Furfurylation of wood from fast-growing tropical species to enhance their resistance to subterranean termite

European Journal of Wood and Wood Products - The purpose of this study was to use furfurylation to enhance the resistance of wood to subterranean termite attack. Wood samples were obtained from...     

An optimised low-salinity seawater decolourising method produces decolourised seaweed (Kappaphycuz alvarezii) as semi-refined carrageenan raw material:

Semi-refined carrageenan (SRC) production from decolourised Kappaphycuz alvarezii treated by chemicals (CaCO₃) drives the search for ‘greener’ decolourisation methods to sustainably supply cheaper and energy efficient products. Therefore, a decolourisation method of low-salinity seawater (LSS) (3, 9 and 15 g/L) was investigated to replace CaCO₃. In addition, decolourised seaweed colour powder (DSP) and SRC colour, yield, viscosity and gel strength were used to screen the salinity treatments. SRC prepared from LSS (3 g/L) treatment demonstrated similar colour and physical properties to CaCO₃ treatments, which indicated low-salinity seawater (3 g/L) could replace CaCO₃ as a decolourising agent. Moreover, purity of SRC (3 g/L salinity) were confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive x-ray (SEM-EDX), and its functional group by fourier transform infrared (FTIR). In this study, waste seawater from LSS (3 g/L) exhibited radical scavenging properties. This decolourising method could be easily adopted by smallholder seaweed farmers in low- and middle-income countries.     

A new method of evaluating robust power system security against uncertainties

The rapid expansion of renewable energy (RE) generation is leading to severe problems related to the reliability of network operation. Power system security is threatened by increased uncertainties of RE outputs and reduced controllable resources. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the robustness of the system controllability in order to preserve system security against uncertainties of RE outputs. We refer to the robustness of the system in this context as ‘robust power system security’. This paper proposes a new formulation for evaluating the robust security region in controllable parameter space where the conventional N‐1 security criterion suffices in the presence of uncertainties. We specify the confidence interval (CI) of uncertain parameters and obtain the worst case feasible region defined by a set of security constraints, which is a very new approach in the treatment of uncertainties. We use the minimum set of static constraints in the load dispatching problem with CI of RE prediction to evaluate the security region, which is referred to as the robust static security region (RSS) in this paper. The proposed method is useful to assess the degree of difficulty of system planning and operation from the viewpoint of the balance between controllable generator capacity and RE uncertainties. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.