(aniline-co-m-aminoacetophenone) copolymer nanocomposites using dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid as a soft template

A series of dodecylbenzene sulphonic acid (DBSA) doped poly(aniline-co-m-aminoacetophenone) copolymer composites of different compositions were synthesized in micellar solution of DBSA to obtain nanosphere morphology with enhanced processability. The plausible mechanism for the formation of poly(aniline-co-m-aminoacetophenone)-DBSA copolymer composite has been presented. These DBSA doped copolymer composites were characterized by UV–Visible, FTIR spectroscopy and XRD analysis techniques. UV–Vis absorption spectrum of the composites showed 325 and 637 nm which corresponds to the π–π* and n–π* transition. In FTIR spectroscopy a broad band around 2,924 cm^?1 corresponds to C–H vibration of DBSA indicating good agreement with the characteristic bands of DBSA. The sharp band at 1,292 cm^?1 is assigned to C–N stretching mode of vibration of N–Ph–N units. The X-ray diffraction of composites reveals that these composites are amorphous in nature. The number of diffraction peaks decreased with increase in the m-aminoacetophenone content. It indicates that these composites are amorphous in nature. Morphological studies (SEM) reveal that these composites have a spherical morphology with the average size of 100–200 nm. These composites exhibit electrical conductivity value of 0.744 × 10^?3 S/cm and enhanced solubility than polyaniline. Moreover, at the presented work, the DBSA doped copolymer composites were obtained in high yields by keeping an oxidant to co-monomer ratio of 1:1.     

An analytical method for comparing natural diversity to DSMcontrolled diversity

The purpose of this paper is to report an analytical method of comparing natural diversity with controlled diversity, and to show the results of comparing the peak load resulting from natural diversity in a set of air conditioning units to the peak load that can be achieved with DSM control of the same set of air conditioners. In this study it is assumed that the energy use by the air conditioners is the same in both cases. Under this assumption, an analytical model for finding the probabilities of all the possible peak loads is developed and illustrated in case studies     

An optimized pretreatment method in the analysis of negative plate of lead acid battery

The composition of the plate in lead acid battery plays a vital role on battery performance. Therefore, controlling and monitoring of plate composition is utmost important in order to attain required battery performance. While monitoring negative plate, it has to be ensured that they are not exposed to air, which would otherwise result in Pb oxidation; thereby affecting the accuracy of the test data. Nevertheless, published information is scarce on the “pretreatment and preservation of the negative plates”. The objective of this study is to develop a suitable procedure to “preserve and pretreat the negative plate” prior to chemical composition analysis. A host of experimental parameters like immersion time in water, effect of drying reagent and air drying time were studied. Two drying solvents; namely, methanol and acetone were studied to evaluate their suitability.     

Review of expert systems in bulk power system planning andoperation

Advantages and disadvantages of expert systems are discussed. An overview of expert system applications being developed or considered high potential is given