Preparation of CaO granules using the granulation method

ABSTRACT

Improving the hydration resistance of CaO particle in manufacturing and application of free CaO-containing materials has practical significance. In this study, CaO granules was made from Ca(OH)₂ particles, which were fabricated by the granulation method. The results showed that the hydration resistance of the CaO granules which was prepared under 1700?r?min^?1 was the best, the CaO granules was sintered well in calcination process, the shell of CaO granules was relatively dense, which improves the hydration resistance of CaO granules, and the rate of hydration weight increment was 0.58% after placed in the air for 20 days under a temperature of 10–14°C and a relative humidity of 57–81%.     

Anaerobic digestion of alkaline black liquor using an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor

The anaerobic digestion of alkaline black liquor from a cereal straw pulping mill was studied in batch (serum bottles) and continuous systems (up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor—UASB). The batch digestion studies confirmed that lignin and related compounds (LRC) in the alkaline black liquor were the main inhibitory substances and could not be decomposed by anaerobic bacteria. At organic loading rates of 5–10 kg COD m^?3 day^?1, the UASB reactor achieved 50–60% COD removal efficiencies. Gas production was 2–3 dm³ per dm³ of alkaline black liquor. Two different sludge types were examined in the reactor: granular and cluster-like sludges. Sludge in a cluster, which involved many small granules and flocs, tended to form larger aggregates and possessed good settling ability.     

The effect of increasing application rate of granular calcium ammonium nitrate on net nitrification in a laboratory study of grassland soils

Soil incubation studies were undertaken in controlled environment cabinets at 15°C to investigate the effect of increasing application rates of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) on net nitrification in two grassland soils. Granular CAN was applied to the surface of freshly collected, moist soil, at a rate equivalent to 0, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600µg NH ₄ ⁺ -N and NO ₃ ^- -N per gram of oven dry soil. In half the treatments finely ground CaCO₃ was incorporated into the moist soil to raise the starting pH. Changes in soil mineral N and pH were measured at weekly intervals up to six-weeks. The most probable number (MPN) technique was used to enumerate the NH ₄ ⁺ -N and NO ₂ ^- -N oxidizers at the beginning and end of the incubation.At low rates of CAN application there was considerable NH ₄ ⁺ -N oxidation to NO ₃ ^- -N during the incubation of both soils. Lime stimulated this N transformation. At high application rates (i.e. 800 and 1600 ppm) there was little change in NH ₄ ⁺ -N or NO ₃ ^- -N on either soil during the 6 week incubation, in the presence or absence of lime. The rate of NO ₃ ^- -N produced peaked at 5.6 and 3.8 mg NO ₃ ^- -N kg^–1 d^–1 on soil 1 and 2 respectively, in the presence of lime. Above a level of 400 ppm CAN (equivalent to 38 kg N ha^–1) the rate of NO ₃ ^- -N produced decreased. The higher rate of net nitrification in soil 1 compared with soil 2 was probably due to a higher number of nitrifying bacteria. Although high rates of CAN decreased the nitrifying activity of both soils there was little difference between treatments in the actual numbers of NH ₄ ⁺ -N and NO ₂ ^- -N oxidizers determined by the MPN technique.The results showed that the rate of granular CAN applied to the soil surface can influence the local activity of nitrifying bacteria and subsequent N transformations. At application rates of CAN generally used agriculturally for grass production, it is likely that net nitrification of the NH ₄ ⁺ -N in the fertilizer granule will be inhibited.     

Determination of temporal information granules to improve forecasting in fuzzy time series

Partitioning the universe of discourse and determining intervals containing useful temporal information and coming with better interpretability are critical for forecasting in fuzzy time series. In the existing literature, researchers seldom consider the effect of time variable when they partition the universe of discourse. As a result, and there is a lack of interpretability of the resulting temporal intervals. In this paper, we take the temporal information into account to partition the universe of discourse into intervals with unequal length. As a result, the performance improves forecasting quality. First, time variable is involved in partitioning the universe through Gath–Geva clustering-based time series segmentation and obtain the prototypes of data, then determine suitable intervals according to the prototypes by means of information granules. An effective method of partitioning and determining intervals is proposed. We show that these intervals carry well-defined semantics. To verify the effectiveness of the approach, we apply the proposed method to forecast enrollment of students of Alabama University and the Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index. The experimental results show that the partitioning with temporal information can greatly improve accuracy of forecasting. Furthermore, the proposed method is not sensitive to its parameters.     

The influence of soil properties on the effectiveness of phenylphosphorodiamidate (PPD) in reducing ammonia volatilization from surface applied urea

Urea can be an inefficient N source due to rapid hydrolysis by soil urease leading to NH₃ volatilization. The current study investigated the effect of the urease inhibitor phenylphosphorodiamidate (PPD) incorporated at two concentrations (0.5% and 1% w/w) within the fertilizer granule on NH₃ volatilization from surface applied urea. The daily rates of NH₃ loss from 20 soils of widely differing properties from Northern Ireland were measured over 14 days using ventilated enclosures under simulated spring conditions. Cumulative loss rates were calculated and fitted to a logistic model from which total NH₃ loss (Amax) and the time to maximum rate of loss (Tmax) were determined. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis related the effectiveness of PPD in reducing NH₃ volatilization from urea to soil properties.The total cumulative loss of ammonia from unamended urea varied from 0.37 to 29.2% depending on soil type. Ammonia volatilization appeared to be greatest on a soil with a high pH (R² = 0.65), a low titratable acidity (TA) (R² = 0.63) and a soil that was drying out (R² = 0.50). Soil pH was negatively correlated with TA (r = –0.826, P < 0.001) suggesting that soils with a low TA may have received recent lime. Including cation exchange capacity (CEC) and % N as well as pH-KCl in the multiple linear regression equation explained 86% of the variance.The effectiveness of PPD in reducing Amax varied between 0% to 91% depending on soil type, the average over all 20 soils being 30 and 36% for 0.5% and 1% PPD respectively. The most important soil properties influencing the effectiveness of the urease inhibitor were soil pH-H₂O and TA accounting for 33% and 29% of the variance respectively. PPD was less effective on a soil with a high pH and low TA. These were the soil conditions that led to high NH₃ volatilization from unamended urea and may explain why PPD had limited success in reducing ammonia loss on these soils. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that 75% of the variation in the % inhibition of NH₃ loss by PPD could be significantly accounted for by pH-H₂O, initial soil NO ₃ ^- -N concentration, % moisture content and % moisture loss.The delay in Tmax by PPD ranged from 0.19 to 7.93 days, the average over all 20 soils being 2.5 and 2.8 days for 0.5% and 1% PPD respectively. TA, % moisture content, urease activity and CEC were soil properties that significantly explained 83% of the variation in the % delay in Tmax by PPD in multiple linear regression analysis. However, none of these soil properties were significant on their own. As urea hydrolysis occurs rapidly in soil, delaying Tmax under field conditions would increase the chance of rain falling to move the urea below the soil surface and reduce NH₃ volatilization. A urease inhibitor should be more effective than PPD on soils with a high pH and low TA to be successful in reducing high NH₃ losses.     

A novel nucleation apparatus for regime separated granulation

A novel nucleation apparatus is presented for the production of narrow sized nuclei from various powder and binder liquid combinations. Mono-sized binder liquid droplets are produced by a specially designed mono-disperse droplet generator. The droplet generator is positioned above a conveyor belt, transporting a powder bed through the spray zone of the droplet generator. By nucleating powder on a conveyer belt, the nucleation mechanism is completely separated from all other granulation mechanisms due to the lack of relative motion between primary particles and/or formed nuclei. Nucleation tests were performed using chalcopyrite and limestone powders with water as the binder liquid. At all operating conditions, the formed nuclei were found to originate from multiplicities of drops that merged on the powder bed surface. Investigation of the dynamics of nuclei formation showed that powder-binder liquid combinations with fast penetration dynamics result in less variation in the number of droplets from which nuclei originate. Smaller and more narrowly distributed nuclei were also achieved by increasing powder speed through the spray zone.     

仿石瓷质砖包裹颗粒的制备新工艺

本文分析了当前流行的仿石瓷质砖包裹颗粒制造方法的弊端,并通过改进设备和采用新的工艺方法,研制出仿石效果更佳的产品,这样既提高了颗粒的包裹效率,又降低了生产成本。     

The comparative effect of a mixed urea,ammonium nitrate,ammonium sulphate granular formulation on the efficiency of N recovery by perennial ryegrass

The¹⁵N isotope was used to study the mode of action of individual nitrogen sources in a 30% urea:30% ammonium nitrate: 10% ammonium sulphate:30% filler (w/w) granular fertilizer for perennial ryegrass in a greenhouse pot experiment. The fertilizer consisted of two types of granules, one containing 80% urea and 20% filler and the second containing 48% ammonium nitrate (AN), 16% ammonium sulphate (AS) and 36% filler. In addition the effect of dolomite compared with silica as the filler was investigated on nitrogen recovery from the 30:30:10:30 formulation.Dolomite adversely affected the recovery of nitrate N from the system and evidence suggested that MgCO₃ was the active component. Granules containing dolomite resulted in a lower dry-matter yield than those containing silica, however the difference was not significant as nitrate contributed only 20% of the N in the formulation. AN gave the greatest DM yield and urea the lowest with AS being intermediate. The¹⁵N budget in shoots, roots and soil indicated that only 65% of the N from urea was recovered at the end of the experiment compared with 86% for AN and 91% for AS. The dry-matter yield of the 30:30:10:30 formulation using silica as the filler was intermediate between urea and AN; however, the apparent N recovery was significantly higher than expected from the sum of the individual components. The use of¹⁵N labelling indicated that using separate granules for ammonium N and urea the recovery of urea was improved by 11% in the triple N mixture when both AN and AS were present in the second granule compared to the recovery on its own. The enhanced recovery of urea appeared to be a function of AN and AS acting together as neither source in double combination with urea had any effect on urea N recovery.Urea enhanced the recovery of nitrate N by 10% but decreased the recovery of AS by 6% (in the 30:30:10:30 formulation) in comparison with the single sources on their own. The results indicate that interactions can occur between N sources even when they are physically separated by being in different granules.     

甜菜雄性不育系及保持系花期蛋白差异分析

为揭示甜菜雄性不育的原因,从蛋白质组学角度对甜菜细胞质雄性不育进行研究,利用双向电泳与MALDI-TOF-MS方法,对Owen型甜菜质核互作型雄性不育系DY5-CMS及同型保持系DY5-O花粉发育3个阶段(雄蕊原基分化期、四分体时期和单核时期)的花蕾蛋白差异表达进行研究．结果表明： 在雄蕊原基分化期花蕾中鉴定出6个差异蛋白,在四分体时期鉴定出4个差异蛋白,这些蛋白多数与呼吸和能量代谢有关,推测甜菜细胞质雄性不育可能是花粉发育早期(雄蕊原基分化期和四分体时期)与能量和呼吸代谢有关的蛋白表达上调导致呼吸和能量代谢紊乱造成的;在花粉发育的单核时期鉴定出6个差异蛋白,这些蛋白主要与植物的光合作用有关,推测到花粉发育后期雄性不育性状已形成,雄性不育导致植物光合机能下降．