Biohydrogen Production from Organic Waste – A Review

Hydrogen fuel is a promising alternative to fossil fuels because of its energy content, clean nature, and fuel efficiency. However, it is not readily available. Most current producion processes are very energy intensive and emit carbon dioxide. Therefore, this article reviews technological options for hydrogen production that are eco-friendly and generate clean hydrogen fuel. Biological methods, such different fermentation processes and photolysis are discussed together with the required substrates and the process efficiency.     

Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 to Ethylene by Molecular Cu‐Complex Immobilized on Graphitized Mesoporous Carbon

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to hydrocarbons is a challenging task because of the issues in controlling the efficiency and selectivity of the products. Among the various transition metals, copper has attracted attention as it yields more reduced and C2 products even while using mononuclear copper center as catalysts. In addition, it is found that reversible formation of copper nanoparticle acts as the real catalytically active site for the conversion of CO₂ to reduced products. Here, it is demonstrated that the dinuclear molecular copper complex immobilized over graphitized mesoporous carbon can act as catalysts for the conversion of CO₂ to hydrocarbons (methane and ethylene) up to 60%. Interestingly, high selectivity toward C2 product (40% faradaic efficiency) is achieved by a molecular complex based hybrid material from CO₂ in 0.1 m KCl. In addition, the role of local pH, porous structure, and carbon support in limiting the mass transport to achieve the highly reduced products is demonstrated. Although the spectroscopic analysis of the catalysts exhibits molecular nature of the complex after 2 h bulk electrolysis, morphological study reveals that the newly generated copper cluster is the real active site during the catalytic reactions.     

Structural reliability optimization using an efficient safety index calculation procedure

The objective of this paper is to conduct reliability-based structural optimization in a multidisciplinary environment. An efficient reliability analysis is developed by expanding the limit functions in terms of intermediate design variables. The design constraints are approximated using multivariate splines in searching for the optimum. The reduction in computational cost realized in safety index calculation and optimization are demonstrated through several structural problems. This paper presents safety index computation, analytical sensitivity analysis of reliability constraints and optimization using truss, frame and plate examples.     

In situ synthesis of TiC-Al (Ti) nanocomposite powders by thermal plasma technology

A novel processing technology was developed to investigate in situ synthesis of TiC-Al (Ti) nanocomposite powders by thermal plasma technology. Thermodynamic analysis was performed to predict possible starting materials and synthesizing conditions of TiC-Al (Ti) nanocomposite powders. A mathematical model was developed to describe temperature profile and velocity distribution in the reactor. The model is applied to optimize feeding rate, input power, and other processing parameters of TiC-Al (Ti) nanocomposite powders by thermal plasma technology, and to predict which materials can be used as starting materials. This paper emphasizes the investigation of the effect of feeding rate, input power, mole ratio, and other process parameters on synthesis of TiC-Al (Ti) nanocomposite powders by thermal plasma technology. The experimental results showed that TiC-Al (Ti) nanocomposite powders can be synthesized in situ by thermal plasma technology, and the average size of TiC-Al (Ti) nanocomposite powders was less than 100 nm.     

Photo-Chemically-Deposited and Industrial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 Catalyst Material Surface Structures During CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol: EXAFS,XANES and XPS Analyses of Phases After Oxidation,Reduction, and Reaction

Catalysis Letters - Industrial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 or novel rate catalysts, prepared with a photochemical deposition method, were studied under functional CH3OH synthesis conditions at the set temperature...     

Multidisciplinary optimization of gas-quenching process

Distortion as a result of the quenching process is predominantly due to the thermal gradient and phase transformations within the component. Compared with traditional liquid quenching, the thermal boundary conditions during gas quenching are relatively simple to control. By adjusting the gas-quenching furnace pressure, the flow speed, or the spray nozzle configuration, the heat-transfer coefficients can be designed in terms of both the component geometry and the quenching time. The purpose of this research is to apply the optimization methodology to design the gas-quenching process. The design objective is to minimize the distortion caused by quenching. Constraints on the average surface hardness, and its distribution and residual stress are imposed. The heat-transfer coefficients are used as design variables. DEFORM-HT is used to predict material response during quenching. The response surface method is used to obtain the analytical models of the objective function and constraints in terms of the design variables. Once the response surfaces of the objective and constraints are obtained, they are used to search for the optimum heat-transfer coefficients. This process is then used instead of the finite-element analysis. A one-gear blank case study is used to demonstrate the optimization scheme.     

Membrane degumming of crude rice bran oil: Pilot plant study

The procedure for the classical chemical refining of vegetable oils consists of degumming, alkali neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization. Conventional refining of rice bran oil using alkali gives oil of acceptable quality, but the refining losses are very high. A critical work has been carried out to study the application of membrane technology in the pretreatment of crude rice bran oil. Oils intended for physical refining should have a low phosphorus content, and this is not readily achievable by the conventional acid/water degumming process. The application of membrane technology for the pretreatment of rice bran oil has been investigated. The process has already been successfully applied to other vegetable oils. Ceramic membranes, which are important from the commercial point of view, were examined for this purpose. The results showed that the membrane‐filtered oils met the requirements of physical refining, with a substantial reduction in color. It was observed that most of the waxy material was also rejected. Experiments were carried out to establish the relationship between permeate flux and rejection with membrane pore size, trans‐membrane pressure and micellar solute concentration.