Valorisation of potato wastes

Potato processing industry has a high degree of discarding, which currently has low added value being used primarily for animal feed. However, potato wastes offer a broad range of interesting components such as antioxidants, starch, protein or fibre with potential applications in the food and non-food industries. The recovery of these high valuable fractions using efficient multistage and multiproduct processes could be of great interest. This short review provides a general overview on the integral valorisation of potato wastes, offering an updated vision of the main residual parts generated during potato harvesting and processing, the high valuable obtained components focusing on the bioactive ones and the potential of the emerging extraction techniques over conventional ones. In addition, innovative applications are discussed to highlight the scientific and applied interest of these underutilised and undervalued fractions and to emphasise the integral valorisation of raw materials.     

Digital Microfluidics for Manipulation and Analysis of a Single Cell

The basic structural and functional unit of a living organism is a single cell. To understand the variability and to improve the biomedical requirement of a single cell, its analysis has become a key technique in biological and biomedical research. With a physical boundary of microchannels and microstructures, single cells are efficiently captured and analyzed, whereas electric forces sort and position single cells. Various microfluidic techniques have been exploited to manipulate single cells through hydrodynamic and electric forces. Digital microfluidics (DMF), the manipulation of individual droplets holding minute reagents and cells of interest by electric forces, has received more attention recently. Because of ease of fabrication, compactness and prospective automation, DMF has become a powerful approach for biological application. We review recent developments of various microfluidic chips for analysis of a single cell and for efficient genetic screening. In addition, perspectives to develop analysis of single cells based on DMF and emerging functionality with high throughput are discussed.     

Ageing workforce management in manufacturing systems: state of the art and future research agenda

The workforce ageing phenomenon is recently affecting most of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, due to a general ageing of their populations and a higher average retirement age of the workforce. In this paper, the topic of ageing workforce management is addressed from a production research standpoint, with the aim of understanding how older workers can be supported and involved in a manufacturing system. First, the current state of the art related to the ageing workforce in production systems is presented. This is structured according to four main topics: (1) analysis and evaluation of ageing workers’ functional capacities, (2) consideration of ageing workers’ capacities in industrial system modelling and management, (3) analysis and exploitation of ageing workers’ expertise, (4) acknowledgement, analysis, design and integration of supporting technologies. Next, the discussion on the impact of the ageing workforce on manufacturing systems’ performances leads to the comparison of some technological advances that are related to the Industry 4.0 paradigms. Finally, a future research agenda on this topic is proposed, based on the same topics classification proposed for the literature analysis. Five different research areas are derived, suggesting future directions for appropriate research concerning the employ of older workers in production environments.     

Identification of digital technologies and digitalisation trends in the mining industry

Digitalisation in mining refers to the use of computerised or digital devices or systems and digitised data that are to reduce costs, improve business productivity, and transform mining practices. However, it remains increasingly difficult for mining companies to decide which digital technologies are most relevant to their needs and individual mines. This paper provides an overview of digital technologies currently relevant to mining companies as presented and discussed by mining journals, the media and insight reports of leading consultancy agencies. Relevant technologies were systematically identified using text-mining techniques, and network analyses established the relations between significant technologies. Results demonstrated that currently 107 different digital technologies are pursued in the mining sector. Also, an analysis of the actual implementation of digital technologies in 158 active surface and underground mines reveals a limited uptake of digital technologies in general and that the uptake increases with the run-of-mine production. Large-scale mining operations appear to select and apply digital technologies suitable to their needs, whereas operations with lower production rates do not implement the currently available digital technologies to the same extent. These minor producers may require other digital transformation solutions tailored to their capabilities and needs and applicable to their scale of operations.     

稠油微生物开采技术现状及进展

综述了用微生物方法开采稠油的技术现状与进展，论题如下。①概述。②基本方法：异源微生物采油，包括微生物吞吐和微生物驱；本源微生物采油压大港孔店油田的实例。③主要机理，包括产表面活性剂，降解稠油中重质组分及其他。④技术研究，包括机理性、可行性及经济效益研究，列举了国内外6个实例。⑤现场应用，包括国外1个、国内6个实例。⑥该技术的优势及问题。参22。     

井下乳化/水热催化裂解复合降黏开采稠油技术研究

实验考察了胜利孤东稠油井下催化水热裂解和乳化/催化水热裂解降黏效果。所用催化剂为水溶性铁镍钒体系,Fe3+∶Ni2+∶VO4+=5∶1∶1,100 g稠油与30 g 0.5%催化剂水溶液在240℃反应24小时。原始黏度(50℃)11.0和8.36 Pa.s的两种稠油裂解并静置除水后,黏度降低76.2%和75.6%,室温放置60天后降黏率下降小于3个百分点,气相色谱显示裂解后轻组分明显增加,红外光谱显示稠油组分发生脱羧反应且芳环数减少。讨论了稠油催化水热裂解反应机理。所用化学助剂JN-A在油水中均可溶,耐温达250℃,耐矿化度达50 g/L,其水溶液以30∶100的质量比与稠油混合时形成低黏度的O/W乳状液。当水相含1.0%JN-A和0.5%催化剂时,两种稠油水热裂解后的反应混合物为O/W乳状液,黏度仅为319和309 mPa.s,静置除水后的稠油降黏率增加到86.5%和87.3%,其中的轻组分含量进一步增加。该井下乳化/催化水热裂解复合降黏法成功地用于孤东两口蒸汽吞吐井,稠油井作业后初期采出的原油黏度由~9 Pa.s降低到1 Pa.s左右,随采油时间延长而逐渐升高,约50天后超过4Pa.s。图2表6参5。     

葛洲坝二江电厂监控系统升级改造的实施与探讨

葛洲坝二江电厂计算机监控系统投产于1995年,运行时间已久,无论从硬件还是软件方面已不能满足目前的生产要求。升级后的新系统在各个方面均有了很大程度的改进,它的应用使得葛洲坝二江电厂的自动化控制程度有了很大的提高,为厂站“无人值班(少人值守)”的现代化管理以及三峡—葛洲坝梯级电站的联合调度提供了有力的保障。     

Mechanization techniques for poplar development in Turkey

Annual commercial poplar wood production in Turkey is about 3.6 million cubic meters, half of which comes from hybrid poplar I-214. The poplar plantation areas of Turkey are 70% of the poplar plantation areas of the Near and Middle Eastern countries, and nearly 5% of the world. In this study, unit times of standard operations were investigated in poplar nurseries and plantations in which new mechanical technology was applied and compared with traditional methods. Analyses of unit times were made on 11 treatments for poplar nurseries and nine treatments for poplar plantations; some new methods are also recommended. Mechanization methods based on new technologies give promising results in poplar nurseries and plantations.     

A dynamic linear programming approach to market allocation of renewable resources in the italian energy system: The case of solar thermal and biogas technologies

In Italy solar thermal energy and energy from biogas are two possible means of reducing dependence on energy imports. Using a multiperiod LP model (MARKAL) the authors assessed the likely potential of both technologies under various circumstances. The study covered the period 1980–2005, in five segments of five years. It focused only on the subsystem of the energy end-uses which can be substituted for by solar thermal and biogas technologies. The overall non-renewable sources which can be saved in 20 years by these technologies total 450 PJ (1 PJ = 10^{1 5} J) if the fuel prices rise at 0 per cent average annual, 1450 PJ if the fuel prices rise at 4.2 per cent average annual, 1860 PJ if the fuel prices rise at 7.2 per cent average annual and 3780 PJ if the fuel prices rise at 15 per cent average annual. However the most competitive technologies appear to be solar water heaters used mainly in the private and commercial sectors and biogas systems used mainly in the agricultural sector. The study was carried out by APRE under ENEA (formerly CNEN) contract and was intended to serve as an analytical basis for establishing an overall development and demonstration strategy for end-use renewable technologies in Italy.     

洁净煤技术项目融资的可能性综述

在不久的将来煤仍然是世界能源生产的主要燃料，煤消耗量的预期增长和对环境保护的日益关注使得洁净煤技术拥有巨大的市场潜力。这一巨大的市场将提供重大的投资机会，吸引众多大型融资机构，同时也将激励公共部门投资示范工程和洁净煤技术的发展。洁净煤技术的主要融资机构包括世界银行、欧洲投资银行、欧洲改革和发展银行、出口信用代理机构和商业银行。能源服务公司、当地的融资机构、完整的资源规划和需求侧管理将有助于克服融资障碍。