Demand response in the UK's domestic sector

The purpose of this paper is to assess the current level of demand responsiveness among domestic loads. The paper first studies different load profiles of domestic consumers which are composed of power consumption of end-use appliances. Afterwards, it differentiates those loads which could become responsive and evaluates the aggregated effect of these loads and the margin which could be derived from them. The area which has been considered is a residential area; consists of results have been demonstrated on a real residential network in southwest of the UK; small residential area in city of Bath.     

Applying chemical engineering concepts to non-thermal plasma reactors

Process scale-up remains a considerable challenge for environmental applications of non-thermal plasmas.Undersanding the impact of reactor hydrodynamics in the performance of the process is a key step to overcome this challenge.In this work,we apply chemical engineering concepts to analyse the impact that different non-thermal plasma reactor configurations and regimes,such as laminar or plug flow,may have on the reactor performance.We do this in the particular context of the removal of pollutants by non-thermal plasmas,for which a simplified model is available.We generalise this model to different reactor configurations and,under certain hypotheses,we show that a reactor in the laminar regime may have a behaviour significantly different from one in the plug flow regime,often assumed in the non-thermal plasma literature.On the other hand,we show that a packed-bed reactor behaves very similarly to one in the plug flow regime.Beyond those results,the reader will find in this work a quick introduction to chemical reaction engineering concepts.     

Iodine potassium iodide improves the contrast‐to‐noise ratio of micro‐computed tomography images of the human middle ear

High‐resolution imaging of middle‐ear geometry is necessary for finite‐element modeling. Although micro‐computed tomography (microCT) is widely used because of its ability to image bony structures of the middle ear, it is difficult to visualize soft tissues – including the tympanic membrane and the suspensory ligaments/tendons – because of lack of contrast. The objective of this research is to quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of iodine potassium iodide (IKI) solution as a contrast agent. Six human temporal bones were used in this experiment, which were obtained in right‐left pairs, from three cadaveric heads. All bones were fixed using formaldehyde. Three bones (one from each pair) were stained in IKI solution for 2 days, whereas the other three were not stained. Samples were scanned using a microCT system at a resolution of 20 μm. Eight soft tissues in the middle ear were segmented: anterior mallear ligament, incudomallear joint, lateral mallear ligament, posterior incudal ligament, stapedial annular ligament, stapedius muscle, tympanic membrane and tensor tympani muscle. Contrast‐to‐noise ratios (CNRs) of each soft tissue were calculated for each temporal bone. Combined CNRs of the soft tissues in unstained samples were 6.1 ± 3.0, whereas they were 8.1 ± 2.7 in stained samples. Results from Welch's t‐test indicate significant difference between the two groups at a 95% confidence interval. Results for paired t‐tests for each of the individual soft tissues also indicated significant improvement of contrast in all tissues after staining. Relatively large soft tissues in the middle ear such as the tympanic membrane and the tensor tympani muscle were impacted by staining more than smaller tissues such as the stapedial annular ligament. The increase in contrast with IKI solution confirms its potential application in automatic segmentation of the middle‐ear soft tissues.     

Biogenic amines in Iranian white brine cheese: modelling and optimisation of processing factors

The simultaneous effects of processing factors such as ripening time (25–75 days), ripening temperature (4–14 °C) and brine concentration (10–13%) on biogenic amines content, proteolysis and sensory score of Iranian white brine cheese were studied, in 12 cheeses. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to minimise biogenic amines content. At low level of ripening time, biogenic amines content decreased with increasing levels of brine concentration but at high level of ripening time, brine concentration had inverse effect. Ripening time showed quadratic effect on biogenic amines content. Based on biogenic amines content and sensory score, the optimum conditions were 13% brine and ripening at 9–14 °C for 43–65 days.     

DYNAMIC OPTIMAL CONTROL OF BATCH CRYSTALLIZATION PROCESSES

The estimation of the solids circulation rate in a dual fluidized bed gasifier is essential as it influences the gasification performance. However, such estimation requires experimental data input, which is often not available during the design phase of a fluidized bed. In this work, a correlation was developed based on literature and experimental data (from a cold model dual fluidized bed gasifier) to estimate the solids circulation rate at high solids-to-gas density ratios. The correlation was then validated with literature data from a dual fluidized bed steam gasifier under hot conditions, yielding maximum discrepancies of ±25%.     

Toward the Design of Multi Asymmetric Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge (ASDBD) Actuators

This paper investigates the electrical and mechanical behaviors of a single-ASDBD actuator and a two-ASDBD one supplied in sinusoidal mode(1-10 kHz).The main objective of our research is to determine the optimum frequency values for the function of these actuators with a given power supply.For this purpose,we determine the electrical power density input to the actuators versus frequency through two methods:i) a semi-theoretical method,based on an impedance calculation,and ii) an experimental method,based on direct electrical measurements.These methods show that the addition of a second ASDBD changes the resonance frequency value of the actuator by moving it towards low frequencies.After characterizing the aerodynamic mobile layer structure induced by the single-ASDBD actuator,we analyze experimentally the mechanical response of a two-ASDBD actuator as a function of the inter-ASDBD distance.The experiments demonstrate that the induced electric wind velocity and the electro-mechanical yield of a twoASDBD actuator reach a maximum value for an optimum inter-ASDBD distance,which is a useful value for the design of highly efficient multi-ASDBD actuators.     

Treatment of landfill waste,leachate and landfill gas: A review

This review aims at the treatment of the entire landfill, including the waste mass and the harmful emissions: leachate and landfill gas. Different landfill treatments (aerobic, anaerobic and semi-aerobic bioreactor landfills, dry-tomb landfills), leachate treatments (anaerobic and aerobic treatments, anammox, adsorption, chemical oxidation, coagulation/flocculation and membrane processes) and landfill gas treatments (flaring, adsorption, absorption, permeation and cryogenic treatments) are reviewed. Available information and the gaps present in current knowledge is summarized. The most significant areas to expand are landfill waste treatments, which in recent years has begun to grow but there is an opportunity for much more. Another area to explore is the treatment of landfill gas, a very large field to which not much effort has been put forth. This review is to compare different treatment methods and give direction to future research.     

MODELING AND NONLINEAR CONTROL OF A CONTINUOUS KCI-NaCI CRYSTALLIZER

ABSTRACT

A controller is developed by combining the extended linear quadratic matrix control (EQDMC) and neural network algorithms. The dynamic neural network scheme is used to identify the process and generate a nonlinear model. The control algorithm is applied to a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) evaporative cooling KCl-NaCl-H₂O crystallizer. Closed loop responses of the system using the proposed algorithm and those of PID controllers are compared. It is shown that in all cases, the response of the proposed controller to step changes in setpoints is faster than the PID controllers.