Recycling used palm oil and used engine oil to produce white bio oil, bio petroleum diesel and heavy fuel

Science.gov (United States)

Al-abbas, Mustafa Hamid; Ibrahim, Wan Aini Wan; Sanagi, Mohd. Marsin

2012-09-01

Recycling waste materials produced in our daily life is considered as an additional resource of a wide range of materials and it conserves the environment. Used engine oil and used cooking oil are two oils disposed off in large quantities as a by-product of our daily life. This study aims at providing white bio oil, bio petroleum diesel and heavy fuel from the disposed oils. Toxic organic materials suspected to be present in the used engine oil were separated using vacuum column chromatography to reduce the time needed for the separation process and to avoid solvent usage. The compounds separated were detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and found to contain toxic aromatic carboxylic acids. Used cooking oils (thermally cracked from usage) were collected and separated by vacuum column chromatography. White bio oil produced was examined by GC-MS. The white bio oil consists of non-toxic hydrocarbons and is found to be a good alternative to white mineral oil which is significantly used in food industry, cosmetics and drugs with the risk of containing polycyclic aromatic compounds which are carcinogenic and toxic. Different portions of the used cooking oil and used engine were mixed to produce several blends for use as heavy oil fuels. White bio oil was used to produce bio petroleum diesel by blending it with petroleum diesel and kerosene. The bio petroleum diesel produced passed the PETRONAS flash point and viscosity specification test. The heat of combustion of the two blends of heavy fuel produced was measured and one of the blends was burned to demonstrate its burning ability. Higher heat of combustion was obtained from the blend containing greater proportion of used engine oil. This study has provided a successful recycled alternative for white bio oil, bio petroleum fuel and diesel which can be an energy source.

Effects of Alumina Nano Metal Oxide Blended Palm Stearin Methyl Ester Bio-Diesel on Direct Injection Diesel Engine Performance and Emissions

Science.gov (United States)

Krishna, K.; Kumar, B. Sudheer Prem; Reddy, K. Vijaya Kumar; Charan Kumar, S.; Kumar, K. Ravi

2017-08-01

The Present Investigation was carried out to study the effect of Alumina Metal Oxide (Al2O3) Nano Particles as additive for Palm Stearin Methyl Ester Biodiesel (B 100) and their blends as an alternate fuel in four stroke single cylinder water cooled, direct injection diesel engine. Alumina Nano Particles has high calorific value and relatively high thermal conductivity (30-1 W m K-1) compare to diesel, which helps to promote more combustion in engines due to their higher thermal efficiency. In the experimentation Al2O3 were doped in various proportions with the Palm Stearin Methyl Ester Biodiesel (B-100) using an ultrasonicator and a homogenizer with cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as the cationic surfactant. The test were performed on a Kirsloskar DI diesel engine at constant speed of 1500 rpm using different Nano Biodiesel Fuel blends (psme+50 ppm, psme+150 ppm, and psme+200 ppm) and results were compared with those of neat conventional diesel and Palm Stearin Methyl Ester Bio diesel. It was observed that for Nano Biodiesel Fuel blend (psme+50ppm) there is an significant reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) emissions and Nox emissions compared to diesel and the brake thermal efficiency for (psme+50ppm) was almost same as diesel.

Bio-based materials with novel characteristics for tissue engineering applications - A review.

Science.gov (United States)

Bedian, Luis; Villalba-Rodríguez, Angel M; Hernández-Vargas, Gustavo; Parra-Saldivar, Roberto; Iqbal, Hafiz M N

2017-05-01

Recently, a wider spectrum of bio-based materials and materials-based novel constructs and systems has been engineered with high interests. The key objective is to help for an enhanced/better quality of life in a secure way by avoiding/limiting various adverse effects of some in practice traditional therapies. In this context, different methodological approaches including in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo techniques have been exploited, so far. Among them, bio-based therapeutic constructs are of supreme interests for an enhanced and efficient delivery in the current biomedical sector of the modern world. The development of new types of novel, effective and highly reliable materials-based novel constructs for multipurpose applications is essential and a core demand to tackle many human health related diseases. Bio-based materials possess several complementary functionalities, e.g. unique chemical structure, bioactivity, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, recyclability, etc. that position them well in the modern world's materials sector. In this context, the utilization of biomaterials provides extensive opportunities for experimentation in the field of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary scientific research. With an aim to address the global dependence on petroleum-based polymers, researchers have been redirecting their interests to the engineering of biological materials for targeted applications in different industries including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other biotechnological or biomedical applications. Herein, we reviewed biotechnological advancements at large and tissue engineering from a biomaterials perspective in particular and envision directions of future developments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Design and Implementation of High-Performance GIS Dynamic Objects Rendering Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Y.; Wang, S.; Li, R.; Yun, W.; Song, G.

2017-12-01

Spatio-temporal dynamic visualization is more vivid than static visualization. It important to use dynamic visualization techniques to reveal the variation process and trend vividly and comprehensively for the geographical phenomenon. To deal with challenges caused by dynamic visualization of both 2D and 3D spatial dynamic targets, especially for different spatial data types require high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine. The main approach for improving the rendering engine with vast dynamic targets relies on key technologies of high-performance GIS, including memory computing, parallel computing, GPU computing and high-performance algorisms. In this study, high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine is designed and implemented for solving the problem based on hybrid accelerative techniques. The high-performance GIS rendering engine contains GPU computing, OpenGL technology, and high-performance algorism with the advantage of 64-bit memory computing. It processes 2D, 3D dynamic target data efficiently and runs smoothly with vast dynamic target data. The prototype system of high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine is developed based SuperMap GIS iObjects. The experiments are designed for large-scale spatial data visualization, the results showed that the high-performance GIS dynamic objects rendering engine have the advantage of high performance. Rendering two-dimensional and three-dimensional dynamic objects achieve 20 times faster on GPU than on CPU.

Interface Engineering and Gate Dielectric Engineering for High Performance Ge MOSFETs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiabao Sun

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, germanium has attracted intensive interests for its promising applications in the microelectronics industry. However, to achieve high performance Ge channel devices, several critical issues still have to be addressed. Amongst them, a high quality gate stack, that is, a low defect interface layer and a dielectric layer, is of crucial importance. In this work, we first review the existing methods of interface engineering and gate dielectric engineering and then in more detail we discuss and compare three promising approaches (i.e., plasma postoxidation, high pressure oxidation, and ozone postoxidation. It has been confirmed that these approaches all can significantly improve the overall performance of the metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET device.

High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '14

CERN Document Server

Kröner, Dietmar; Resch, Michael

2015-01-01

This book presents the state-of-the-art in supercomputer simulation. It includes the latest findings from leading researchers using systems from the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS). The reports cover all fields of computational science and engineering ranging from CFD to computational physics and from chemistry to computer science with a special emphasis on industrially relevant applications. Presenting findings of one of Europe’s leading systems, this volume covers a wide variety of applications that deliver a high level of sustained performance. The book covers the main methods in high-performance computing. Its outstanding results in achieving the best performance for production codes are of particular interest for both scientists and   engineers. The book comes with a wealth of color illustrations and tables of results.  

Analysis of first and second law of an engine operating with bio diesel from palm oil. Part 1: global energy balance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agudelo, John R; Agudelo, Andres F; Cuadrado, Ilba G.

2006-01-01

A first law of thermodynamics analysis in a diesel engine operating with palm oil bio diesel and its blends with diesel fuel is presented. Measurements were carried out in a test bench under stationary conditions varying engine load at constant speed and vice versa. The variation in energy distribution, efficiency, performance and emissions were obtained under several operating points. It was found that fuel type do not affect energy distribution and effective efficiency. On the other hand, engine operating conditions have an important effect on energy balance and performance. CO 2 emissions didn't exhibit a clear tendency with bio diesel concentration in the blend. Nevertheless, O 2 concentration in exhaust gases exhibits a direct relationship with this concentration, independent of engine operating condition.

Engineering of a polymer layered bio-hybrid heart valve scaffold

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jahnavi, S., E-mail: jani84@gmail.com [Stem Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, TN (India); Tissue Culture Laboratory, Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Poojappura, Trivandrum, Kerala 695012 (India); Kumary, T.V., E-mail: tvkumary@yahoo.com [Tissue Culture Laboratory, Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Poojappura, Trivandrum, Kerala 695012 (India); Bhuvaneshwar, G.S., E-mail: gs.bhuvnesh@gmail.com [Trivitron Innovation Centre, Department of Engineering Design, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, TN (India); Natarajan, T.S., E-mail: tsniit@gmail.com [Conducting Polymer laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai 600036, TN (India); Verma, R.S., E-mail: vermars@iitm.ac.in [Stem Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, TN (India)

2015-06-01

Current treatment strategy for end stage valve disease involves either valvular repair or replacement with homograft/mechanical/bioprosthetic valves. In cases of recurrent stenosis/ regurgitation, valve replacement is preferred choice of treatment over valvular repair. Currently available mechanical valves primarily provide durability whereas bioprosthetic valves have superior tissue compatibility but both lack remodelling and regenerative properties making their utility limited in paediatric patients. With advances in tissue engineering, attempts have been made to fabricate valves with regenerative potential using various polymers, decellularized tissues and hybrid scaffolds. To engineer an ideal heart valve, decellularized bovine pericardium extracellular matrix (DBPECM) is an attractive biocompatible scaffold but has weak mechanical properties and rapid degradation. However, DBPECM can be modified with synthetic polymers to enhance its mechanical properties. In this study, we developed a Bio-Hybrid scaffold with non-cross linked DBPECM in its native structure coated with a layer of Polycaprolactone-Chitosan (PCL-CH) nanofibers that displayed superior mechanical properties. Surface and functional studies demonstrated integration of PCL-CH to the DBPECM with enhanced bio and hemocompatibility. This engineered Bio-Hybrid scaffold exhibited most of the physical, biochemical and functional properties of the native valve that makes it an ideal scaffold for fabrication of cardiac valve with regenerative potential. - Highlights: • A Bio-Hybrid scaffold was fabricated with PCL-CH blend and DBPECM. • PCL-CH functionally interacted with decellularized matrix without cross linking. • Modified scaffold exhibited mechanical properties similar to native heart valve. • Supported better fibroblast and endothelial cell adhesion and proliferation. • The developed scaffold can be utilized for tissue engineering of heart valve.

Using sewage sludge pyrolytic gas to modify titanium alloy to obtain high-performance anodes in bio-electrochemical systems

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Yuan; Ying, Kang; Shen, Dongsheng; Huang, Lijie; Ying, Xianbin; Huang, Haoqian; Cheng, Kun; Chen, Jiazheng; Zhou, Yuyang; Chen, Ting; Feng, Huajun

2017-12-01

Titanium is under consideration as a potential stable bio-anode because of its high conductivity, suitable mechanical properties, and electrochemical inertness in the operating potential window of bio-electrochemical systems; however, its application is limited by its poor electron-transfer capacity with electroactive bacteria and weak ability to form biofilms on its hydrophobic surface. This study reports an effective and low-cost way to convert a hydrophobic titanium alloy surface into a hydrophilic surface that can be used as a bio-electrode with higher electron-transfer rates. Pyrolytic gas of sewage sludge is used to modify the titanium alloy. The current generation, anodic biofilm formation surface, and hydrophobicity are systematically investigated by comparing bare electrodes with three modified electrodes. Maximum current density (15.80 A/m2), achieved using a modified electrode, is 316-fold higher than that of the bare titanium alloy electrode (0.05 A/m2) and that achieved by titanium alloy electrodes modified by other methods (12.70 A/m2). The pyrolytic gas-modified titanium alloy electrode can be used as a high-performance and scalable bio-anode for bio-electrochemical systems because of its high electron-transfer rates, hydrophilic nature, and ability to achieve high current density.

High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '15 : Transactions of the High Performance Computing Center

CERN Document Server

Kröner, Dietmar; Resch, Michael

2016-01-01

This book presents the state-of-the-art in supercomputer simulation. It includes the latest findings from leading researchers using systems from the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) in 2015. The reports cover all fields of computational science and engineering ranging from CFD to computational physics and from chemistry to computer science with a special emphasis on industrially relevant applications. Presenting findings of one of Europe’s leading systems, this volume covers a wide variety of applications that deliver a high level of sustained performance. The book covers the main methods in high-performance computing. Its outstanding results in achieving the best performance for production codes are of particular interest for both scientists and engineers. The book comes with a wealth of color illustrations and tables of results.

High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '17 : Transactions of the High Performance Computing Center

CERN Document Server

Kröner, Dietmar; Resch, Michael; HLRS 2017

2018-01-01

This book presents the state-of-the-art in supercomputer simulation. It includes the latest findings from leading researchers using systems from the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) in 2017. The reports cover all fields of computational science and engineering ranging from CFD to computational physics and from chemistry to computer science with a special emphasis on industrially relevant applications. Presenting findings of one of Europe’s leading systems, this volume covers a wide variety of applications that deliver a high level of sustained performance.The book covers the main methods in high-performance computing. Its outstanding results in achieving the best performance for production codes are of particular interest for both scientists and engineers. The book comes with a wealth of color illustrations and tables of results.

Microbial conversion of biomass into bio-based polymers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawaguchi, Hideo; Ogino, Chiaki; Kondo, Akihiko

2017-12-01

The worldwide market for plastics is rapidly growing, and plastics polymers are typically produced from petroleum-based chemicals. The overdependence on petroleum-based chemicals for polymer production raises economic and environmental sustainability concerns. Recent progress in metabolic engineering has expanded fermentation products from existing aliphatic acids or alcohols to include aromatic compounds. This diversity provides an opportunity to expand the development and industrial uses of high-performance bio-based polymers. However, most of the biomonomers are produced from edible sugars or starches that compete directly with food and feed uses. The present review focuses on recent progress in the microbial conversion of biomass into bio-based polymers, in which fermentative products from renewable feedstocks serve as biomonomers for the synthesis of bio-based polymers. In particular, the production of biomonomers from inedible lignocellulosic feedstocks by metabolically engineered microorganisms and the synthesis of bio-based engineered plastics from the biological resources are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Research Area 4.1 Nano- and Bio-Electronics: Lester Eastman Conference on High-Performance Devices

Science.gov (United States)

2017-06-02

significantly lower. Moreover, wells containing MoS2 on the polyimide film had a large amount of cells growing on the material, further indicating high ...SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 12. DISTRIBUTION AVAILIBILITY STATEMENT 6...Research Area 4.1 Nano- and Bio-Electronics: Lester Eastman Conference on High -Performance Devices The 2016 IEEE Lester Eastman Conference of High

Genetic Engineering In BioButanol Production And Tolerance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashok Rao

Full Text Available ABSTRACT The growing need to address current energy and environmental problems has sparked an interest in developing improved biological methods to produce liquid fuels from renewable sources. Higher-chain alcohols possess chemical properties that are more similar to gasoline. Ethanol and butanol are two products which are used as biofuel. Butanol production was more concerned than ethanol because of its high octane number. Unfortunately, these alcohols are not produced efficiently in natural microorganisms, and thus economical production in industrial volumes remains a challenge. The synthetic biology, however, offers additional tools to engineer synthetic pathways in user-friendly hosts to help increase titers and productivity of bio-butanol. Knock out and over-expression of genes is the major approaches towards genetic manipulation and metabolic engineering of microbes. Yet there are TargeTron Technology, Antisense RNA and CRISPR technology has a vital role in genome manipulation of C.acetobutylicum. This review concentrates on the recent developments for efficient production of butanol and butanol tolerance by various genetically engineered microbes.

Combustion Performance and Exhaust Emission of DI Diesel Engine Using Various Sources of Waste Cooking Oil

Science.gov (United States)

Afiq, Mohd; Azuhairi, Mohd; Jazair, Wira

2010-06-01

In Malaysia, more than 200-tone of cooking oil are used by domestic users everyday. After frying process, about a quarter of these cooking oil was remained and drained into sewage system. This will pollutes waterways and affects the ecosystem. The use of waste cooking oil (WCO) for producing bio-diesel was considered in economical factor which current production cost of bio-diesel production is higher in Malaysia due to higher price of palm oil. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the most suitable source of WCO to become a main source of bio-diesel for bio-diesel production in this country. To perform this research, three type of WCO were obtained from house's kitchen, cafeteria and mamak's restaurant. In this study, prospect of these bio-diesel source was evaluated based on its combustion performance and exhaust emissions operated in diesel engine in the form of waste cooking oil methyl ester (WCOME) and have been compared with pure diesel fuel. A 0.6 liter, single-cylinder, air-cooled direct injection diesel engine was used to perform this experiment. Experiment was done at variable engine loads and constant engine speed. As the result, among three stated WCOMEs, the one collected from house's kitchen gives the best performance in term of brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) and brake power (BP) with lowest soot emission.

Simulating Effects of High Angle of Attack on Turbofan Engine Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yuan; Claus, Russell W.; Litt, Jonathan S.; Guo, Ten-Huei

2013-01-01

A method of investigating the effects of high angle of attack (AOA) flight on turbofan engine performance is presented. The methodology involves combining a suite of diverse simulation tools. Three-dimensional, steady-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software is used to model the change in performance of a commercial aircraft-type inlet and fan geometry due to various levels of AOA. Parallel compressor theory is then applied to assimilate the CFD data with a zero-dimensional, nonlinear, dynamic turbofan engine model. The combined model shows that high AOA operation degrades fan performance and, thus, negatively impacts compressor stability margins and engine thrust. In addition, the engine response to high AOA conditions is shown to be highly dependent upon the type of control system employed.

Biological and mechanical evaluation of a Bio-Hybrid scaffold for autologous valve tissue engineering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jahnavi, S [Stem Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, TN 600036 (India); Tissue Culture Laboratory, Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Poojappura, Trivandrum, Kerala 695012 (India); Saravanan, U [Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, TN 600036 (India); Arthi, N [Stem Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, TN 600036 (India); Bhuvaneshwar, G S [Department of Engineering Design, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, TN 600036 (India); Kumary, T V [Tissue Culture Laboratory, Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Poojappura, Trivandrum, Kerala 695012 (India); Rajan, S [Madras Medical Mission, Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases, Mogappair, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600037 (India); Verma, R S, E-mail: vermars@iitm.ac.in [Stem Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, TN 600036 (India)

2017-04-01

Major challenge in heart valve tissue engineering for paediatric patients is the development of an autologous valve with regenerative capacity. Hybrid tissue engineering approach is recently gaining popularity to design scaffolds with desired biological and mechanical properties that can remodel post implantation. In this study, we fabricated aligned nanofibrous Bio-Hybrid scaffold made of decellularized bovine pericardium: polycaprolactone-chitosan with optimized polymer thickness to yield the desired biological and mechanical properties. CD44{sup +}, αSMA{sup +}, Vimentin{sup +} and CD105{sup −} human valve interstitial cells were isolated and seeded on these Bio-Hybrid scaffolds. Subsequent biological evaluation revealed interstitial cell proliferation with dense extra cellular matrix deposition that indicated the viability for growth and proliferation of seeded cells on the scaffolds. Uniaxial mechanical tests along axial direction showed that the Bio-Hybrid scaffolds has at least 20 times the strength of the native valves and its stiffness is nearly 3 times more than that of native valves. Biaxial and uniaxial mechanical studies on valve interstitial cells cultured Bio-Hybrid scaffolds revealed that the response along the axial and circumferential direction was different, similar to native valves. Overall, our findings suggest that Bio-Hybrid scaffold is a promising material for future development of regenerative heart valve constructs in children. - Highlights: • We report detailed biological and mechanical investigations of a Bio-Hybrid scaffold. • Optimized polymer thickness yielded desired biological and mechanical properties. • Bio-Hybrid scaffold revealed hVIC proliferation with dense ECM deposition. • Biaxial testing indicated that Bio-Hybrid scaffolds are mechanically stronger than native valves. • Bio-Hybrid scaffold is a promising material for autologous valve tissue engineering.

European governance challenges in 21st century bio-engineering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Est, van R.; Stemerding, D.; Est, van R.; Stemerding, D.

2012-01-01

This Final Report discussed four case studies (whole genome sequencing, neuromodulation, biocybernetic adaptation and standardization in synthetic biology) focusing on particular developments in the four fields of 21st-century bio-engineering that were explored more extensively in the earlier

Emission testing of jatropha and pongamia mixed bio diesel fuel in a diesel engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, M.; Shaikh, A.A.

2012-01-01

The present investigation is based on the emission characteristics of mixed bio diesel fuel in a four stroke single cylinder compression ignition engine at constant speed. Refined oils of jatropha and pongamia are converted into bio diesel by acid catalyzed esterification and base catalyzed transesterification reactions. The jatropha and pongamia bio diesel were mixed in equal proportions with conventional mineral diesel fuel. Four samples of fuel were tested namely, diesel fuel, B10, B20 and B40. The emission analysis showed B20 mixed bio diesel fuel blend having better results as compared to other samples. There is 60% and 35% lower emission of carbon monoxide and in sulphur dioxide observed while consuming B20 blended fuel respectively. The test result showed NOx emissions were 10% higher from bio diesel fuel, as compared to conventional diesel fuel. However, these emissions may be reduced by EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) technology. Present research also revealed that that B20 mixed bio diesel fuel can be used, without any modification in a CI engine. (author)

Past, Present, and Future Production of Bio-oil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steele, Philip; Yu, Fei; Gajjela, Sanjeev

2009-04-01

Bio-oil is a liquid product produced by fast pyrol-ysis of biomass. The fast pyrolysis is performed by heating the biomass rapidly (2 sec) at temperatures ranging from 350 to 650 oC. The vapors produced by this rapid heating are then condensed to produce a dark brown water-based emulsion composed of frag-ments of the original hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin molecules contained in the biomass. Yields range from 60 to 75% based on the feedstock type and the pyrolysis reactor employed. The bio-oil pro-duced by this process has a number of negative prop-erties that are produced mainly by the high oxygen content (40 to 50%) contributed by that contained in water (25 to 30% of total mass) and oxygenated compounds. Each bio-oil contains hundreds of chemi-cal compounds. The chemical composition of bio-oil renders it a very recalcitrant chemical compound. To date, the difficulties in utilizing bio-oil have limited its commercial development to the production of liq-uid smoke as food flavoring. Practitioners have at-tempted to utilize raw bio-oil as a fuel; they have also applied many techniques to upgrade bio-oil to a fuel. Attempts to utilize raw bio-oil as a combustion engine fuel have resulted in engine or turbine dam-age; however, Stirling engines have been shown to successfully combust raw bio-oil without damage. Utilization of raw bio-oil as a boiler fuel has met with more success and an ASTM standard has recently been released describing bio-oil characteristics in relation to assigned fuel grades. However, commercialization has been slow to follow and no reports of distribution of these bio-oil boiler fuels have been reported. Co-feeding raw bio-oil with coal has been successfully performed but no current power generation facilities are following this practice. Upgrading of bio-oils to hydrocarbons via hydroprocessing is being performed by several organizations. Currently, limited catalyst life is the obstacle to commercialization of this tech-nology. Researchers

Bio-based targeted chemical engineering education : Role and impact of bio-based energy and resourcedevelopment projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

N.M. Márquez Luzardoa; Dr. ir. Jan Venselaar

2012-01-01

Avans University of Applied Sciences is redrafting its courses and curricula in view of sustainability. For chemical engineering in particular that implies a focus on 'green' and bio-based processes, products and energy. Avans is situated in the Southwest region of the Netherlands and specifically

Bio-Orthogonal Mediated Nucleic Acid Transfection of Cells via Cell Surface Engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Paul J; Elahipanah, Sina; Rogozhnikov, Dmitry; Yousaf, Muhammad N

2017-05-24

The efficient delivery of foreign nucleic acids (transfection) into cells is a critical tool for fundamental biomedical research and a pillar of several biotechnology industries. There are currently three main strategies for transfection including reagent, instrument, and viral based methods. Each technology has significantly advanced cell transfection; however, reagent based methods have captured the majority of the transfection market due to their relatively low cost and ease of use. This general method relies on the efficient packaging of a reagent with nucleic acids to form a stable complex that is subsequently associated and delivered to cells via nonspecific electrostatic targeting. Reagent transfection methods generally use various polyamine cationic type molecules to condense with negatively charged nucleic acids into a highly positively charged complex, which is subsequently delivered to negatively charged cells in culture for association, internalization, release, and expression. Although this appears to be a straightforward procedure, there are several major issues including toxicity, low efficiency, sorting of viable transfected from nontransfected cells, and limited scope of transfectable cell types. Herein, we report a new strategy (SnapFect) for nucleic acid transfection to cells that does not rely on electrostatic interactions but instead uses an integrated approach combining bio-orthogonal liposome fusion, click chemistry, and cell surface engineering. We show that a target cell population is rapidly and efficiently engineered to present a bio-orthogonal functional group on its cell surface through nanoparticle liposome delivery and fusion. A complementary bio-orthogonal nucleic acid complex is then formed and delivered to which chemoselective click chemistry induced transfection occurs to the primed cell. This new strategy requires minimal time, steps, and reagents and leads to superior transfection results for a broad range of cell types

Evaluation of bio-materials’ rejuvenating effect on binders for high-reclaimed asphalt content mixtures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Jiménez del Barco-Carrión

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The interest in using bio-materials in pavement engineering has grown significantly over the last decades due to environmental concerns about the use of non-recoverable natural resources. In this paper, bio-materials are used together with Reclaimed Asphalt (RA to restore some of the properties of the aged bitumen present in mixtures with high RA content. For this purpose, two bio-materials are studied and compared to conventional and polymer modified bitumens. Blends of these materials with RA bitumen were produced and studied to simulate a 50% RA mixture. The rejuvenating effect of the two bio-materials on RA has been assessed and compared with the effect of the conventional binders. Apparent Molecular Weight Distribution of the samples (obtained by the ?-method and different rheological parameters were used for this purpose. Results revealed the power of bio-materials to rejuvenate RA bitumen, showing their capability to be used as fresh binders in high-RA content mixtures.

Evaluation of bio-materials’ rejuvenating effect on binders for high-reclaimed asphalt content mixtures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiménez del Barco-Carrión, A.; Pérez-Martínez, M.; Themeli, A.; Lo Presti, D.; Marsac, P.; Pouget, S.; Hammoum, F.; Chailleux, E.; Airey, G.D.

2017-01-01

The interest in using bio-materials in pavement engineering has grown significantly over the last decades due to environmental concerns about the use of non-recoverable natural resources. In this paper, bio-materials are used together with Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) to restore some of the properties of the aged bitumen present in mixtures with high RA content. For this purpose, two bio-materials are studied and compared to conventional and polymer modified bitumens. Blends of these materials with RA bitumen were produced and studied to simulate a 50% RA mixture. The rejuvenating effect of the two bio-materials on RA has been assessed and compared with the effect of the conventional binders. Apparent Molecular Weight Distribution of the samples (obtained by the ?-method) and different rheological parameters were used for this purpose. Results revealed the power of bio-materials to rejuvenate RA bitumen, showing their capability to be used as fresh binders in high-RA content mixtures. [es

Investigation of palm methyl-ester bio-diesel with additive on performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine under 8-mode testing cycle

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Senthilkumar

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Biodiesel is receiving increasing attention each passing day because of its same diesel-like fuel properties and compatibility with petroleum-based diesel fueled engines. Therefore, in this paper the prospects and opportunities of using various blends of methyl esters of palm oil as fuel in an engine with and without the effect of multi-functional fuel additive (MFA, Multi DM 32 are studied to arrive at an optimum blend of bio-diesel best suited for low emissions and minimal power drop. Experimental tests were conducted on a four stroke, three cylinder and naturally aspirated D.I. Diesel engine with diesel and various blend percentages of 20%, 40%, 45%, and 50% under the 8 mode testing cycle. The effect of fuel additive was tested out on the optimum blend ratio of the bio-diesel so as to achieve further reduced emissions. Comparison of results shows that, 73% reduction in hydrocarbon emission, 46% reduction in carbon monoxide emission, and around 1% reduction in carbon dioxide emission characteristics. So it is observed that the blend ratio of 40% bio-diesel with MFA fuel additive creates reduced emission and minimal power drop due to effective combustion even when the calorific value is comparatively lower due to its higher cetane number.

A high performance thermoacoustic Stirling-engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tijani, M.E.H.; Spoelstra, S. [Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), PO Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands)

2011-11-10

In thermoacoustic systems heat is converted into acoustic energy and vice versa. These systems use inert gases as working medium and have no moving parts which makes the thermoacoustic technology a serious alternative to produce mechanical or electrical power, cooling power, and heating in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. A thermoacoustic Stirling heat engine is designed and built which achieves a record performance of 49% of the Carnot efficiency. The design and performance of the engine is presented. The engine has no moving parts and is made up of few simple components.

Bio-mimetic Flow Control

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Haecheon

2009-11-01

Bio-mimetic engineering or bio-mimetics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology (from Wikipedia). The concept itself is old, but successful developments have been made recently, especially in the research field of flow control. The objective of flow control based on the bio-mimetic approach is to develop novel concepts for reducing drag, increasing lift and enhancing aerodynamic performance. For skin friction reduction, a few ideas have been suggested such as the riblet from shark, compliant surface from dolphin, microbubble injection and multiple front-body curvature from penguin, and V-shaped protrusion from sailfish. For form drag reduction, several new attempts have been also made recently. Examples include the V-shaped spanwise grooves from saguaro cactus, overall shape of box fish, longitudinal grooves on scallop shell, bill of swordfish, hooked comb on owl wing, trailing-edge protrusion on dragonfly wing, and fillet. For the enhancement of aerodynamic performance, focuses have been made on the birds, fish and insects: e.g., double layered feather of landing bird, leading-edge serration of humpback-whale flipper, pectoral fin of flying fish, long tail on swallowtail-butterfly wing, wing flapping motion of dragonfly, and alula in birds. Living animals adapt their bodies to better performance in multi purposes, but engineering requires single purpose in most cases. Therefore, bio-mimetic approaches often produce excellent results more than expected. However, they are sometimes based on people's wrong understanding of nature and produce unwanted results. Successes and failures from bio-mimetic approaches in flow control will be discussed in the presentation.

Dynamic Performance of High Bypass Ratio Turbine Engines With Water Ingestion

Science.gov (United States)

Murthy, S. N. B.

1996-01-01

The research on dynamic performance of high bypass turbofan engines includes studies on inlets, turbomachinery and the total engine system operating with air-water mixture; the water may be in vapor, droplet, or film form, and their combinations. Prediction codes (WISGS, WINCOF, WINCOF-1, WINCLR, and Transient Engine Performance Code) for performance changes, as well as changes in blade-casing clearance, have been established and demonstrated in application to actual, generic engines. In view of the continuous changes in water distribution in turbomachinery, the performance of both components and the total engine system must be determined in a time-dependent mode; hence, the determination of clearance changes also requires a time-dependent approach. In general, the performance and clearances changes cannot be scaled either with respect to operating or ingestion conditions. Removal of water prior to phase change is the most effective means of avoiding ingestion effects. Sufficient background has been established to perform definitive, full scale tests on a set of components and a complete engine to establish engine control and operability with various air-water vapor-water mixtures.

Short term endurance results on a single cylinder diesel engine fueled with upgraded bio oil biodiesel emulsion

Science.gov (United States)

Prakash, R.; Murugan, S.

2017-11-01

This paper deliberates the endurance test outcomes obtained from a single cylinder, diesel engine fueled with an upgraded bio oil biodiesel emulsion. In this investigation a bio oil obtained by pyrolysis of woody biomass was upgraded with acid treatment. The resulted bio oil was emulsified with addition of biodiesel and suitable surfactant which is termed as ATJOE15. The main objective of the endurance test was to evaluate the wear characteristics of the engine components and lubrication oil properties, when the engine is fueled with the ATJOE15 emulsion. The photographic views taken before and after the end of 100 hrs endurance test, and visual inspection of the engine components, wear and carbon deposit results, are discussed in this paper.

Restoration of badlands through applying bio-engineering techniques in active gully systems: Evidence from the Ecuadorian Andes

Science.gov (United States)

Borja, P.; Vanacker, V.; Alvarado, D.; Govers, G.

2012-04-01

A better insight in the processes controlling sediment generation, transport and deposition in badlands is necessary to enhance restoration of degraded soils through eco-engineering techniques. In this study, we evaluate the effect of different bio-engineering measures on soil and slope stability. Five micro-catchments (of 0.2 to 5 ha) were selected within a 3 km2 area in the lower part of the Loreto catchment (Southern Ecuadorian Andes). The micro-catchments differ only by land cover and degree of implementation of soil and water conservation measures. Bio-engineering techniques were used to construct dikes made of fascines of wooden sticks and earth-filled tires in active gully beds, where they are most efficient to reduce water and sediment transport. The experimental design consists of three micro-catchments within highly degraded lands: (DI) micro-catchment with bio-engineering measures concentrated in the active gully beds, (DF) with reforestation of Eucalyptus trees, and (DT) reference situation without any conservation measures. Two micro-catchments were monitored in agricultural lands with (AI) and without (AT) bio-engineering measures in the active gully beds. All catchments were equipped with San Dimas flumes to measure water flow, and sediment traps to monitor sediment export. In the (active) gully beds, various parameters related to gully stability (soil water content, bed elevation, vegetation cover, sedimentation/erosion) were monitored at weekly intervals. First results show that bio-engineering techniques are efficient to stabilize active gully beds through a reduction of the rapid concentration of excess rainfall and the sediment production and transfer. Fascines made of wooden sticks are far more efficient than earth-filled tires. Sediment deposition behind dikes is strongly dependent on precedent rainfall events, and the slope and vegetation cover of the gully floor. The sediment deposited facilitates colonization of the gully floor by native

High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '16 : Transactions of the High Performance Computing Center, Stuttgart (HLRS) 2016

CERN Document Server

Kröner, Dietmar; Resch, Michael

2016-01-01

This book presents the state-of-the-art in supercomputer simulation. It includes the latest findings from leading researchers using systems from the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) in 2016. The reports cover all fields of computational science and engineering ranging from CFD to computational physics and from chemistry to computer science with a special emphasis on industrially relevant applications. Presenting findings of one of Europe’s leading systems, this volume covers a wide variety of applications that deliver a high level of sustained performance. The book covers the main methods in high-performance computing. Its outstanding results in achieving the best performance for production codes are of particular interest for both scientists and engineers. The book comes with a wealth of color illustrations and tables of results.

Replacing fossil based plastic performance products by bio-based plastic products-Technical feasibility.

Science.gov (United States)

van den Oever, Martien; Molenveld, Karin

2017-07-25

Larger scale market introduction of new bio-based products requires a clear advantage regarding sustainability, as well as an adequate techno-economic positioning relative to fossil based products. In a previous paper [Broeren et al., 2016], LCA results per kg and per functionality equivalent of bio-based plastics were presented, together with economic considerations. The present paper discusses the mechanical and thermal properties of a range of commercially available bio-based plastics based on polylactic acid (PLA), cellulose esters, starch and polyamides, and the feasibility of replacing fossil-based counterparts based on performance. The evaluation is approached from an end user perspective. First, potentially suitable bio-based plastics are selected based on manufacturers' specifications in technical data sheets, then a first experimental evaluation is performed on injection moulded ISO specimens, and finally a further selection of plastics is tested on large 50×70cm panels. This technical feasibility study indicates that so far bio-based plastics do not completely match the properties of high performance materials like flame retardant V-0 PC/ABS blends used in electronic devices. The performance gap is being decreased by the development of stereocomplex PLA and hybrid PLA blends with polycarbonate, which offer clearly improved properties with respect to maximum usage temperature and toughness. In addition, several materials meet the V-0 flammability requirements needed in specific durable applications. On the other hand, improving these properties so far has negative consequences for the bio-based content. This study also shows that replacement of bulk polymers like PS is feasible using PLA compounds with a bio-based content as high as 85%. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bio-Engineering Services to the Developmentally Disabled Adolescent. Final Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Mallik, Kalisankar; Yuspeh, Sheldon

A 1-year demonstration project involving 24 developmentally disabled students (9- to 20-years-old) with severe physical limitations was conducted to increase their educational and vocational possibilities by using cost-effective bio-engineering techniques to modify their physical environment and develop improved adaptive devices. Phase I of the…

BioCarian: search engine for exploratory searches in heterogeneous biological databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaki, Nazar; Tennakoon, Chandana

2017-10-02

There are a large number of biological databases publicly available for scientists in the web. Also, there are many private databases generated in the course of research projects. These databases are in a wide variety of formats. Web standards have evolved in the recent times and semantic web technologies are now available to interconnect diverse and heterogeneous sources of data. Therefore, integration and querying of biological databases can be facilitated by techniques used in semantic web. Heterogeneous databases can be converted into Resource Description Format (RDF) and queried using SPARQL language. Searching for exact queries in these databases is trivial. However, exploratory searches need customized solutions, especially when multiple databases are involved. This process is cumbersome and time consuming for those without a sufficient background in computer science. In this context, a search engine facilitating exploratory searches of databases would be of great help to the scientific community. We present BioCarian, an efficient and user-friendly search engine for performing exploratory searches on biological databases. The search engine is an interface for SPARQL queries over RDF databases. We note that many of the databases can be converted to tabular form. We first convert the tabular databases to RDF. The search engine provides a graphical interface based on facets to explore the converted databases. The facet interface is more advanced than conventional facets. It allows complex queries to be constructed, and have additional features like ranking of facet values based on several criteria, visually indicating the relevance of a facet value and presenting the most important facet values when a large number of choices are available. For the advanced users, SPARQL queries can be run directly on the databases. Using this feature, users will be able to incorporate federated searches of SPARQL endpoints. We used the search engine to do an exploratory search

Process systems engineering studies for catalytic production of bio-based platform molecules from lignocellulosic biomass

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Jeehoon

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A process-systems engineering study for production of bio-based platform molecules to is presented. • Experimentally verified catalysis studies for biomass conversion are investigated. • New separations for effective recovery of bio-based platform molecules are developed. • Separations are integrated with catalytic biomass conversions. • Proposed process can compete economically with the current production approaches. - Abstract: This work presents a process-system engineering study of an integrated catalytic conversion strategy to produce bio-based platform molecules (levulinic acid (LA), furfural (FF), and propyl guaiacol (PG)) from hemicellulose (C_5), cellulose (C_6), and lignin fractions of lignocellulosic biomass. A commercial-scale process based on the strategy produces high numerical carbon yields (overall yields: 35.2%; C_6-to-LA: 20.4%, C_5-to-FF: 69.2%, and Lignin-to-PG: 13.3%) from a dilute concentration of solute (1.3–30.0 wt.% solids), but a high recovery of these molecules requires an efficient separation system with low energy requirement. A heat exchanger network significantly reduced the total energy requirements of the process. An economic analysis showed that the minimum selling price of LA as the highest value-added product (42.3 × 10"3 t of LA/y using 700 × 10"3 dry t/y of corn stover) is US$1707/t despite using negative economic parameters, and that this system can be cost-competitive with current production approaches.

Biological and mechanical evaluation of a Bio-Hybrid scaffold for autologous valve tissue engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Jahnavi, S; Saravanan, U; Arthi, N; Bhuvaneshwar, G S; Kumary, T V; Rajan, S; Verma, R S

2017-04-01

Major challenge in heart valve tissue engineering for paediatric patients is the development of an autologous valve with regenerative capacity. Hybrid tissue engineering approach is recently gaining popularity to design scaffolds with desired biological and mechanical properties that can remodel post implantation. In this study, we fabricated aligned nanofibrous Bio-Hybrid scaffold made of decellularized bovine pericardium: polycaprolactone-chitosan with optimized polymer thickness to yield the desired biological and mechanical properties. CD44 + , αSMA + , Vimentin + and CD105 - human valve interstitial cells were isolated and seeded on these Bio-Hybrid scaffolds. Subsequent biological evaluation revealed interstitial cell proliferation with dense extra cellular matrix deposition that indicated the viability for growth and proliferation of seeded cells on the scaffolds. Uniaxial mechanical tests along axial direction showed that the Bio-Hybrid scaffolds has at least 20 times the strength of the native valves and its stiffness is nearly 3 times more than that of native valves. Biaxial and uniaxial mechanical studies on valve interstitial cells cultured Bio-Hybrid scaffolds revealed that the response along the axial and circumferential direction was different, similar to native valves. Overall, our findings suggest that Bio-Hybrid scaffold is a promising material for future development of regenerative heart valve constructs in children. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimental and theoretical study on spray behaviors of modified bio-ethanol fuel employing direct injection system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ghahremani Amirreza

2017-01-01

Full Text Available One of the key solutions to improve engine performance and reduce exhaust emissions of internal combustion engines is direct injection of bio-fuels. A new modified bio-ethanol is produced to be substituted by fossil fuels in gasoline direct injection engines. The key advantages of modified bio-ethanol fuel as an alternative fuel are higher octane number and oxygen content, a long-chain hydro-carbon fuel, and lower emissions compared to fossil fuels. In the present study spray properties of a modified bio-ethanol and its atomization behaviors have been studied experimentally and theoretically. Based on atomization physics of droplets dimensional analysis has been performed to develop a new non-dimensional number namely atomization index. This number determines the atomization level of the spray. Applying quasi-steady jet theory, air entrainment and fuel-air mixing studies have been performed. The spray atomization behaviors such as atomization index number, Ohnesorge number, and Sauter mean diameter have been investigated employing atomization model. The influences of injection and ambient conditions on spray properties of different blends of modified bio-ethanol and gasoline fuels have been investigated performing high-speed visualization technique. Results indicate that decreasing the difference of injection and ambient pressures increases spray cone angle and projected area, and decreases spray tip penetration length. As expected, increasing injection pressure improves atomization behaviors of the spray. Increasing percentage of modified bio-ethanol in the blend, increases spray tip penetration and decreases the projected area as well.

Combinatorial Nano-Bio Interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Pingqiang; Zhang, Xiaoqian; Wang, Ming; Wu, Yun-Long; Chen, Xiaodong

2018-06-08

Nano-bio interfaces are emerging from the convergence of engineered nanomaterials and biological entities. Despite rapid growth, clinical translation of biomedical nanomaterials is heavily compromised by the lack of comprehensive understanding of biophysicochemical interactions at nano-bio interfaces. In the past decade, a few investigations have adopted a combinatorial approach toward decoding nano-bio interfaces. Combinatorial nano-bio interfaces comprise the design of nanocombinatorial libraries and high-throughput bioevaluation. In this Perspective, we address challenges in combinatorial nano-bio interfaces and call for multiparametric nanocombinatorics (composition, morphology, mechanics, surface chemistry), multiscale bioevaluation (biomolecules, organelles, cells, tissues/organs), and the recruitment of computational modeling and artificial intelligence. Leveraging combinatorial nano-bio interfaces will shed light on precision nanomedicine and its potential applications.

Soil bio-engineering for risk mitigation and environmental restoration in a humid tropical area

Science.gov (United States)

Petrone, A.; Preti, F.

2009-07-01

The use of soil bio-engineering techniques in developing countries is a relevant issue for disaster mitigation, environmental restoration and poverty reduction. Research on authochtonal plants suitable for this kind of works and on economic efficiency is essential for the divulgation of such techniques. The present paper is focused on this two issues related to the realization of various typologies of soil bio-engineering works in the humid tropic of Nicaragua. In the area of Río Blanco, located in the Department of Matagalpa, soil bio-engineering installations were built in several sites. The particular structures built were: drainages with live fascine mattress, a live palisade, a vegetated live crib wall for riverbank protection, a vegetative covering made of a metallic net and biotextile coupled with a live palisade made of bamboo. In order to evaluate the suitability of the various plants used in the works, monitorings were performed, one in the live palisade alongside an unpaved road and the other on the live crib wall along a riverbank, collecting survival rate and morphological parameters data. Concerning the economic efficiency we proceed to a financial analysis of the works and once the unit price was obtained, we converted the amount in EPP Dollars (Equal Purchasing Power) in order to compare the Nicaraguan context with the Italian one. Among the used species we found that Madero negro (Gliricidia sepium) and Roble macuelizo (Tabebuia rosea) are adequate for soil-bioengineering measure on slopes while Helequeme (Erythrina fusca) reported a successful behaviour only in the crib wall for riverbank protection. In the comparison of the costs in Nicaragua and in Italy, the unit price reduction for the Central American country ranges between 1.5 times (for the vegetative covering) and almost 4 times (for the fascine mattress) if it's used the EPP dollar exchange rate. Conclusions are reached with regard to hydrological-risk mitigating actions performed on a

Design of a high-performance rotary stratified-charge research aircraft engine

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, C.; Mount, R. E.

1984-01-01

The power section for an advanced rotary stratified-charge general aviation engine has been designed under contract to NASA. The single-rotor research engine of 40 cubic-inches displacement (RCI-40), now being procured for test initiation this summer, is targeted for 320 T.O. horse-power in a two-rotor production engine. The research engine is designed for operating on jet-fuel, gasoline or diesel fuel and will be used to explore applicable advanced technologies and to optimize high output performance variables. Design of major components of the engine is described in this paper.

Electrifying white biotechnology: engineering and economic potential of electricity-driven bio-production.

Science.gov (United States)

Harnisch, Falk; Rosa, Luis F M; Kracke, Frauke; Virdis, Bernardino; Krömer, Jens O

2015-03-01

The production of fuels and chemicals by electricity-driven bio-production (i.e., using electric energy to drive biosynthesis) holds great promises. However, this electrification of white biotechnology is particularly challenging to achieve because of the different optimal operating conditions of electrochemical and biochemical reactions. In this article, we address the technical parameters and obstacles to be taken into account when engineering microbial bioelectrochemical systems (BES) for bio-production. In addition, BES-based bio-production processes reported in the literature are compared against industrial needs showing that a still large gap has to be closed. Finally, the feasibility of BES bio-production is analysed based on bulk electricity prices. Using the example of lysine production from sucrose, we demonstrate that there is a realistic market potential as cost savings of 8.4 % (in EU) and 18.0 % (in US) could be anticipated, if the necessary yields can be obtained. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography in the Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

Frey, Douglas D.; Guo, Hui; Karnik, Nikhila

2013-01-01

This article describes the assembly of a simple, low-cost, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system and its use in the undergraduate chemical engineering laboratory course to perform simple experiments. By interpreting the results from these experiments students are able to gain significant experience in the general method of…

High-performance plain bearings for diesel engines. Hochleistungs-Gleitlager fuer Dieselmotoren

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schmidt, R.M.; Mathias, M.; Herrmann, B. (MTU, Friedrichshafen (Germany))

1992-01-01

The crankshaft bearings are among the most highly stressed engine components. Conventional plain bearings no longer fulfill the requirements of modern high-performance diesel engines. Introduction of the 'Sputter' technology, as a method of anti friction layer application, opened new perspectives in the field of plain bearing manufacture. In this presentation it is intended to compare various types of plain bearings and to demonstrate operation-oriented bearing testing. (orig.).

A hybrid bio-jetting approach for directly engineering living cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwok, Albert; Irvine, Scott; Arumuganathar, Sumathy; Jayasinghe, Suwan N; McEwan, Jean R

2008-01-01

This paper reports developments on a hybrid cell-engineering protocol coupling both bio-electrosprays and aerodynamically assisted bio-jets for process-handling living cells. The current work demonstrates the ability to couple these two cell-jetting protocols for handling a wide range of cells for deposition. The post-treated cells are assessed for their viability by way of flow cytometry, which illustrates a significant population of viable cells post-treatment in comparison to those controls. This work is the first example of coupling these two protocols for the process handling of living cells. The hybrid protocol demonstrates the achievement of stable cone jetting of a cellular suspension in the single-needle configuration which was previously unachieved with single-needle bio-electrosprays. Furthermore the living cells explored in these investigations expressed GFP, thus demonstrating the ability to couple gene therapy with this hybrid protocol. Hence, this approach could one day be explored for building biologically viable tissues incorporating a therapeutic payload for combating a range of cellular/tissue-based pathologies

Production of additives from Jatropha Curcas L. methyl esther as a way to improve diesel engine performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silitonga, A.S. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Medan State Polytechnic (Indonesia)], email: ardinsu@yahoo.co.id, email: a_atabani2@msn.com; Mahlia, T.M.I. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Syiah Kuala University, (Indonesia); Masjuki, H.H. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya (Malaysia); Ghofur, A. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lambung Mangkurat University (Indonesia); Abdullahe [Department of Chemical Engineering, Lambung Mangkurat University (Indonesia)

2011-07-01

Nowadays we are searching for ideal alternative fuels in order to reduce harmful gas emissions and improve air quality. And many kinds of bio-diesel have been proposed. This paper introduces a bio-diesel converted from the oil of Jatropha curcas L. through a series of physical and chemical processes. This bio-diesel, which has a high cetane number, is better adapted than diesel or other, edible, vegetable oils to be an ideal alternative fuel. Moreover, the additive promotes the physico-chemical characteristics of Jatropha curcas methyl ester, further enhancing its desirability as a substitute for diesel oil. This paper analyzes and reports the results of a laboratory-scale investigation of the feasibility of blending diesel with an additive produced from Jatropha curcas methyl ester. It finds that this additive can improve engine performance and reduce exhaust emissions.

Feasibility study of utilizing jatropha curcas oil as bio-diesel in an oil firing burner system

Science.gov (United States)

Shaiful, A. I. M.; Jaafar, M. N. Mohd; Sahar, A. M.

2017-09-01

Jatropha oil derived from the Jatropha Curcas Linnaeus is one of the high potential plants to be use as bio-diesel. The purpose of this research is to carry out a feasibility study of using jatropha oil as bio-diesel on oil firing burner system. Like other bio-diesels, jatropha oil can also be used in any combustion engine and the performance and emissions such as NOx, SO2, CO and CO2 as well as unburned hydocarbon (UHC) from the engine will vary depending on the bio-diesel blends. The properties of Conventional Diesel Fuel (CDF) obtained will be used as baseline and the jatropha oil properties will be compared as well as other bio-diesels. From several researches, the properties of jatropha oil was found to be quite similar with other bio-diesel such as palm oil, neem, keranja and pongamia bio-diesel and complying with the ASTM standard for bio-diesel. Still, there are factors and issues concerning the use of jatropha oil such as technology, economy, legislation and resource. Plus, there several challenges to the growth of bio-diesel industry development since the world right now do not totally depend on the bio-diesel.

Re-Engineering a High Performance Electrical Series Elastic Actuator for Low-Cost Industrial Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenan Isik

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Cost is an important consideration when transferring a technology from research to industrial and educational use. In this paper, we introduce the design of an industrial grade series elastic actuator (SEA performed via re-engineering a research grade version of it. Cost-constrained design requires careful consideration of the key performance parameters for an optimal performance-to-cost component selection. To optimize the performance of the new design, we started by matching the capabilities of a high-performance SEA while cutting down its production cost significantly. Our posit was that performing a re-engineering design process on an existing high-end device will significantly reduce the cost without compromising the performance drastically. As a case study of design for manufacturability, we selected the University of Texas Series Elastic Actuator (UT-SEA, a high-performance SEA, for its high power density, compact design, high efficiency and high speed properties. We partnered with an industrial corporation in China to research the best pricing options and to exploit the retail and production facilities provided by the Shenzhen region. We succeeded in producing a low-cost industrial grade actuator at one-third of the cost of the original device by re-engineering the UT-SEA with commercial off-the-shelf components and reducing the number of custom-made parts. Subsequently, we conducted performance tests to demonstrate that the re-engineered product achieves the same high-performance specifications found in the original device. With this paper, we aim to raise awareness in the robotics community on the possibility of low-cost realization of low-volume, high performance, industrial grade research and education hardware.

Experimental studies on natural aspirated diesel engine fuelled with corn seed oil methyl ester as a bio-diesel.

Science.gov (United States)

Rama Krishna Reddy, E.; Dhana Raju, V.

2018-03-01

This paper evaluates the possibilities of using corn seed oil methyl ester as a fuel for compression ignition engines. The biodiesels are contained high oxygen content, and high Cetane number, due to this properties efficiency of biodiesel is higher than diesel fuel. The experiments were conducted with different biodiesel blends of (B10, B15, B20 and B25) corn seed oil on single cylinder four stroke natural aspirated diesel engines. Performance parameters and exhaust emissions are investigated in this experimental with the blends of the corn seed oil methyl ester and diesel fuel. The test results showed that the bio-diesel blends gives improved results for brake thermal efficiency and specific fuel consumption when compared with the diesel fuel. The emissions of corn seed methyl esters follow the same trend of diesel but the smoke opacity was reduces for all blends. From the investigation, corn seed methyl ester is also having the properties similar to diesel fuel; it is biodegradable and renewable fuel, so it will be used as an alternative for diesel fuel.

From zero to hero - production of bio-based nylon from renewable resources using engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum.

Science.gov (United States)

Kind, Stefanie; Neubauer, Steffi; Becker, Judith; Yamamoto, Motonori; Völkert, Martin; Abendroth, Gregory von; Zelder, Oskar; Wittmann, Christoph

2014-09-01

Polyamides are important industrial polymers. Currently, they are produced exclusively from petrochemical monomers. Herein, we report the production of a novel bio-nylon, PA5.10 through an integration of biological and chemical approaches. First, systems metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum was used to create an effective microbial cell factory for the production of diaminopentane as the polymer building block. In this way, a hyper-producer, with a high diaminopentane yield of 41% in shake flask culture, was generated. Subsequent fed-batch production of C. glutamicum DAP-16 allowed a molar yield of 50%, a productivity of 2.2gL(-1)h(-1), and a final titer of 88gL(-1). The streamlined producer accumulated diaminopentane without generating any by-products. Solvent extraction from alkalized broth and two-step distillation provided highly pure diaminopentane (99.8%), which was then directly accessible for poly-condensation. Chemical polymerization with sebacic acid, a ten-carbon dicarboxylic acid derived from castor plant oil, yielded the bio-nylon, PA5.10. In pure form and reinforced with glass fibers, the novel 100% bio-polyamide achieved an excellent melting temperature and the mechanical strength of the well-established petrochemical polymers, PA6 and PA6.6. It even outperformed the oil-based products in terms of having a 6% lower density. It thus holds high promise for applications in energy-friendly transportation. The demonstration of a novel route for generation of bio-based nylon from renewable sources opens the way to production of sustainable bio-polymers with enhanced material properties and represents a milestone in industrial production. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bio-tribology.

Science.gov (United States)

Dowson, Duncan

2012-01-01

It is now forty six years since the separate topics of friction, lubrication, wear and bearing design were integrated under the title 'Tribology' [Department of Education and Science, Lubrication (Tribology) Education and Research. A Report on the Present Position and Industry's Needs, HMSO, London, 1966]. Significant developments have been reported in many established and new aspects of tribology during this period. The subject has contributed to improved performance of much familiar equipment, such as reciprocating engines, where there have been vast improvements in engine reliability and efficiency. Nano-tribology has been central to remarkable advances in information processing and digital equipment. Shortly after widespread introduction of the term tribology, integration with biology and medicine prompted rapid and extensive interest in the fascinating sub-field now known as Bio-tribology [D. Dowson and V. Wright, Bio-tribology, in The Rheology of Lubricants, ed. T. C. Davenport, Applied Science Publishers, Barking, 1973, pp. 81-88]. An outline will be given of some of the developments in the latter field.

Thermodynamic analysis on optimum performance of scramjet engine at high Mach numbers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Duo; Yang, Shengbo; Zhang, Silong; Qin, Jiang; Bao, Wen

2015-01-01

In order to predict the maximum performance of scramjet engine at flight conditions with high freestream Mach numbers, a thermodynamic model of Brayton cycle was utilized to analyze the effects of inlet pressure ratio, fuel equivalence ratio and the upper limit of gas temperature to the specific thrust and the fuel impulse of the scramjet considering the characteristics of non-isentropic compression in the inlet. The results show that both the inlet efficiency and the temperature limit in the combustor have remarkable effects on the overall engine performances. Different with the ideal Brayton cycles assuming isentropic compression without upper limit of gas temperature, both the maximum specific thrust and the maximum fuel impulse of a scramjet present non-monotonic trends against the fuel equivalence ratio in this study. Considering the empirical design efficiencies of inlet, there is a wide range of fuel equivalence ratios in which the fuel impulses remain at high values. Moreover, the maximum specific thrust can also be achieved with a fuel equivalence ratio near this range. Therefore, it is possible to achieve an overall high performance in a scramjet at high Mach numbers. - Highlights: • Thermodynamic analysis with Brayton cycle on overall performances of scramjet. • The compression loss in the inlet was considered in predicting scram-mode operation. • Non-monotonic trends of engine performances against fuel equivalence ratio.

Mechanical Behavior of Polymer Nano Bio Composite for Orthopedic Implants

Science.gov (United States)

Marimuthu, K., Dr.; Rajan, Sankar

2018-04-01

The bio-based polymer composites have been the focus of many scientific and research projects, as well as many commercial programs. In recent years, scientists and engineers have been working together to use the inherent strength and performance of the new class of bio-based composites which is compactable with human body and can act as a substitute for living cells. In this stage the polymer composites also stepped into human bone implants as a replacement for metallic implants which was problems like corrosion resistance and high cost. The polymer composite have the advantage that it can be molded to the required shape, the polymers have high corrosion resistance, less weight and low cost. The aim of this research is to develop and analyze the suitable bio compactable polymer composite for human implants. The nano particles reinforced polymer composites provides good mechanical properties and shows good tribological properties especially in the total hip and knee replacements. The graphene oxide powders are bio compactable and acts as anti biotic. GO nano powder where reinforced into High-density polyethylene in various weight percentage of 0.5% to 2%. The performance of GO nano powder shows better tribological properties. The material produced does not cause any pollution to the environment and at the same time it can be bio compactable and sustainable. The product will act environmentally friendly.

Making perfect life : bio-engineering (in) the 21st century : interim study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Est, van R.; Keulen, van I.; Geesink, I.; Schuiff, M.

2010-01-01

Reportnumber: PE 438.829; This document is the result of the preparatory phase of the STOA-project "Making perfect life", that defined the project focus. This resulted in the study document Making Perfect Life: Bio-engineering (in) the 21st century. A project plan for the next two phases was

An innovative bio-engineering retaining structure for supporting unstable soil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gianluca Bella

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a new prefabricated bio-engineering structure for the support of unstable soil. This prefabricated structure is made of a steel frame which is completely filled with soil and a face made of tree trunks among which scions or autochthonous bushes are planted. Due to the difficulties in interpreting the complex interaction between soil and structure during the installation and lifetime, an in situ test was carried out in order to evaluate the state of stress in the steel frame and to understand the global behavior of the structure under service loads. On the basis of the obtained results, a procedure for checking the structure safety was proposed and discussed. An easy design method was developed during the research. Moreover, the use of this type of prefabricated structure shows several advantages, such as good performances in terms of stabilizing effects, and easy assembly and transport.

International Conference on Bio-Medical Instrumentation and related Engineering and Physical Sciences (BIOMEP 2015)

Science.gov (United States)

2015-09-01

The International Conference on Bio-Medical Instrumentation and related Engineering and Physical Sciences (BIOMEP 2015) took place in the Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Athens, Greece on June 18-20, 2015 and was organized by the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The scope of the conference was to provide a forum on the latest developments in Biomedical Instrumentation and related principles of Physical and Engineering sciences. Scientists and engineers from academic, industrial and health disciplines were invited to participate in the Conference and to contribute both in the promotion and dissemination of the scientific knowledge.

Creating a Bio-Inspired Solution to Prevent Erosion

Science.gov (United States)

Reher, R.; Martinez, A.; Cola, J.; Frost, D.

2016-12-01

Through the study of geophysical sciences, lessons can be developed which allow for the introduction of bio-inspired design and art concepts to K-5 elementary students. Students are placed into an engineering mindset in which they must apply the concepts of bio-geotechnics to observe how we can use nature to prevent and abate erosion. Problems are staged for students using realistic engineering scenarios such as erosion prevention through biomimicry and the study of anchorage characteristics of root structures in regard to stability of soil. Specifically, a lesson is introduced where students research, learn, and present information about bio-inspired designs to understand these concepts. They lean how plant roots differ in size and shape to stabilize soil. In addition, students perform a series of hands-on experiments which demonstrate how bio-cements and roots can slow erosion.

Thermogravimetric investigation on the degradation properties and combustion performance of bio-oils.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Xueyong; Meng, Jiajia; Moore, Andrew M; Chang, Jianmin; Gou, Jinsheng; Park, Sunkyu

2014-01-01

The degradation properties and combustion performance of raw bio-oil, aged bio-oil, and bio-oil from torrefied wood were investigated through thermogravimetric analysis. A three-stage process was observed for the degradation of bio-oils, including devolatilization of the aqueous fraction and light compounds, transition of the heavy faction to solid, and combustion of carbonaceous residues. Pyrolysis kinetics parameters were calculated via the reaction order model and 3D-diffusion model, and combustion indexes were used to qualitatively evaluate the thermal profiles of tested bio-oils for comparison with commercial oils such as fuel oils. It was found that aged bio-oil was more thermally instable and produced more combustion-detrimental carbonaceous solid. Raw bio-oil and bio-oil from torrefied wood had comparable combustion performance to fuel oils. It was considered that bio-oil has a potential to be mixed with or totally replace the fuel oils in boilers. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Catalytic pyrolysis of microalgae to high-quality liquid bio-fuels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Babich, I.V.; Hulst, M. van der; Lefferts, L.; Moulijn, J.A.; O'Connor, P.; Seshan, K.

2011-01-01

The pyrolytic conversion of chlorella algae to liquid fuel precursor in presence of a catalyst (Na 2 CO 3 ) has been studied. Thermal decomposition studies of the algae samples were performed using TGA coupled with MS. Liquid oil samples were collected from pyrolysis experiments in a fixed-bed reactor and characterized for water content and heating value. The oil composition was analyzed by GC-MS. Pretreatment of chlorella with Na 2 CO 3 influences the primary conversion of chlorella by shifting the decomposition temperature to a lower value. In the presence of Na 2 CO 3 , gas yield increased and liquid yield decreased when compared with non-catalytic pyrolysis at the same temperatures. However, pyrolysis oil from catalytic runs carries higher heating value and lower acidity. Lower content of acids in the bio-oil, higher aromatics, combined with higher heating value show promise for production of high-quality bio-oil from algae via catalytic pyrolysis, resulting in energy recovery in bio-oil of 40%. -- Highlights: → The pyrolytic catalytic conversion of chlorella algae to liquid fuel precursor. → Na 2 CO 3 as a catalyst for the primary conversion of chlorella. → Pyrolysis oil from catalytic runs carries higher heating value and lower acidity. → High-quality bio-oil from algae via catalytic pyrolysis with energy recovery in bio-oil of 40%.

High-performance glucose biosensor based on chitosan-glucose oxidase immobilized polypyrrole/Nafion/functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes bio-nanohybrid film.

Science.gov (United States)

Shrestha, Bishnu Kumar; Ahmad, Rafiq; Mousa, Hamouda M; Kim, In-Gi; Kim, Jeong In; Neupane, Madhav Prasad; Park, Chan Hee; Kim, Cheol Sang

2016-11-15

A highly electroactive bio-nanohybrid film of polypyrrole (PPy)-Nafion (Nf)-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (fMWCNTs) nanocomposite was prepared on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by a facile one-step electrochemical polymerization technique followed by chitosan-glucose oxidase (CH-GOx) immobilization on its surface to achieve a high-performance glucose biosensor. The as-fabricated nanohybrid composite provides high surface area for GOx immobilization and thus enhances the enzyme-loading efficiency. The structural characterization revealed that the PPy-Nf-fMWCNTs nanocomposite films were uniformly formed on GCE and after GOx immobilization, the surface porosities of the film were decreased due to enzyme encapsulation inside the bio-nanohybrid composite materials. The electrochemical behavior of the fabricated biosensor was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and amperometry measurements. The results indicated an excellent catalytic property of bio-nanohybrid film for glucose detection with improved sensitivity of 2860.3μAmM(-1)cm(-2), the linear range up to 4.7mM (R(2)=0.9992), and a low detection limit of 5μM under a signal/noise (S/N) ratio of 3. Furthermore, the resulting biosensor presented reliable selectivity, better long-term stability, good repeatability, reproducibility, and acceptable measurement of glucose concentration in real serum samples. Thus, this fabricated biosensor provides an efficient and highly sensitive platform for glucose sensing and can open up new avenues for clinical applications. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Design and manufacture of high performance hollow engine valves by Additive Layer Manufacturing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cooper, D.; Thornby, J.; Blundell, N.; Henrys, R.; Williams, M.A.; Gibbons, G.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • High performance engine valve has been redesigned and optimised for and using ALM. • FEA was utilised to optimise and select a design for manufacture and testing. • Micro computed tomography was used in design and validation as an NDT technique. • Real world test of components was conducted to evaluate their performance. • Has demonstrated the potential for ALM in a high performance engineering context. - Abstract: Additive Layer Manufacture (ALM) of metallic components provides significant opportunities for the reduction of component weight, in order to realise improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency or performance. This paper examines the potential benefits of ALM with regard to reducing the weight of Internal Combustion Engine inlet or exhaust valves. A case study component is presented, for which an improved ALM design has been created, manufactured and evaluated. Micro-Computed Tomography (μ-CT) scanning was utilised to reverse engineer an original component, and to assess the ALM component’s internal geometry and material integrity. The case study valve was re-designed using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to select a light weighted design which provides a conservative 9.4 g, (20%) weight saving on the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) component. An engine test of over 175,000 cycles at between 2000 and 9500 rpm was conducted, after which μ-CT scanning confirmed no evidence of internal cracking, failure or significant deformation

BioGPS descriptors for rational engineering of enzyme promiscuity and structure based bioinformatic analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valerio Ferrario

Full Text Available A new bioinformatic methodology was developed founded on the Unsupervised Pattern Cognition Analysis of GRID-based BioGPS descriptors (Global Positioning System in Biological Space. The procedure relies entirely on three-dimensional structure analysis of enzymes and does not stem from sequence or structure alignment. The BioGPS descriptors account for chemical, geometrical and physical-chemical features of enzymes and are able to describe comprehensively the active site of enzymes in terms of "pre-organized environment" able to stabilize the transition state of a given reaction. The efficiency of this new bioinformatic strategy was demonstrated by the consistent clustering of four different Ser hydrolases classes, which are characterized by the same active site organization but able to catalyze different reactions. The method was validated by considering, as a case study, the engineering of amidase activity into the scaffold of a lipase. The BioGPS tool predicted correctly the properties of lipase variants, as demonstrated by the projection of mutants inside the BioGPS "roadmap".

Bio energy: Environment and Environmental Engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soma, Morten; Noreng, Katrina; Soerensen, Heidi; Teslo, Einar; Daehlen, Knut; Liodden, Ole Joergen; Wilhelmsen, Gunnar; Hohle, Erik Eid

2001-01-01

This is Chapter 5 of the book ''Bio energy - Environment, technique and market''. Its main sections are: (1) Environmental issues in the use of energy, (2) Environmental issues in the production of biomass, (3) Forestry, (4) Agriculture, (5) Environmental issues in fuel production and storage, (6) Environmental issues in combustion, (7) Environmental issues in using bio fuel, (8) Life cycle analyses, (9) Laws, regulations and norms for the use of bio fuel. Unlike the other sections, the one on laws is mostly concerned with Norwegian conditions

High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '99 : Transactions of the High Performance Computing Center

CERN Document Server

Jäger, Willi

2000-01-01

The book contains reports about the most significant projects from science and engineering of the Federal High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS). They were carefully selected in a peer-review process and are showcases of an innovative combination of state-of-the-art modeling, novel algorithms and the use of leading-edge parallel computer technology. The projects of HLRS are using supercomputer systems operated jointly by university and industry and therefore a special emphasis has been put on the industrial relevance of results and methods.

3D Bio-Printing Review

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Xianbin

2018-01-01

Ultimate goal of tissue engineering is to replace pathological or necrotic body tissue or organ by artificial tissue or organ and tissue engineering is a very promising research field. 3D bio-printing is a kind of emerging technologies and a branch of tissue engineering. It has made significant progress in the past decade. 3D bio-printing can realize tissue and organ construction in vitro and has wide application in basic research and pharmacy. This paper is to make an analysis and review on 3D bio-printing from the perspectives of bioink, printing technology and technology application.

Performance Characteristics of Bio-Inspired Metal Nanostructures as Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattered (SERS) Substrates.

Science.gov (United States)

Areizaga-Martinez, Hector I; Kravchenko, Ivan; Lavrik, Nickolay V; Sepaniak, Michael J; Hernández-Rivera, Samuel P; De Jesús, Marco A

2016-09-01

The fabrication of high-performance plasmonic nanomaterials for bio-sensing and trace chemical detection is a field of intense theoretical and experimental research. The use of metal-silicon nanopillar arrays as analytical sensors has been reported with reasonable results in recent years. The use of bio-inspired nanocomposite structures that follow the Fibonacci numerical architecture offers the opportunity to develop nanostructures with theoretically higher and more reproducible plasmonic fields over extended areas. The work presented here describes the nanofabrication process for a series of 40 µm × 40 µm bio-inspired arrays classified as asymmetric fractals (sunflower seeds and romanesco broccoli), bilaterally symmetric (acacia leaves and honeycombs), and radially symmetric (such as orchids and lily flowers) using electron beam lithography. In addition, analytical capabilities were evaluated using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The substrate characterization and SERS performance of the developed substrates as the strategies to assess the design performance are presented and discussed. © The Author(s) 2016.

Engineering High-Energy Interfacial Structures for High-Performance Oxygen-Involving Electrocatalysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Chunxian; Zheng, Yao; Ran, Jingrun; Xie, Fangxi; Jaroniec, Mietek; Qiao, Shi-Zhang

2017-07-10

Engineering high-energy interfacial structures for high-performance electrocatalysis is achieved by chemical coupling of active CoO nanoclusters and high-index facet Mn 3 O 4 nano-octahedrons (hi-Mn 3 O 4 ). A thorough characterization, including synchrotron-based near edge X-ray absorption fine structure, reveals that strong interactions between both components promote the formation of high-energy interfacial Mn-O-Co species and high oxidation state CoO, from which electrons are drawn by Mn III -O present in hi-Mn 3 O 4 . The CoO/hi-Mn 3 O 4 demonstrates an excellent catalytic performance over the conventional metal oxide-based electrocatalysts, which is reflected by 1.2 times higher oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity than that of Ru/C and a comparable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity to that of Pt/C as well as a better stability than that of Ru/C (95 % vs. 81 % retained OER activity) and Pt/C (92 % vs. 78 % retained ORR activity after 10 h running) in alkaline electrolyte. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Integrated approach for stress analysis of high performance diesel engine cylinder head

Science.gov (United States)

Chainov, N. D.; Myagkov, L. L.; Malastowski, N. S.; Blinov, A. S.

2018-03-01

Growing thermal and mechanical loads due to development of engines with high level of a mean effective pressure determine requirements to cylinder head durability. In this paper, computational schemes for thermal and mechanical stress analysis of a high performance diesel engine cylinder head were described. The most important aspects in this approach are the account of temperature fields of conjugated details (valves and saddles), heat transfer modeling in a cooling jacket of a cylinder head and topology optimization of the detail force scheme. Simulation results are shown and analyzed.

Development and Performance Verification of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors in High Temperature Engine Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Adamovsky, Grigory; Mackey, Jeffrey R.; Kren, Lawrence A.; Floyd, Bertram M.; Elam, Kristie A.; Martinez, Martel

2014-01-01

A High Temperature Fiber Optic Sensor (HTFOS) has been developed at NASA Glenn Research Center for aircraft engine applications. After fabrication and preliminary in-house performance evaluation, the HTFOS was tested in an engine environment at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. The engine tests enabled the performance of the HTFOS in real engine environments to be evaluated along with the ability of the sensor to respond to changes in the engine's operating condition. Data were collected prior, during, and after each test in order to observe the change in temperature from ambient to each of the various test point levels. An adequate amount of data was collected and analyzed to satisfy the research team that HTFOS operates properly while the engine was running. Temperature measurements made by HTFOS while the engine was running agreed with those anticipated.

Electro-Quasistatic Simulations in Bio-Systems Engineering and Medical Engineering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. van Rienen

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Slowly varying electromagnetic fields play a key role in various applications in bio-systems and medical engineering. Examples are the electric activity of neurons on neurochips used as biosensors, the stimulating electric fields of implanted electrodes used for deep brain stimulation in patients with Morbus Parkinson and the stimulation of the auditory nerves in deaf patients, respectively. In order to simulate the neuronal activity on a chip it is necessary to couple Maxwell's and Hodgkin-Huxley's equations. First numerical results for a neuron coupling to a single electrode are presented. They show a promising qualitative agreement with the experimentally recorded signals. Further, simulations are presented on electrodes for deep brain stimulation in animal experiments where the question of electrode ageing and energy deposition in the surrounding tissue are of major interest. As a last example, electric simulations for a simple cochlea model are presented comparing the field in the skull bones for different electrode types and stimulations in different positions.

Performance and emission characteristics of a turpentine-diesel dual fuel engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karthikeyan, R. [Adhiparasakthi Engineering College, Melmaruvathur, Tamil Nadu (India); Mahalakshmi, N.V. [I.C. Engines Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India)

2007-07-15

This paper describes an experimental study concerning the feasibility of using bio-oil namely turpentine obtained from the resin of pine tree. The emission and performance characteristics of a D.I. diesel engine were studied through dual fuel (DF) mode. Turpentine was inducted as a primary fuel through induction manifold and diesel was admitted into the engine through conventional fueling device as an igniter. The result showed that except volumetric efficiency, all other performance and emission parameters are better than those of diesel fuel with in 75% load. The toxic gases like CO, UBHC are slightly higher than that of the diesel baseline (DBL). Around 40-45% smoke reduction is obtained with DF mode. The pollutant No{sub x} is found to be equal to that of DBL except at full load. This study has proved that approximately 75% diesel replacement with turpentine is possible by DF mode with little engine modification. (author)

High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '98 : Transactions of the High Performance Computing Center

CERN Document Server

Jäger, Willi

1999-01-01

The book contains reports about the most significant projects from science and industry that are using the supercomputers of the Federal High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS). These projects are from different scientific disciplines, with a focus on engineering, physics and chemistry. They were carefully selected in a peer-review process and are showcases for an innovative combination of state-of-the-art physical modeling, novel algorithms and the use of leading-edge parallel computer technology. As HLRS is in close cooperation with industrial companies, special emphasis has been put on the industrial relevance of results and methods.

Nitrifying bio-cord reactor: performance optimization and effects of substratum and air scouring.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Xin; Ahmed, Warsama; Delatolla, Robert

2017-11-20

Ammonia removal kinetics and solids' production performance of the bio-cord technology are studied in this research. Three nitrifying reactors housing different bio-cord substratum were operated at five different ammonia loading rates. All of the bio-cord substrata demonstrated stable and high ammonia-nitrogen removal efficiencies of 96.8 ± 0.9%, 97.0 ± 0.6% and 92.0 ± 0.4% at loading rates of 0.8, 1.6 and 1.8 g [Formula: see text]-N/m 2  d, respectively. At these same loading rates, the bio-cord reactors housing the three substrata also showed low solids' production rates of 0.19 ± 0.03, 0.23 ± 0.02, 0.25 ± 0.03 g total suspended solids/d. A reduction of system stability, identified via fluctuating ammonia removal rates, was however observed for all substrata at loading rates of 2.1 and 2.4 g [Formula: see text]-N/m 2  d. Further, the solids' production rates at these higher loading conditions were also observed to fluctuate for all substrata, likely indicating intermediate sloughing events. The effects of enhancing the air scouring of the bio-cord on the ammonia removal rate was shown to be dependent upon the substratum, while enhanced air scouring of the bio-cord was shown to stabilize the production of solids for all substrata. This study represents the first performance and optimization study of the bio-cord technology for low-carbon nitrification and shows that air scouring of the substratum reduces sloughing events at elevated loading and that the bio-cord technology achieves stable kinetics above conventional rates of 1 g [Formula: see text]-N/m 2  d to values of 1.8 g [Formula: see text]-N/m 2  d.

Characterization and Performance Test of Palm Oil Based Bio-Fuel Produced Via Ni/Zeolite-Catalyzed Cracking Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sri Kadarwati

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Catalytic cracking process of palm oil into bio-fuel using Ni/zeolite catalysts (2-10% wt. Ni at various reaction temperatures (400-500oC in a flow-fixed bed reactor system has been carried out. Palm oil was pre-treated to produce methyl ester of palm oil as feedstock in the catalytic cracking reactions. The Ni/zeolite catalysts were prepared by wetness impregnation method using Ni(NO32.6H2O as the precursor. The products were collected and analysed using GC, GC-MS, and calorimeter. The effects of process temperatures and Ni content in Ni/zeolite have been studied. The results showed that Ni-2/zeolite could give a yield of 99.0% at 500oC but only produced gasoline fraction of 18.35%. The physical properties of bio-fuel produced in this condition in terms of density, viscosity, flash point, and specific gravity were less than but similar to commercial fuel. The results of performance test in a 4-strike engine showed that the mixture of commercial gasoline (petrol and bio-fuel with a ratio of 9:1 gave similar performance to fossil-based gasoline with much lower CO and O2 emissions and more efficient combustion

Refractive index engineering of high performance coupler for compact photonic integrated circuits

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lu; Zhou, Zhiping

2017-04-01

High performance couplers are highly desired in many applications, but the design is limited by nearly unchangeable material refractive index. To tackle this issue, refractive index engineering method is investigated, which can be realized by subwavelength grating. Subwavelength gratings are periodical structures with pitches small enough to locally synthesize the refractive index of photonic waveguides, which allows direct control of optical profile as well as easier fabrication process. This review provides an introduction to the basics of subwavelength structures and pay special attention to the design strategies of some representative examples of subwavelength grating devices, including: edge couplers, fiber-chip grating couplers, directional couplers and multimode interference couplers. Benefited from the subwavelength grating which can engineer the refractive index as well as birefringence and dispersion, these devices show better performance when compared to their conventional counterparts.

Performance and emission parameters of single cylinder diesel engine using castor oil bio-diesel blended fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Rahimi, A.; Ghobadian, B.; Najafi, G.; Jaliliantabar, F.; Mamat, R.

2015-12-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance and emission parameters of a CI single cylinder diesel engine operating on biodiesel-diesel blends (B0, B5, B10, B15 and E20: 20% biodiesel and 80% diesel by volume). A reactor was designed, fabricated and evaluated for biodiesel production. The results showed that increasing the biodiesel content in the blend fuel will increase the performance parameters and decrease the emission parameters. Maximum power was detected for B0 at 2650 rpm and maximum torque was belonged to B20 at 1600 rpm. The experimental results revealed that using biodiesel-diesel blended fuels increased the power and torque output of the engine. For biodiesel blends it was found that the specific fuel consumption (sfc) was decreased. B10 had the minimum amount for sfc. The concentration of CO2 and HC emissions in the exhaust pipe were measured and found to be decreased when biodiesel blends were introduced. This was due to the high oxygen percentage in the biodiesel compared to the net diesel fuel. In contrast, the concentration of CO and NOx was found to be increased when biodiesel is introduced.

Performance of high level waste forms and engineered barriers under repository conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-02-01

The IAEA initiated in 1977 a co-ordinated research programme on the ''Evaluation of Solidified High-Level Waste Forms'' which was terminated in 1983. As there was a continuing need for international collaboration in research on solidified high-level waste form and spent fuel, the IAEA initiated a new programme in 1984. The new programme, besides including spent fuel and SYNROC, also placed greater emphasis on the effect of the engineered barriers of future repositories on the properties of the waste form. These engineered barriers included containers, overpacks, buffer and backfill materials etc. as components of the ''near-field'' of the repository. The Co-ordinated Research Programme on the Performance of High-Level Waste Forms and Engineered Barriers Under Repository Conditions had the objectives of promoting the exchange of information on the experience gained by different Member States in experimental performance data and technical model evaluation of solidified high level waste forms, components of the waste package and the complete waste management system under conditions relevant to final repository disposal. The programme includes studies on both irradiated spent fuel and glass and ceramic forms as the final solidified waste forms. The following topics were discussed: Leaching of vitrified high-level wastes, modelling of glass behaviour in clay, salt and granite repositories, environmental impacts of radionuclide release, synroc use for high--level waste solidification, leachate-rock interactions, spent fuel disposal in deep geologic repositories and radionuclide release mechanisms from various fuel types, radiolysis and selective leaching correlated with matrix alteration. Refs, figs and tabs

Performance Assessment of the CapitalBio Mycobacterium Identification Array System for Identification of Mycobacteria

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jingbo; Yan, Zihe; Han, Min; Han, Zhijun; Jin, Lingjie; Zhao, Yanlin

2012-01-01

The CapitalBio Mycobacterium identification microarray system is a rapid system for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The performance of this system was assessed with 24 reference strains, 486 Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates, and 40 clinical samples and then compared to the “gold standard” of DNA sequencing. The CapitalBio Mycobacterium identification microarray system showed highly concordant identification results of 100% and 98.4% for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the CapitalBio Mycobacterium identification array for identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were 99.6% and 100%, respectively, for direct detection and identification of clinical samples, and the overall sensitivity was 52.5%. It was 100% for sputum, 16.7% for pleural fluid, and 10% for bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, respectively. The total assay was completed in 6 h, including DNA extraction, PCR, and hybridization. The results of this study confirm the utility of this system for the rapid identification of mycobacteria and suggest that the CapitalBio Mycobacterium identification array is a molecular diagnostic technique with high sensitivity and specificity that has the capacity to quickly identify most mycobacteria. PMID:22090408

Automobile industry and new bio-fuel oils: International panorama

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hampel, G.

1992-01-01

In assessing the technical/economic feasibility of the direct combustion of vegetable oils in diesel type engines, this paper first points out the good results obtained in performance tests on these fuels in Elsberg engines, and their low sulfur and nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide emission characteristics. It then assesses the improvements that are necessary in the development of marketable bio-fuel oils that conform to European Communities air pollution standards for automobiles. Further efforts must be made to reduce bio-fuel oil smoke emission levels, to compensate for their lower calorific value as compared with conventional diesel fuels, and to make them compatible with automobile finishing materials - paints and plastics. The paper suggests a set of suitable fiscal policies designed to favour the marketing of bio-diesel fuels based on their favourable pollution abating qualities - low greenhouse gas emissions and biodegradability

Radiation effect on rocket engine performance

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Huei-Huang; Kross, K. W.; Krebsbach, A. N.

1990-01-01

Critical problem areas involving the effect of radiation on the combustion of bipropellants are addressed by formulating a universal scaling law in combination with a radiation-enhanced vaporization combustion model. Numerical algorithms are developed and data pertaining to the Variable Thrust Engine (VTE) and the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) are used to conduct parametric sensitivity studies to predict the principal intercoupling effects of radiation. The analysis reveals that low-enthalpy engines, such as the VTE, are vulnerable to a substantial performance setback due to radiative loss, whereas the performance of high-enthalpy engines such as the SSME are hardly affected over a broad range of engine operation. Combustion enhancement by radiative heating of the propellant has a significant impact on propellants with high absorptivity.

Morphology engineering of high performance binary oxide electrodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Kunfeng; Sun, Congting; Xue, Dongfeng

2015-01-14

Advances in materials have preceded almost every major technological leap since the beginning of civilization. On the nanoscale and microscale, mastery over the morphology, size, and structure of a material enables control of its properties and enhancement of its usefulness for a given application, such as energy storage. In this review paper, our aim is to present a review of morphology engineering of high performance oxide electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage. We begin with the chemical bonding theory of single crystal growth to direct the growth of morphology-controllable materials. We then focus on the growth of various morphologies of binary oxides and their electrochemical performances for lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors. The morphology-performance relationships are elaborated by selecting examples in which there is already reasonable understanding for this relationship. Based on these comprehensive analyses, we proposed colloidal supercapacitor systems beyond morphology control on the basis of system- and ion-level design. We conclude this article with personal perspectives on the directions toward which future research in this field might take.

A techno-economic evaluation of two non-edible vegetable oil based bio diesel in Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chakrabarti, M.H.; Ali, M.

2010-01-01

Technical evaluation of Bio diesel, produced from various non-edible oils, was carried out on the basis of emission profile, torque, engine brake power and exhaust temperatures at 10% blend ratio (by volume) with mineral diesel. The performance of engine parameters showed that the castor oil based bio diesel gave the best results. Economic feasibility for bio diesel production was carried out based on available data on cultivation of necessary plants on marginal lands. This economic analysis also included the value of by-products which would be available during the chemical process for the production of bio diesel. It was found that jatropha bio diesel could be produced at a comparable cost to mineral diesel, however, castor bio diesel required substantial subsidies or mass cultivation of plants on marginal lands to enable it to compete economically with mineral diesel. (author)

The employment of Support Vector Machine to classify high and low performance archers based on bio-physiological variables

Science.gov (United States)

Taha, Zahari; Muazu Musa, Rabiu; Majeed, Anwar P. P. Abdul; Razali Abdullah, Mohamad; Amirul Abdullah, Muhammad; Hasnun Arif Hassan, Mohd; Khalil, Zubair

2018-04-01

The present study employs a machine learning algorithm namely support vector machine (SVM) to classify high and low potential archers from a collection of bio-physiological variables trained on different SVMs. 50 youth archers with the average age and standard deviation of (17.0 ±.056) gathered from various archery programmes completed a one end shooting score test. The bio-physiological variables namely resting heart rate, resting respiratory rate, resting diastolic blood pressure, resting systolic blood pressure, as well as calories intake, were measured prior to their shooting tests. k-means cluster analysis was applied to cluster the archers based on their scores on variables assessed. SVM models i.e. linear, quadratic and cubic kernel functions, were trained on the aforementioned variables. The k-means clustered the archers into high (HPA) and low potential archers (LPA), respectively. It was demonstrated that the linear SVM exhibited good accuracy with a classification accuracy of 94% in comparison the other tested models. The findings of this investigation can be valuable to coaches and sports managers to recognise high potential athletes from the selected bio-physiological variables examined.

Tailpipe emissions and engine performance of a light-duty diesel engine operating on petro- and bio-diesel fuel blends.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-01

This report summarizes the experimental apparatus developed in the Transportation Air Quality Laboratory (TAQ Lab) at the University of Vermont to compare light-duty diesel engine performance and exhaust emissions when operating on petroleum diesel (...

Soot and chemiluminescence in diesel combustion of bio-derived, oxygenated and reference fuels

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klein-Douwel, R.J.H.; Donkerbroek, A.J.; Vliet, A.P. van; Boot, M.D.; Somers, L.M.T.; Baert, R.S.G.; Dam, N.J.; Meulen, J.J. ter

2009-01-01

High-speed imaging, spectroscopy and thermodynamical characterization are applied to an optically accessible, heavy-duty diesel engine in order to compare sooting and chemiluminescence behaviour of bio-derived, oxygenated fuels and various reference fuels. The fuels concerned include the bio-derived

The new TOYOTA 4.8L V10 petrol high performance engine for LEXUS LFA super car

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okamoto, Takamitsu; Kawamura, Hiroshi; Tsukamoto, Keisuke; Nagai, Masakatsu; Uchida, Takahiro [Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan); Maruyama, Heiji [Yamaha Motor Corporation (Japan)

2011-07-01

The new 1LR-GUE V10 high performance engine was designed exclusively for the Lexus LFA super car (below picture). Achieving the speed and performance of a true super car was merely the starting point. The engine was developed to create a feeling of infinite acceleration potential. Response is instant and based on close understanding of driver's reactions. Vehicle handling provides unsurpassed response and feedback with ideal transient torque characteristics and marvelous sound with unique design. The performance of this engine was accomplished by combining world-class high revolution speed and high power (per liter). The new 4.8L engine produces 412kW (560hp) at 8700rpm and redline is 9000rpm (fuel cut-off speed is 9500rpm). It meets the latest emission standard Euro V and achieves good fuel consumption with a wide range stoechiometric air fuel ratio, till speeds up to 240km/h. (orig.)

D-Amino acid oxidase bio-functionalized platforms: Toward an enhanced enzymatic bio-activity

Science.gov (United States)

Herrera, Elisa; Valdez Taubas, Javier; Giacomelli, Carla E.

2015-11-01

The purpose of this work is to study the adsorption process and surface bio-activity of His-tagged D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) from Rhodotorula gracilis (His6-RgDAAO) as the first step for the development of an electrochemical bio-functionalized platform. With such a purpose this work comprises: (a) the His6-RgDAAO bio-activity in solution determined by amperometry, (b) the adsorption mechanism of His6-RgDAAO on bare gold and carboxylated modified substrates in the absence (substrate/COO-) and presence of Ni(II) (substrate/COO- + Ni(II)) determined by reflectometry, and (c) the bio-activity of the His6-RgDAAO bio-functionalized platforms determined by amperometry. Comparing the adsorption behavior and bio-activity of His6-RgDAAO on these different solid substrates allows understanding the contribution of the diverse interactions responsible for the platform performance. His6-RgDAAO enzymatic performance in solution is highly improved when compared to the previously used pig kidney (pk) DAAO. His6-RgDAAO exhibits an amperometrically detectable bio-activity at concentrations as low as those expected on a bio-functional platform; hence, it is a viable bio-recognition element of D-amino acids to be coupled to electrochemical platforms. Moreover, His6-RgDAAO bio-functionalized platforms exhibit a higher surface activity than pkDAAO physically adsorbed on gold. The platform built on Ni(II) modified substrates present enhanced bio-activity because the surface complexes histidine-Ni(II) provide with site-oriented, native-like enzymes. The adsorption mechanism responsible of the excellent performance of the bio-functionalized platform takes place in two steps involving electrostatic and bio-affinity interactions whose prevalence depends on the degree of surface coverage.

Studies on Experimental Ontology and Knowledge Service Development in Bio-Environmental Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yunliang

2018-01-01

The existing domain-related ontology and information service patterns are analyzed, and the main problems faced by the experimental scheme knowledge service were clarified. The ontology framework model for knowledge service of Bio-environmental Engineering was proposed from the aspects of experimental materials, experimental conditions and experimental instruments, and this ontology will be combined with existing knowledge organization systems to organize scientific and technological literatures, data and experimental schemes. With the similarity and priority calculation, it can improve the related domain research.

Effect of water-containing acetone–butanol–ethanol gasoline blends on combustion, performance, and emissions characteristics of a spark-ignition engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Yuqiang; Nithyanandan, Karthik; Lee, Timothy H.; Donahue, Robert Michael; Lin, Yilu; Lee, Chia-Fon; Liao, Shengming

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Water-containing ABE (acetone–butanol–ethanol) was used an alternative fuel. • Water-containing ABE and gasoline blends were investigated in an SI engine. • Water-containing ABE and gasoline blends can enhance engine torque. • Water-containing ABE and gasoline blends can reduce CO, UHC and NO_x emissions. - Abstract: Bio-butanol has proved to be a promising alternative fuel in recent years; it is typically produced from ABE (acetone–butanol–ethanol) fermentation from non-edible biomass feedstock. The high costs for dehydration and recovery from dilute fermentation broth have so far prohibited bio-butanol’s use in internal combustion engines. There is an interesting in studying the intermediate fermentation product, i.e. water-containing ABE as a potential fuel. However, most previous studies covered the use of water-containing ABE–diesel blends. In addition, previous studies on SI engines fueled with ABE did not consider the effect of water. Therefore, the evaluation of water-containing ABE gasoline blends in a port fuel-injected spark-ignition (SI) engine was carried out in this study. Effect of adding ABE and water into gasoline on combustion, performance and emissions characteristics was investigated by testing gasoline, ABE30, ABE85, ABE29.5W0.5 and ABE29W1 (29 vol.% ABE, 1 vol.% water and 70 vol.% gasoline). In addition, ABE29W1 was compared with gasoline under various equivalence ratios (Φ = 0.83–1.25) and engine loads (3 and 5 bar BMEP). It was found that ABE29W1 generally had higher engine toque (3.1–8.2%) and lower CO (9.8–35.1%), UHC (27.4–78.2%) and NO_x (4.1–39.4%) than those of gasoline. The study indicated that water-containing ABE could be used in SI engines as an alternative fuel with good engine performance and low emissions.

Pyrolysis of waste animal fats in a fixed-bed reactor: Production and characterization of bio-oil and bio-char

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ben Hassen-Trabelsi, A., E-mail: aidabenhassen@yahoo.fr [Centre de Recherche et de Technologies de l’Energie (CRTEn), Technopôle Borj-Cédria, B.P 95, 2050, Hammam Lif (Tunisia); Kraiem, T. [Centre de Recherche et de Technologies de l’Energie (CRTEn), Technopôle Borj-Cédria, B.P 95, 2050, Hammam Lif (Tunisia); Département de Géologie, Université de Tunis, 2092, Tunis (Tunisia); Naoui, S. [Centre de Recherche et de Technologies de l’Energie (CRTEn), Technopôle Borj-Cédria, B.P 95, 2050, Hammam Lif (Tunisia); Belayouni, H. [Département de Géologie, Université de Tunis, 2092, Tunis (Tunisia)

2014-01-15

Highlights: • Produced bio-fuels (bio-oil and bio-char) from some animal fatty wastes. • Investigated the effects of main parameters on pyrolysis products distribution. • Determined the suitable conditions for the production of the maximum of bio-oil. • Characterized bio-oils and bio-chars obtained from several animal fatty wastes. - Abstract: Several animal (lamb, poultry and swine) fatty wastes were pyrolyzed under nitrogen, in a laboratory scale fixed-bed reactor and the main products (liquid bio-oil, solid bio-char and syngas) were obtained. The purpose of this study is to produce and characterize bio-oil and bio-char obtained from pyrolysis of animal fatty wastes. The maximum production of bio-oil was achieved at a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C and a heating rate of 5 °C/min. The chemical (GC–MS analyses) and spectroscopic analyses (FTIR analyses) of bio-oil showed that it is a complex mixture consisting of different classes of organic compounds, i.e., hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkenes, cyclic compounds…etc.), carboxylic acids, aldehydes, ketones, esters,…etc. According to fuel properties, produced bio-oils showed good properties, suitable for its use as an engine fuel or as a potential source for synthetic fuels and chemical feedstock. Obtained bio-chars had low carbon content and high ash content which make them unattractive for as renewable source energy.

Pyrolysis of waste animal fats in a fixed-bed reactor: Production and characterization of bio-oil and bio-char

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ben Hassen-Trabelsi, A.; Kraiem, T.; Naoui, S.; Belayouni, H.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Produced bio-fuels (bio-oil and bio-char) from some animal fatty wastes. • Investigated the effects of main parameters on pyrolysis products distribution. • Determined the suitable conditions for the production of the maximum of bio-oil. • Characterized bio-oils and bio-chars obtained from several animal fatty wastes. - Abstract: Several animal (lamb, poultry and swine) fatty wastes were pyrolyzed under nitrogen, in a laboratory scale fixed-bed reactor and the main products (liquid bio-oil, solid bio-char and syngas) were obtained. The purpose of this study is to produce and characterize bio-oil and bio-char obtained from pyrolysis of animal fatty wastes. The maximum production of bio-oil was achieved at a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C and a heating rate of 5 °C/min. The chemical (GC–MS analyses) and spectroscopic analyses (FTIR analyses) of bio-oil showed that it is a complex mixture consisting of different classes of organic compounds, i.e., hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkenes, cyclic compounds…etc.), carboxylic acids, aldehydes, ketones, esters,…etc. According to fuel properties, produced bio-oils showed good properties, suitable for its use as an engine fuel or as a potential source for synthetic fuels and chemical feedstock. Obtained bio-chars had low carbon content and high ash content which make them unattractive for as renewable source energy

Life cycle GHG analysis of rice straw bio-DME production and application in Thailand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silalertruksa, Thapat; Gheewala, Shabbir H.; Sagisaka, Masayuki; Yamaguchi, Katsunobu

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Life cycle GHG emissions of rice straw bio-DME production in Thailand are assessed. • Bio-DME replaces diesel in engines and supplements LPG for household application. • Rice straw bio-DME in both cases of substitution helps reduce GHG emissions. - Abstract: Thailand is one of the leading countries in rice production and export; an abundance of rice straw, therefore, is left in the field nowadays and is commonly burnt to facilitate quick planting of the next crop. The study assesses the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of using rice straw for bio-DME production in Thailand. The analysis is divided into two scenarios of rice straw bio-DME utilization i.e. used as automotive fuel for diesel engines and used as LPG supplement for household application. The results reveal that that utilization of rice straw for bio-DME in the two scenarios could help reduce GHG emissions by around 14–70% and 2–66%, respectively as compared to the diesel fuel and LPG substituted. In case rice straw is considered as a by-product of rice cultivation, the cultivation of rice straw will be the major source of GHG emission contributing around 50% of the total GHG emissions of rice straw bio-DME production. Several factors that can affect the GHG performance of rice straw bio-DME production are discussed along with measures to enhance GHG performance of rice straw bio-DME production and utilization

Bioinformatics Education in High School: Implications for Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers

Science.gov (United States)

Kovarik, Dina N.; Patterson, Davis G.; Cohen, Carolyn; Sanders, Elizabeth A.; Peterson, Karen A.; Porter, Sandra G.; Chowning, Jeanne Ting

2013-01-01

We investigated the effects of our Bio-ITEST teacher professional development model and bioinformatics curricula on cognitive traits (awareness, engagement, self-efficacy, and relevance) in high school teachers and students that are known to accompany a developing interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. The…

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW VALVE STEELS FOR APPLICATION IN HIGH PERFORMANCE ENGINES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandre Bellegard Farina

2013-12-01

Full Text Available UNS N07751 and UNS N07080 alloys are commonly applied for automotive valves production for high performance internal combustion engines. These alloys present high hot resistance to mechanical strength, oxidation, corrosion, creep and microstructural stability. However, these alloys presents low wear resistance and high cost due to the high nickel contents. In this work it is presented the development of two new Ni-based alloys for application in high performance automotive valve as an alternative to the alloys UNS N07751 and UNS N07080. The new developed alloys are based on a high nickel-chromium austenitic matrix with dispersion of γ’ and γ’’ phases and containing different NbC contents. Due to the nickel content reduction in the developed alloys in comparison with these actually used alloys, the new alloys present an economical advantage for substitution of UNS N07751 and UNS N0780 alloys.

Stirling engines for biomass – what is the problem?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carlsen, Henrik

2005-01-01

The External combustion of the Stirling engine makes it very attractive for small-scale Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants using bio-fuels. Especially wood chips are an attractive fuel because of the high melting point and the low content of ash. Unfortunately, it is more complicated than...... expected to use bio-fuels for a Stirling engine. The high temperature in the hot heat exchanger transferring heat from the combustion to the Stirling engine combined with the low heating value of the fuel reduce the obtainable efficiency of the plant. The limitations of the combustion temperature in order...... to avoid melted ash in the combustion chamber decrease the obtainable efficiency even further. If a Stirling engine, which has an efficiency of 28,5% using natural gas, is converted into utilization of bio-fuel, the efficiency will decrease to 17,5%. Another problem for utilization of bio-fuels in Stirling...

Performance and Environmental Test Results of the High Voltage Hall Accelerator Engineering Development Unit

Science.gov (United States)

Kamhawi, Hani; Haag, Thomas; Huang, Wensheng; Shastry, Rohit; Pinero, Luis; Peterson, Todd; Mathers, Alex

2012-01-01

NASA Science Mission Directorate's In-Space Propulsion Technology Program is sponsoring the development of a 3.5 kW-class engineering development unit Hall thruster for implementation in NASA science and exploration missions. NASA Glenn and Aerojet are developing a high fidelity high voltage Hall accelerator that can achieve specific impulse magnitudes greater than 2,700 seconds and xenon throughput capability in excess of 300 kilograms. Performance, plume mappings, thermal characterization, and vibration tests of the high voltage Hall accelerator engineering development unit have been performed. Performance test results indicated that at 3.9 kW the thruster achieved a total thrust efficiency and specific impulse of 58%, and 2,700 sec, respectively. Thermal characterization tests indicated that the thruster component temperatures were within the prescribed material maximum operating temperature limits during full power thruster operation. Finally, thruster vibration tests indicated that the thruster survived the 3-axes qualification full-level random vibration test series. Pre and post-vibration test performance mappings indicated almost identical thruster performance. Finally, an update on the development progress of a power processing unit and a xenon feed system is provided.

Performance of the BioPlex 2200 HIV Ag-Ab assay for identifying acute HIV infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Eshleman, Susan H; Piwowar-Manning, Estelle; Sivay, Mariya V; Debevec, Barbara; Veater, Stephanie; McKinstry, Laura; Bekker, Linda-Gail; Mannheimer, Sharon; Grant, Robert M; Chesney, Margaret A; Coates, Thomas J; Koblin, Beryl A; Fogel, Jessica M

Assays that detect HIV antigen (Ag) and antibody (Ab) can be used to screen for HIV infection. To compare the performance of the BioPlex 2200 HIV Ag-Ab assay and two other Ag/Ab combination assays for detection of acute HIV infection. Samples were obtained from 24 individuals (18 from the US, 6 from South Africa); these individuals were classified as having acute infection based on the following criteria: positive qualitative RNA assay; two negative rapid tests; negative discriminatory test. The samples were tested with the BioPlex assay, the ARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab Combo test, the Bio-Rad GS HIV Combo Ag-Ab EIA test, and a viral load assay. Twelve (50.0%) of 24 samples had RNA detected only ( > 40 to 13,476 copies/mL). Ten (43.5%) samples had reactive results with all three Ag/Ab assays, one sample was reactive with the ARCHITECT and Bio-Rad assays, and one sample was reactive with the Bio-Rad and BioPlex assays. The 11 samples that were reactive with the BioPlex assay had viral loads from 83,010 to >750,000 copies/mL; 9/11 samples were classified as Ag positive/Ab negative by the BioPlex assay. Detection of acute HIV infection was similar for the BioPlex assay and two other Ag/Ab assays. All three tests were less sensitive than a qualitative RNA assay and only detected HIV Ag when the viral load was high. The BioPlex assay detected acute infection in about half of the cases, and identified most of those infections as Ag positive/Ab negative. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Life cycle greenhouse gas analysis of biojet fuels with a technical investigation into their impact on jet engine performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lokesh, Kadambari; Sethi, Vishal; Nikolaidis, Theoklis; Goodger, Eric; Nalianda, Devaiah

2015-01-01

Biojet fuels have been claimed to be one of the most promising and strategic solutions to mitigate aviation emissions. This study examines the environmental competence of Bio-Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (Bio-SPKs) against conventional Jet-A, through development of a life cycle GHG model (ALCEmB – Assessment of Life Cycle Emissions of Biofuels) from “cradle-grave” perspective. This model precisely calculates the life cycle emissions of the advanced biofuels through a multi-disciplinary study entailing hydrocarbon chemistry, thermodynamic behaviour and fuel combustion from engine/aircraft performance, into the life cycle studies, unlike earlier studies. The aim of this study is predict the “cradle-grave” carbon intensity of Camelina SPK, Microalgae SPK and Jatropha SPK through careful estimation and inclusion of combustion based emissions, which contribute ≈70% of overall life cycle emissions (LCE). Numerical modelling and non-linear/dynamic simulation of a twin-shaft turbofan, with an appropriate airframe, was conducted to analyse the impact of alternative fuels on engine/aircraft performance. ALCEmB revealed that Camelina SPK, Microalgae SPK and Jatropha SPK delivered 70%, 58% and 64% LCE savings relative to the reference fuel, Jet-A1. The net energy ratio analysis indicates that current technology for the biofuel processing is energy efficient and technically feasible. An elaborate gas property analysis infers that the Bio-SPKs exhibit improved thermodynamic behaviour in an operational gas turbine engine. This thermodynamic effect has a positive impact on aircraft-level fuel consumption and emissions characteristics demonstrating fuel savings in the range of 3–3.8% and emission savings of 5.8–6.3% (CO 2 ) and 7.1–8.3% (LTO NOx), relative to that of Jet-A. - Highlights: • Bio-SPKs were determined to deliver “Cradle-Grave” GHG savings of 58–70%. • Bio-SPKs exhibited improved thermodynamic behaviour at integrated system level assessment

Engineering cell factories for producing building block chemicals for bio-polymer synthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsuge, Yota; Kawaguchi, Hideo; Sasaki, Kengo; Kondo, Akihiko

2016-01-21

Synthetic polymers are widely used in daily life. Due to increasing environmental concerns related to global warming and the depletion of oil reserves, the development of microbial-based fermentation processes for the production of polymer building block chemicals from renewable resources is desirable to replace current petroleum-based methods. To this end, strains that efficiently produce the target chemicals at high yields and productivity are needed. Recent advances in metabolic engineering have enabled the biosynthesis of polymer compounds at high yield and productivities by governing the carbon flux towards the target chemicals. Using these methods, microbial strains have been engineered to produce monomer chemicals for replacing traditional petroleum-derived aliphatic polymers. These developments also raise the possibility of microbial production of aromatic chemicals for synthesizing high-performance polymers with desirable properties, such as ultraviolet absorbance, high thermal resistance, and mechanical strength. In the present review, we summarize recent progress in metabolic engineering approaches to optimize microbial strains for producing building blocks to synthesize aliphatic and high-performance aromatic polymers.

Production and characterization of bio-oil from catalytic biomass pyrolysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonakou Eleni V.

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Biomass flash pyrolysis is a very promising thermochemical process for the production of bio-fuels and/or chemicals. However, large-scale applications are still under careful consideration, because of the high bio-liquid upgrading cost. In this paper the production of bio-liquids from biomass flash pyrolysis in a single stage catalytic process is being investigated using a novel once through fluid bed reactor. This biomass pyrolysis unit was constructed in Chemical Process Engineering Research Institute and comprises of a catalyst regenerator, a biomass-vibrating hopper, a fluidization reactor (that consists of an injector and a riser reactor, a product stripper along with a hot cyclone and a filter housing and finally a product condensation/recovery section. The unit can process up to 20 g/min. of biomass (50-800 mm and can circulate up to 300 g/min. of catalyst or inert material. The experiments performed in the pilot plant showed that the unit operates without problems and with satisfactory mass balances in a wide range of experimental conditions both in the absence and presence of catalyst. With the incorporation of an FCC catalyst in the pyrolysis, the physical properties of the bio-oil produced changed, while more stable bio-oil was produced. .

Negated bio-events: analysis and identification

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Negation occurs frequently in scientific literature, especially in biomedical literature. It has previously been reported that around 13% of sentences found in biomedical research articles contain negation. Historically, the main motivation for identifying negated events has been to ensure their exclusion from lists of extracted interactions. However, recently, there has been a growing interest in negative results, which has resulted in negation detection being identified as a key challenge in biomedical relation extraction. In this article, we focus on the problem of identifying negated bio-events, given gold standard event annotations. Results We have conducted a detailed analysis of three open access bio-event corpora containing negation information (i.e., GENIA Event, BioInfer and BioNLP’09 ST), and have identified the main types of negated bio-events. We have analysed the key aspects of a machine learning solution to the problem of detecting negated events, including selection of negation cues, feature engineering and the choice of learning algorithm. Combining the best solutions for each aspect of the problem, we propose a novel framework for the identification of negated bio-events. We have evaluated our system on each of the three open access corpora mentioned above. The performance of the system significantly surpasses the best results previously reported on the BioNLP’09 ST corpus, and achieves even better results on the GENIA Event and BioInfer corpora, both of which contain more varied and complex events. Conclusions Recently, in the field of biomedical text mining, the development and enhancement of event-based systems has received significant interest. The ability to identify negated events is a key performance element for these systems. We have conducted the first detailed study on the analysis and identification of negated bio-events. Our proposed framework can be integrated with state-of-the-art event extraction systems. The

Study of turbocharged diesel engine operation, pollutant emissions and combustion noise radiation during starting with bio-diesel or n-butanol diesel fuel blends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rakopoulos, C.D.; Dimaratos, A.M.; Giakoumis, E.G.; Rakopoulos, D.C.

2011-01-01

Highlights: → Turbocharged diesel engine emissions during starting with bio-diesel or n-butanol diesel blends. → Peak pollutant emissions due to turbo-lag. → Significant bio-diesel effects on combustion behavior and stability. → Negative effects on NO emissions for both blends. → Positive effects on smoke emissions only for n-butanol blend. -- Abstract: The control of transient emissions from turbocharged diesel engines is an important objective for automotive manufacturers, as stringent criteria for exhaust emissions must be met. Starting, in particular, is a process of significant importance owing to its major contribution to the overall emissions during a transient test cycle. On the other hand, bio-fuels are getting impetus today as renewable substitutes for conventional fuels, especially in the transport sector. In the present work, experimental tests were conducted at the authors' laboratory on a bus/truck, turbocharged diesel engine in order to investigate the formation mechanisms of nitric oxide (NO), smoke, and combustion noise radiation during hot starting for various alternative fuel blends. To this aim, a fully instrumented test bed was set up, using ultra-fast response analyzers capable of capturing the instantaneous development of emissions as well as various other key engine and turbocharger parameters. The experimental test matrix included three different fuels, namely neat diesel fuel and two blends of diesel fuel with either bio-diesel (30% by vol.) or n-butanol (25% by vol.). With reference to the neat diesel fuel case during the starting event, the bio-diesel blend resulted in deterioration of both pollutant emissions as well as increased combustion instability, while the n-butanol (normal butanol) blend decreased significantly exhaust gas opacity but increased notably NO emission.

Scalable creation of gold nanostructures on high performance engineering polymeric substrate

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Kun; Wang, Pan; Wei, Shiliang; Huang, Yumin; Liu, Xiaobo

2017-12-01

The article reveals a facile protocol for scalable production of gold nanostructures on a high performance engineering thermoplastic substrate made of polyarylene ether nitrile (PEN) for the first time. Firstly, gold thin films with different thicknesses of 2 nm, 4 nm and 6 nm were evaporated on a spin-coated PEN substrate on glass slide in vacuum. Next, the as-evaporated samples were thermally annealed around the glass transition temperature of the PEN substrate, on which gold nanostructures with island-like morphology were created. Moreover, it was found that the initial gold evaporation thickness and annealing atmosphere played an important role in determining the morphology and plasmonic properties of the formulated Au NPs. Interestingly, we discovered that isotropic Au NPs can be easily fabricated on the freestanding PEN substrate, which was fabricated by a cost-effective polymer solution casting method. More specifically, monodispersed Au nanospheres with an average size of ∼60 nm were obtained after annealing a 4 nm gold film covered PEN casting substrate at 220 °C for 2 h in oxygen. Therefore, the scalable production of Au NPs with controlled morphology on PEN substrate would open the way for development of robust flexible nanosensors and optical devices using high performance engineering polyarylene ethers.

Performance Evaluation of Moving Bed Bio Film Reactor in Saline Wastewater Treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M Ahmadi

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Background and purpose:Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor is an aerobic attached growth with better biofilm thickness control, lack of plugging and lower head loss. Consequently, this system is greatly used by different wastewater treatment plants. High TDS wastewater produced petrochemical, leather tanning, sea food processing, cannery, pickling and dairy industries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of MBBR in saline wastewater treatment. Materials and methods: In this study, 50 percent of a cylindrical reactor with 9.5 liter occupied media with 650 m2.m-3. In the first step, hydraulic regime was evaluated and startup reactor was done by sanitary sludge. Bio film was generated with glucose as the sole carbon source in synthetic wastewater. MBBR performance evaluation was performed in 6:30 and 8:45 with saline wastewater after bio film produced on media. Results: After 83 days of passing MBBR operation with saline wastewater containing 3000-12000 mg.L-1 TDS, organic loading rate of 2.2-3.5 kg/m3.d COD removal efficiency reached 80-92%. Conclusion: Moving bed biofilm reactor is effective in organic load elimination from saline wastewater.

Recent Developments on Genetic Engineering of Microalgae for Biofuels and Bio-Based Chemicals.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, I-Son; Tan, Shih-I; Kao, Pei-Hsun; Chang, Yu-Kaung; Chang, Jo-Shu

2017-10-01

Microalgae serve as a promising source for the production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals. They are superior to terrestrial plants as feedstock in many aspects and their biomass is naturally rich in lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, pigments, and other valuable compounds. Due to the relatively slow growth rate and high cultivation cost of microalgae, to screen efficient and robust microalgal strains as well as genetic modifications of the available strains for further improvement are of urgent demand in the development of microalgae-based biorefinery. In genetic engineering of microalgae, transformation and selection methods are the key steps to accomplish the target gene modification. However, determination of the preferable type and dosage of antibiotics used for transformant selection is usually time-consuming and microalgal-strain-dependent. Therefore, more powerful and efficient techniques should be developed to meet this need. In this review, the conventional and emerging genome-editing tools (e.g., CRISPR-Cas9, TALEN, and ZFN) used in editing the genomes of nuclear, mitochondria, and chloroplast of microalgae are thoroughly surveyed. Although all the techniques mentioned above demonstrate their abilities to perform gene editing and desired phenotype screening, there still need to overcome higher production cost and lower biomass productivity, to achieve efficient production of the desired products in microalgal biorefineries. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Bio-diesel fuels production: Feasibility studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tabasso, L.

1993-01-01

This paper reviews the efforts being made by Italy's national government and private industry to develop diesel engine fuels derived from vegetable oils, in particular, sunflower seed oil. These fuels are being promoted in Italy from the environmental protection stand-point in that they don't contain any sulfur, the main cause of acid rain, and from the agricultural stand-point in that they provide Italian farmers, whose food crop production capacity is limited due to European Communities agreements, with the opportunity to use their set-aside land for the production of energy crops. This paper provides brief notes on the key performance characteristics of bio-diesel fuels, whose application doesn't require any modifications to diesel engines, apart from minor adjustments to the air/fuel mix regulating system, and assesses commercialization prospects. Brief mention is made of the problems being encountered by the Government in the establishing fair bio-fuel production tax rebates which are compatible with the marketing practices of the petroleum industry. One of the strategies being considered is to use the bio-fuels as additives to be mixed with conventional fuel oils so as to derive a fuel which meets the new European air pollution standards

Evaluation of Emissions Bio diesel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodriguez Maroto, J. J.; Dorronsoro Arenal, J. L.; Rojas Garcia, E.; Perez Pastor, R.; Garcia Alonso, S.

2007-01-01

The generation of energy from vegetal products is one of the possibilities to our reach in order to reduce the atmospheric pollution. Particularly, the use of bio diesel in internal combustion engines can be one of the best options. The finest particles emitted by the combustion engines are easily breathable and on them different substances can be absorbed presumably toxic, between which it is possible to emphasize the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), by its demonstrated carcinogen character. In this work, it is studied on the one hand, the characteristics that can present the aerosol of emission in a diesel engine with a maximum power of 97 kW, working without load to 600 rpm, using as combustible mixtures of bio diesel and diesel in different proportions. On the other hand, the evolution that takes place in the concentration of PAHs in emission particles, according to the percentage of bio diesel used in the combustible mixture. (Author) 9 refs

Evaluation of Emissions Bio diesel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rodriguez Maroto, J J; Dorronsoro Arenal, J L; Rojas Garcia, E; Perez Pastor, R; Garcia Alonso, S

2007-09-27

The generation of energy from vegetal products is one of the possibilities to our reach in order to reduce the atmospheric pollution. Particularly, the use of bio diesel in internal combustion engines can be one of the best options. The finest particles emitted by the combustion engines are easily breathable and on them different substances can be absorbed presumably toxic, between which it is possible to emphasize the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), by its demonstrated carcinogen character. In this work, it is studied on the one hand, the characteristics that can present the aerosol of emission in a diesel engine with a maximum power of 97 kW, working without load to 600 rpm, using as combustible mixtures of bio diesel and diesel in different proportions. On the other hand, the evolution that takes place in the concentration of PAHs in emission particles, according to the percentage of bio diesel used in the combustible mixture. (Author) 9 refs.

Experimental investigation of performance and emissions of a VCR diesel engine fuelled with n-butanol diesel blends under varying engine parameters.

Science.gov (United States)

Nayyar, Ashish; Sharma, Dilip; Soni, Shyam Lal; Mathur, Alok

2017-09-01

The continuous rise in the cost of fossil fuels as well as in environmental pollution has attracted research in the area of clean alternative fuels for improving the performance and emissions of internal combustion (IC) engines. In the present work, n-butanol is treated as a bio-fuel and investigations have been made to evaluate the feasibility of replacing diesel with a suitable n-butanol-diesel blend. In the current research, an experimental investigation was carried out on a variable compression ratio CI engine with n-butanol-diesel blends (10-25% by volume) to determine the optimum blending ratio and optimum operating parameters of the engine for reduced emissions. The best results of performance and emissions were observed for 20% n-butanol-diesel blend (B20) at a higher compression ratio as compared to diesel while keeping the other parameters unchanged. The observed deterioration in engine performance was within tolerable limits. The reductions in smoke, nitrogen oxides (NO x ), and carbon monoxide (CO) were observed up to 56.52, 17.19, and 30.43%, respectively, for B20 in comparison to diesel at rated power. However, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and hydrocarbons (HC) were found to be higher by 17.58 and 15.78%, respectively, for B20. It is concluded that n-butanol-diesel blend would be a potential fuel to control emissions from diesel engines. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

The concept of bio-corona in modulating the toxicity of engineered nanomaterials (ENM)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Westmeier, Dana; Stauber, Roland H.; Docter, Dominic

2016-01-01

Besides the wide use of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in technical products, their application spectrum in biotechnology and biomedicine is steadily increasing. In complex physiological environments the physico-chemical properties and the behavior of nanoparticles (NPs) are challenging to characterize. Biomolecules rapidly adsorb to the nanomaterial, leading to the formation of the protein/biomolecule corona, which critically affects the nanomaterials' (patho)biological and technical identities. This formation can trigger an immune response and affect nanoparticles' toxicity and targeting capabilities. In this review, we provide a survey of recent findings on the (protein)corona-nanoparticle interaction and discuss how the corona modulates both cytotoxicity and the immune response as well as to improve the efficacy of targeted delivery of nanocarriers. - Highlights: • “Nanotoxicology” has emerged an autonomous field with an explosive growth. • Nanomaterials adsorb (bio)molecules forming the so-called (bio)molecule corona. • (Fine-)tune of the corona composition could enable new possibilities in nanomedicine.

The concept of bio-corona in modulating the toxicity of engineered nanomaterials (ENM)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Westmeier, Dana; Stauber, Roland H.; Docter, Dominic, E-mail: docter@uni-mainz.de

2016-05-15

Besides the wide use of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in technical products, their application spectrum in biotechnology and biomedicine is steadily increasing. In complex physiological environments the physico-chemical properties and the behavior of nanoparticles (NPs) are challenging to characterize. Biomolecules rapidly adsorb to the nanomaterial, leading to the formation of the protein/biomolecule corona, which critically affects the nanomaterials' (patho)biological and technical identities. This formation can trigger an immune response and affect nanoparticles' toxicity and targeting capabilities. In this review, we provide a survey of recent findings on the (protein)corona-nanoparticle interaction and discuss how the corona modulates both cytotoxicity and the immune response as well as to improve the efficacy of targeted delivery of nanocarriers. - Highlights: • “Nanotoxicology” has emerged an autonomous field with an explosive growth. • Nanomaterials adsorb (bio)molecules forming the so-called (bio)molecule corona. • (Fine-)tune of the corona composition could enable new possibilities in nanomedicine.

Engineered bio-inspired coating for reduction of flow separation

Science.gov (United States)

Bocanegra Evans, Humberto; Hamed, Ali M.; Gorumlu, Serdar; Doosttalab, Ali; Aksak, Burak; Chamorro, Leonardo P.; Castillo, Luciano

2017-11-01

Flow control using passive strategies has received notable attention in the last decades as a way to increase mixing and reduce skin drag, among others. Here, we present a bio-inspired coating, composed by uniformly distributed pillars with diverging tips, that is able to reduce the recirculation region in highly separated flows. This is demonstrated with laboratory experiments in a refractive index-matching flume at Reynolds number Reθ 1200 . The flow over an expanding channel following a S835 wing section was characterized with the coating and with smooth walls. High-resolution, wall-normal particle image velocimetry show a significant reduction of the reversed flow with the coating, where the region with reverse flow was reduced by 60 % . The performance of the micro-scale coating is surprising since the size of the fibers are nearly coincident with the viscous length scale (k+ 1). Additionally, the flow control properties of the surface do not depend on hydrophobicity, giving the coating the capability to work in both air and water media.

Development of anion-exchange/reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry methods for the speciation of bio-available iodine and bromine from edible seaweed.

Science.gov (United States)

Romarís-Hortas, Vanessa; Bermejo-Barrera, Pilar; Moreda-Piñeiro, Antonio

2012-05-04

Anion exchange high performance liquid chromatography hyphenated with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry has been novelly applied to assess inorganic (iodide and iodate) and organic (3-iodotyrosine - MIT, and 3,5-diiodotyrosine - DIT) iodine species in a single chromatographic run. The optimized operating conditions (Dionex IonPac AS7, gradient elution with 175 mM ammonium nitrate plus 15% (v/v) methanol, pH 3.8, as a mobile phase and flow rates within the 0.5-1.5 mL min(-1) range) have also been used to perform inorganic bromine speciation analysis (bromide and bromate). The developed method has been applied for determining the bio-available contents of iodine and bromine species in dialyzates from edible seaweed. Reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C8, gradient elution with 0.2% (m/m) acetic acid, and 0.2% (m/m) acetic acid in methanol, as mobile phases, and a constant flow rate of 0.75 mL min(-1)) also hyphenated with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry was used to confirm the presence of organic iodine species (MIT and DIT) in the dialyzates. The verification of the presence of iodinated amino acids (MIT and DIT) in the extracts was also performed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LTQ Orbitrap). The developed methods have provided good repeatability (RSD values lower than 10% for both anion exchange and reverse phase separations) and analytical recoveries within the 90-105% range for all cases. The in vitro bio-availability method consisted of a simulated gastric and an intestinal digestion/dialysis (10 kDa molecular weight cut-off - MWCO) two-stage procedure. Iodide and MIT were the main bio-available species quantified, whereas bromide was the major bromine species found in the extracts. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bio-Mechatronics: From Insects to In-Vivo Mechatronics

OpenAIRE

Vaidyanathan, Ravi

2013-01-01

The Department of Automatic Control & Systems Engineering is pleased to announce the following seminar: Bio-Mechatronics: From Insects to In-Vivo Mechatronics Dr Ravi Vaidyanathan Department of Mechanical Engineering Imperial College Wednesday, 25th September 2013 at 14:00, LT02, Sir Henry Stephenson Building Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of precision engineering, electronic control, and systems thinking in the design of products and manufacturing processes. Bio-Mechatron...

BioXmark for high-precision radiotherapy in an orthotopic pancreatic tumor mouse model. Experiences with a liquid fiducial marker

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dobiasch, S.; Kampfer, S.; Burkhardt, R.; Wilkens, J.J.; Schilling, D.; Schmid, T.E.; Combs, S.E.

2017-01-01

High-precision radiotherapy (RT) requires precise positioning, particularly with high single doses. Fiducial markers in combination with onboard imaging are excellent tools to support this. The purpose of this study is to establish a pancreatic cancer mouse model for high-precision image-guided RT (IGRT) using the liquid fiducial marker BioXmark (Nanovi, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark). In an animal-based cancer model, different volumes of BioXmark (10-50 μl), application forms, and imaging modalities - cone-beam computer tomography (CBCT) incorporated in either the Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP) or the small-animal micro-CT Scanner (SkyScan; Bruker, Brussels, Belgium) - as well as subsequent RT with the SARRP system were analyzed to derive recommendations for BioXmark. Even small volumes (10 μl) of BioXmark could be detected by CBCT (SARRP and Skyscan). Larger volumes (50 μl) led to hardening artefacts. The position of BioXmark was monitored at least weekly by CBCT and was stable over 4 months. BioXmark was shown to be well tolerated; no changes in physical condition or toxic side effects were observed in comparison to control mice. BioXmark enabled an exact fusion with the original treatment plan with less hardening artefacts, and minimized the application of contrast agent for fractionated RT. An orthotopic pancreatic tumor mouse model was established for high-precision IGRT using a fiducial marker. BioXmark was successfully tested and provides the perfect basis for improved imaging in high-precision RT. BioXmark enables a unique application method and optimal targeted precision in fractionated RT. Therefore, preclinical trials evaluating novel fractionation regimens and/or combination treatment with high-end RT can be performed. (orig.) [de

Performance analyses of a spark-ignition engine firing with gasoline–butanol blends at partial load operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galloni, E.; Fontana, G.; Staccone, S.; Scala, F.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The potential of butanol has been investigated at partial load operation. • Torque and thermal efficiency slightly decrease when the alcohol content increases. • At part load, spark advance does not require changes when alcohol content increases. - Abstract: Biofuels seem to represent one of the most promising means for the limitation of the greenhouse gas emissions coming from traditional energy systems. In this paper, the performance of a “downsized” spark-ignition engine, fueled by gasoline and bio-butanol blends (20% and 40% butanol mass percentage), has been analyzed. In the first phase of this activity, the experimental tests have been carried out at operating points ranging from low to medium engine speed and load. The first investigations were aimed to assess the main differences among the different fuels in terms of output torque, thermal efficiency, combustion duration and optimal spark timing. In order to study the engine behavior in a wide range of fuel mixtures, these parameters have been evaluated for equivalence ratio values ranging from 1.25 to 0.83. The results obtained in this step show that both the engine torque and thermal efficiency slightly decrease (meanly about 4%) when the blend alcohol content increases. However, butanol increases the burning rate of lean mixtures and an interesting result is that the spark advance does not require adjustments when fueling changes from neat gasoline to bio-butanol/gasoline blends. Later, the pollutant emissions and the CO_2 emissions, for both rich and lean mixtures of pure gasoline and gasoline bio-butanol blends, have been measured. In general, firing with alcohol blends, NO_x and CO emissions remain quite the same, HC emissions slightly decrease while the CO_2 emissions slightly increase. At the end, in order to reproduce the real world urban driving cycle, stoichiometric mixtures have been analyzed. In these conditions, the engine thermal efficiency, at given speed and torque

Perturbing engine performance measurements to determine optimal engine control settings

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Li; Lee, Donghoon; Yilmaz, Hakan; Stefanopoulou, Anna

2014-12-30

Methods and systems for optimizing a performance of a vehicle engine are provided. The method includes determining an initial value for a first engine control parameter based on one or more detected operating conditions of the vehicle engine, determining a value of an engine performance variable, and artificially perturbing the determined value of the engine performance variable. The initial value for the first engine control parameter is then adjusted based on the perturbed engine performance variable causing the engine performance variable to approach a target engine performance variable. Operation of the vehicle engine is controlled based on the adjusted initial value for the first engine control parameter. These acts are repeated until the engine performance variable approaches the target engine performance variable.

Evaluation of bio-materials’ rejuvenating effect on binders for high-reclaimed asphalt content mixtures; Evaluación del efecto rejuvenecedor de bio-materiales sobre ligantes para mezclas con alto contenido de asfalto recuperado

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jiménez del Barco-Carrión, A.; Pérez-Martínez, M.; Themeli, A.; Lo Presti, D.; Marsac, P.; Pouget, S.; Hammoum, F.; Chailleux, E.; Airey, G.D.

2017-07-01

The interest in using bio-materials in pavement engineering has grown significantly over the last decades due to environmental concerns about the use of non-recoverable natural resources. In this paper, bio-materials are used together with Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) to restore some of the properties of the aged bitumen present in mixtures with high RA content. For this purpose, two bio-materials are studied and compared to conventional and polymer modified bitumens. Blends of these materials with RA bitumen were produced and studied to simulate a 50% RA mixture. The rejuvenating effect of the two bio-materials on RA has been assessed and compared with the effect of the conventional binders. Apparent Molecular Weight Distribution of the samples (obtained by the ?-method) and different rheological parameters were used for this purpose. Results revealed the power of bio-materials to rejuvenate RA bitumen, showing their capability to be used as fresh binders in high-RA content mixtures. [Spanish] El interés en la utilización de bio-materiales en ingeniería de pavimentos ha crecido significantemente en las últimas décadas debido a la conciencia ambiental sobre el uso de recursos naturales no renovables. En este artículo, se utilizan bio-materiales para recuperar las propiedades iniciales del betún envejecido presente en mezclas con alto contenido de asfalto reciclado (RA). Para ello, se ha estudiado y comparado el comportamiento de dos bio-materiales con betunes convencionales y betunes modificados con polímeros. Con este objetivo, se fabricaron mezclas de bio-materiales y betún reciclado simulando mezclas asfálticas con 50% de contenido de reciclado. El efecto rejuvenecedor de los bio-materiales se ha evaluado y comparado con el efecto rejuvenecedor de ligantes convencionales mediante el cálculo de las distribuciones de peso molecular aparente y diferentes pará-metro reológicos. Los resultados muestran el poder rejuvenecedor de los bio-materiales, poniendo de

Hydrodeoxygenation of water-insoluble bio-oil to alkanes using a highly dispersed Pd-Mo catalyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Haohong; Dong, Juncai; Gu, Xianrui; Peng, Yung-Kang; Chen, Wenxing; Issariyakul, Titipong; Myers, William K; Li, Meng-Jung; Yi, Ni; Kilpatrick, Alexander F R; Wang, Yu; Zheng, Xusheng; Ji, Shufang; Wang, Qian; Feng, Junting; Chen, Dongliang; Li, Yadong; Buffet, Jean-Charles; Liu, Haichao; Tsang, Shik Chi Edman; O'Hare, Dermot

2017-09-19

Bio-oil, produced by the destructive distillation of cheap and renewable lignocellulosic biomass, contains high energy density oligomers in the water-insoluble fraction that can be utilized for diesel and valuable fine chemicals productions. Here, we show an efficient hydrodeoxygenation catalyst that combines highly dispersed palladium and ultrafine molybdenum phosphate nanoparticles on silica. Using phenol as a model substrate this catalyst is 100% effective and 97.5% selective for hydrodeoxygenation to cyclohexane under mild conditions in a batch reaction; this catalyst also demonstrates regeneration ability in long-term continuous flow tests. Detailed investigations into the nature of the catalyst show that it combines hydrogenation activity of Pd and high density of both Brønsted and Lewis acid sites; we believe these are key features for efficient catalytic hydrodeoxygenation behavior. Using a wood and bark-derived feedstock, this catalyst performs hydrodeoxygenation of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose-derived oligomers into liquid alkanes with high efficiency and yield.Bio-oil is a potential major source of renewable fuels and chemicals. Here, the authors report a palladium-molybdenum mixed catalyst for the selective hydrodeoxygenation of water-insoluble bio-oil to mixtures of alkanes with high carbon yield.

A bio-hybrid DNA rotor-stator nanoengine that moves along predefined tracks.

Science.gov (United States)

Valero, Julián; Pal, Nibedita; Dhakal, Soma; Walter, Nils G; Famulok, Michael

2018-06-01

Biological motors are highly complex protein assemblies that generate linear or rotary motion, powered by chemical energy. Synthetic motors based on DNA nanostructures, bio-hybrid designs or synthetic organic chemistry have been assembled. However, unidirectionally rotating biomimetic wheel motors with rotor-stator units that consume chemical energy are elusive. Here, we report a bio-hybrid nanoengine consisting of a catalytic stator that unidirectionally rotates an interlocked DNA wheel, powered by NTP hydrolysis. The engine consists of an engineered T7 RNA polymerase (T7RNAP-ZIF) attached to a dsDNA nanoring that is catenated to a rigid rotating dsDNA wheel. The wheel motor produces long, repetitive RNA transcripts that remain attached to the engine and are used to guide its movement along predefined ssDNA tracks arranged on a DNA nanotube. The simplicity of the design renders this walking nanoengine adaptable to other biological nanoarchitectures, facilitating the construction of complex bio-hybrid structures that achieve NTP-driven locomotion.

Biofuel by isomerizing metathesis of rapeseed oil esters with (bio)ethylene for use in contemporary diesel engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Pfister, Kai F; Baader, Sabrina; Baader, Mathias; Berndt, Silvia; Goossen, Lukas J

2017-06-01

Rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) and (bio)ethylene are converted into biofuel with an evenly rising boiling point curve, which fulfills the strict boiling specifications prescribed by the fuel standard EN 590 for modern (petro)diesel engines. Catalyzed by a Pd/Ru system, RME undergoes isomerizing metathesis in a stream of ethylene gas, leading to a defined olefin, monoester, and diester blend. This innovative refining concept requires negligible energy input (60°C) and no solvents and does not produce waste. It demonstrates that the pressing challenge of increasing the fraction of renewables in engine fuel may be addressed purely chemically rather than by motor engineering.

BioSIGHT: Interactive Visualization Modules for Science Education

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Wee Ling

1998-01-01

Redefining science education to harness emerging integrated media technologies with innovative pedagogical goals represents a unique challenge. The Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) is the only engineering research center in the area of multimedia and creative technologies sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The research program at IMSC is focused on developing advanced technologies that address human-computer interfaces, database management, and high- speed network capabilities. The BioSIGHT project at IMSC is a demonstration technology project in the area of education that seeks to address how such emerging multimedia technologies can make an impact on science education. The scope of this project will help solidify NASA's commitment for the development of innovative educational resources that promotes science literacy for our students and the general population as well. These issues must be addressed as NASA marches towards the goal of enabling human space exploration that requires an understanding of life sciences in space. The IMSC BioSIGHT lab was established with the purpose of developing a novel methodology that will map a high school biology curriculum into a series of interactive visualization modules that can be easily incorporated into a space biology curriculum. Fundamental concepts in general biology must be mastered in order to allow a better understanding and application for space biology. Interactive visualization is a powerful component that can capture the students' imagination, facilitate their assimilation of complex ideas, and help them develop integrated views of biology. These modules will augment the role of the teacher and will establish the value of student-centered interactivity, both in an individual setting as well as in a collaborative learning environment. Students will be able to interact with the content material, explore new challenges, and perform virtual laboratory simulations. The BioSIGHT effort is truly cross

Bio-inspired computation in telecommunications

CERN Document Server

Yang, Xin-She; Ting, TO

2015-01-01

Bio-inspired computation, especially those based on swarm intelligence, has become increasingly popular in the last decade. Bio-Inspired Computation in Telecommunications reviews the latest developments in bio-inspired computation from both theory and application as they relate to telecommunications and image processing, providing a complete resource that analyzes and discusses the latest and future trends in research directions. Written by recognized experts, this is a must-have guide for researchers, telecommunication engineers, computer scientists and PhD students.

A new generation of high performance engines for spacecraft propulsion

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenberg, Sanders D.; Schoenman, Leonard

1991-01-01

Experimental data validating advanced engine designs at three thrust levels (5, 15, and 100 lbF) is presented. All of the three engine designs considered employ a Moog bipropellant torque motor valve, platelet injector design, and iridium-lined rhenium combustion chamber. Attention is focused on the performance, robustness, duration, and flexibility characteristics of the engines. It is noted that the 5- and 15-lbF thrust engines can deliver a steady state specific impulse in excess of 310 lbF-sec/lbm at an area ratio of 150:1, while the 150-lbF thrust engines deliver a steady state specific impulse of 320 lbF-sec/lbm at an area ratio of 250:1. The hot-fire test results reveal specific impulse improvements of 15 to 25 sec over conventional fuel film cooled columbium chamber designs while operating at maximum chamber temperatures.

Research of biofuels on performance, emission and noise of diesel engine under high-altitude area

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Kai; Huang, Hua

2018-05-01

At high altitudes and with no any adjustment for diesel engine, comparative experiments on a diesel engine about the engine's performance, emission and exhaust noise, are carried out by combusting different biofuels (pure diesel (D100), biodiesel (B100), and ethanol-biodiesel (E20)). The test results show that: compared with D100, the power performance of combusting B100 and E20 decreases, and the average drop of the torque at full-load are 4.5% and 5.7%. The equivalent fuel consumption is lower than that of diesel fuel, The decline of oil consumption rate 3˜10g/ (kW • h); At low load the emission of NOx decreases, Hat high loads, equal and higher than D100; the soot emissions decreases heavier, among them, E20 carbon dioxide emissions improved considerably; An full-load exhaust noise of B100 decreases average 3.6dB(A), E20 decreases average 4.8dB(A); In road simulation experiments exhaust noise max decreases 8.5dB(A).

Briquetting mechanism and waterproof performance of bio-briquette

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, G.; Chen, L.; Cao, J. [Henen Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo (China)

2008-07-15

Maize stalk and bio-briquette binder made from it were studied comparatively by FTIR and the microstructure of bio-briquette was observed and analyzed by microscopy. It was found that a large amount of unreacted biomass fibers exist in the binder. These form a multi-level network structure inside the bio-briquette and could make fine coal particles connect together. The multi-level network structure would be still present after the bio-briquettes are immersed in water for 24 hours. On the other hand, stalk materials could be partly degraded after treatment and, with other liquid ingredients in the binder, the degradation products could form a viscous fluid which would work as a bonding ingredient inside the bio-briquette and could improve the waterproofing ability of the binder after solidification. Therefore, the multi-level network structure of the biomaterial and the presence of viscous fluid are very important to the shaping and the improvement of the waterproofing ability of bio-briquettes. 11 refs., 3 figs.

BioHack*Kolding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wilde, Danielle

Short Abstract BioHack*Kolding explores the potential of do-it-together biology to support community building in a town that lacks strong science representation, assisting participants to reflect on the bio-potential of their personal, social and political ecologies and to translate their ideas...... into action. Long Abstract Organisations that support lay people to practice bioscience alongside experts are proliferating. They enable interested people to join the global discussion on Bio Engineering by supporting them to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to do it themselves. Such organisations play...... an important role in facilitating informed debate around the biological sciences. Yet they cannot reach everyone. BioHack*Kolding asks how community-focused biology initiatives can reach people in smaller towns that lack science representation, so that they too can join the debate and ensure that its...

Vacancy-Rich Monolayer BiO2-x as a Highly Efficient UV, Visible, and Near-Infrared Responsive Photocatalyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jun; Wu, Xiaoyong; Pan, Wenfeng; Zhang, Gaoke; Chen, Hong

2018-01-08

Vacancy-rich layered materials with good electron-transfer property are of great interest. Herein, a full-spectrum responsive vacancy-rich monolayer BiO 2-x has been synthesized. The increased density of states at the conduction band (CB) minimum in the monolayer BiO 2-x is responsible for the enhanced photon response and photo-absorption, which were confirmed by UV/Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and photocurrent measurements. Compared to bulk BiO 2-x , monolayer BiO 2-x has exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance for rhodamine B and phenol removal under UV, visible, and near-infrared light (NIR) irradiation, which can be attributed to the vacancy V Bi-O ''' as confirmed by the positron annihilation spectra. The presence of V Bi-O ''' defects in monolayer BiO 2-x promoted the separation of electrons and holes. This finding provides an atomic level understanding for developing highly efficient UV, visible, and NIR light responsive photocatalysts. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Bearings for high performance requirements in two-stroke and four-stroke diesel engines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ederer, U.G.

1983-11-01

Most measures to reduce fuel consumption in diesel engines lead, directly or indirectly, to more severe operating conditions for the engine bearings. In ever more instances the bearings become the components which limit useful engine life and the time between overhauls. Bearings with improved performance characteristics are required. During recent years, Miba Gleitlager AG has developed several solutions to meet these requirements. They consist of either material improvements, such as a cast white metal (SnSb 12Cu 3 NiCd) with higher fatigue strength, or an electroplated overlay (PbSn 18 Cu) with improved fatigue and wear resistance. New design solutions found included the steel-Al Sn 6-WM 85 bearing for two-stroke engines, the steel-Al Sn 6 PbSn 18 Cu bearing applied to two-stroke crosshead bearings, the steel-AlZn 4,5 PbSn 18 Cu bearing for high bearing loads in four-stroke engines, and the Miba-Rillenlager with its radically new running-surface structure for extreme load and wear conditions. The application potential of these bearings and the operating experience with them are discussed in this article.

7th International Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing : Theories and Applications

CERN Document Server

Singh, Pramod; Deep, Kusum; Pant, Millie; Nagar, Atulya

2013-01-01

The book is a collection of high quality peer reviewed research papers presented in Seventh International Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing (BIC-TA 2012) held at ABV-IIITM Gwalior, India. These research papers provide the latest developments in the broad area of "Computational Intelligence". The book discusses wide variety of industrial, engineering and scientific applications of nature/bio-inspired computing and presents invited papers from the inventors/originators of novel computational techniques.

Heat transfer modeling in exhaust systems of high-performance two-stroke engines

OpenAIRE

Lujan Martinez, José Manuel; Climent Puchades, Héctor; Olmeda González, Pablo Cesar; JIMENEZ MACEDO, VICTOR DANIEL

2014-01-01

Heat transfer from the hot gases to the wall in exhaust systems of high-performance two-stroke engines is underestimated using steady state with fully developed flow empirical correlations. This fact is detected when comparing measured and modeled pressure pulses in different positions in the exhaust system. This can be explained taking into account that classical expressions have been validated for fully developed flows, a situation that is far from the flow behavior in reciprocating interna...

Reverse engineering biological networks :applications in immune responses to bio-toxins.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martino, Anthony A.; Sinclair, Michael B.; Davidson, George S.; Haaland, David Michael; Timlin, Jerilyn Ann; Thomas, Edward Victor; Slepoy, Alexander; Zhang, Zhaoduo; May, Elebeoba Eni; Martin, Shawn Bryan; Faulon, Jean-Loup Michel

2005-12-01

Our aim is to determine the network of events, or the regulatory network, that defines an immune response to a bio-toxin. As a model system, we are studying T cell regulatory network triggered through tyrosine kinase receptor activation using a combination of pathway stimulation and time-series microarray experiments. Our approach is composed of five steps (1) microarray experiments and data error analysis, (2) data clustering, (3) data smoothing and discretization, (4) network reverse engineering, and (5) network dynamics analysis and fingerprint identification. The technological outcome of this study is a suite of experimental protocols and computational tools that reverse engineer regulatory networks provided gene expression data. The practical biological outcome of this work is an immune response fingerprint in terms of gene expression levels. Inferring regulatory networks from microarray data is a new field of investigation that is no more than five years old. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first attempt that integrates experiments, error analyses, data clustering, inference, and network analysis to solve a practical problem. Our systematic approach of counting, enumeration, and sampling networks matching experimental data is new to the field of network reverse engineering. The resulting mathematical analyses and computational tools lead to new results on their own and should be useful to others who analyze and infer networks.

Effect of engine parameters and type of gaseous fuel on the performance of dual-fuel gas diesel engines. A critical review

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sahoo, B.B. [Centre for Energy, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati 781039 (India); Sahoo, N.; Saha, U.K. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati 781039 (India)

2009-08-15

Petroleum resources are finite and, therefore, search for their alternative non-petroleum fuels for internal combustion engines is continuing all over the world. Moreover gases emitted by petroleum fuel driven vehicles have an adverse effect on the environment and human health. There is universal acceptance of the need to reduce such emissions. Towards this, scientists have proposed various solutions for diesel engines, one of which is the use of gaseous fuels as a supplement for liquid diesel fuel. These engines, which use conventional diesel fuel and gaseous fuel, are referred to as 'dual-fuel engines'. Natural gas and bio-derived gas appear more attractive alternative fuels for dual-fuel engines in view of their friendly environmental nature. In the gas-fumigated dual-fuel engine, the primary fuel is mixed outside the cylinder before it is inducted into the cylinder. A pilot quantity of liquid fuel is injected towards the end of the compression stroke to initiate combustion. When considering a gaseous fuel for use in existing diesel engines, a number of issues which include, the effects of engine operating and design parameters, and type of gaseous fuel, on the performance of the dual-fuel engines, are important. This paper reviews the research on above issues carried out by various scientists in different diesel engines. This paper touches upon performance, combustion and emission characteristics of dual-fuel engines which use natural gas, biogas, producer gas, methane, liquefied petroleum gas, propane, etc. as gaseous fuel. It reveals that 'dual-fuel concept' is a promising technique for controlling both NO{sub x} and soot emissions even on existing diesel engine. But, HC, CO emissions and 'bsfc' are higher for part load gas diesel engine operations. Thermal efficiency of dual-fuel engines improve either with increased engine speed, or with advanced injection timings, or with increased amount of pilot fuel. The ignition

The Future of Software Engineering for High Performance Computing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pope, G [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2015-07-16

DOE ASCR requested that from May through mid-July 2015 a study group identify issues and recommend solutions from a software engineering perspective transitioning into the next generation of High Performance Computing. The approach used was to ask some of the DOE complex experts who will be responsible for doing this work to contribute to the study group. The technique used was to solicit elevator speeches: a short and concise write up done as if the author was a speaker with only a few minutes to convince a decision maker of their top issues. Pages 2-18 contain the original texts of the contributed elevator speeches and end notes identifying the 20 contributors. The study group also ranked the importance of each topic, and those scores are displayed with each topic heading. A perfect score (and highest priority) is three, two is medium priority, and one is lowest priority. The highest scoring topic areas were software engineering and testing resources; the lowest scoring area was compliance to DOE standards. The following two paragraphs are an elevator speech summarizing the contributed elevator speeches. Each sentence or phrase in the summary is hyperlinked to its source via a numeral embedded in the text. A risk one liner has also been added to each topic to allow future risk tracking and mitigation.

Performance of a Compression-ignition Engine with a Precombustion Chamber Having High-Velocity Air Flow

Science.gov (United States)

Spanogle, J A; Moore, C S

1931-01-01

Presented here are the results of performance tests made with a single-cylinder, four stroke cycle, compression-ignition engine. These tests were made on a precombustion chamber type of cylinder head designed to have air velocity and tangential air flow in both the chamber and cylinder. The performance was investigated for variable load and engine speed, type of fuel spray, valve opening pressure, injection period and, for the spherical chamber, position of the injection spray relative to the air flow. The pressure variations between the pear-shaped precombustion chamber and the cylinder for motoring and full load conditions were determined with a Farnboro electric indicator. The combustion chamber designs tested gave good mixing of a single compact fuel spray with the air, but did not control the ensuing combustion sufficiently. Relative to each other, the velocity of air flow was too high, the spray dispersion by injection too great, and the metering effect of the cylinder head passage insufficient. The correct relation of these factors is of the utmost importance for engine performance.

Bio-Nanotechnology: Challenges for Trainees in a Multidisciplinary Research Program

Science.gov (United States)

Koehne, Jessica Erin

2009-01-01

The recent developments in the field of nanotechnology have provided scientists with a new set of nanoscale materials, tools and devices in which to investigate the biological science thus creating the mulitdisciplinary field of bio-nanotechnology. Bio-nanotechnology merges the biological sciences with other scientific disciplines ranging from chemistry to engineering. Todays students must have a working knowledge of a variety of scientific disciplines in order to be successful in this new field of study. This talk will provide insight into the issue of multidisciplinary education from the perspective of a graduate student working in the field of bio-nanotechnology. From the classes we take to the research we perform, how does the modern graduate student attain the training required to succeed in this field?

Bio-Organic Reaction Animations (BioORA): Student Performance, Student Perceptions, and Instructor Feedback

Science.gov (United States)

Gunersel, Adalet Baris; Fleming, Steven

2014-01-01

Research shows that computer animations are especially helpful in fields such as chemistry and in this mixed-methods study, we investigate the educational effectiveness of Bio-Organic Reaction Animations (BioORA), a 3-D software, in four undergraduate biochemistry classes at different universities. Statistically significant findings indicate that…

Experimental investigation of the performance and emissions of diesel engines by a novel emulsified diesel fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Zhenbin; Wang, Xiaochen; Pei, Yiqiang; Zhang, Chengliang; Xiao, Mingwei; He, Jinge

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A novel bio-fuel, glucose solution emulsified diesel fuel, is evaluated. • Emulsified diesel has comparable brake thermal efficiency. • NO X emissions decrease with emulsified fuel at all loads. • Soot emissions decrease with emulsified fuel except at a few operating points. - Abstract: The subject of this paper was to study the performance and emissions of two typical diesel engines using glucose solution emulsified diesel fuel. Emulsified diesel with a 15% glucose solution by mass fraction was used in diesel engines and compared with pure diesel. For the agricultural diesel engine, performance and emission characteristics were measured under various engine loads. The results showed that the brake thermal efficiencies were improved using emulsified diesel fuel. Emulsified fuel decreased NO x and soot emissions except at a few specific operating conditions. HydroCarbon (HC) and CO emissions were increased. For the automotive diesel engine, performance and emissions were measured using the 13-mode European Stationary Cycle (ESC). It was found that brake thermal efficiencies of emulsified diesel and pure diesel were comparable at 75% and 100% load. Soot emissions decreased significantly while NO x emissions decreased slightly. HC emissions increased while CO emissions decreased at some operating conditions

BioXmark for high-precision radiotherapy in an orthotopic pancreatic tumor mouse model. Experiences with a liquid fiducial marker

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dobiasch, S. [Technical University of Munich (TUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, Department of Radiation Oncology, Munich (Germany); Deutsches Konsortium fuer Translationale Krebsforschung (DKTK), Munich (Germany); Kampfer, S. [Technical University of Munich (TUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, Department of Radiation Oncology, Munich (Germany); Technical University of Munich (TUM), Physics Department, Garching (Germany); Burkhardt, R.; Wilkens, J.J. [Technical University of Munich (TUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, Department of Radiation Oncology, Munich (Germany); Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Institute of Innovative Radiotherapy (iRT), Department of Radiation Sciences (DRS), Neuherberg (Germany); Technical University of Munich (TUM), Physics Department, Garching (Germany); Schilling, D.; Schmid, T.E. [Technical University of Munich (TUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, Department of Radiation Oncology, Munich (Germany); Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Institute of Innovative Radiotherapy (iRT), Department of Radiation Sciences (DRS), Neuherberg (Germany); Combs, S.E. [Technical University of Munich (TUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, Department of Radiation Oncology, Munich (Germany); Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, Institute of Innovative Radiotherapy (iRT), Department of Radiation Sciences (DRS), Neuherberg (Germany); Deutsches Konsortium fuer Translationale Krebsforschung (DKTK), Munich (Germany)

2017-12-15

High-precision radiotherapy (RT) requires precise positioning, particularly with high single doses. Fiducial markers in combination with onboard imaging are excellent tools to support this. The purpose of this study is to establish a pancreatic cancer mouse model for high-precision image-guided RT (IGRT) using the liquid fiducial marker BioXmark (Nanovi, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark). In an animal-based cancer model, different volumes of BioXmark (10-50 μl), application forms, and imaging modalities - cone-beam computer tomography (CBCT) incorporated in either the Small Animal Radiation Research Platform (SARRP) or the small-animal micro-CT Scanner (SkyScan; Bruker, Brussels, Belgium) - as well as subsequent RT with the SARRP system were analyzed to derive recommendations for BioXmark. Even small volumes (10 μl) of BioXmark could be detected by CBCT (SARRP and Skyscan). Larger volumes (50 μl) led to hardening artefacts. The position of BioXmark was monitored at least weekly by CBCT and was stable over 4 months. BioXmark was shown to be well tolerated; no changes in physical condition or toxic side effects were observed in comparison to control mice. BioXmark enabled an exact fusion with the original treatment plan with less hardening artefacts, and minimized the application of contrast agent for fractionated RT. An orthotopic pancreatic tumor mouse model was established for high-precision IGRT using a fiducial marker. BioXmark was successfully tested and provides the perfect basis for improved imaging in high-precision RT. BioXmark enables a unique application method and optimal targeted precision in fractionated RT. Therefore, preclinical trials evaluating novel fractionation regimens and/or combination treatment with high-end RT can be performed. (orig.) [German] Die Hochpraezisionsstrahlentherapie (RT) erfordert insbesondere bei hohen Einzeldosen eine exakte Lagerung. Marker in Kombination mit integrierten Bildgebungsverfahren koennen dies optimal gewaehrleisten

Hair flow sensors: from bio-inspiration to bio-mimicking—a review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tao, Junliang; Yu, Xiong

2012-01-01

A great many living beings, such as aquatics and arthropods, are equipped with highly sensitive flow sensors to help them survive in challenging environments. These sensors are excellent sources of inspiration for developing application-driven artificial flow sensors with high sensitivity and performance. This paper reviews the bio-inspirations on flow sensing in nature and the bio-mimicking efforts to emulate such sensing mechanisms in recent years. The natural flow sensing systems in aquatics and arthropods are reviewed to highlight inspirations at multiple levels such as morphology, sensing mechanism and information processing. Biomimetic hair flow sensors based on different sensing mechanisms and fabrication technologies are also reviewed to capture the recent accomplishments and to point out areas where further progress is necessary. Biomimetic flow sensors are still in their early stages. Further efforts are required to unveil the sensing mechanisms in the natural biological systems and to achieve multi-level bio-mimicking of the natural system to develop their artificial counterparts. (topical review)

Optimization of biodiesel production and engine performance from high free fatty acid Calophyllum inophyllum oil in CI diesel engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ong, Hwai Chyuan; Masjuki, H.H.; Mahlia, T.M.I.; Silitonga, A.S.; Chong, W.T.; Leong, K.Y.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Calophyllum inophyllum has been evaluated as a potential feedstock for biodiesel. • Acid and base catalyzed transesterification processes was used to produce biodiesel. • The physiochemical properties of CIME fulfilled specification of ASTM D6751. • Engine performance and emission are conducted for CIME and its blends. - Abstract: In the present study, crude Calophyllum inophyllum oil (CCIO) has been evaluated as a potential feedstock for biodiesel production. C.inophyllum oil has high acid value which is 59.30 mg KOH/g. Therefore, the degumming, esterification, neutralization and transesterification process are carried out to reduce the acid value to 0.34 mg KOH/g. The optimum yield was obtained at 9:1 methanol to oil ratio with 1 wt.%. NaOH catalyst at 50 °C for 2 h. On the other hand, the C.inophyllum biodiesel properties fulfilled the specification of ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 biodiesel standards. After that, the C.inophyllum biodiesel diesel blends were tested to evaluate the engine performance and emission characteristic. The performance and emission of 10% C.inophyllum biodiesel blends (CIB10) give a satisfactory result in diesel engines as the brake thermal increase 2.30% and fuel consumption decrease 3.06% compared to diesel. Besides, CIB10 reduces CO and smoke opacity compared to diesel. In short, C.inophyllum biodiesel can become an alternative fuel in the future

Bio energy - Environment, technique and market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hohle, Erik Eid

2001-01-01

Leading abstract. In this book, a group of experts discusses everything about the use of bio fuels, from the briquettes of dry alder used in automobile gas generators during World War II to the most advanced present-day use. The chapters are: (1) Energy and society, (2) Production of biomass, (3) Bio fuel - properties and production, (4) Bio fuel - conversion and use, (5) Environment and environmental engineering, (6) Economy and planning and (7) Bio energy in the energy system of the future. There is a list of literature and a glossary at the end of the book

Systems-wide metabolic pathway engineering in Corynebacterium glutamicum for bio-based production of diaminopentane.

Science.gov (United States)

Kind, Stefanie; Jeong, Weol Kyu; Schröder, Hartwig; Wittmann, Christoph

2010-07-01

In the present work the Gram-positive bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum was engineered into an efficient, tailor-made production strain for diaminopentane (cadaverine), a highly attractive building block for bio-based polyamides. The engineering comprised expression of lysine decarboxylase (ldcC) from Escherichia coli, catalyzing the conversion of lysine into diaminopentane, and systems-wide metabolic engineering of central supporting pathways. Substantially re-designing the metabolism yielded superior strains with desirable properties such as (i) the release from unwanted feedback regulation at the level of aspartokinase and pyruvate carboxylase by introducing the point mutations lysC311 and pycA458, (ii) an optimized supply of the key precursor oxaloacetate by amplifying the anaplerotic enzyme, pyruvate carboxylase, and deleting phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase which otherwise removes oxaloacetate, (iii) enhanced biosynthetic flux via combined amplification of aspartokinase, dihydrodipicolinate reductase, diaminopimelate dehydrogenase and diaminopimelate decarboxylase, and (iv) attenuated flux into the threonine pathway competing with production by the leaky mutation hom59 in the homoserine dehydrogenase gene. Lysine decarboxylase proved to be a bottleneck for efficient production, since its in vitro activity and in vivo flux were closely correlated. To achieve an optimal strain having only stable genomic modifications, the combination of the strong constitutive C. glutamicum tuf promoter and optimized codon usage allowed efficient genome-based ldcC expression and resulted in a high diaminopentane yield of 200 mmol mol(-1). By supplementing the medium with 1 mgL(-1) pyridoxal, the cofactor of lysine decarboxylase, the yield was increased to 300 mmol mol(-1). In the production strain obtained, lysine secretion was almost completely abolished. Metabolic analysis, however, revealed substantial formation of an as yet unknown by-product. It was identified as an

CLINICO-MORPHOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF BIO-OSS ® DURING BONE-PLASTIC OPERATIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pavel SIDELNIKOV

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Aim: To study the clinical and morphological characteristics of Bio-Oss ® and Bio-Gate ® materials during bone-plastic operations, especially bone regeneration after surgical interventiond. Materials and method: The pathomorphological study was performed with the intravital biopsy material of bone tissue from augmentation areas, obtained during implants placement. Clinical studies included subjective and objective methods, in particular X-ray analysis and photo documenting. Bio-Oss ®, Bio-Gide ®, Bio-Gide ® Perio membranes, Resor-Pin pins, U-impl implant systems were investigated and 231 operations were performed with Bio-Oss ® and Bio-Gate ®, of which 38 cases of sinus lifting, 145 of bone plasty with simultaneous implantation and 48 cases of periodontal surgery. Results: Usage of bone-plastic Bio-OSS ® and Bio-Gate ® materials during various bone-plastic and periodontal operations assures a high clinical effect (from 93 to 99%. Morphologically, it has been observed that, after usage of bone Bio-OSS ® and Bio-Gate ® materials, a new osteoid tissue was formed, similar to the bone tissue of the alveolar process, with high mineralization levels, especially in the first 2 years, due to the simultaneous resorption of the material. The newly-formed tissue has a classical design and can fully perform the functions of jaw bones, especially for carrying loads transmitted with either teeth or implants.

Bio ethanol use in light vehicles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nogueira, Luiz Augusto Horta; Leal, Manoel Regis Lima Verde

2012-07-01

This chapter approaches vehicles emissions and air quality, Unite States context, Brazilian context, bio ethanol impact on engine emissions, bioethanol and engine technologies for emission control, bioethanol impact on engine emissions, flex-fuel vehicles, impact of bioethanol use in light vehicles, evolution perspectives for light vehicles: energy issues, and hybrid vehicles.

Bio-inspired engineering of cell- and virus-like nanoparticles for drug delivery.

Science.gov (United States)

Parodi, Alessandro; Molinaro, Roberto; Sushnitha, Manuela; Evangelopoulos, Michael; Martinez, Jonathan O; Arrighetti, Noemi; Corbo, Claudia; Tasciotti, Ennio

2017-12-01

The engineering of future generations of nanodelivery systems aims at the creation of multifunctional vectors endowed with improved circulation, enhanced targeting and responsiveness to the biological environment. Moving past purely bio-inert systems, researchers have begun to create nanoparticles capable of proactively interacting with the biology of the body. Nature offers a wide-range of sources of inspiration for the synthesis of more effective drug delivery platforms. Because the nano-bio-interface is the key driver of nanoparticle behavior and function, the modification of nanoparticles' surfaces allows the transfer of biological properties to synthetic carriers by imparting them with a biological identity. Modulation of these surface characteristics governs nanoparticle interactions with the biological barriers they encounter. Building off these observations, we provide here an overview of virus- and cell-derived biomimetic delivery systems that combine the intrinsic hallmarks of biological membranes with the delivery capabilities of synthetic carriers. We describe the features and properties of biomimetic delivery systems, recapitulating the distinctive traits and functions of viruses, exosomes, platelets, red and white blood cells. By mimicking these biological entities, we will learn how to more efficiently interact with the human body and refine our ability to negotiate with the biological barriers that impair the therapeutic efficacy of nanoparticles. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Overcoming barriers to increased bio-energy use. Suggestions for a high impact policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chanakya, H.N.; Ravindranath, N.H.

1997-01-01

A few options that are likely to result in a high impact policy towards ensuring increased use of bio-energy in the developing world are discussed. Such options are: Moving towards greater energy security /guarantee, bio-energy technology transfer platforms, documentation in bio-energy businesses, removing risk perceptions in financing, increasing private entrepreneur stakes, etc. (K.A.)

Bio-hybrid micro/nanodevices powered by flagellar motor: challenges and strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jin-Woo eKim

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Molecular motors, which are precision-engineered by nature, offer exciting possibilities for bio-hybrid engineered systems. They could enable real applications ranging from micro/nano fluidics, to biosensing, to medical diagnoses. This review describes the fundamental biological insights and fascinating potentials of these remarkable sensing and actuation machines, in particular bacterial flagellar motors, as well as their engineering perspectives with regard to applications in bio-engineered hybrid systems and nanobiotechnology.

Production of Hydrogen from Bio-ethanol

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fabrice Giroudiere; Christophe Boyer; Stephane His; Robert Sanger; Kishore Doshi; Jijun Xu

2006-01-01

IFP and HyRadix are collaborating in the development of a new hydrogen production system from liquid feedstock such as bio-ethanol. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along with high hydrogen yield are the key objectives. Market application of the system will be hydrogen refueling stations as well as medium scale hydrogen consumers including the electronics, metals processing, and oils hydrogenation industries. The conversion of bio-ethanol to hydrogen will be performed within a co-developed process including an auto-thermal reformer working under pressure. The technology will produce high-purity hydrogen with ultralow CO content. The catalytic auto-thermal reforming technology combines the exothermic and endothermic reaction and leads to a highly efficient heat integration. The development strategy to reach a high hydrogen yield target with the bio-ethanol hydrogen generator is presented. (authors)

Introduction to chemical reaction engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Yeong Geol

1990-10-01

This deals with chemical reaction engineering with thirteen chapters. The contents of this book are introduction on reaction engineering, chemical kinetics, thermodynamics and chemical reaction, abnormal reactor, non-isothermal reactor, nonideal reactor, catalysis in nonuniform system, diffusion and reaction in porosity catalyst, design catalyst heterogeneous reactor in solid bed, a high molecule polymerization, bio reaction engineering, reaction engineering in material process, control multi-variable reactor process using digital computer.

Recent advances in high performance poly(lactide): From ``green'' plasticization to super-tough materials via (reactive) compounding

Science.gov (United States)

Kfoury, Georgio; Raquez, Jean-Marie; Hassouna, Fatima; Odent, Jérémy; Toniazzo, Valérie; Ruch, David; Dubois, Philippe

2013-12-01

Due to its origin from renewable resources, its biodegradability, and recently, its industrial implementation at low costs, poly(lactide) (PLA) is considered as one of the most promising ecological, bio-sourced and biodegradable plastic materials to potentially and increasingly replace traditional petroleum derived polymers in many commodity and engineering applications. Beside its relatively high rigidity (high tensile strength and modulus compared with many common thermoplastics such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), high impact poly(styrene) (HIPS) and poly(propylene) (PP)), PLA suffers from an inherent brittleness, which can limit its applications especially where mechanical toughness such as plastic deformation at high impact rates or elongation is required. Therefore, the curve plotting stiffness vs. impact resistance and ductility must be shifted to higher values for PLA-based materials, while being preferably fully bio-based and biodegradable upon the application. This review aims to establish a state of the art focused on the recent progresses and preferably economically viable strategies developed in the literature for significantly improve the mechanical performances of PLA. A particular attention is given to plasticization as well as to impact resistance modification of PLA in the case of (reactive) blending PLA-based systems.

Recent advances in high performance poly(lactide: From green plasticization to super-tough materials via (reactive compounding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georgio eKfoury

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Due to its origin from renewable resources, its biodegradability, and recently, its industrial implementation at low costs, poly(lactide (PLA is considered as one of the most promising ecological, bio-sourced and biodegradable plastic materials to potentially and increasingly replace traditional petroleum derived polymers in many commodity and engineering applications. Beside its relatively high rigidity (high tensile strength and modulus compared with many common thermoplastics such as poly(ethylene terephthalate (PET, high impact poly(styrene (HIPS and poly(propylene (PP, PLA suffers from an inherent brittleness, which can limit its applications especially where mechanical toughness such as plastic deformation at high impact rates or elongation is required. Therefore, the curve plotting stiffness vs. impact resistance and ductility must be shifted to higher values for PLA-based materials, while being preferably fully bio-based and biodegradable upon the application.This review aims to establish a state of the art focused on the recent progresses and preferably economically viable strategies developed in the literature for significantly improve the mechanical performances of PLA. A particular attention is given to plasticization as well as to impact resistance modification of PLA in the case of (reactive blending PLA-based systems.

Engineering performance metrics

Science.gov (United States)

Delozier, R.; Snyder, N.

1993-03-01

Implementation of a Total Quality Management (TQM) approach to engineering work required the development of a system of metrics which would serve as a meaningful management tool for evaluating effectiveness in accomplishing project objectives and in achieving improved customer satisfaction. A team effort was chartered with the goal of developing a system of engineering performance metrics which would measure customer satisfaction, quality, cost effectiveness, and timeliness. The approach to developing this system involved normal systems design phases including, conceptual design, detailed design, implementation, and integration. The lessons teamed from this effort will be explored in this paper. These lessons learned may provide a starting point for other large engineering organizations seeking to institute a performance measurement system accomplishing project objectives and in achieving improved customer satisfaction. To facilitate this effort, a team was chartered to assist in the development of the metrics system. This team, consisting of customers and Engineering staff members, was utilized to ensure that the needs and views of the customers were considered in the development of performance measurements. The development of a system of metrics is no different than the development of any type of system. It includes the steps of defining performance measurement requirements, measurement process conceptual design, performance measurement and reporting system detailed design, and system implementation and integration.

An investigation of the engine performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of coconut biodiesel in a high-pressure common-rail diesel engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

How, H.G.; Masjuki, H.H.; Kalam, M.A.; Teoh, Y.H.

2014-01-01

An experimental investigation on engine performance, emissions, combustion and vibration characteristics with coconut biodiesel fuels was conducted in a high-pressure common-rail diesel engine under five different load operations (0.17, 0.34, 0.52, 0.69 and 0.86 MPa). The test fuels included a conventional diesel fuel and four different fuel blends of coconut biodiesel (B10, B20, B30 and B50). The results showed that biodiesel blended fuels have significant influences on the BSFC (brake specific fuel consumption) and BSEC (brake specific energy consumption) at all engine loads. In general, the use of coconut biodiesel blends resulted in a reduction of BSCO (brake specific carbon monoxide) and smoke emissions regardless of the load conditions. A large reduction of 52.4% in smoke opacity was found at engine load of 0.86 MPa engine load with B50. For combustion characteristics, a slightly shorter ignition delay and longer combustion duration were found with the use of biodiesel blends under all loading operations. It was found that generally the biodiesel blends produced lower peak heat release rate than baseline diesel. The vibration results showed that the largest reduction of 13.7% in RMS (root mean square) of acceleration was obtained with B50 at engine load of 0.86 MPa with respect to the baseline diesel. - Highlights: • The performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of biodiesel were studied. • A tangible increase in BSFC was observed at all engine loads with coconut biodiesel. • A slightly shorter ignition delay was found with the use of biodiesel blends. • The vibrations for coconut biodiesel blends in diesel engine were investigated. • B50 achieved the largest reduction in RMS of acceleration at 0.86 MPa engine load

Construction of combustion models for rapeseed methyl ester bio-diesel fuel for internal combustion engine applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Golovitchev, Valeri I; Yang, Junfeng

2009-01-01

Bio-diesel fuels are non-petroleum-based diesel fuels consisting of long chain alkyl esters produced by the transesterification of vegetable oils, that are intended for use (neat or blended with conventional fuels) in unmodified diesel engines. There have been few reports of studies proposing theoretical models for bio-diesel combustion simulations. In this study, we developed combustion models based on ones developed previously. We compiled the liquid fuel properties, and the existing detailed mechanism of methyl butanoate ester (MB, C(5)H(10)O(2)) oxidation was supplemented by sub-mechanisms for two proposed fuel constituent components, C(7)H(16) and C(7)H(8)O (and then, by mp2d, C(4)H(6)O(2) and propyne, C(3)H(4)) to represent the combustion model for rapeseed methyl ester described by the chemical formula, C(19)H(34)O(2) (or C(19)H(36)O(2)). The main fuel vapor thermal properties were taken as those of methyl palmitate C(19)H(36)O(2) in the NASA polynomial form of the Burcat database. The special global reaction was introduced to "crack" the main fuel into its constituent components. This general reaction included 309 species and 1472 reactions, including soot and NO(x) formation processes. The detailed combustion mechanism was validated using shock-tube ignition-delay data under diesel engine conditions. For constant volume and diesel engine (Volvo D12C) combustion modeling, this mechanism could be reduced to 88 species participating in 363 reactions.

Performance study of four stroke S.I. engine using upgraded biogas fuel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jai Prakash

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In resent year, increased environmental awareness and energy shortages have encouraged researchers to investigate the possibility of using alternate fuels. The purpose of finding the alternate sources is to minimize the consumption of conventional fossil fuels and in turn to reduce the degradation of environmental quality to a great extent. The use of bio-based fuels like biogas produced from biomass and bio-wastes is a valuable energy source which is sustainable that can be manufactured from locally available waste streams thereby solving the local waste problem. Local wastes (organic wastes contain enough energy to contribute significantly to energy supply especially the rural regions of developing countries. Biogas is a clean and environment friendly fuel produced from anaerobic digestion of agro, animal or human wastes. The biogas has about 60 % methane and 40 % carbon dioxide with small traces of H2S. The use of H2S leads to formation of SO2 which combines with the water vapor to form acids and hence corrode the metals. Thus, raw biogas as such cannot be used for powering vehicular I.C engine. In the present work, an attempt has been made to upgrade the quality of raw biogas by removing CO2 and H2S, thus enriching its methane content up to the natural gas level and to study the performance of four stroke S.I engine aspirating upgraded biogas as primary fuel and its emission characteristics.

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli: a sustainable industrial platform for bio-based chemical production.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xianzhong; Zhou, Li; Tian, Kangming; Kumar, Ashwani; Singh, Suren; Prior, Bernard A; Wang, Zhengxiang

2013-12-01

In order to decrease carbon emissions and negative environmental impacts of various pollutants, more bulk and/or fine chemicals are produced by bioprocesses, replacing the traditional energy and fossil based intensive route. The Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium, Escherichia coli has been studied extensively on a fundamental and applied level and has become a predominant host microorganism for industrial applications. Furthermore, metabolic engineering of E. coli for the enhanced biochemical production has been significantly promoted by the integrated use of recent developments in systems biology, synthetic biology and evolutionary engineering. In this review, we focus on recent efforts devoted to the use of genetically engineered E. coli as a sustainable platform for the production of industrially important biochemicals such as biofuels, organic acids, amino acids, sugar alcohols and biopolymers. In addition, representative secondary metabolites produced by E. coli will be systematically discussed and the successful strategies for strain improvements will be highlighted. Moreover, this review presents guidelines for future developments in the bio-based chemical production using E. coli as an industrial platform. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessment of advanced technologies for high performance single-engine business airplanes

Science.gov (United States)

Kohlman, D. L.; Holmes, B. J.

1982-01-01

The prospects for significantly increasing the fuel efficiency and mission capability of single engine business aircraft through the incorporation of advanced propulsion, aerodynamics and materials technologies are explored. It is found that turbine engines cannot match the fuel economy of the heavier rotary, diesel and advanced spark reciprocating engines. The rotary engine yields the lightest and smallest aircraft for a given mission requirement, and also offers greater simplicity and a multifuel capability. Great promise is also seen in the use of composite material primary structures in conjunction with laminar flow wing surfaces, a pusher propeller and conventional wing-tail configuration. This study was conducted with the General Aviation Synthesis Program, which can furnish the most accurate mission performance calculations yet obtained.

Hydrogen engine performance analysis. First annual report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adt, Jr., R. R.; Swain, M. R.; Pappas, J. M.

1978-08-01

Many problems associated with the design and development of hydrogen-air breathing internal combustion engines for automotive applications have been identified by various domestic and foreign researchers. This project addresses the problems identified in the literature, seeks to evaluate potential solutions to these problems, and will obtain and document a design data-base convering the performance, operational and emissions characteristics essential for making rational decisions regarding the selection and design of prototype hydrogen-fueled, airbreathing engines suitable for manufacture for general automotive use. Information is included on the operation, safety, emission, and cost characteristics of hydrogen engines, the selection of a test engine and testing facilities, and experimental results. Baseline data for throttled and unthrottled, carburetted, hydrogen engine configurations with and without exhaust gas recirculation and water injection are presented. In addition to basic data gathering concerning performance and emissions, the test program conducted was formulated to address in detail the two major problems that must be overcome if hydrogen-fueled engines are to become viable: flashback and comparatively high NO/sub x/ emissions at high loads. In addition, the results of other hydrogen engine investigators were adjusted, using accepted methods, in order to make comparisons with the results of the present study. The comparisons revealed no major conflicts. In fact, with a few exceptions, there was found to be very good agreement between the results of the various studies.

High quality bio-oil from catalytic flash pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass over alumina-supported sodium carbonate

KAUST Repository

Imran, Ali

2014-11-01

Performance of a novel alumina-supported sodium carbonate catalyst was studied to produce a valuable bio-oil from catalytic flash pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass. Post treatment of biomass pyrolysis vapor was investigated in a catalyst fixed bed reactor at the downstream of the pyrolysis reactor. In-situ catalytic upgrading of biomass pyrolysis vapor was conducted in an entrained flow pyrolysis reactor by feeding a premixed feedstock of the catalyst and biomass. Na2CO3/gamma-Al2O3 was very effective for de-oxygenation of the pyrolysis liquid and oxygen content of the bio-oil was decreased from 47.5 wt.% to 16.4 wt.%. An organic rich bio-oil was obtained with 5.8 wt.% water content and a higher heating value of 36.1 MJ/kg. Carboxylic acids were completely removed and the bio-oil had almost a neutral pH. This bio-oil of high calorific low, low water and oxygen content may be an attractive fuel precursor. In-situ catalytic upgrading of biomass pyrolysis vapor produced a very similar quality bio-oil compared to post treatment of pyrolysis vapors, and shows the possible application of Na2CO3/gamma-Al2O3 in a commercial type reactor system such as a fluidized bed reactor. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimental Analysis of DI Diesel Engine Performance with Blend Fuels of Oxygenated Additive and COME Biodiesel

OpenAIRE

P. Venkateswara Rao; B.V. Appa Rao; D. Radhakrishna

2012-01-01

An experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the effect of using Triacetin (T) as an additive with biodiesel on direct injection diesel engine for performance and combustion characteristics. Normally in the usage of diesel fuel and neat biodiesel, knocking can be detected to some extent. By adding triacetin [C9H14O6] additive to biodiesel, this problem can be alleviated to some extent and the tail pipe emissions are reduced. Comparative study was conducted using petro-diesel, bio...

The feasibility of bio-oil production and application on the basis of the rotating cone technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gansekoele, E.; Wagenaar, B.M.

2001-07-01

The overall objective of the project on the title subject is to scale up the novel, rotating cone technology for flash pyrolysis of biomass and examine the related bio-energy system by application of bio-oil from several feedstocks in engines and combustion chambers. The specific objectives are: (1) To identify and characterize biomass feedstocks suitable for conversion to bio-oil by means of flash pyrolysis in a rotating cone reactor; (2) To scale-up the rotating cone reactor to a commercial size (200 kg biomass per hour); (3) To optimize the process with respect to quality and yield of the bio-oil in various test runs; (4) To produce bio-oil from various feedstocks in long lasting production runs; (5) To characterize the bio-oil and test it in properly adapted diesel engines and furnaces; and (6) To estimate the market potential for bio-oil and the economic feasibility of the technology. The objectives of the partners are: (1) to establish the most cost effective pre-treatment procedures to produce proper biomass feedstock for the pyrolysis process. In addition, 25 tons of pretreated biomass feedstock was prepared (CIEMAT, Spain); (2) design of the rotating cone pyrolysis plant at a biomass throughput of 200 kg/h, optimization of the pilot plant, and carrying out long duration runs (BTG, Netherlands); (3) development and construction of the flash pyrolysis pilot plant (KARA, Netherlands); and (4) investigation of the application of bio-oil in a combustion chamber, in a gas turbine and a diesel engine with respect to performance, efficiencies and emissions ( Rostock University, Germany). This report comprises the research results of all the partners for the whole chain: from biomass pre-treatment to bio-oil production and application. The different subjects are Biomass pre-treatment, Development of the 200 kg/h pyrolysis plant, Bio-oil application, and Economics and market potential of bio-oil application. refs

Experimental investigation of CI engine combustion, performance and emissions in DEE–kerosene–diesel blends of high DEE concentration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patil, K.R.; Thipse, S.S.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • First ever study on DEE–kerosene–diesel blends used in CI engine. • DEE–diesel blends have reduced the trade-off between PM and NOx of diesel engine. • Optimum performance blend has been found as DE15D. • Adulteration effects of kerosene with diesel have also been investigated. • Additions of kerosene with DE15D blend have deteriorated the overall engine performance. - Abstract: An experimental investigation had been carried out to evaluate the effects of oxygenated cetane improver diethyl ether (DEE) blends with kerosene and diesel on the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a direct injection diesel engine. Initially, 2%, 5%, 8%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% DEE (by volume) were blended into diesel. The DEE–diesel blends have reduced the trade-off between PM and NOx of diesel engine and the optimum performance blend has been found as DE15D. Similarly, 5%, 10% and 15% kerosene (by volume) were blended into diesel to investigate the adulteration effect. In addition, a study was carried out to evaluate the effects of kerosene adulteration on DE15D by blending with 5%, 10% and 15% kerosene (by volume). The engine tests were carried out at 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of full load for all test fuels. Laboratory fuel tests showed that the DEE is completely miscible with diesel and kerosene in any proportion. It was observed that the density, kinematic viscosity and calorific value of the blends decreases, while the oxygen content and cetane number of the blends increases with the concentration of DEE addition. The experimental test results showed that the DEE–kerosene–diesel blends have low brake thermal efficiency, high brake specific fuel consumption, high smoke at full load, low smoke at part load, overall low NO, almost similar CO, high HC at full load and low HC at part load as compared to DE15D blend

Effects of ethanol-diesel fuel blends on the performance and exhaust emissions of heavy duty DI diesel engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rakopoulos, D.C.; Rakopoulos, C.D.; Kakaras, E.C.; Giakoumis, E.G.

2008-01-01

An experimental investigation is conducted to evaluate the effects of using blends of ethanol with conventional diesel fuel, with 5% and 10% (by vol.) ethanol, on the performance and exhaust emissions of a fully instrumented, six-cylinder, turbocharged and after-cooled, heavy duty, direct injection (DI), Mercedes-Benz engine, installed at the authors' laboratory, which is used to power the mini-bus diesel engines of the Athens Urban Transport Organization sub-fleet with a view to using bio-ethanol produced from Greek feedstock. The tests are conducted using each of the above fuel blends, with the engine working at two speeds and three loads. Fuel consumption, exhaust smokiness and exhaust regulated gas emissions such as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and total unburned hydrocarbons are measured. The differences in the measured performance and exhaust emissions of the two ethanol-diesel fuel blends from the baseline operation of the engine, i.e. when working with neat diesel fuel, are determined and compared. Theoretical aspects of diesel engine combustion combined with the widely differing physical and chemical properties of the ethanol against those for the diesel fuel, are used to aid the correct interpretation of the observed engine behavior

A comparative estimation of C.I. engine fuelled with methyl esters of punnai, neem and waste cooking oil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Subramaniam, D.; Avinash, A. [Department of Mechanical Engineering - K.S.Rangasamy College of Technology –Tiruchengode, 637215 Tamil Nadu (India); Murugesan, A. [Department of Mechatronics Engineering - K.S.Rangasamy College of Technology – Tiruchengode, 637215 Tamil Nadu (India)

2013-07-01

In this experimental study, performance, emission, and combustion characteristics of methyl esters of Punnai, Neem, Waste Cooking Oil and their diesel blends in a C.I. engine was experimentally examined. For the study, Punnai oil methyl esters (POME), neem oil methyl esters (NOME), and Waste Cooking Oil Methyl Esters (WCOME) were prepared by tranesterification process. The Bio diesel-diesel blends were prepared by mixing 10%, 30%, 50%, and 70% of bio diesel with diesel. The effects of three methyl esters and their diesel blends on engine performance, combustion, and exhaust emissions were examined at different engine loads. Experimental results concluded that up to 30% of methyl esters did not affect the performance, combustion, and emissions characteristics. On the other hand, above B30 (30% Bio diesel with 70% diesel) a reduction in performance, combustion, and emission characteristics were clear from the study.

High-performance liquid chromatography of oligoguanylates at high pH

Science.gov (United States)

Stribling, R.; Deamer, D. (Principal Investigator)

1991-01-01

Because of the stable self-structures formed by oligomers of guanosine, standard high-performance liquid chromatography techniques for oligonucleotide fractionation are not applicable. Previously, oligoguanylate separations have been carried out at pH 12 using RPC-5 as the packing material. While RPC-5 provides excellent separations, there are several limitations, including the lack of a commercially available source. This report describes a new anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography method using HEMA-IEC BIO Q, which successfully separates different forms of the guanosine monomer as well as longer oligoguanylates. The reproducibility and stability at high pH suggests a versatile role for this material.

Development of tissue-engineered self-expandable aortic stent grafts (Bio stent grafts) using in-body tissue architecture technology in beagles.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawajiri, Hidetake; Mizuno, Takeshi; Moriwaki, Takeshi; Ishibashi-Ueda, Hatsue; Yamanami, Masashi; Kanda, Keiichi; Yaku, Hitoshi; Nakayama, Yasuhide

2015-02-01

In this study, we aimed to describe the development of tissue-engineered self-expandable aortic stent grafts (Bio stent graft) using in-body tissue architecture technology in beagles and to determine its mechanical and histological properties. The preparation mold was assembled by insertion of an acryl rod (outer diameter, 8.6 mm; length, 40 mm) into a self-expanding nitinol stent (internal diameter, 9.0 mm; length, 35 mm). The molds (n = 6) were embedded into the subcutaneous pouches of three beagles for 4 weeks. After harvesting and removing each rod, the excessive fragile tissue connected around the molds was trimmed, and thus tubular autologous connective tissues with the stent were obtained for use as Bio stent grafts (outer diameter, approximately 9.3 mm in all molds). The stent strut was completely surrounded by the dense collagenous membrane (thickness, ∼150 µm). The Bio stent graft luminal surface was extremely flat and smooth. The graft wall of the Bio stent graft possessed an elastic modulus that was almost two times higher than that of the native beagle abdominal aorta. This Bio stent graft is expected to exhibit excellent biocompatibility after being implanted in the aorta, which may reduce the risk of type 1 endoleaks or migration. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

BIOS Security Analysis and a Kind of Trusted BIOS

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Zhenliu; Xu, Rongsheng

The BIOS's security threats to computer system are analyzed and security requirements for firmware BIOS are summarized in this paper. Through discussion about TCG's trust transitivity, a new approach about CRTM implementation based on BIOS is developed. In this paper, we also put forward a new trusted BIOS architecture-UTBIOS which is built on Intel Framework for EFI/UEFI. The trustworthiness of UTBIOS is based on trusted hardware TPM. In UTBIOS, trust encapsulation and trust measurement are used to construct pre-OS trust chain. Performance of trust measurement is also analyzed in the end.

Performance evaluation of the Trans-PET®BioCaliburn® SH system

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Jun; Wang, Luyao; Kao, Chien-Min; Kim, Heejong; Xie, Qingguo

2015-03-01

The Trans-PET®BioCaliburn® SH system, recently introduced by the Raycan Technology Co. Ltd. (Suzhou, China), is a commercial positron emission tomography (PET) system designed for rodent imaging. The system contains 6 basic detector modules (BDMs) arranged on a 10.8 cm diameter ring to provide a transaxial field of view (FOV) of 6.5 cm and an axial FOV of 5.3 cm. In this paper, we report on its performance properties in accordance with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) 2008 NU-4 standards with modifications. The measured spatial resolution at the center of the FOV was 1.05 mm, 1.12 mm and 1.13 mm in the tangential, radial and axial directions, respectively. The measured system sensitivity was 3.29% for a point source at the center of the FOV when using a 350-650 keV energy window and a 5 ns coincidence time window. When a wider 250-750 keV energy window was used, it increased to 4.21%. For mouse- and rat-sized phantoms, the scatter fraction was 10.7% and 16.1%, respectively. The peak noise equivalent count rate were 36 kcps@8.52 MBq for the mouse-sized phantom and 16 kcps@6.79 MBq for the rat-sized phantom. The Derenzo phantom image showed that the system can resolve 1.0 mm diameter rods. The measured performance properties of the system indicate that the Trans-PET®BioCaliburn® SH is a versatile imaging device that can provide high spatial resolution for rodent imaging while offering competitive sensitivity and count-rate performance.

Recent advances in high performance poly(lactide): from “green” plasticization to super-tough materials via (reactive) compounding

Science.gov (United States)

Kfoury, Georgio; Raquez, Jean-Marie; Hassouna, Fatima; Odent, Jérémy; Toniazzo, Valérie; Ruch, David; Dubois, Philippe

2013-01-01

Due to its origin from renewable resources, its biodegradability, and recently, its industrial implementation at low costs, poly(lactide) (PLA) is considered as one of the most promising ecological, bio-sourced and biodegradable plastic materials to potentially and increasingly replace traditional petroleum derived polymers in many commodity and engineering applications. Beside its relatively high rigidity [high tensile strength and modulus compared with many common thermoplastics such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), high impact poly(styrene) (HIPS) and poly(propylene) (PP)], PLA suffers from an inherent brittleness, which can limit its applications especially where mechanical toughness such as plastic deformation at high impact rates or elongation is required. Therefore, the curve plotting stiffness vs. impact resistance and ductility must be shifted to higher values for PLA-based materials, while being preferably fully bio-based and biodegradable upon the application. This review aims to establish a state of the art focused on the recent progresses and preferably economically viable strategies developed in the literature for significantly improve the mechanical performances of PLA. A particular attention is given to plasticization as well as to impact resistance modification of PLA in the case of (reactive) blending PLA-based systems. PMID:24790960

Diesel engine performance and exhaust emission analysis using diesel-organic germanium fuel blend

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Syafiq Zulkifli

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Alternative fuels such as biodiesel, bio-alcohol and other biomass sources have been extensively research to find its potential as an alternative sources to fossil fuels. This experiment compared the performance of diesel (D, biodiesel (BD and diesel-organic germanium blend (BG5 at five different speeds ranging from 1200-2400 rpm. BG5 shows significant combustion performance compared to BD. No significant changes of power observed between BG5 and BD at a low speed (1200 rpm. On the contrary, at higher speeds (1800 rpm and 2400 rpm, BG5 blend fuel shows increased engine power of 12.2 % and 9.2 %, respectively. Similarly, torque shows similar findings as engine power, whereby the improvement could be seen at higher speeds (1800 rpm and 2400 rpm when torque increased by 7.3 % and 2.3 %, respectively. In addition, the emission results indicated that for all speeds, CO2, and NO had reduced at an average of 2.1 % and 177 %, respectively. Meanwhile, CO emission had slightly increased compared to BD at low speeds by 0.04 %. However, the amount of CO released had decreased at an average of 0.03 % as the engine speed increased. Finally, measurement of O2 shows an increment at 16.4 % at all speed range.

A highly efficient sharp-interface immersed boundary method with adaptive mesh refinement for bio-inspired flow simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Xiaolong; Dong, Haibo

2017-11-01

Developing a high-fidelity, high-efficiency numerical method for bio-inspired flow problems with flow-structure interaction is important for understanding related physics and developing many bio-inspired technologies. To simulate a fast-swimming big fish with multiple finlets or fish schooling, we need fine grids and/or a big computational domain, which are big challenges for 3-D simulations. In current work, based on the 3-D finite-difference sharp-interface immersed boundary method for incompressible flows (Mittal et al., JCP 2008), we developed an octree-like Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) technique to enhance the computational ability and increase the computational efficiency. The AMR is coupled with a multigrid acceleration technique and a MPI +OpenMP hybrid parallelization. In this work, different AMR layers are treated separately and the synchronization is performed in the buffer regions and iterations are performed for the convergence of solution. Each big region is calculated by a MPI process which then uses multiple OpenMP threads for further acceleration, so that the communication cost is reduced. With these acceleration techniques, various canonical and bio-inspired flow problems with complex boundaries can be simulated accurately and efficiently. This work is supported by the MURI Grant Number N00014-14-1-0533 and NSF Grant CBET-1605434.

A multi-scale, multi-disciplinary approach for assessing the technological, economic and environmental performance of bio-based chemicals.

Science.gov (United States)

Herrgård, Markus; Sukumara, Sumesh; Campodonico, Miguel; Zhuang, Kai

2015-12-01

In recent years, bio-based chemicals have gained interest as a renewable alternative to petrochemicals. However, there is a significant need to assess the technological, biological, economic and environmental feasibility of bio-based chemicals, particularly during the early research phase. Recently, the Multi-scale framework for Sustainable Industrial Chemicals (MuSIC) was introduced to address this issue by integrating modelling approaches at different scales ranging from cellular to ecological scales. This framework can be further extended by incorporating modelling of the petrochemical value chain and the de novo prediction of metabolic pathways connecting existing host metabolism to desirable chemical products. This multi-scale, multi-disciplinary framework for quantitative assessment of bio-based chemicals will play a vital role in supporting engineering, strategy and policy decisions as we progress towards a sustainable chemical industry. © 2015 Authors; published by Portland Press Limited.

Techno-economic performance analysis of bio-oil based Fischer-Tropsch and CHP synthesis platform

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ng, Kok Siew; Sadhukhan, Jhuma

2011-01-01

The techno-economic potential of the UK poplar wood and imported oil palm empty fruit bunch derived bio-oil integrated gasification and Fischer-Tropsch (BOIG-FT) systems for the generation of transportation fuels and combined heat and power (CHP) was investigated. The bio-oil was represented in terms of main chemical constituents, i.e. acetic acid, acetol and guaiacol. The compositional model of bio-oil was validated based on its performance through a gasification process. Given the availability of large scale gasification and FT technologies and logistic constraints in transporting biomass in large quantities, distributed bio-oil generations using biomass pyrolysis and centralised bio-oil processing in BOIG-FT system are technically more feasible. Heat integration heuristics and composite curve analysis were employed for once-through and full conversion configurations, and for a range of economies of scale, 1 MW, 675 MW and 1350 MW LHV of bio-oil. The economic competitiveness increases with increasing scale. A cost of production of FT liquids of 78.7 Euro/MWh was obtained based on 80.12 Euro/MWh of electricity, 75 Euro/t of bio-oil and 116.3 million Euro/y of annualised capital cost. -- Highlights: → Biomass to liquid process and gas to liquid process synthesis. → Biorefinery economic analysis. → Pyrolysis oil to biofuel. → Gasification and Fischer-Tropsch. → Process integration, pinch analysis and energy efficiency.

Device Engineering Towards Improved Tin Sulfide Solar Cell Performance and Performance Reproducibility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steinmann, Vera; Chakraborty, Rupak; Rekemeyer, Paul; Siol, Sebastian; Martinot, Loic; Polizzotti, Alex; Yang, Chuanxi; Hartman, Katy; Gradecak, Silvija; Zakutayev, Andriy; Gordon, Roy G.; Buonassisi, Tonio

2016-11-21

As novel absorber materials are developed and screened for their photovoltaic (PV) properties, the challenge remains to rapidly test promising candidates in high-performing PV devices. There is a need to engineer new compatible device architectures, including the development of novel transparent conductive oxides and buffer layers. Here, we consider the two approaches of a substrate-style and a superstrate-style device architecture for novel thin-film solar cells. We use tin sulfide as a test absorber material. Upon device engineering, we demonstrate new approaches to improve device performance and performance reproducibility.

BioCMOS Interfaces and Co-Design

CERN Document Server

Carrara, Sandro

2013-01-01

The application of CMOS circuits and ASIC VLSI systems to problems in medicine and system biology has led to the emergence of Bio/CMOS Interfaces and Co-Design as an exciting and rapidly growing area of research. The mutual inter-relationships between VLSI-CMOS design and the biophysics of molecules interfacing with silicon and/or onto metals has led to the emergence of the interdisciplinary engineering approach to Bio/CMOS interfaces. This new approach, facilitated by 3D circuit design and nanotechnology, has resulted in new concepts and applications for VLSI systems in the bio-world. This book offers an invaluable reference to the state-of-the-art in Bio/CMOS interfaces. It describes leading-edge research in the field of CMOS design and VLSI development for applications requiring integration of biological molecules onto the chip. It provides multidisciplinary content ranging from biochemistry to CMOS design in order to address Bio/CMOS interface co-design in bio-sensing applications.

Concept for high-performance direct ignition gas engines; Konzept fuer direkt gezuendete Gross-Gasmotoren

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fuchs, Jochen [Jenbacher Gasmotorensparte von GE, Jenbach (Austria). Bereich Thermodynamik; Leitner, Alexander; Tinschmann, Georg [Jenbacher Gasmotorensparte von GE, Jenbach (Austria). Bereich Konstruktion; Trapp, Christian [Jenbacher Gasmotorensparte von GE, Jenbach (Austria). Performance Engineering

2013-05-01

The characteristics of future gas engines for decentralised energy supply are high mean effective pressure, high efficiency and ultra-high air-to-fuel ratios leading to an electrical efficiency near 46% in the 1 to 2 MW segment at 1500 rpm. This article from GE's Jenbacher gas engines is a foresight on future development challenges in the large gas engine sector and presents possible technology blocks for further development of the Jenbacher Type 4 gas engine to increase power and efficiency.

Ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography hyphenated to atmospheric pressure chemical ionization high resolution mass spectrometry for the characterization of fast pyrolysis bio-oils.

Science.gov (United States)

Crepier, Julien; Le Masle, Agnès; Charon, Nadège; Albrieux, Florian; Duchene, Pascal; Heinisch, Sabine

2018-06-01

Extensive characterization of complex mixtures requires the combination of powerful analytical techniques. A Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) method was previously developed, for the specific case of fast pyrolysis bio oils, as an alternative to gas chromatography (GC and GC × GC) or liquid chromatography (LC and LC × LC), both separation methods being generally used prior to mass spectrometry (MS) for the characterization of such complex matrices. In this study we investigated the potential of SFC hyphenated to high resolution mass spectrometry (SFC-HRMS) for this characterization using Negative ion Atmospheric Pressure Chemical ionization ((-)APCI) for the ionization source. The interface between SFC and (-)APCI/HRMS was optimized from a mix of model compounds with the objective of maximizing the signal to noise ratio. The main studied parameters included both make-up flow-rate and make-up composition. A methodology for the treatment of APCI/HRMS data is proposed. This latter allowed for the identification of molecular formulae. Both SFC-APCI/HRMS method and data processing method were applied to a mixture of 36 model compounds, first analyzed alone and then spiked in a bio-oil. In both cases, 19 compounds could be detected. Among them 9 could be detected in a fast pyrolysis bio-oil by targeted analysis. The whole procedure was applied to the characterization of a bio-oil using helpful representations such as mass-plots, van Krevelen diagrams and heteroatom class distributions. Finally the results were compared with those obtained with a Fourier Transform ion-cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR/MS). Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Catalytic Steam Reforming of Bio-Oil to Hydrogen Rich Gas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trane-Restrup, Rasmus

heating value and high content of oxygen, which makes it unsuited for direct utilization in engines. One prospective technology for upgrading of bio-oil is steam reforming (SR), which can be used to produce H2 for upgrading of bio-oil through hydrodeoxygenation or synthesis gas for processes like......-oil. There are two main pathways to minimize carbon deposition in steam reforming; either through optimization of catalyst formulation or through changes to the process parameters, like changes in temperature, steam to carbon ratio (S/C), or adding O2 or H2 to the feed. In this thesis both pathways have been...

High School Student Information Access and Engineering Design Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Mentzer, Nathan

2014-01-01

Developing solutions to engineering design problems requires access to information. Research has shown that appropriately accessing and using information in the design process improves solution quality. This quasi-experimental study provides two groups of high school students with a design problem in a three hour design experience. One group has…

[Condition optimization for bio-oxidation of high-S and high-As gold concentrate].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Caiyun; Dong, Bowen; Wang, Meijun; Ye, Zhiyong; Zheng, Tianling; Huang, Huaiguo

2015-12-04

To study the effects of temperature and lixivium return on the concentrate bio-oxidation and rate of gold cyanide leaching. The bioleaching of a high-sulphur (S) and high-arsenic (As) refractory gold concentrate was conducted, and we studied the effects of different temperature (40 ° and 45 °C) and lixivium return (0 and 600 mL) on the bio-oxidation efficiency. The bacterial community structure also was investigated by 16S rRNA gene clone library. The results showed that both the temperature and lixivium return significantly influenced the oxidation system. The temperature rising elevated the oxidation level, while the addition of lixivium depressed the oxidation. Dissimilarity and DCA (detrended correspondence analysis) indicated the effect of temperature on oxidation system was much greater than lixivium. The bacterial community was comprised by Acidithiocacillus caldu (71%) Leptospirillum ferriphilum (23%) and Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans (6%) indicated by the clone library, and the OTU coverage based on 97% sequence similarity was as high as 93.67%. Temperature rising to 45 T would improve the oxidation efficiency while lixivium return would decrease it. This study is helpful to provide an important guiding value for the industry cost optimization of mesophile bacterial oxidation and reduction process.

The new Nissan high efficient 1.2L 3cyl GDI supercharged engine enables 95g/km CO2 emissions and high driving performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kishi, Kazuaki; Satou, Takeshi [Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Kanagawa (Japan)

2012-11-01

This paper describes a new 1.2-liter three cylinder gasoline engine named HR12DDR, with the target to achieve the lowest level CO2 in the European B-segment market and also, to satisfy the customer's driving pleasure through high output performance. This engine is developed with the consideration of meeting further strict regulations in the years ahead and of the possibility of being an alternative powertrain of diesel in the future as well. As a first step this engine was applied on the European Nissan Micra in 2011; achieving 95g/km CO2 emissions(NEDC mode). This low fuel consumption was realized mainly through technologies which scope to maximize thermal efficiency with high compression ratio, and to minimize the mechanical friction loss. The combustion was optimized by Direct Injection (DI) system. To obtain a better fuel economy performance without sacrificing high output, we chose the supercharger system with bypass valve and magnetic clutch. Details of the HR12DDR are presented here along with highlights of the applied technologies. (orig.)

Performance of Naturally Aspirating IC Engines Operating at High ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The loss of power and the increase of fuel consumption of naturally aspirating IC engines operating with low atmospheric pressure at high altitude as well as changes in the mixture quality with non adapting mixture formation systems are principally known. Other effects like the additional advance of ignition timing in petrol ...

High light bio-fortification stimulatesde novosynthesis ofresveratrol inDiplotaxis tenuifolia(wild rocket micro-greens

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bianke Loedolff

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Background: Brassica vegetables and leafy greens are consumed globally due to their health promoting phytochemicals. Diplotaxis tenuifolia (wild rocket or arugula is a popular Brassica leafy green, with a diverse range of phytochemicals (in mature plants. Immature plants (micro-greens, 2-4 true leaves accumulate phytochemicals up to 10 times more than plants grown to maturity. Although plants accumulate phytochemicals ubiquitously, environmental stimuli can further enhance this phenomenon of accumulation, which is part of a global stress mechanism in plants. In this study, we describe a simple method toward the bio-fortification of a wild rocket micro-green system, via environmental manipulation (using high light. Objective: To establish a high light-induced bio-fortification strategy to augment the accumulation of bio-active compounds in Brassica micro-greens (wild rocket, with the purpose of developing a ‘designer’ micro-green melange (functional food product containing a diverse range of bio-active (disease preventative compounds. Results: High light stimulated wild rocket micro-greens to achieve a significant increase of known phytochemicals (documented in relevant Brassica leafy greens. Furthermore, undocumented phytochemicals (resveratrol, catechin, epicatechin, and kaempferol, among others also accumulated to adequate concentrations. Plant extracts from bio-fortified micro-greens displayed increased anti-oxidant capacity (up to 3-fold, when compared to control, a key component in future cancer cell research. Conclusion: The use of high light resulted in successful bio-fortification of wild rocket micro-greens, evidenced by the accumulation of previously undocumented polyphenols (such as resveratrol, catechin and epicatechin and improved anti-oxidant capacity.

Performance of lignin derived aromatic oxygenates in a heavy-duty diesel engine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhou, L.; Boot, M.D.; Johansson, B.H.; Reijnders, J.J.E.

2014-01-01

The possibility to reduce dependence on fossil fuel resources has led to an increasing interest in the use of bio-fuels. This study builds on earlier work on (aromatic) cyclic oxygenates [1] and [2], but a far wider window of engine operation has been investigated in this paper. Two parametric

Emission Characteristics of CI Engine by using Palm BioDiesel

OpenAIRE

V.S.shai sundaram; S.S.shai monish

2015-01-01

Environmental concerns and energy crisis of the world has led to the search of alternate to the fossil fuel. FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) is environment friendly, alternative, and non-toxic, safe; biodegradable has a high flash point and is also termed as Bio-Diesel. The growing economic risk of relying primarily on fossil fuels with limited reserves and Increasing prices has increased the interest on alternative energy sources. Clean and renewable biofuels have been touted as t...

14th annual Results and Review Workshop on High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering

CERN Document Server

Nagel, Wolfgang E; Resch, Michael M; Transactions of the High Performance Computing Center, Stuttgart (HLRS) 2011; High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '11

2012-01-01

This book presents the state-of-the-art in simulation on supercomputers. Leading researchers present results achieved on systems of the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) for the year 2011. The reports cover all fields of computational science and engineering, ranging from CFD to computational physics and chemistry, to computer science, with a special emphasis on industrially relevant applications. Presenting results for both vector systems and microprocessor-based systems, the book allows readers to compare the performance levels and usability of various architectures. As HLRS

Spark ignition engine performance and emissions in a high compression engine using biogas and methane mixtures without knock occurrence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gómez Montoya Juan Pablo

2015-01-01

Full Text Available With the purpose to use biogas in an internal combustion engine with high compression ratio and in order to get a high output thermal efficiency, this investigation used a diesel engine with a maximum output power 8.5 kW, which was converted to spark ignition mode to use it with gaseous fuels. Three fuels were used: Simulated biogas, biogas enriched with 25% and 50% methane by volume. After conversion, the output power of the engine decreased by 17.64% when using only biogas, where 7 kW was the new maximum output power of the engine. The compression ratio was kept at 15.5:1, and knocking did not occur during engine operation. Output thermal efficiency operating the engine in SI mode with biogas enriched with 50% methane was almost the same compared with the engine running in diesel-biogas dual mode at full load and was greater at part loads. The dependence of the diesel pilot was eliminated when biogas was used in the engine converted in SI mode. The optimum condition of experiment for the engine without knocking was using biogas enriched with 50% methane, with 12 degrees of spark timing advance and equivalence ratio of 0.95, larger output powers and higher values of methane concentration lead the engine to knock operation. The presence of CO2 allows operating engines at high compression ratios with normal combustion conditions. Emissions of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and unburnt methane all in g/kWh decreased when the biogas was enriched with 50% methane.

Improved solar-driven photocatalytic performance of Ag_2CO_3/(BiO)_2CO_3 prepared in-situ

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhong, Junbo; Li, Jianzhang; Huang, Shengtian; Cheng, Chaozhu; Yuan, Wei; Li, Minjiao; Ding, Jie

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Ag_2CO_3/(BiO)_2CO_3 photocatalysts were prepared in-situ. • The photo-induced charge separation rate has been greatly increased. • The photocatalytic activity has been greatly promoted. - Abstract: Ag_2CO_3/(BiO)_2CO_3 composites have been fabricated in-situ via a facile parallel flaw co-precipitation method. The specific surface area, structure, morphology, and the separation rate of photo-induced charge pairs of the photocatalysts were characterized by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy(DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and surface photovoltage (SPV) spectroscopy, respectively. XRD patterns and DRS demonstrated that Ag_2CO_3 has no effect on the crystal phase and bandgap of (BiO)_2CO_3. The existence of Ag_2CO_3 in the composites enhances the separation rate of photo-induced charge pairs of the photocatalysts. The photocatalytic performance of Ag_2CO_3/(BiO)_2CO_3 was evaluated by the decolorization of methyl orange (MO) aqueous solution under simulated solar irradiation. It was found that the simulated solar-induced photocatalytic activity of Ag_2CO_3/(BiO)_2CO_3 copmposites was significantly improved, which was mainly attributed to the enhanced surface area and the separation rate of photo-induced charge pairs.

Engineering a predatory bacterium as a proficient killer agent for intracellular bio-products recovery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martinez, Virginia; Herencias, Cristina; Jurkevitch, Edouard

2016-01-01

This work examines the potential of the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus HD100, an obligate predator of other Gram-negative bacteria, as an external cell-lytic agent for recovering valuable intracellular bio-products produced by prey cultures. The bio-product targets to be recovered......% of that accumulated by the prey bacteria, even at high biomass concentrations. This innovative downstream process highlights how B. bacteriovorus can be used as a novel, biological lytic agent for the inexpensive, industrial scale recovery of intracellular products from different Gram-negative prey cultures....

Processing and characterization of bio-based composites

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Hong

Much research has focused on bio-based composites as a potential material to replace petroleum-based plastics. Considering the high price of Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), PHA/ Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) composite is a promising economical and high-performance biodegradable material. In this paper, we discuss the effect of DDGS on PHA composites in balancing cost with material performance. Poly (lactic acid) PLA/DDGS composite is another excellent biodegradable composite, although as a bio-based polymer its degradation time is relatively long. The goal of this research is therefore to accelerate the degradation process for this material. Both bio-based composites were extruded through a twin-screw microcompounder, and the two materials were uniformly mixed. The morphology of the samples was examined using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM); thermal stability was determined with a Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer (TGA); other thermal properties were studied using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and a Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA). Viscoelastic properties were also evaluated using a Rheometer.

Bio-based liquid crystalline polyesters

Science.gov (United States)

Wilsens, Carolus; Rastogi, Sanjay; Dutch Collaboration

2013-03-01

The reported thin-film polymerization has been used as a screening method in order to find bio-based liquid crystalline polyesters with convenient melting temperatures for melt-processing purposes. An in depth study of the structural, morphological and chemical changes occurring during the ongoing polycondensation reactions of these polymers have been performed. Structural and conformational changes during polymerization for different compositions have been followed by time resolved X-ray and Infrared spectroscopy. In this study, bio-based monomers such as vanillic acid and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid are successfully incorporated in liquid crystalline polyesters and it is shown that bio-based liquid crystalline polymers with high aromatic content and convenient processing temperatures can be synthesized. Special thanks to the Dutch Polymer Institute for financial support

Tissue engineering by self-assembly and bio-printing of living cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jakab, Karoly; Marga, Francoise; Forgacs, Gabor; Norotte, Cyrille; Murphy, Keith; Vunjak-Novakovic, Gordana

2010-01-01

Biofabrication of living structures with desired topology and functionality requires the interdisciplinary effort of practitioners of the physical, life and engineering sciences. Such efforts are being undertaken in many laboratories around the world. Numerous approaches are pursued, such as those based on the use of natural or artificial scaffolds, decellularized cadaveric extracellular matrices and, most lately, bioprinting. To be successful in this endeavor, it is crucial to provide in vitro micro-environmental clues for the cells resembling those in the organism. Therefore, scaffolds, populated with differentiated cells or stem cells, of increasing complexity and sophistication are being fabricated. However, no matter how sophisticated scaffolds are, they can cause problems stemming from their degradation, eliciting immunogenic reactions and other a priori unforeseen complications. It is also being realized that ultimately the best approach might be to rely on the self-assembly and self-organizing properties of cells and tissues and the innate regenerative capability of the organism itself, not just simply prepare tissue and organ structures in vitro followed by their implantation. Here we briefly review the different strategies for the fabrication of three-dimensional biological structures, in particular bioprinting. We detail a fully biological, scaffoldless, print-based engineering approach that uses self-assembling multicellular units as bio-ink particles and employs early developmental morphogenetic principles, such as cell sorting and tissue fusion. (topical review)

Tissue engineering by self-assembly and bio-printing of living cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jakab, Karoly; Marga, Francoise; Forgacs, Gabor [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 (United States); Norotte, Cyrille [Department of Biology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 (United States); Murphy, Keith [Organovo, Inc., 5871 Oberlin Drive, San Diego, CA 92121 (United States); Vunjak-Novakovic, Gordana, E-mail: forgacsg@missouri.ed [Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032 (United States)

2010-06-15

Biofabrication of living structures with desired topology and functionality requires the interdisciplinary effort of practitioners of the physical, life and engineering sciences. Such efforts are being undertaken in many laboratories around the world. Numerous approaches are pursued, such as those based on the use of natural or artificial scaffolds, decellularized cadaveric extracellular matrices and, most lately, bioprinting. To be successful in this endeavor, it is crucial to provide in vitro micro-environmental clues for the cells resembling those in the organism. Therefore, scaffolds, populated with differentiated cells or stem cells, of increasing complexity and sophistication are being fabricated. However, no matter how sophisticated scaffolds are, they can cause problems stemming from their degradation, eliciting immunogenic reactions and other a priori unforeseen complications. It is also being realized that ultimately the best approach might be to rely on the self-assembly and self-organizing properties of cells and tissues and the innate regenerative capability of the organism itself, not just simply prepare tissue and organ structures in vitro followed by their implantation. Here we briefly review the different strategies for the fabrication of three-dimensional biological structures, in particular bioprinting. We detail a fully biological, scaffoldless, print-based engineering approach that uses self-assembling multicellular units as bio-ink particles and employs early developmental morphogenetic principles, such as cell sorting and tissue fusion. (topical review)

Chemical Engineering in the "BIO" world

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chiarappa, Gianluca; Grassi, Mario; Abrami, Michela

2017-01-01

Modern Chemical Engineering was born around the end of the 19th century in Great Britain, Germany, and the USA, the most industrialized countries at that time. Milton C. Whitaker, in 1914, affirmed that the difference between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering lies in the capability of chemical...... engineers to transfer laboratory findings to the industrial level. Since then, Chemical Engineering underwent huge transformations determining the detachment from the original Chemistry nest. The beginning of the sixties of the 20th century saw the development of a new branch of Chemical Engineering...... baptized Biomedical Engineering by Peppas and Langer and that now we can name Biological Engineering. Interestingly, although Biological Engineering focused on completely different topics from Chemical Engineering ones, it resorted to the same theoretical tools such as, for instance, mass, energy...

Cyanobacteria: A precious bio-resource in agriculture, ecosystem and environmental sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jay Shankar eSingh

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Keeping in view the challenges concerning agro-ecosystem and environment, the recent developments in biotechnology offers a more reliable approach to address the food security for future generations and also resolve the complex environmental problems. Several unique features of cyanobacteria such as oxygenic photosynthesis, high biomass yield, growth on non-arable lands and a wide variety of water sources (contaminated and polluted waters, generation of useful by-products and bio-fuels, enhancing the soil fertility and reducing green house gas emissions, have collectively offered these bio-agents as the precious bio-resource for sustainable development. Cyanobacterial biomass is the effective bio-fertilizer source to improve soil physico-chemical characteristics such as water-holding capacity and mineral nutrient status of the degraded lands. The unique characteristics of cyanobacteria include their ubiquity presence, short generation time and capability to fix the atmospheric N2. Similar to other prokaryotic bacteria, the cyanobacteria are increasingly applied as bio-inoculants for improving soil fertility and environmental quality. Genetically engineered cyanobacteria have been devised with the novel genes for the production of a number of bio-fuels such as bio-diesel, bio-hydrogen, bio-methane, syngas and therefore, open new avenues for the generation of bio-fuels in the economically sustainable manner. This review is an effort to enlist the valuable information about the qualities of cyanobacteria and their potential role in solving the agricultural and environmental problems for the future welfare of the planet.

Cyanobacteria: A Precious Bio-resource in Agriculture, Ecosystem, and Environmental Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Jay Shankar; Kumar, Arun; Rai, Amar N.; Singh, Devendra P.

2016-01-01

Keeping in view, the challenges concerning agro-ecosystem and environment, the recent developments in biotechnology offers a more reliable approach to address the food security for future generations and also resolve the complex environmental problems. Several unique features of cyanobacteria such as oxygenic photosynthesis, high biomass yield, growth on non-arable lands and a wide variety of water sources (contaminated and polluted waters), generation of useful by-products and bio-fuels, enhancing the soil fertility and reducing green house gas emissions, have collectively offered these bio-agents as the precious bio-resource for sustainable development. Cyanobacterial biomass is the effective bio-fertilizer source to improve soil physico-chemical characteristics such as water-holding capacity and mineral nutrient status of the degraded lands. The unique characteristics of cyanobacteria include their ubiquity presence, short generation time and capability to fix the atmospheric N2. Similar to other prokaryotic bacteria, the cyanobacteria are increasingly applied as bio-inoculants for improving soil fertility and environmental quality. Genetically engineered cyanobacteria have been devised with the novel genes for the production of a number of bio-fuels such as bio-diesel, bio-hydrogen, bio-methane, synga, and therefore, open new avenues for the generation of bio-fuels in the economically sustainable manner. This review is an effort to enlist the valuable information about the qualities of cyanobacteria and their potential role in solving the agricultural and environmental problems for the future welfare of the planet. PMID:27148218

The effect of wound dressings on a bio-engineered human dermo-epidermal skin substitute in a rat model

OpenAIRE

Hüging, Martina; Biedermann, Thomas; Sobrio, Monia; Meyer, Sarah; Böttcher-Haberzeth, Sophie; Manuel, Edith; Horst, Maya; Hynes, Sally; Reichmann, Ernst; Schiestl, Clemens; Hartmann-Fritsch, Fabienne

2017-01-01

Autologous bio-engineered dermo-epidermal skin substitutes are a promising treatment for large skin defects such as burns. For their successful clinical application, the graft dressing must protect and support the keratinocyte layer and, in many cases, possess antimicrobial properties. However, silver in many antimicrobial dressings may inhibit keratinocyte growth and differentiation. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the effect of various wound dressings on the healing of a human hydro...

Natural and bio-inspired underwater adhesives: Current progress and new perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Mengkui; Ren, Susu; Wei, Shicao; Sun, Chengjun; Zhong, Chao

2017-11-01

Many marine organisms harness diverse protein molecules as underwater adhesives to achieve strong and robust interfacial adhesion under dynamic and turbulent environments. Natural underwater adhesion phenomena thus provide inspiration for engineering adhesive materials that can perform in water or high-moisture settings for biomedical and industrial applications. Here we review examples of biological adhesives to show the molecular features of natural adhesives and discuss how such knowledge serves as a heuristic guideline for the rational design of biologically inspired underwater adhesives. In view of future bio-inspired research, we propose several potential opportunities, either in improving upon current L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine-based and coacervates-enabled adhesives with new features or engineering conceptually new types of adhesives that recapitulate important characteristics of biological adhesives. We underline the importance of viewing natural adhesives as dynamic materials, which owe their outstanding performance to the cellular coordination of protein expression, delivery, deposition, assembly, and curing of corresponding components with spatiotemporal control. We envision that the emerging synthetic biology techniques will provide great opportunities for advancing both fundamental and application aspects of underwater adhesives.

Natural and bio-inspired underwater adhesives: Current progress and new perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mengkui Cui

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Many marine organisms harness diverse protein molecules as underwater adhesives to achieve strong and robust interfacial adhesion under dynamic and turbulent environments. Natural underwater adhesion phenomena thus provide inspiration for engineering adhesive materials that can perform in water or high-moisture settings for biomedical and industrial applications. Here we review examples of biological adhesives to show the molecular features of natural adhesives and discuss how such knowledge serves as a heuristic guideline for the rational design of biologically inspired underwater adhesives. In view of future bio-inspired research, we propose several potential opportunities, either in improving upon current L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine-based and coacervates-enabled adhesives with new features or engineering conceptually new types of adhesives that recapitulate important characteristics of biological adhesives. We underline the importance of viewing natural adhesives as dynamic materials, which owe their outstanding performance to the cellular coordination of protein expression, delivery, deposition, assembly, and curing of corresponding components with spatiotemporal control. We envision that the emerging synthetic biology techniques will provide great opportunities for advancing both fundamental and application aspects of underwater adhesives.

Rotary engine performance limits predicted by a zero-dimensional model

Science.gov (United States)

Bartrand, Timothy A.; Willis, Edward A.

1992-01-01

A parametric study was performed to determine the performance limits of a rotary combustion engine. This study shows how well increasing the combustion rate, insulating, and turbocharging increase brake power and decrease fuel consumption. Several generalizations can be made from the findings. First, it was shown that the fastest combustion rate is not necessarily the best combustion rate. Second, several engine insulation schemes were employed for a turbocharged engine. Performance improved only for a highly insulated engine. Finally, the variability of turbocompounding and the influence of exhaust port shape were calculated. Rotary engines performance was predicted by an improved zero-dimensional computer model based on a model developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1980's. Independent variables in the study include turbocharging, manifold pressures, wall thermal properties, leakage area, and exhaust port geometry. Additions to the computer programs since its results were last published include turbocharging, manifold modeling, and improved friction power loss calculation. The baseline engine for this study is a single rotor 650 cc direct-injection stratified-charge engine with aluminum housings and a stainless steel rotor. Engine maps are provided for the baseline and turbocharged versions of the engine.

Nannochloropsis algae pyrolysis with ceria-based catalysts for production of high-quality bio-oils.

Science.gov (United States)

Aysu, Tevfik; Sanna, Aimaro

2015-10-01

Pyrolysis of Nannochloropsis was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor with newly prepared ceria based catalysts. The effects of pyrolysis parameters such as temperature and catalysts on product yields were investigated. The amount of bio-char, bio-oil and gas products, as well as the compositions of the resulting bio-oils was determined. The results showed that both temperature and catalyst had significant effects on conversion of Nannochloropsis into solid, liquid and gas products. The highest bio-oil yield (23.28 wt%) and deoxygenation effect was obtained in the presence of Ni-Ce/Al2O3 as catalyst at 500°C. Ni-Ce/Al2O3 was able to retain 59% of the alga starting energy in the bio-oil, compared to only 41% in absence of catalyst. Lower content of acids and oxygen in the bio-oil, higher aliphatics (62%), combined with HHV show promise for production of high-quality bio-oil from Nannochloropsis via Ni-Ce/Al2O3 catalytic pyrolysis. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An experimental assessment on the influence of high octane fuels on biofuel based dual fuel engine performance, emission, and combustion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masimalai Senthilkumar

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an experimental study on the effect of different high octane fuels (such as eucalyptus oil, ethanol, and methanol on engine’s performance behaviour of a biofuel based dual fuel engine. A single cylinder Diesel engine was modified and tested under dual fuel mode of operation. Initially the engine was run using neat diesel, neat mahua oil as fuels. In the second phase, the engine was operated in dual fuel mode by using a specially designed variable jet carburettor to supply the high octane fuels. Engine trials were made at 100% and 40% loads (power outputs with varying amounts of high octane fuels up-to the maximum possible limit. The performance and emission characteristics of the engine were obtained and analysed. Results indicated significant improvement in brake thermal efficiency simultaneous reduction in smoke and NO emissions in dual fuel operation with all the inducted fuels. At 100% load the brake thermal efficiency increased from 25.6% to a maximum of 32.3, 30.5, and 28.4%, respectively, with eucalyptus oil, ethanol, and methanol as primary fuels. Smoke was reduced drastically from 78% with neat mahua oil a minimum of 41, 48, and 53%, respectively, with eucalyptus oil, ethanol, and methanol at the maximum efficiency point. The optimal energy share for the best engine behaviour was found to be 44.6, 27.3, and 23.2%, respectively, for eucalyptus oil, ethanol, and methanol at 100% load. Among the primary fuels tested, eucalyptus oil showed the maximum brake thermal efficiency, minimum smoke and NO emissions and maximum energy replacement for the optimal operation of the engine.

Surface engineering for enhanced performance against wear

CERN Document Server

2013-01-01

Surface Engineering constitutes a variety of processes and sub processes. Each chapter of this work covers specific processes by experts working in the area. Included for each topic are tribological performances for each process as well as results of recent research. The reader also will benefit from in-depth studies of diffusion coatings, nanocomposite films for wear resistance, surfaces for biotribological applications, thin-film wear, tribology of thermal sprayed coatings, hardfacing, plating for tribology and high energy beam surface modifications. Material scientists as well as engineers working with surface engineering for tribology will be particularly interested in this work.

Chemical Engineering in the "BIO" World.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiarappa, Gianluca; Grassi, Mario; Abrami, Michela; Abbiati, Roberto Andrea; Barba, Anna Angela; Boisen, Anja; Brucato, Valerio; Ghersi, Giulio; Caccavo, Diego; Cascone, Sara; Caserta, Sergio; Elvassore, Nicola; Giomo, Monica; Guido, Stefano; Lamberti, Gaetano; Larobina, Domenico; Manca, Davide; Marizza, Paolo; Tomaiuolo, Giovanna; Grassi, Gabriele

2017-01-01

Modern Chemical Engineering was born around the end of the 19th century in Great Britain, Germany, and the USA, the most industrialized countries at that time. Milton C. Whitaker, in 1914, affirmed that the difference between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering lies in the capability of chemical engineers to transfer laboratory findings to the industrial level. Since then, Chemical Engineering underwent huge transformations determining the detachment from the original Chemistry nest. The beginning of the sixties of the 20th century saw the development of a new branch of Chemical Engineering baptized Biomedical Engineering by Peppas and Langer and that now we can name Biological Engineering. Interestingly, although Biological Engineering focused on completely different topics from Chemical Engineering ones, it resorted to the same theoretical tools such as, for instance, mass, energy and momentum balances. Thus, the birth of Biological Engineering may be considered as a Darwinian evolution of Chemical Engineering similar to that experienced by mammals which, returning to water, used legs and arms to swim. From 1960 on, Biological Engineering underwent a considerable evolution as witnessed by the great variety of topics covered such as hemodialysis, release of synthetic drugs, artificial organs and, more recently, delivery of small interfering RNAs (siRNA). This review, based on the activities developed in the frame of our PRIN 2010-11 (20109PLMH2) project, tries to recount origins and evolution of Chemical Engineering illustrating several examples of recent and successful applications in the biological field. This, in turn, may stimulate the discussion about the Chemical Engineering students curriculum studiorum update. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Bio-efficacy comparison of herbal-methionine and DL-methionine based on performance and blood parameters of broiler chickens

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheila Hadinia

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This study was conducted to compare the bio-efficacy of herbal methionine (H-Met relative to DL-methionine (DL-Met on 160 “Ross 308” broiler chickens. DL-Met and H-Met were added to the basal diet in eight experimental treatments with three and four concentrations respectively in starter, grower and finisher period. Blood parameters which were measured at 24 and 42 days of age consisted of: serum proteins (total protein, albumin and globulin, serum uric acid, serum fats (low density lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein, triglyceride and cholesterol and serum enzymes (alanine amino transaminase and aspartate amino transaminase. Completely randomized design, multi-exponential and multilinear regressions were used to determine bio-efficacy of H-Met in terms of performance and blood parameters of broilers. The results showed that supplemented methionine (Met sources had no significant effect on blood parameters at 24 day of age. At 42 day of age the amounts of globulin and serum high density lipoprotein (HDL increased with supplemented Met, (p < 0.05. Regression analysis revealed that H-Met was 55.00, 71.00, 78.00, 47.00, 58.00 and 73.00% as efficacious as DL-Met for body weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, albumin, globulin and high density lipoprotein criteria, respectively. The average of bio-efficacy of H-Met compared to DL-Met was 67.00% and 59.00% on average across performance criteria and blood criteria respectively and was 63.00% across these two criteria tested. The results of the present study indicated that H-Met can be administered as a new and a natural source of Met in poultry industry.

A Study on Performance, Combustion and Emission Characteristics of Compression Ignition Engine Using Fish Oil Biodiesel Blends

Science.gov (United States)

Ramesha, D. K.; Thimmannachar, Rajiv K.; Simhasan, R.; Nagappa, Manjunath; Gowda, P. M.

2012-07-01

Bio-fuel is a clean burning fuel made from natural renewable energy resource; it operates in C. I. engine similar to the petroleum diesel. The rising cost of diesel and the danger caused to the environment has led to an intensive and desperate search for alternative fuels. Among them, animal fats like the fish oil have proven to be a promising substitute to diesel. In this experimental study, A computerized 4-stroke, single cylinder, constant speed, direct injection diesel engine was operated on fish oil-biodiesel of different blends. Three different blends of 10, 20, and 30 % by volume were used for this study. Various engine performance, combustion and emission parameters such as Brake Thermal Efficiency, Brake Specific Fuel Consumption, Heat Release Rate, Peak Pressure, Exhaust Gas Temperature, etc. were recorded from the acquired data. The data was recorded with the help of an engine analysis software. The recorded parameters were studied for varying loads and their corresponding graphs have been plotted for comparison purposes. Petroleum Diesel has been used as the reference. From the properties and engine test results it has been established that fish oil biodiesel is a better replacement for diesel without any engine modification.

Local damage to Ultra High Performance Concrete structures caused by an impact of aircraft engine missiles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riedel, Werner; Noeldgen, Markus; Strassburger, Elmar; Thoma, Klaus; Fehling, Ekkehard

2010-01-01

Research highlights: → Experimental series on UHPC panels subjected to aircraft engine impact. → Improved ballistic limit of fiber reinforced UHPC in comparison to conventional R/C. → Detailed investigation of failure mechanisms of fiber reinforced UHPC panel. - Abstract: The impact of an aircraft engine missile causes high stresses, deformations and a severe local damage to conventional reinforced concrete. As a consequence the design of R/C protective structural elements results in components with rather large dimensions. Fiber reinforced Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is a concrete based material which combines ultra high strength, high packing density and an improved ductility with a significantly increased energy dissipation capacity due to the addition of fiber reinforcement. With those attributes the material is potentially suitable for improved protective structural elements with a reduced need for material resources. The presented paper reports on an experimental series of scaled aircraft engine impact tests with reinforced UHPC panels. The investigations are focused on the material behavior and the damage intensity in comparison to conventional concrete. The fundamental work of is taken as reference for the evaluation of the results. The impactor model of a Phantom F4 GE-J79 engine developed and validated by Sugano et al. is used as defined in the original work. In order to achieve best comparability, the experimental configuration and method are adapted for the UHPC experiments. With 'penetration', 'scabbing' and 'perforation' all relevant damage modes defined in are investigated so that a full set of results are provided for a representative UHPC structural configuration.

Performance of diesel engine fuelled with sunflower biodiesel blends; Desempenho de motor diesel com misturas de biodiesel de oleo de girassol

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Correa, Ila Maria; Maziero, Jose Valdemar Gonzalez; Bernardi, Jose Augusto; Storino, Moises [Instituto Agronomico de Campinas (CEA/IAC), SP (Brazil). Centro de Engenharia e Automacao; Ungaro, Maria Regina [Instituto Agronomico de Campinas (IAC), SP (Brazil). Centro de Graos e Fibras

2006-07-01

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the use of sunflower bio diesel blends in a CI engine, direct injection. The test procedure was done in a dynamometer bench had been determined the performance of engine through power take-off (PTO) with use of diesel and sunflower bio diesel blends (B5, B10, B20 and B100). The lubricating oil was analyzed before and after period of 96 hours. The results were: D (40,7 kw; 271 g/kw.h); B5 (40,3 kw; 271 g/kw.h); B10 (39,8 kw; 277 g/kw.h); B20 (40,0 kw; 277 g/kw.h) e B100 (39,8 kw; 291 g/kw.h). It was conclude that the use of blends B5, B10, B20 and B100 decreased the power of PTO max. 2,2% and increased the fuel consumption max. 7, 3%. The analyze of lubricating oil showed that the viscosity, water content and level of iron were the parameters more affected, although it had been acceptable. (author)

Bio-oil production from dry sewage sludge by fast pyrolysis in an electrically-heated fluidized bed reactor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Renato O. Arazo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The optimization of bio-oil produced from sewage sludge using fast pyrolysis in a fluidized bed reactor was investigated. Effects of temperature, sludge particle size and vapor residence time on bio-oil properties, such as yield, high heating value (HHV and moisture content were evaluated through experimental and statistical analyses. Characterization of the pyrolysis products (bio-oil and biogas was also done. Optimum conditions produced a bio-oil product with an HHV that is nearly twice as much as lignocellulosic-derived bio-oil, and with properties comparable to heavy fuel oil. Contrary to generally acidic bio-oil, the sludge-derived bio-oil has almost neutral pH which could minimize the pipeline and engine corrosions. The Fourier Transform Infrared and gas-chromatography and mass spectrometry analyses of bio-oil showed a dominant presence of gasoline-like compounds. These results demonstrate that fast pyrolysis of sewage sludge from domestic wastewater treatment plant is a favorable technology to produce biofuels for various applications.

Highly Branched Bio-Based Unsaturated Polyesters by Enzymatic Polymerization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nguyen, Hiep Dinh; Löf, David; Hvilsted, Søren

2016-01-01

A one-pot, enzyme-catalyzed bulk polymerization method for direct production of highly branched polyesters has been developed as an alternative to currently used industrial procedures. Bio-based feed components in the form of glycerol, pentaerythritol, azelaic acid, and tall oil fatty acid (TOFA)...... stability, very high water contact angles of up to 141° and a glass transition temperature that could be controlled through the feed composition....

Commissioning and Performance Analysis of WhisperGen Stirling Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Pradip, Prashant Kaliram

Stirling engine based cogeneration systems have potential to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission, due to their high cogeneration efficiency and emission control due to steady external combustion. To date, most studies on this unit have focused on performance based on both experimentation and computer models, and lack experimental data for diversified operating ranges. This thesis starts with the commissioning of a WhisperGen Stirling engine with components and instrumentation to evaluate power and thermal performance of the system. Next, a parametric study on primary engine variables, including air, diesel, and coolant flowrate and temperature were carried out to further understand their effect on engine power and efficiency. Then, this trend was validated with the thermodynamic model developed for the energy analysis of a Stirling cycle. Finally, the energy balance of the Stirling engine was compared without and with heat recovery from the engine block and the combustion chamber exhaust.

Performance and enhanced mechanism of a novel bio-diatomite biofilm pretreatment process treating polluted raw water.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Guang-feng; Feng, Li-juan; Wang, Sha-fei; Yang, Qi; Xu, Xiang-yang; Zhu, Liang

2015-09-01

A lab-scale novel bio-diatomite biofilm process (BDBP) was established for the polluted raw water pretreatment in this study. Results showed that a shorter startup period of BDBP system was achieved under the completely circulated operation mode, and the removal efficiencies of nitrogen and disinfection by-product precursor were effective at low hydraulic retention time of 2-4 h due to high biomass attached to the carrier and diatomite. A maximum NH4(+)-N oxidation potential predicted by modified Stover-Kincannon model was 333.3 mg L(-1) d(-1) in the BDBP system, which was 4.7 times of that in the control reactor. Results demonstrated that the present of bio-diatomite favors the accumulation of functional microbes in the oligotrophic niche, and the pollutants removal performance of this novel process was enhanced for polluted raw water pretreatment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bio-technologies; Biotechnologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grawitz, X. [Systems Bio Industries, 92 - Boulogne Billancourt (France)

1997-12-31

This paper is a series of transparencies which describes the measures taken by Systems Bio-Industries company to adapt its central heating plants, turbines, engines and dryers to the new French 2910 by-law about thermal efficiency and environmental impact of heating plants. The project of development of a cogeneration system in the Angouleme site is briefly described. (J.S.)

High performance computing in linear control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Datta, B.N.

1993-01-01

Remarkable progress has been made in both theory and applications of all important areas of control. The theory is rich and very sophisticated. Some beautiful applications of control theory are presently being made in aerospace, biomedical engineering, industrial engineering, robotics, economics, power systems, etc. Unfortunately, the same assessment of progress does not hold in general for computations in control theory. Control Theory is lagging behind other areas of science and engineering in this respect. Nowadays there is a revolution going on in the world of high performance scientific computing. Many powerful computers with vector and parallel processing have been built and have been available in recent years. These supercomputers offer very high speed in computations. Highly efficient software, based on powerful algorithms, has been developed to use on these advanced computers, and has also contributed to increased performance. While workers in many areas of science and engineering have taken great advantage of these hardware and software developments, control scientists and engineers, unfortunately, have not been able to take much advantage of these developments

Effect of vibration duration of high ultrasound applied to bio-composite while gelatinized on its properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Abral, Hairul; Putra, Genda J; Asrofi, Mohammad; Park, Ji-Won; Kim, Hyun-Joong

2018-01-01

This article reports effect of vibration duration of high ultrasound applied to bio-composite while gelatinized on its properties. The bio-composite consists of mixing of both the tapioca starch based bioplastic and oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibers with high volume fraction. Gelatinization of the bio-composite sample was poured into a rectangular glass mold placed then in an ultrasonic bath with 40kHz, and 250watt in different duration for 0, 15, 30, 60min respectively. The results show that vibration during gelatinization has changed the characterisation of the bio-composite. SEM photograph displayed different fracture surface of tensile sample. For vibration duration of 60min, tensile strength (TM), and tensile modulus (TM) was improved to 64.4, 277.4%, respectively, meanwhile strain was decreased to 35.1% in comparison without vibration. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and XRD diffraction of the bio-composite has changed due to various vibration duration. Moisture absorption of the vibrated bio-composite was lower than that of the untreated one. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High voltage engineering

CERN Document Server

Rizk, Farouk AM

2014-01-01

Inspired by a new revival of worldwide interest in extra-high-voltage (EHV) and ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission, High Voltage Engineering merges the latest research with the extensive experience of the best in the field to deliver a comprehensive treatment of electrical insulation systems for the next generation of utility engineers and electric power professionals. The book offers extensive coverage of the physical basis of high-voltage engineering, from insulation stress and strength to lightning attachment and protection and beyond. Presenting information critical to the design, selec

A Historical Review of Cermet Fuel Development and the Engine Performance Implications

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Mark E.

2015-01-01

To better understand Cermet engine performance, examined historical material development reports two issues: High vaporization rate of UO2, High temperature chemical stability of UO2. Cladding and chemical stabilizers each result in large, order of magnitude improvements in high temperature performance. Few samples were tested above 2770 K. Results above 2770 K are ambiguous. Contemporary testing may clarify performance. Cermet sample testing during the NERVA Rover era. Important properties, melting temperature, vaporization rate, strength, Brittle-to-Ductile Transition, cermet sample test results, engine performance, location, peak temperature.

Single-piston alternative to Stirling engines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glushenkov, Maxim; Sprenkeler, Martin; Kronberg, Alexander; Kirillov, Valeriy

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Thermodynamic analysis of an unconventional heat engine. ► The engine has a number of advantages compared to state-of-the-art Stirling engines. ► The engine can to be fuelled with “difficult” fuels and used for micro-CHP systems. ► The energy conversion efficiency can be as high as 40–50%. ► A prototype of the engine was demonstrated. -- Abstract: Thermodynamic analysis of an unconventional heat engine was performed. The engine studied has a number of advantages compared to state-of-the-art Stirling engines. The main advantage of the engine proposed is its simplicity. A power piston is integral with a displacer and a heat regenerator. It allows solving the problem of the high-temperature sealing of the piston and the displacer typical of all types of Stirling engines. In addition the design proposed provides ideal use of the displacer volume eliminating heat losses from outside gas circuit. Both strokes of the piston are working ones in contrary to any other types of piston engines. The engine can be considered as maintenance-free as it has no piston rings or any other rubbing components requiring lubrication. The only seal is contactless and wear free. It is located in the cold part of the cylinder. As a result the leakage rate in operation can be one-two orders of magnitude as small as that in Stirling engines. Balancing of the engine is much easy compared to Stirling engines with two reciprocating masses because of the only moving part inside the engine cylinder. The engine suits ideally to be fuelled with “difficult” fuels such as bio oil and can be used as a prime mover for micro-CHP systems. The thermodynamic model developed incorporates non-ideal features of the cycle, such as specific regenerator efficiency, dead volumes and other geometrical parameters of the engine. The model shows that the energy efficiency is highly sensitive to regenerator performance. For realistic geometric and operating parameters and the

Emission performance of lignin-derived cyclic oxygenates in a heavy-duty diesel engine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhou, L.; Boot, M.D.; Luijten, C.C.M.; Leermakers, C.A.J.; Dam, N.J.; Goey, de L.P.H.

2012-01-01

In earlier research, a new class of bio-fuels, so-called cyclic oxygenates, was reported to have a favorable impact on the soot-NOx trade-off experience in diesel engines. In this paper, the soot-NOx trade-off is compared for two types of cyclic oxygenates. 2-phenyl ethanol has an aromatic and

Diesel reformulation using bio-derived propanol to control toxic emissions from a light-duty agricultural diesel engine.

Science.gov (United States)

Thillainayagam, Muthukkumar; Venkatesan, Krishnamoorthy; Dipak, Rana; Subramani, Saravanan; Sethuramasamyraja, Balaji; Babu, Rajesh Kumar

2017-07-01

In the Indian agricultural sector, millions of diesel-driven pump-sets were used for irrigation purposes. These engines produce carcinogenic diesel particulates, toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions which threaten the livelihood of large population of farmers in India. The present study investigates the use of n-propanol, a less-explored high carbon bio-alcohol that can be produced by sustainable pathways from industrial and crop wastes that has an attractive opportunity for powering stationary diesel engines meant for irrigation and rural electrification. This study evaluates the use of n-propanol addition in fossil diesel by up to 30% by vol. and concurrently reports the effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on emissions of an agricultural DI diesel engine. Three blends PR10, PR20, and PR30 were prepared by mixing 10, 20, and 30% by vol. of n-propanol with fossil diesel. Results when compared to baseline diesel case indicated that smoke density reduced with increasing n-propanol fraction in the blends. PR10, PR20, and PR30 reduced smoke density by 13.33, 33.33, and 60%, respectively. NOx emissions increased with increasing n-propanol fraction in the blends. Later, three EGR rates (10, 20, and 30%) were employed. At any particular EGR rate, smoke density remained lower with increasing n-propanol content in the blends under increasing EGR rates. NOx reduced gradually with EGR. At 30% EGR, the blends PR10, PR20, and PR30 reduced NOx emissions by 43.04, 37.98, and 34.86%, respectively when compared to baseline diesel. CO emissions remained low but hydrocarbon (HC) emissions were high for n-propanol/diesel blends under EGR. Study confirmed that n-propanol could be used by up to 30% by vol. with diesel and the blends delivered lower soot density, NOx, and CO emissions under EGR.

Developing a hybrid dictionary-based bio-entity recognition technique

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Background Bio-entity extraction is a pivotal component for information extraction from biomedical literature. The dictionary-based bio-entity extraction is the first generation of Named Entity Recognition (NER) techniques. Methods This paper presents a hybrid dictionary-based bio-entity extraction technique. The approach expands the bio-entity dictionary by combining different data sources and improves the recall rate through the shortest path edit distance algorithm. In addition, the proposed technique adopts text mining techniques in the merging stage of similar entities such as Part of Speech (POS) expansion, stemming, and the exploitation of the contextual cues to further improve the performance. Results The experimental results show that the proposed technique achieves the best or at least equivalent performance among compared techniques, GENIA, MESH, UMLS, and combinations of these three resources in F-measure. Conclusions The results imply that the performance of dictionary-based extraction techniques is largely influenced by information resources used to build the dictionary. In addition, the edit distance algorithm shows steady performance with three different dictionaries in precision whereas the context-only technique achieves a high-end performance with three difference dictionaries in recall. PMID:26043907

Developing a hybrid dictionary-based bio-entity recognition technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Min; Yu, Hwanjo; Han, Wook-Shin

2015-01-01

Bio-entity extraction is a pivotal component for information extraction from biomedical literature. The dictionary-based bio-entity extraction is the first generation of Named Entity Recognition (NER) techniques. This paper presents a hybrid dictionary-based bio-entity extraction technique. The approach expands the bio-entity dictionary by combining different data sources and improves the recall rate through the shortest path edit distance algorithm. In addition, the proposed technique adopts text mining techniques in the merging stage of similar entities such as Part of Speech (POS) expansion, stemming, and the exploitation of the contextual cues to further improve the performance. The experimental results show that the proposed technique achieves the best or at least equivalent performance among compared techniques, GENIA, MESH, UMLS, and combinations of these three resources in F-measure. The results imply that the performance of dictionary-based extraction techniques is largely influenced by information resources used to build the dictionary. In addition, the edit distance algorithm shows steady performance with three different dictionaries in precision whereas the context-only technique achieves a high-end performance with three difference dictionaries in recall.

BioVLAB-MMIA-NGS: microRNA-mRNA integrated analysis using high-throughput sequencing data.

Science.gov (United States)

Chae, Heejoon; Rhee, Sungmin; Nephew, Kenneth P; Kim, Sun

2015-01-15

It is now well established that microRNAs (miRNAs) play a critical role in regulating gene expression in a sequence-specific manner, and genome-wide efforts are underway to predict known and novel miRNA targets. However, the integrated miRNA-mRNA analysis remains a major computational challenge, requiring powerful informatics systems and bioinformatics expertise. The objective of this study was to modify our widely recognized Web server for the integrated mRNA-miRNA analysis (MMIA) and its subsequent deployment on the Amazon cloud (BioVLAB-MMIA) to be compatible with high-throughput platforms, including next-generation sequencing (NGS) data (e.g. RNA-seq). We developed a new version called the BioVLAB-MMIA-NGS, deployed on both Amazon cloud and on a high-performance publicly available server called MAHA. By using NGS data and integrating various bioinformatics tools and databases, BioVLAB-MMIA-NGS offers several advantages. First, sequencing data is more accurate than array-based methods for determining miRNA expression levels. Second, potential novel miRNAs can be detected by using various computational methods for characterizing miRNAs. Third, because miRNA-mediated gene regulation is due to hybridization of an miRNA to its target mRNA, sequencing data can be used to identify many-to-many relationship between miRNAs and target genes with high accuracy. http://epigenomics.snu.ac.kr/biovlab_mmia_ngs/. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Utilization of oil palm tree residues to produce bio-oil and bio-char via pyrolysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abnisa, Faisal; Arami-Niya, Arash; Wan Daud, W.M.A.; Sahu, J.N.; Noor, I.M.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • About 14.72% of the total landmass in Malaysia was used for oil palm plantations. • Oil palm tree residues were pyrolyzed to produce bio-oil and bio-char. • The process was performed at a temperature of 500 °C and reaction time of 60 min. • Characterization of the products was performed. - Abstract: Oil palm tree residues are a rich biomass resource in Malaysia, and it is therefore very important that they be utilized for more beneficial purposes, particularly in the context of the development of biofuels. This paper described the possibility of utilizing oil palm tree residues as biofuels by producing bio-oil and bio-char via pyrolysis. The process was performed in a fixed-bed reactor at a temperature of 500 °C, a nitrogen flow rate of 2 L/min and a reaction time of 60 min. The physical and chemical properties of the products, which are important for biofuel testing, were then characterized. The results showed that the yields of the bio-oil and bio-char obtained from different residues varied within the ranges of 16.58–43.50 wt% and 28.63–36.75 wt%, respectively. The variations in the yields resulted from differences in the relative amounts of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, volatiles, fixed carbon, and ash in the samples. The energy density of the bio-char was found to be higher than that of the bio-oil. The highest energy density of the bio-char was obtained from a palm leaf sample (23.32 MJ/kg), while that of the bio-oil was obtained from a frond sample (15.41 MJ/kg)

Atomic Layer Deposition in Bio-Nanotechnology: A Brief Overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Bishal, Arghya K; Butt, Arman; Selvaraj, Sathees K; Joshi, Bela; Patel, Sweetu B; Huang, Su; Yang, Bin; Shukohfar, Tolou; Sukotjo, Cortino; Takoudis, Christos G

2015-01-01

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a technique increasingly used in nanotechnology and ultrathin film deposition; it is ideal for films in the nanometer and Angstrom length scales. ALD can effectively be used to modify the surface chemistry and functionalization of engineering-related and biologically important surfaces. It can also be used to alter the mechanical, electrical, chemical, and other properties of materials that are increasingly used in biomedical engineering and biological sciences. ALD is a relatively new technique for optimizing materials for use in bio-nanotechnology. Here, after a brief review of the more widely used modes of ALD and a few of its applications in biotechnology, selected results that show the potential of ALD in bio-nanotechnology are presented. ALD seems to be a promising means for tuning the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity characteristics of biomedical surfaces, forming conformal ultrathin coatings with desirable properties on biomedical substrates with a high aspect ratio, tuning the antibacterial properties of substrate surfaces of interest, and yielding multifunctional biomaterials for medical implants and other devices.

PLA/Bio-PE blends: effect of the Bio-PE content on the crystallinity rheological properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Araujo, Aylanna P.M. de; Agrawal, Pankaj; Cavalcanti, Shirley N.; Alves, Amanda M.; Melo, Tomas J.A. de; Brito, Gustavo F.

2014-01-01

The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of the Bio-PE content on the crystallinity and rheological properties of PLA/Bio-PE blend. The blends containing 05 and 15% of Bio-PE were prepared by extrusion followed by injection molding and characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and rheological properties at low and high shear rates. XRD results indicated that the PLA present low crystallinity and this behavior was not changed with the addition of Bio-PE, regardless of Bio-PE content. Rheological properties results indicated that at low shear rates the viscosity of the PLA/Bio-PE increased with the increase in the Bio-PE content while at high shear rates the viscosities where almost similar, which may be ascribed to the orientation of Bio-PE particles in the flow direction or by the viscous dissipation. (author)

Solvent Engineering for High-Performance PbS Quantum Dots Solar Cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rongfang Wu

2017-07-01

Full Text Available PbS colloidal quantum dots (CQDs solar cells have already demonstrated very impressive advances in recent years due to the development of many different techniques to tailor the interface morphology and compactness in PbS CQDs thin film. Here, n-hexane, n-octane, n-heptane, isooctane and toluene or their hybrids are for the first time introduced as solvent for comparison of the dispersion of PbS CQDs. PbS CQDs solar cells with the configuration of PbS/TiO2 heterojunction are then fabricated by using different CQDs solution under ambient conditions. The performances of the PbS CQDs solar cells are found to be tuned by changing solvent and its content in the PbS CQDs solution. The best device could show a power conversion efficiency (PCE of 7.64% under AM 1.5 G illumination at 100 mW cm−2 in a n-octane/isooctane (95%/5% v/v hybrid solvent scheme, which shows a ~15% improvement compared to the control devices. These results offer important insight into the solvent engineering of high-performance PbS CQDs solar cells.

Application of selected advanced technologies to high performance, single-engine, business airplanes

Science.gov (United States)

Domack, C. S.; Martin, G. L.

1984-01-01

Improvements in performance and fuel efficiency are evaluated for five new configurations of a six place, single turboprop, business airplane derived from a conventional, aluminum construction baseline aircraft. Results show the greatest performance gains for enhancements in natural laminar flow. A conceptual diesel engine provides greater fuel efficiency but reduced performance. Less significant effects are produced by the utilization of composite materials construction or by reconfiguration from tractor to pusher propeller installation.

Wood to Bio-Methane demonstration project in the Netherlands

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Van der Meijden, C.M.; Van der Drift, A.; Rietveld, G. [ECN Biomass and Energy Efficiency, Petten (Netherlands); Koenemann, J.W. [Dahlman Renewable Technology, P.O. Box 438, 3140 AK Maassluis (Netherlands); Sierhuis, W. [HVCgroup, P.O. Box 9199, 1800 GD, Alkmaar (Netherlands)

2013-06-15

The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed a biomass gasification technology, called the MILENA technology. The Milena gasification technology has a high cold gas efficiency and high methane yield, making it very suitable for gas engine and turbine applications as well as upgrading of the gas into Bio-Methane. An overall efficiency from biomass to power of over 30% is possible, whereas 70% efficiency is achievable from biomass to gas grid quality methane. HVC Group (situated in Alkmaar, North Holland) is a modern public service waste company. HVC converts waste streams which cannot be recycled into usable forms of energy. HVC has a 75 MWth waste wood boiler in operation which produces heat and electricity, and an anaerobic digester which converts domestic fruit, vegetable and garden waste into Bio-Methane. HVC expects an important role for Bio-Methane in the future and HVC has decided to join ECN with the development, demonstration and implementation of the MILENA Bio-Methane technology. Linked to the Bio-Methane demonstration project is the Netherlands Expertise Centre for Biomass Gasification. The MILENA demonstration project and the Gasification Expert Centre are supported by the following companies and organizations: HVC, TAQA, Gasunie, Dahlman, province of North Holland, the Alkmaar municipality and ECN. In 2010 and 2012 extensive lab-scale and pilot scale tests have been executed by ECN and HVC to proof that the gasification and gas cleaning technology is ready for commercial application. The final step in this test program was a duration test in the 800 kWth MILENA pilot plant coupled to the OLGA tar removal unit. The goal was to show high availability. The result of the test was an availability of the gasifier of 96% and an overall availability (including gas cooling and gas cleaning) of 85%. The results of the duration tests convinced HVC and the other partners that the technology is ready for scale-up. The results produced in the

Combustion phenomenon, performance and emissions of a diesel engine with aviation turbine JP-8 fuel and rapeseed biodiesel blends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Labeckas, Gvidonas; Slavinskas, Stasys

2015-01-01

Highlights: • The 5 vol% RME added to JP-8 fuel improved lubricity 1.7 times according corrected wear scar diameter, μm. • The reverse trends revealed in the autoignition delay when operating with identical fuel blends J10 and B10. • The brake thermal efficiency increased by 1.0–3.6% when running on bio-fuels J5–J30 at speed of 2200 rpm. • The NO_x emissions increased by 5.2% when operating on bio-jet fuel J30 at full load and speed of 2200 rpm. • CO, HC emissions and smoke decreased with biofuel J20 and higher blends at both speeds of 1400 and 2200 rpm. - Abstract: The article presents the test results of an engine operating with diesel fuel (B5), turbine type JP-8 fuel and its 5 vol%, 10 vol%, 20 vol%, and 30 vol% blends with rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME). Additional fuel blend B10 was prepared by pouring 10 vol% of RME to diesel fuel to extend interpretation of the test results. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using jet-biodiesel fuel blends J5, J10, J20, J30, and B10 on the start of injection, ignition delay, combustion history, heat release, engine performance, and exhaust emissions. The engine performance parameters were examined at light 15% (1400 rpm) and 10% (2200 rpm), medium 50%, and high 100% loads and the two speeds: 1400 rpm at which maximum torque occurs and a rated speed of 2200 rpm. The autoignition delay and maximum heat release rate decreased, maximum cylinder pressure, and pressure gradients increased, whereas brake specific fuel consumption changed little and brake thermal efficiency was 1.0–3.6% higher when running with fuel blends J5 to J30 at rated speed compared with the data measured with neat jet fuel. The NO_x emissions increased slightly, but the CO, THC emissions, and smoke opacity boosted up significantly when using jet fuel blend J10 with a smooth reduction of unburned hydrocarbons for jet-biodiesel fuel blends with higher CN ratings. Operation at a full (100%) load with fuel blend J10

Bio-degradable highly fluorescent conjugated polymer nanoparticles for bio-medical imaging applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Repenko, Tatjana; Rix, Anne; Ludwanowski, Simon; Go, Dennis; Kiessling, Fabian; Lederle, Wiltrud; Kuehne, Alexander J C

2017-09-07

Conjugated polymer nanoparticles exhibit strong fluorescence and have been applied for biological fluorescence imaging in cell culture and in small animals. However, conjugated polymer particles are hydrophobic and often chemically inert materials with diameters ranging from below 50 nm to several microns. As such, conjugated polymer nanoparticles cannot be excreted through the renal system. This drawback has prevented their application for clinical bio-medical imaging. Here, we present fully conjugated polymer nanoparticles based on imidazole units. These nanoparticles can be bio-degraded by activated macrophages. Reactive oxygen species induce scission of the conjugated polymer backbone at the imidazole unit, leading to complete decomposition of the particles into soluble low molecular weight fragments. Furthermore, the nanoparticles can be surface functionalized for directed targeting. The approach opens a wide range of opportunities for conjugated polymer particles in the fields of medical imaging, drug-delivery, and theranostics.Conjugated polymer nanoparticles have been applied for biological fluorescence imaging in cell culture and in small animals, but cannot readily be excreted through the renal system. Here the authors show fully conjugated polymer nanoparticles based on imidazole units that can be bio-degraded by activated macrophages.

Performance study of sugar-yeast-ethanol bio-hybrid fuel cells

Science.gov (United States)

Jahnke, Justin P.; Mackie, David M.; Benyamin, Marcus; Ganguli, Rahul; Sumner, James J.

2015-05-01

Renewable alternatives to fossil hydrocarbons for energy generation are of general interest for a variety of political, economic, environmental, and practical reasons. In particular, energy from biomass has many advantages, including safety, sustainability, and the ability to be scavenged from native ecosystems or from waste streams. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can take advantage of microorganism metabolism to efficiently use sugar and other biomolecules as fuel, but are limited by low power densities. In contrast, direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) take advantage of proton exchange membranes (PEMs) to generate electricity from alcohols at much higher power densities. Here, we investigate a novel bio-hybrid fuel cell design prepared using commercial off-the-shelf DAFCs. In the bio-hybrid fuel cells, biomass such as sugar is fermented by yeast to ethanol, which can be used to fuel a DAFC. A separation membrane between the fermentation and the DAFC is used to purify the fermentate while avoiding any parasitic power losses. However, shifting the DAFCs from pure alcohol-water solutions to filtered fermented media introduces complications related to how the starting materials, fermentation byproducts, and DAFC waste products affect both the fermentation and the long-term DAFC performance. This study examines the impact of separation membrane pore size, fermentation/fuel cell byproducts, alcohol and salt concentrations, and load resistance on fuel cell performance. Under optimized conditions, the performance obtained is comparable to that of a similar DAFC run with a pure alcohol-water mixture. Additionally, the modified DAFC can provide useable amounts of power for weeks.

Microvalve-based bioprinting - process, bio-inks and applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Wei Long; Lee, Jia Min; Yeong, Wai Yee; Win Naing, May

2017-03-28

Bioprinting is an emerging research field that has attracted tremendous attention for various applications; it offers a highly automated, advanced manufacturing platform for the fabrication of complex bioengineered constructs. Different bio-inks comprising multiple types of printable biomaterials and cells are utilized during the bioprinting process to improve the homology to native tissues and/or organs in a highly reproducible manner. This paper, presenting a first-time comprehensive yet succinct review of microvalve-based bioprinting, provides an in-depth analysis and comparison of different drop-on-demand bioprinting systems and highlights the important considerations for microvalve-based bioprinting systems. This review paper reports a detailed analysis of its printing process, bio-ink properties and cellular components on the printing outcomes. Lastly, this review highlights the significance of drop-on-demand bioprinting for various applications such as high-throughput screening, fundamental cell biology research, in situ bioprinting and fabrication of in vitro tissue constructs and also presents future directions to transform the microvalve-based bioprinting technology into imperative tools for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Enhanced Massive Visualization of Engines Performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rostand, N D; Eglantine, H; Jerôme, L

2012-01-01

Today, we are witnessing an increasing complexity of transport in order to deal with requirements of safety, security, reliability and efficiency. Such transport is generally equipped with drive systems; it is nevertheless for engine manufacturers to overcome the performance requirements of energy efficiency throughout their operations. To this end, this article proposes a performance monitoring solution for a large fleet of engines in operation. It uses a pre-calibrated physical model developed by the engine manufacturer regarding the performance objectives as reference. The physical model is firstly decomposed into critical performance modules, and is secondly updated on current observations extracted at specific predefined operating conditions in order to derive residual errors status of each engine tested. Through a process of standardization of those contextual differences remaining, the solution offers a synthesis mapping to visualize the evolution of performance of each engine throughout its operations. This article describes the theoretical methodology of implementation mainly based on universal mathematical foundations, and vindicates the interests of its industrialization in the light of the proactive findings.

Capture of circulatory endothelial progenitor cells and accelerated re-endothelialization of a bio-engineered stent in human ex vivo shunt and rabbit denudation model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

K. Larsen (Katarína); C. Cheng (Caroline (Ka Lai)); D. Tempel (Dennie); S. Parker (Sherry); S. Yazdani (Saami); W.K. den Dekker (Wijnand); H.J. Houtgraaf (Jaco); R. de Jong (Renate); S. Swager-ten Hoor (Stijn); E. Ligtenberg (Erik); S.R. Hanson (Stephen); R. Rowland (Steve); F. Kolodgie (Frank); P.W.J.C. Serruys (Patrick); R. Virmani (Renu); H.J. Duckers (Henricus)

2012-01-01

textabstractThe Genous™ Bio-engineered R™ stent (GS) aims to promote vascular healing by capture of circulatory endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) to the surface of the stent struts, resulting in accelerated re-endothelialization. Here, we assessed the function of the GS in comparison to bare-metal

Next generation platforms for high-throughput bio-dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Repin, Mikhail; Turner, Helen C.; Garty, Guy; Brenner, David J.

2014-01-01

Here the general concept of the combined use of plates and tubes in racks compatible with the American National Standards Institute/the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening microplate formats as the next generation platforms for increasing the throughput of bio-dosimetry assays was described. These platforms can be used at different stages of bio-dosimetry assays starting from blood collection into micro-tubes organised in standardised racks and ending with the cytogenetic analysis of samples in standardised multi-well and multichannel plates. Robotically friendly platforms can be used for different bio-dosimetry assays in minimally equipped laboratories and on cost-effective automated universal biotech systems. (authors)

Production of bio-oil with flash pyrolysis; Biooeljyn tuotanto flash-pyrolyysillae ja sen poltto

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nyroenen, T [Vapo Oy, Jyvaeskylae (Finland)

1997-12-01

The target of the R and D work is to study the production of bio-oils using Flash-pyrolysis technology and utilisation of the bio-oil in oil-fuelled boilers. The PDU-unit was installed at VTT Energy in Otaniemi in April 1996. The first test were carried out in June. In the whole project Vapo Oy is responsible for: acquiring the 20 kg/h PDU-device for development; follow up of the engine tests; the investment of 5 MW demonstration plant; to carry on the boiler and engine tests with Finnish bio-oils. (orig.)

Failure Analysis of a Modern High Performance Diesel Engine Cylinder Head

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bingbin Guo

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a failure analysis on a modern high performance diesel engine cylinder head made of gray cast iron. Cracks appeared intensively at the intersection of two exhaust passages in the cylinder head. The metallurgical examination was conducted in the crack origin zone and other zones. Meanwhile, the load state of the failure part of the cylinder head was determined through the Finite Element Analysis. The results showed that both the point of the maximum temperature and the point of the maximum thermal-mechanical coupling stress were not in the crack position. The excessive load was not the main cause of the failure. The large cooling rate in the casting process created an abnormal graphite zone that existed below the surface of the exhaust passage (about 1.1 mm depth, which led to the fracture of the cylinder head. In the fractured area, there were a large number of casting defects (dip sand, voids, etc. and inferior graphite structure (type D, type E which caused stress concentration. Moreover, high temperature gas entered the cracks, which caused material corrosion, material oxidization, and crack propagation. Finally, premature fracture of the cylinder head took place.

Investigation of Bio-Diesel Fueled Engines under Low-Temperature Combustion Strategies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chia-fon F. Lee; Alan C. Hansen

2010-09-30

In accordance with meeting DOE technical targets this research was aimed at developing and optimizing new fuel injection technologies and strategies for the combustion of clean burning renewable fuels in diesel engines. In addition a simultaneous minimum 20% improvement in fuel economy was targeted with the aid of this novel advanced combustion system. Biodiesel and other renewable fuels have unique properties that can be leveraged to reduce emissions and increase engine efficiency. This research is an investigation into the combustion characteristics of biodiesel and its impacts on the performance of a Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) engine, which is a novel engine configuration that incorporates technologies and strategies for simultaneously reducing NOx and particulate emissions while increasing engine efficiency. Generating fundamental knowledge about the properties of biodiesel and blends with petroleum-derived diesel and their impact on in-cylinder fuel atomization and combustion processes was an important initial step to being able to optimize fuel injection strategies as well as introduce new technologies. With the benefit of this knowledge experiments were performed on both optical and metal LTC engines in which combustion and emissions could be observed and measured under realistic conditions. With the aid these experiments and detailed combustion models strategies were identified and applied in order to improve fuel economy and simultaneously reduce emissions.

Continuous production of bio-oil by catalytic liquefaction from wet distiller’s grain with solubles (WDGS) from bio-ethanol production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toor, Saqib Sohail; Rosendahl, Lasse; Nielsen, Mads Pagh; Glasius, Marianne; Rudolf, Andreas; Iversen, Steen Brummerstedt

2012-01-01

Bio-refinery concepts are currently receiving much attention due to the drive toward flexible, highly efficient systems for utilization of biomass for food, feed, fuel and bio-chemicals. One way of achieving this is through appropriate process integration, in this particular case combining enzymatic bio-ethanol production with catalytic liquefaction of the wet distillers grains with soluble, a byproduct from the bio-ethanol process. The catalytic liquefaction process is carried out at sub-critical conditions (280–370 °C and 25 MPa) in the presence of a homogeneous alkaline and a heterogeneous Zirconia catalyst, a process known as the Catliq ® process. In the current work, catalytic conversion of WDGS was performed in a continuous pilot plant with a maximum capacity of 30 dm 3 h −1 of wet biomass. In the process, WDGS was converted to bio-oil, gases and water-soluble organic compounds. The oil obtained was characterized using several analysis methods, among them elementary analysis and GC–MS. The study shows that WDGS can be converted to bio oil with high yields. The results also indicate that through the combination of bio-ethanol production and catalytic liquefaction, it is possible to significantly increase the liquid product yield and scope, opening up for a wider end use applicability. -- Highlights: ► Hydrothermal liquefaction of wet biomass. ► Product phase analysis: oil, acqeous, gas and mineral phase. ► Energy and mass balance evaluation.

Bio-electrosprayed multicellular zebrafish embryos are viable and develop normally

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clarke, Jonathan D W; Jayasinghe, Suwan N

2008-01-01

Bio-electrosprays are rapidly emerging as a viable protocol for directly engineering living cells. This communication reports the bio-electrospraying of multicellular organisms, namely zebrafish embryos. The results demonstrate that the bio-electrospray protocol fails to induce any embryological perturbations. In addition to analysing overall embryo morphology, we use transgenic embryos that express green fluorescent protein in specific brain neurons to determine that neuronal numbers and organization are completely normal. These results demonstrate that the bio-electrospraying protocol does not interfere with the complex gene regulation and cell movements required for the development of a multicellular organism. (communication)

Bio-oil and bio-char production from corn cobs and stover by fast pyrolysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mullen, Charles A.; Boateng, Akwasi A.; Goldberg, Neil M.; Lima, Isabel M.; Laird, David A.; Hicks, Kevin B.

2010-01-01

Bio-oil and bio-char were produced from corn cobs and corn stover (stalks, leaves and husks) by fast pyrolysis using a pilot scale fluidized bed reactor. Yields of 60% (mass/mass) bio-oil (high heating values are ∼20 MJ kg -1 , and densities >1.0 Mg m -3 ) were realized from both corn cobs and from corn stover. The high energy density of bio-oil, ∼20-32 times on a per unit volume basis over the raw corn residues, offers potentially significant savings in transportation costs particularly for a distributed 'farm scale' bio-refinery system. Bio-char yield was 18.9% and 17.0% (mass/mass) from corn cobs and corn stover, respectively. Deploying the bio-char co-product, which contains most of the nutrient minerals from the corn residues, as well as a significant amount of carbon, to the land can enhance soil quality, sequester carbon, and alleviate environmental problems associated with removal of crop residues from fields.

Engineering Performance of Polyurethane Bonded Aggregates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haimin WU

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In this paper the engineering performance of polyurethane (PUR bonded aggregate were studied. The engineering performance, including compressive and flexural mechanical properties, void ratio, and coefficient of permeability were determined through laboratory tests. Moreover, the effects of two different curing conditions on the compressive strength properties of a PUR bonded aggregate were also evaluated. The compressive strengths of PUR bonded aggregates were found to be lower than that of conventional porous concrete, which is a commonly used cushion material. However, experimental results indicated a higher void ratio and coefficient of permeability, lower elasticity modulus, better toughness, and stronger adaptability to flexural deformation compared to porous concrete. Consequently, PUR bonded aggregate is a better solution than porous concrete when used as the cushion material of a geomembrane surface barrier for a high rock-fill dam.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.23.2.15798

Mercury Marine's New High Performance 6-Cylinder Engine Family: Next Generation of Marine Technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reid, T.; Poirier, R.; Stueven, J.; Beilfuss, B.; Bruestle, C.

2004-07-01

With a completely new developed inline 6-cylinder supercharged engine family, it was possible to meet numerous and challenging requirements of a 4-stroke engine concept for the marine outboard engine market. Superior engine performance, best in class power-to-engine weight ratio and smooth NVH were achieved to establish the next customer expectation level for a marine engine. Power steering, in conjunction with electronic throttle and shift, as well as new engine management features for safe operation set a new standard for a marine propulsion system.

THE EFFECT OF COMPRESSION RATIO VARIATIONS ON THE ENGINE PERFORMANCE PARAMETRES IN SPARK IGNITION ENGINES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yakup SEKMEN

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Performance of the spark ignition engines may be increased by changing the geometrical compression ratio according to the amount of charging in cylinders. The designed geometrical compression ratio can be realized as an effective compression ratio under the full load and full open throttle conditions since the effective compression ratio changes with the amount of charging into the cylinder in spark ignition engines. So, this condition of the spark ignition engines forces designers to change their geometrical compression ratio according to the amount of charging into the cylinder for improvement of performance and fuel economy. In order to improve the combustion efficiency, fuel economy, power output, exhaust emissions at partial loads, compression ratio must be increased; but, under high load and low speed conditions to prevent probable knock and hard running the compression ratio must be decreased gradually. In this paper, relation of the performance parameters to compression ratio such as power, torque, specific fuel consumption, cylindir pressure, exhaust gas temperature, combustion chamber surface area/volume ratio, thermal efficiency, spark timing etc. in spark ignition engines have been investigated and using of engines with variable compression ratio is suggested to fuel economy and more clear environment.

A versatile electrowetting-based digital microfluidic platform for quantitative homogeneous and heterogeneous bio-assays

Science.gov (United States)

Vergauwe, Nicolas; Witters, Daan; Ceyssens, Frederik; Vermeir, Steven; Verbruggen, Bert; Puers, Robert; Lammertyn, Jeroen

2011-05-01

Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) lab-on-a-chip systems have already proven their potential within a broad range of bio-assays. Nevertheless, research on the analytical performance of those systems is limited, yet crucial for a further breakthrough in the diagnostic field. Therefore, this paper presents the intrinsic possibilities of an EWOD lab-on-a-chip as a versatile platform for homogeneous and heterogeneous bio-assays with high analytical performance. Both droplet dispensing and splitting cause variations in droplet size, thereby directly influencing the assay's performance. The extent to which they influence the performance is assessed by a theoretical sensitivity analysis, which allows the definition of a basic framework for the reduction of droplet size variability. Taking advantage of the optimized droplet manipulations, both homogeneous and heterogeneous bio-assays are implemented in the EWOD lab-on-a-chip to demonstrate the analytical capabilities and versatility of the device. A fully on-chip enzymatic assay is realized with high analytical performance. It demonstrates the promising capabilities of an EWOD lab-on-a-chip in food-related and medical applications, such as nutritional and blood analyses. Further, a magnetic bio-assay for IgE detection using superparamagnetic nanoparticles is presented whereby the nanoparticles are used as solid carriers during the bio-assay. Crucial elements are the precise manipulation of the superparamagnetic nanoparticles with respect to dispensing and separation. Although the principle of using nano-carriers is demonstrated for protein detection, it can be easily extended to a broader range of bio-related applications like DNA sensing. In heterogeneous bio-assays the chip surface is actively involved during the execution of the bio-assay. Through immobilization of specific biological compounds like DNA, proteins and cells a reactive chip surface is realized, which enhances the bio-assay performance. To demonstrate

Surface engineered porous silicon for stable, high performance electrochemical supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Oakes, Landon; Westover, Andrew; Mares, Jeremy W.; Chatterjee, Shahana; Erwin, William R.; Bardhan, Rizia; Weiss, Sharon M.; Pint, Cary L.

2013-10-01

Silicon materials remain unused for supercapacitors due to extreme reactivity of silicon with electrolytes. However, doped silicon materials boast a low mass density, excellent conductivity, a controllably etched nanoporous structure, and combined earth abundance and technological presence appealing to diverse energy storage frameworks. Here, we demonstrate a universal route to transform porous silicon (P-Si) into stable electrodes for electrochemical devices through growth of an ultra-thin, conformal graphene coating on the P-Si surface. This graphene coating simultaneously passivates surface charge traps and provides an ideal electrode-electrolyte electrochemical interface. This leads to 10-40X improvement in energy density, and a 2X wider electrochemical window compared to identically-structured unpassivated P-Si. This work demonstrates a technique generalizable to mesoporous and nanoporous materials that decouples the engineering of electrode structure and electrochemical surface stability to engineer performance in electrochemical environments. Specifically, we demonstrate P-Si as a promising new platform for grid-scale and integrated electrochemical energy storage.

Surface engineered porous silicon for stable, high performance electrochemical supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Oakes, Landon; Westover, Andrew; Mares, Jeremy W.; Chatterjee, Shahana; Erwin, William R.; Bardhan, Rizia; Weiss, Sharon M.; Pint, Cary L.

2013-01-01

Silicon materials remain unused for supercapacitors due to extreme reactivity of silicon with electrolytes. However, doped silicon materials boast a low mass density, excellent conductivity, a controllably etched nanoporous structure, and combined earth abundance and technological presence appealing to diverse energy storage frameworks. Here, we demonstrate a universal route to transform porous silicon (P-Si) into stable electrodes for electrochemical devices through growth of an ultra-thin, conformal graphene coating on the P-Si surface. This graphene coating simultaneously passivates surface charge traps and provides an ideal electrode-electrolyte electrochemical interface. This leads to 10–40X improvement in energy density, and a 2X wider electrochemical window compared to identically-structured unpassivated P-Si. This work demonstrates a technique generalizable to mesoporous and nanoporous materials that decouples the engineering of electrode structure and electrochemical surface stability to engineer performance in electrochemical environments. Specifically, we demonstrate P-Si as a promising new platform for grid-scale and integrated electrochemical energy storage. PMID:24145684

Advances and perspectives in tooth tissue engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Monteiro, Nelson; Yelick, Pamela C

2017-09-01

Bio-engineered teeth that can grow and remodel in a manner similar to that of natural teeth have the potential to serve as permanent replacements to the currently used prosthetic teeth, such as dental implants. A major challenge in designing functional bio-engineered teeth is to mimic both the structural and anisotropic mechanical characteristics of the native tooth. Therefore, the field of dental and whole tooth regeneration has advanced towards the molecular and nanoscale design of bio-active, biomimetic systems, using biomaterials, drug delivery systems and stem cells. The focus of this review is to discuss recent advances in tooth tissue engineering, using biomimetic scaffolds that provide proper architectural cues, exhibit the capacity to support dental stem cell proliferation and differentiation and sequester and release bio-active agents, such as growth factors and nucleic acids, in a spatiotemporal controlled manner. Although many in vitro and in vivo studies on tooth regeneration appear promising, before tooth tissue engineering becomes a reality for humans, additional research is needed to perfect methods that use adult human dental stem cells, as opposed to embryonic dental stem cells, and to devise the means to generate bio-engineered teeth of predetermined size and shape. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Engineering development of coal-fired high performance power systems, Phase II and III

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None

1999-04-01

The goals of the program are to develop a coal-fired high performance power generation system (HIPPS) that is capable of: thermal efficiency (HHV) {ge} 47%, NOx, SOx, and particulates {le} 10% NSPS (New Source Performance Standard) coal providing {ge} 65% of heat input, all solid wastes benign, and cost of electricity {le} 90% of present plants. Phase 1, which began in 1992, focused on the analysis of various configurations of indirectly fired cycles and on technical assessments of alternative plant subsystems and components, including performance requirements, developmental status, design options, complexity and reliability, and capital and operating costs. Phase 1 also included preliminary R and D and the preparation of designs for HIPPS commercial plants approximately 300 MWe in size. This phase, Phase 2, involves the development and testing of plant subsystems, refinement and updating of the HIPPS commercial plant design, and the site selection and engineering design of a HIPPS prototype plant. Work reported herein is from: Task 2.1 HITAC Combustors; Task 2.2 HITAF Air Heaters; Task 6 HIPPS Commercial Plant Design Update.

Wastewater engineering applications of BioIronTech process based on the biogeochemical cycle of iron bioreduction and (biooxidation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Volodymyr Ivanov

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Bioreduction of Fe(III and biooxidation of Fe(II can be used in wastewater engineering as an innovative biotechnology BioIronTech, which is protected for commercial applications by US patent 7393452 and Singapore patent 106658 “Compositions and methods for the treatment of wastewater and other waste”. The BioIronTech process comprises the following steps: 1 anoxic bacterial reduction of Fe(III, for example in iron ore powder; 2 surface renovation of iron ore particles due to the formation of dissolved Fe2+ ions; 3 precipitation of insoluble ferrous salts of inorganic anions (phosphate or organic anions (phenols and organic acids; 4 (biooxidation of ferrous compunds with the formation of negatively, positively, or neutrally charged ferric hydroxides, which are good adsorbents of many pollutants; 5 disposal or thermal regeration of ferric (hydroxide. Different organic substances can be used as electron donors in bioreduction of Fe(III. Ferrous ions and fresh ferrous or ferric hydroxides that are produced after iron bioreduction and (biooxidation adsorb and precipitate diferent negatively charged molecules, for example chlorinated compounds of sucralose production wastewater or other halogenated organics, as well as phenols, organic acids, phosphate, and sulphide. Reject water (return liquor from the stage of sewage sludge dewatering on municipal wastewater treatment plants represents from 10 to 50% of phosphorus load when being recycled to the aeration tank. BioIronTech process can remove/recover more than 90% of phosphorous from this reject water thus replacing the conventional process of phosphate precipitation by ferric/ferrous salts, which are 20–100 times more expensive than iron ore, which is used in BioIronTech process. BioIronTech process can remarkably improve the aerobic and anaerobic treatments of municipal and industrial wastewaters, especially anaerobic digestion of lipid- and sulphate-containing food-processing wastewater. It

Properties of chicken manure pyrolysis bio-oil blended with diesel and its combustion characteristics in RCEM, Rapid Compression and Expansion Machine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunbong Lee

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Bio-oil (bio-oil was produced from chicken manure in a pilot-scale pyrolysis facility. The raw bio-oil had a very high viscosity and sediments which made direct application to diesel engines difficult. The bio-oil was blended with diesel fuel with 25% and 75% volumetric ratio at the normal temperature, named as blend 25. A rapid compression and expansion machine was used for a combustion test under the experimental condition corresponding to the medium operation point of a light duty diesel engine using diesel fuel, and blend 25 for comparison. The injection related pressure signal and cylinder pressure signal were instantaneously picked up to analyze the combustion characteristics in addition to the measurement of NOx and smoke emissions. Blend 25 resulted in reduction of the smoke emission by 80% and improvements of the apparent combustion efficiency while the NOx emission increased by 40%. A discussion was done based on the analysis results of combustion.

Engine performance and emissions characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with diesel-biodiesel-bioethanol emulsions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tan, Yie Hua; Abdullah, Mohammad Omar; Nolasco-Hipolito, Cirilo; Zauzi, Nur Syuhada Ahmad; Abdullah, Georgie Wong

2017-01-01

were observed to be higher in comparison to diesel, A. The CO_2 (carbon dioxide) and CO (carbon monoxide) emissions were reported to be lower than diesel oil. The effect of using emulsion fuels decreased the NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions at medium engine speeds, i.e. approximately 30.0%. Lesser NOx emission was attributed by the reduction of cetane number of the diesel-biodiesel-bioethanol emulsion fuels’ cetane number as the amount of bioethanol increases. However, the emissions of NOx were found to increase gradually at low speed (∼1600 rpm), high load; high speed (∼2400 rpm), medium load conditions. It was found that the combustion performance and emissions of the diesel engine very much depend on the fuel, its emulsion combination types and engine operating conditions.

Prechamber Compression-Ignition Engine Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Charles S; Collins, John H , Jr

1938-01-01

Single-cylinder compression-ignition engine tests were made to investigate the performance characteristics of prechamber type of cylinder head. Certain fundamental variables influencing engine performance -- clearance distribution, size, shape, and direction of the passage connecting the cylinder and prechamber, shape of prechamber, cylinder clearance, compression ratio, and boosting -- were independently tested. Results of motoring and of power tests, including several typical indicator cards, are presented.

Bio-diesel fuels production: Feasibility studies. Se l'agricoltore semina il gasolio

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tabasso, L.

This paper reviews the efforts being made by Italy's national government and private industry to develop diesel engine fuels derived from vegetable oils, in particular, sunflower seed oil. These fuels are being promoted in Italy from the environmental protection stand-point in that they don't contain any sulfur, the main cause of acid rain, and from the agricultural stand-point in that they provide Italian farmers, whose food crop production capacity is limited due to European Communities agreements, with the opportunity to use their set-aside land for the production of energy crops. This paper provides brief notes on the key performance characteristics of bio-diesel fuels, whose application doesn't require any modifications to diesel engines, apart from minor adjustments to the air/fuel mix regulating system, and assesses commercialization prospects. Brief mention is made of the problems being encountered by the Government in the establishing fair bio-fuel production tax rebates which are compatible with the marketing practices of the petroleum industry. One of the strategies being considered is to use the bio-fuels as additives to be mixed with conventional fuel oils so as to derive a fuel which meets the new European air pollution standards.

Improving engineering performance by utilizing process indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roberts, T.E.

1992-01-01

The purpose of the work discussed in this paper was to develop engineering performance indicators used to facilitate improvement to the technical quality, cost-effectiveness, and delivery of engineering products and service. This work was specifically tailored for engineering support products and service associated with operating Florida Power and Light Company (FP and L) nuclear plants. The engineering process for the development of plant change packages was reviewed to identify critical in-process activities. Because each engineering project usually deals with a specific component or plant system, the different tasks are usually technically unique and of varying magnitudes. Although each engineering product may employ different analytical techniques or industry code requirements, several activities in documenting the engineering design process are generic. The quality of performance in these activities can be monitored analogously to the steps in a manufacturing process. This concept builds quality concepts into the package in lieu of inspecting package quality at the end of the process. The work has resulted in a valuable self-assessment tool that serves as a basis for engineering process improvements. The indicators are published in a semi-yearly performance report for FP and L contractors as well as FP and L in-house engineering work. Contracts have been set up to base fees on meeting targets established for the performance report. The ability to meet performance targets continues to improve

Analysis of first and second law of an engine operating with Bio diesel from palm oil. Part 2: global exergy balance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agudelo, John R; Agudelo, Andres F; Cuadrado, Ilba G

2006-01-01

An exergy analysis of a diesel engine operating with palm oil bio diesel and its blends with diesel fuel is presented. Measurements were carried out in a test bench under stationary conditions varying engine load at constant speed and vice versa. The variation in exergy distribution and second law efficiency were obtained under several operating points. It was found that fuel type do not affect exergy distribution but it does affect the second law efficiency, which is slightly higher for diesel fuel. In contrast with energy balance results, exergy flows of exhaust and coolant streams are low, specially for the latter. This result is relevant for the implementation of cogeneration systems.

Alkaline phosphatase immobilization onto Bio-Gide(R) and Bio-Oss(R) for periodontal and bone regeneration.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oortgiesen, D.A.W.; Plachokova, A.S.; Geenen, C.; Meijer, G.J.; Walboomers, X.F.; Beucken, J.J.J.P van den; Jansen, J.B.M.J.

2012-01-01

AIM: To evaluate the effect of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) immobilization onto Bio-Gide((R)) in vitro, and to study the in vivo performance of ALP-enriched Bio-Gide((R)) and/or Bio-Oss((R)) with the purpose to enhance periodontal regeneration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Alkaline phosphatase ALP was

Bio-oil and bio-char production from corn cobs and stover by fast pyrolysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mullen, Charles A.; Boateng, Akwasi A.; Goldberg, Neil M.; Hicks, Kevin B. [Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 600 E. Mermaid Lane, Wyndmoor, PA 19038 (United States); Lima, Isabel M. [Southern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70124 (United States); Laird, David A. [National Soil Tilth Laboratory, U.S. Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2110 University Blvd., Ames, IA 50011 (United States)

2010-01-15

Bio-oil and bio-char were produced from corn cobs and corn stover (stalks, leaves and husks) by fast pyrolysis using a pilot scale fluidized bed reactor. Yields of 60% (mass/mass) bio-oil (high heating values are {proportional_to}20 MJ kg{sup -1}, and densities >1.0 Mg m{sup -3}) were realized from both corn cobs and from corn stover. The high energy density of bio-oil, {proportional_to}20-32 times on a per unit volume basis over the raw corn residues, offers potentially significant savings in transportation costs particularly for a distributed ''farm scale'' bio-refinery system. Bio-char yield was 18.9% and 17.0% (mass/mass) from corn cobs and corn stover, respectively. Deploying the bio-char co-product, which contains most of the nutrient minerals from the corn residues, as well as a significant amount of carbon, to the land can enhance soil quality, sequester carbon, and alleviate environmental problems associated with removal of crop residues from fields. (author)

Biogas engine performance estimation using ANN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuf Kurtgoz

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Artificial neural network (ANN method was used to estimate the thermal efficiency (TE, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC and volumetric efficiency (VE values of a biogas engine with spark ignition at different methane (CH4 ratios and engine load values. For this purpose, the biogas used in the biogas engine was produced by the anaerobic fermentation method from bovine manure and different CH4 contents (51%, 57%, 87% were obtained by purification of CO2 and H2S. The data used in the ANN models were obtained experimentally from a 4-stroke four-cylinder, spark ignition engine, at constant speed for different load and CH4 ratios. Using some of the obtained experimental data, ANN models were developed, and the rest was used to test the developed models. In the ANN models, the CH4 ratio of the fuel, engine load, inlet air temperature (Tin, air fuel ratio and the maximum cylinder pressure are chosen as the input parameters. TE, BSFC and VE are used as the output parameters. Root mean square error (RMSE, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE and correlation coefficient (R performance indicators are used to compare measured and predicted values. It has been shown that ANN models give good results in spark ignition biogas engines with high correlation and low error rates for TE, BSFC and VE values.

The 17th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering

CERN Document Server

Lim, Chwee; Leo, Hwa

2017-01-01

This volume presents the proceedings of the 16th ICMBE held from 4th to 7th December 2016, Singapore. Topics of the proceedings include 6 tracks: BioImaging and BioSignals, Bio-Micro/Nano Technologies BioRobotics and Medical Devices, Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine.- BioMechanics and Mechanobiology., Engineering/Synthetic Biology.

Influence of Gasoline Components on Engine Efficiency and Emissions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Machado Guilherme B.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available For the next few decades, it is expected that fossil fuels and bio-fuels used in internal combustion engines will remain the primary source for vehicular propulsion. This justifies the intense worldwide research and development effort to comply with the challenges of increasing efficiency and reducing internal combustion engine emissions. The modeling of commercial fuels and engine combustion processes presents great challenges. There is also the need to better understand how different fuel components interact and influence engine combustion and performance parameters. In the present work, surrogate fuels were used to implement methodologies to evaluate the influence of fuel components on fuel properties and multiple engine combustion and performance parameters. Special attention is given to engine efficiency and emissions behavior and their correlations to fuel properties and others performance parameters of the engine. The potentials of each component and corresponding chemical group were identified for different engine designs. The results combine information and methodologies that can be used to develop fuels for different applications.

Introducing Students to Bio-Inspiration and Biomimetic Design: A Workshop Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Santulli, Carlo; Langella, Carla

2011-01-01

In recent years, bio-inspired approach to design has gained considerable interest between designers, engineers and end-users. However, there are difficulties in introducing bio-inspiration concepts in the university curriculum in that they involve multi-disciplinary work, which can only possibly be successfully delivered by a team with integrated…

Environmental Barrier Coatings for Turbine Engines: A Design and Performance Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Dongming; Fox, Dennis S.; Ghosn, Louis; Smialek, James L.; Miller, Robert A.

2009-01-01

Ceramic thermal and environmental barrier coatings (TEBC) for SiC-based ceramics will play an increasingly important role in future gas turbine engines because of their ability to effectively protect the engine components and further raise engine temperatures. However, the coating long-term durability remains a major concern with the ever-increasing temperature, strength and stability requirements in engine high heat-flux combustion environments, especially for highly-loaded rotating turbine components. Advanced TEBC systems, including nano-composite based HfO2-aluminosilicate and rare earth silicate coatings are being developed and tested for higher temperature capable SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composite (CMC) turbine blade applications. This paper will emphasize coating composite and multilayer design approach and the resulting performance and durability in simulated engine high heat-flux, high stress and high pressure combustion environments. The advances in the environmental barrier coating development showed promise for future rotating CMC blade applications.

Towards 40% efficiency with BMEP exceeding 30 bar in directly injected, turbocharged, spark ignition ethanol engines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boretti, Alberto

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► The main advantages of ethanol vs. gasoline are higher knock resistance and heat of vaporization. ► Direct injection and turbo charging are the key features of high efficiency and high power density ethanol engines. ► Advanced ethanol engines are enablers of vehicle fuel energy economy similar to Diesel engines. ► Waste bio mass ethanol may cut the nonrenewable energy costs of fossil fuels passenger cars by almost 90%. - Abstract: Current flexi fuel gasoline and ethanol engines have efficiencies generally lower than dedicated gasoline engines. Considering ethanol has a few advantages with reference to gasoline, namely the higher octane number and the larger heat of vaporization, the paper explores the potentials of dedicated pure ethanol engines using the most advanced techniques available for gasoline engines, specifically direct injection, turbo charging and variable valve actuation. Computations are performed with state-of-the-art, well validated, engine and vehicle performance simulations packages, generally accepted to produce accurate results when targeting major trends in engine developments. The higher compression ratio and the higher boost permitted by ethanol allows larger than gasoline top engine brake thermal efficiencies and peak power and torque, while the variable valve actuation produces smaller penalties in efficiency changing the load than in conventional throttle controlled engines.

Performance and emission characteristics of a turbocharged CNG engine fueled by hydrogen-enriched compressed natural gas with high hydrogen ratio

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ma, Fanhua; Wang, Mingyue; Jiang, Long; Chen, Renzhe; Deng, Jiao; Naeve, Nashay; Zhao, Shuli [State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

2010-06-15

This paper investigates the effect of high hydrogen volumetric ratio of 55% on performance and emission characteristics in a turbocharged lean burn natural gas engine. The experimental data was conducted under various operating conditions including different spark timing, excess air ratio (lambda), and manifold pressure. It is found that the addition of hydrogen at a high volumetric ratio could significantly extend the lean burn limit, improve the engine lean burn ability, decrease burn duration, and yield higher thermal efficiency. The CO, CH{sub 4} emissions were reduced and NO{sub x} emission could be kept an acceptable low level with high hydrogen content under lean burn conditions when ignition timing were optimized. (author)

Viscous Flow Behaviour of Karanja Oil Based Bio-lubricant Base Oil.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Umesh Chandra; Sachan, Sadhana; Trivedi, Rakesh Kumar

2018-01-01

Karanja oil (KO) is widely used for synthesis of bio-fuel karanja oil methyl ester (KOME) due to its competitive price, good energy values and environmentally friendly combustion properties. Bio-lubricant is another value added product that can be synthesized from KO via chemical modification. In this work karanja oil trimethylolpropane ester (KOTMPE) bio-lubricant was synthesized and evaluated for its viscous flow behaviour. A comparison of viscous flow behaviours of natural KO and synthesized bio-fuel KOME and bio-lubricant KOTMPE was also made. The aim of this comparison was to validate the superiority of KOTMPE bio-lubricant over its precursors KO and KOME in terms of stable viscous flow at high temperature and high shear rate conditions usually encountered in engine operations and industrial processes. The free fatty acid (FFA) content of KO was 5.76%. KOME was synthesized from KO in a two-step, acid catalyzed esterification followed by base catalyzed transesterification, process at 65°C for 5 hours with oil-methanol ratio 1:6, catalysts H 2 SO 4 and KOH (1 and 1.25% w/w KO, respectively). In the final step, KOTMPE was prepared from KOME via transesterification with trimethylolpropane (TMP) at 150°C for 3 hours with KOME-TMP ratio 4:1 and H 2 SO 4 (2% w/w KOME) as catalyst. The viscosity versus temperature studies were made at 0-80°C temperatures in shear rate ranges of 10-1000 s -1 using a Discovery Hybrid Rheometer, model HR-3 (TA instruments, USA). The study found that viscosities of all three samples decreased with increase in temperature, though KOTMPE was able to maintain a good enough viscosity at elevated temperatures due to chemical modifications in its molecular structure. The viscosity index (VI) value for KOTMPE was 206.72. The study confirmed that the synthesized bio-lubricant KOTMPE can be used at high temperatures as a good lubricant, though some additives may be required to improve properties other than viscosity.

Exploiting graph kernels for high performance biomedical relation extraction.

Science.gov (United States)

Panyam, Nagesh C; Verspoor, Karin; Cohn, Trevor; Ramamohanarao, Kotagiri

2018-01-30

Relation extraction from biomedical publications is an important task in the area of semantic mining of text. Kernel methods for supervised relation extraction are often preferred over manual feature engineering methods, when classifying highly ordered structures such as trees and graphs obtained from syntactic parsing of a sentence. Tree kernels such as the Subset Tree Kernel and Partial Tree Kernel have been shown to be effective for classifying constituency parse trees and basic dependency parse graphs of a sentence. Graph kernels such as the All Path Graph kernel (APG) and Approximate Subgraph Matching (ASM) kernel have been shown to be suitable for classifying general graphs with cycles, such as the enhanced dependency parse graph of a sentence. In this work, we present a high performance Chemical-Induced Disease (CID) relation extraction system. We present a comparative study of kernel methods for the CID task and also extend our study to the Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) extraction task, an important biomedical relation extraction task. We discuss novel modifications to the ASM kernel to boost its performance and a method to apply graph kernels for extracting relations expressed in multiple sentences. Our system for CID relation extraction attains an F-score of 60%, without using external knowledge sources or task specific heuristic or rules. In comparison, the state of the art Chemical-Disease Relation Extraction system achieves an F-score of 56% using an ensemble of multiple machine learning methods, which is then boosted to 61% with a rule based system employing task specific post processing rules. For the CID task, graph kernels outperform tree kernels substantially, and the best performance is obtained with APG kernel that attains an F-score of 60%, followed by the ASM kernel at 57%. The performance difference between the ASM and APG kernels for CID sentence level relation extraction is not significant. In our evaluation of ASM for the PPI task, ASM

Bio-nano interface and environment: A critical review.

Science.gov (United States)

Pulido-Reyes, Gerardo; Leganes, Francisco; Fernández-Piñas, Francisca; Rosal, Roberto

2017-12-01

The bio-nano interface is the boundary where engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) meet the biological system, exerting the biological function for which they have been designed or inducing adverse effects on other cells or organisms when they reach nontarget scenarios (i.e., the natural environment). Research has been performed to determine the fate, transport, and toxic properties of ENMs, but much of it is focused on pristine or so-called as-manufactured ENMs, or else modifications of the materials were not assessed. We review the most recent progress regarding the bio-nano interface and the transformations that ENMs undergo in the environment, paying special attention to the adsorption of environmental biomolecules on the surface of ENMs. Whereas the protein corona has received considerable attention in the fields of biomedics and human toxicology, its environmental analogue (the eco-corona) has been much less studied. A section dedicated to the analytical methods for studying and characterizing the eco-corona is also presented. We conclude by presenting and discussing the key problems and knowledge gaps that need to be resolved in the near future regarding the bio-nano interface and the eco-corona. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:3181-3193. © 2017 SETAC. © 2017 SETAC.

Effect of Engine Modifications on Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel Engines with Alternative Fuels

OpenAIRE

Venkateswarlu, K.; Murthy, B.S.R

2010-01-01

Performance and emission characteristics unmodified diesel engines operating on different alternative fuels with smaller blend proportions are comparable with pure diesel operation. But with increased blend proportions due to the associated problems of vegetable oils like high viscosity and low volatility pollution levels increase which however is accompanied by operating and durability problems with the long term usage of engine. This paper discusses the necessary modifications required to o...

Nanoengineered Plasmonic Hybrid Systems for Bio-nanotechnology

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, Kirsty

Plasmonic hybrid systems are fabricated using a combination of lithography and layer-by-layer directed self-assembly approaches to serve as highly sensitive nanosensing devices. This layer-by-layer directed self-assembly approach is utilized as a hybrid methodology to control the organization of quantum dots (QDs), nanoparticles, and biomolecules onto inorganic nanostructures with site-specific attachment and functionality. Here, surface plasmon-enhanced nanoarrays are fabricated where the photoluminescence of quantum dots and conjugated polymer nanoarrays are studied. This study was performed by tuning the localized surface plasmon resonance and the distance between the emitter and the metal surface using genetically engineered polypeptides as binding agents and biotin-streptavidin binding as linker molecules. In addition, these nanoarrays were also chemically modified to support the immobilization and label-free detection of DNA using surface enhanced Raman scattering. The surface of the nanoarrays was chemically modified using an acridine containing molecule which can act as an intercalating agent for DNA. The self-assembled monolayer (SAM) showed the ability to immobilize and intercalate DNA onto the surface. This SAM system using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) serves as a highly sensitive methodology for the immobilization and label-free detection of DNA applicable into a wide range of bio-diagnostic platforms. Other micropatterned arrays were also fabricated using a combination of soft lithography and surface engineering. Selective single cell patterning and adhesion was achieved through chemical modifications and surface engineering of poly(dimethylsiloxane) surface. The surface of each microwell was functionally engineered with a SAM which contained an aldehyde terminated fused-ring aromatic thiolated molecule. Cells were found to be attracted and adherent to the chemically modified microwells. By combining soft lithography and surface engineering

Final Report for NFE-07-00912: Development of Model Fuels Experimental Engine Data Base & Kinetic Modeling Parameter Sets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bunting, Bruce G [ORNL

2012-10-01

The automotive and engine industries are in a period of very rapid change being driven by new emission standards, new types of after treatment, new combustion strategies, the introduction of new fuels, and drive for increased fuel economy and efficiency. The rapid pace of these changes has put more pressure on the need for modeling of engine combustion and performance, in order to shorten product design and introduction cycles. New combustion strategies include homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), partial-premixed combustion compression ignition (PCCI), and dilute low temperature combustion which are being developed for lower emissions and improved fuel economy. New fuels include bio-fuels such as ethanol or bio-diesel, drop-in bio-derived fuels and those derived from new crude oil sources such as gas-to-liquids, coal-to-liquids, oil sands, oil shale, and wet natural gas. Kinetic modeling of the combustion process for these new combustion regimes and fuels is necessary in order to allow modeling and performance assessment for engine design purposes. In this research covered by this CRADA, ORNL developed and supplied experimental data related to engine performance with new fuels and new combustion strategies along with interpretation and analysis of such data and consulting to Reaction Design, Inc. (RD). RD performed additional analysis of this data in order to extract important parameters and to confirm engine and kinetic models. The data generated was generally published to make it available to the engine and automotive design communities and also to the Reaction Design Model Fuels Consortium (MFC).

Evaluation of Environmental and Hydraulic Performance of Bio-Composite Revetment Blocks

OpenAIRE

Thamer A.  Ahmeed; Nor A.  Alias; Abdul H.  Ghazali; Mohd. S.  Jaafar

2006-01-01

It is necessary to develop a concrete revetment block which can cater for environment and at the same time it will be effective in protecting river banks (stabilize the slope of banks) from scouring during flood. In the present study, the environmental and hydraulic performance of the proposed revetment block was evaluated through laboratory and field tests. The tested revetment block is called bio-composite because it is composed of concrete, plastic mesh and biological material (coconut hus...

Visualizing feasible operating ranges within tissue engineering systems using a "windows of operation" approach: a perfusion-scaffold bioreactor case study.

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Ryan J; O'Brien, Fergal J

2012-12-01

Tissue engineering approaches to developing functional substitutes are often highly complex, multivariate systems where many aspects of the biomaterials, bio-regulatory factors or cell sources may be controlled in an effort to enhance tissue formation. Furthermore, success is based on multiple performance criteria reflecting both the quantity and quality of the tissue produced. Managing the trade-offs between different performance criteria is a challenge. A "windows of operation" tool that graphically represents feasible operating spaces to achieve user-defined levels of performance has previously been described by researchers in the bio-processing industry. This paper demonstrates the value of "windows of operation" to the tissue engineering field using a perfusion-scaffold bioreactor system as a case study. In our laboratory, perfusion bioreactor systems are utilized in the context of bone tissue engineering to enhance the osteogenic differentiation of cell-seeded scaffolds. A key challenge of such perfusion bioreactor systems is to maximize the induction of osteogenesis but minimize cell detachment from the scaffold. Two key operating variables that influence these performance criteria are the mean scaffold pore size and flow-rate. Using cyclooxygenase-2 and osteopontin gene expression levels as surrogate indicators of osteogenesis, we employed the "windows of operation" methodology to rapidly identify feasible operating ranges for the mean scaffold pore size and flow-rate that achieved user-defined levels of performance for cell detachment and differentiation. Incorporation of such tools into the tissue engineer's armory will hopefully yield a greater understanding of the highly complex systems used and help aid decision making in future translation of products from the bench top to the market place. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effect of a sustainable biofuel – n-octanol – on the combustion, performance and emissions of a DI diesel engine under naturally aspirated and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) modes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rajesh Kumar, B.; Saravanan, S.; Rana, D.; Anish, V.; Nagendran, A.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • It is possible to operate a DI diesel engine with up to 30% n-octanol/diesel blends without modifications. • Addition of n-octanol prolonged the ignition delay, generated higher peaks of pressure and heat release rates. • Simultaneous reduction of NOx and smoke is possible under both naturally-aspirated and EGR conditions. • Engine performance improved with n-octanol addition. • HC and CO emissions decreased favorably with n-octanol addition. - Abstract: Higher alcohols above n-butanol can be excellent alternative fuels for diesel engines owing to their high energy content and high cetane number. The last three years has witnessed an advent of several sustainable pathways for n-octanol bio-synthesis using engineered-microbes like Escherichia coli and Clostridium species. Therefore an investigation to evaluate the compatibility of n-octanol in diesel engines becomes essential. The influence of blending n-octanol by up to 30 vol% with fossil diesel on combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder direct-injection (DI) diesel engine under both naturally aspirated and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) modes was investigated with reference to diesel. Results showed that n-octanol prolonged the ignition delay generating higher peaks of in-cylinder pressure and heat release rates (HRR) during the pre-mixed combustion phase. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) increased while brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) decreased with an increase in n-octanol fraction. Smoke, NOx (nitrogen oxides), HC (hydro-carbons) and CO (carbon monoxide) emissions decreased with n-octanol addition. NOx and smoke emissions also remained low at all EGR rates. Both BTE and BSFC suffered at increased EGR rates. HC and CO emissions increased with escalating EGR rates. n-Octanol was found to be very promising for replacing fossil-diesel by up to 30% (subject to long term durability tests), in terms of emissions and performance at both naturally

Fuel Combustion and Engine Performance | Transportation Research | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

Fuel Combustion and Engine Performance Fuel Combustion and Engine Performance Photo of a gasoline emissions in advanced engine technologies. Photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL NREL's combustion research and combustion and engine research activities include: Developing experimental and simulation research platforms

Envirobiosens. New trends in bio-sensing for environmental applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alcock, S. [Cranfield Biothechnology Centre, Cranfield University (United Kingdom); Cosnier, S. [Universite Joseph-Fourier, Grenoble I, Lab. d' Electrochimie Organique et de Photochimie Redox, UMR CNRS 5630, 38 (France); Magner, E. [Limerick University, Dept. of Chemical and Environmental Sciences (Ireland)] [and others

2000-07-01

The development of useful sensor systems to monitor multiple pollutants is needed for many environmental applications like the pollution monitoring and processing. The advantages of chemical sensors, bio-sensors and bio-mimetic systems should be exploited to fill specific niche applications in environmental engineering. Sensors offer particular advantages as they can be used for rapid field assessment of pollution risks, including the effects of pollutant mixtures. This conference reviews the current state of the art for bio-sensors operating in the environment and in environmental processes to develop bio-sensors practical applications in the environmental technology. The papers are presented in three parts: enzymatic sensors for environmental monitoring; affinity sensors for environmental application; cell and tissue sensors for environmental analysis, future prospects. (A.L.B.)

Low-cost synchronization of high-speed audio and video recordings in bio-acoustic experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Laurijssen, Dennis; Verreycken, Erik; Geipel, Inga; Daems, Walter; Peremans, Herbert; Steckel, Jan

2018-02-27

In this paper, we present a method for synchronizing high-speed audio and video recordings of bio-acoustic experiments. By embedding a random signal into the recorded video and audio data, robust synchronization of a diverse set of sensor streams can be performed without the need to keep detailed records. The synchronization can be performed using recording devices without dedicated synchronization inputs. We demonstrate the efficacy of the approach in two sets of experiments: behavioral experiments on different species of echolocating bats and the recordings of field crickets. We present the general operating principle of the synchronization method, discuss its synchronization strength and provide insights into how to construct such a device using off-the-shelf components. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Evaluation of the performance of a dual fuel engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sato, Toshiharu [The Japan Gas Association, Tokyo (Japan). NGV Project Dept.; Daisho, Yasuhiro; Saito, Takeshi [Waseda Univ., Tokyo (Japan)

1998-12-31

Dual fuel operation, in which natural gas is mixed with the diesel engine intake air and ignition is by diesel fuel spray, has the advantage that engine conversion is simple. Under high load it has the same high efficiency as a diesel engine and it can be switched to normal diesel operation for long distance running. Also, NO{sub x} and black smoke emissions can also be reduced. However, the disadvantages are to increase HC and CO emissions, to reduce efficiency under low load, and to emit the large amount of NO{sub x} under high load. Waseda University was commissioned by Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. to conduct research program involving experimentation ragarding a dual fuel engine. It was then discovered that the most effective means of solving the problems mentioned above is Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and that the effect can be increased by heating the intake air. An old engine before the current emission standard was converted to dual fuel operation. It was found that these measures enables NO{sub x}, black smoke and CO{sub 2} to be reduced while high thermal efficiency was maintained. They did not reach the point of satisfying latest Japanese emission standard. But it seemed that good results would have been obtained, if a base engine with good emissions had been converted for dual fuel operation. The results of assessing the performance of the dual fuel engine at this time are reported here, centered on the effect of EGR and intake heating. (orig.)

Long term durability tests of small engines fueled with bio-ethanol / gasoline blends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tippayawong, N.; Kundhawiworn, N.; Jompakdee, W.

2006-01-01

The paper presents the result of an ongoing research to evaluate performance and wear of small, single cylinder, naturally aspirated, agricultural spark ignition engines using biomass-derived ethanol and gasoline blends. The reference gasoline fuel was selected to be representative of gasoline typically available in Thailand. Long-term engine tests of 10% and 20% ethanol / gasoline blends as well as the reference fuel were performed at a constant speed of 2300 rpm under part load condition up to 200 operation hours for each fuel type. Engine brake power, specific fuel consumption, carbon deposits and surface wear were measured and compared between neat gasoline and ethanol/ gasoline blends. It was found that blended fuels appeared to affect the engine performance in a similar way and compared well with the base gasoline fuel. From the results obtained, it was found that engine brake power and specific fuel consumption changed slightly with running time and were not found to have any significant change between different fuel blends. There were carbon deposits buildup on the spark plug, the intake port and exhaust valve stem for all fuels used. Surface wear was not significantly different in the test engines between neat gasoline or ethanol/gasoline blend fuelling

Over compression influence to the performances of the spark ignition engines

Science.gov (United States)

Rakosi, E.; Talif, S. G.; Manolache, G.

2016-08-01

This paper presents the theoretical and experimental results of some procedures used in improving the performances of the automobile spark ignition engines. The study uses direct injection and high over-compression applied to a standard engine. To this purpose, the paper contains both the constructive solutions and the results obtained from the test bed concerning the engine power indices, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

Bio energy: Bio fuel - Properties and Production

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilhelmsen, Gunnar; Martinsen, Arnold Kyrre; Sandberg, Eiliv; Fladset, Per Olav; Kjerschow, Einar; Teslo, Einar

2001-01-01

This is Chapter 3 of the book ''Bio energy - Environment, technique and market''. Its main sections are: (1) Definitions and properties, (2) Bio fuel from the forest, (3) Processed bio fuel - briquettes, pellets and powder, (4) Bio fuel from agriculture, (5) Bio fuel from agro industry, (6) Bio fuel from lakes and sea, (7) Bio fuel from aquaculture, (8) Bio fuel from wastes and (9) Hydrogen as a fuel. The exposition largely describes the conditions in Norway. The chapter on energy from the forest includes products from the timber and sawmill industry, the pulp and paper industry, furniture factories etc. Among agricultural sources are straw, energy forests, vegetable oil, bio ethanol, manure

Biomass gasification to heat, electricity and biofuels. HighBio project publication

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lassi, U.; Wikman, B. (eds.)

2011-07-01

Renewable energy and the use of biomass in energy production promotes sustainable development and decreases the use of fossil fuels. Biomass, e.g. wood chips can be used in the production of heat and electricity, as well as being used as a biofuel component and novel product for the chemical industry. Efficient utilisation of biomass requires a high level of knowledge and the development of new processes to create a new way of thinking. In this process, international co-operation plays a significant role. The aim of the HighBio project was to produce new information on biomass gasification and the utilisation opportunities of product gas in biofuel and biochemicals production. The project was also aimed at studying utilisation properties of biogasification ashes in distributed energy production. Small-scaled CHP plants can be used for simultaneous heat and power production by gasifying wood chips and by burning energy intensive product gas. Compared with thermal combustion, particulate emissions from gasification are lower, which also contributes to the EU's ever tightening emission legislation. Several small and middle scale companies in the Northern part of Finland and Sweden have worked with biomass gasification, and during the project, the birth of new ones has been seen. In this development stage, researchers of the HighBio project have also been strongly involved. Increased use of renewable energy opens up new possibilities for entrepreneurship and the birth of new companies, especially in rural areas. In order to enable these opportunities, we need research data from the universities, novel innovations, and especially their successful commercialisation. The HighBio project has also contributed to tackling those challenges by arranging research seminars and meetings to companies and other interest groups, as well as by establishing research activities and collaborations. Regional collaboration combined with national and international research networks

MSU-Northern Bio-Energy Center of Excellence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kegel, Greg [Montana State Univ. Northern, Havre, MT (United States); Windy Boy, Jessica [Montana State Univ. Northern, Havre, MT (United States). Bio-Energy Center of Excellence; Maglinao, Randy Latayan [Montana State Univ. Northern, Havre, MT (United States). Bio-Energy Center of Excellence; Abedin, Md. Joynal [Montana State Univ. Northern, Havre, MT (United States). Bio-Energy Center of Excellence

2017-03-02

-grown oilseed crop was developed through a chemical process for converting the oil extracted into jet fuel. Promising methods of synthesizing heterogeneous metal complex catalyst that support the chemical conversion process were likewise developed. Breaking-down lignin to valuable chemicals using a metal complex catalyst was also investigated. Lignin is an organic polymer that binds around cellulose and hemicellulose fibers which strengthen cell walls in woody biomass. Test results showed promise and could lead to further exploration of using lignin for fuels and fuel additives. These findings could create another value-added product from lignin that can be sourced from beetle kill trees and product residues from cellulose ethanol plants. Coupled with these research discoveries was the provision of technical support to businesses in terms of product development and commercialization of bio-based products. This in turn opened new avenues for advancing the bio-energy industry in the region and helped support the regional agricultural-based economy through developing biofuels derived from feedstock that are grown locally. It assisted in developing biofuels that reduce exhaust emissions and improve engine performance.

Advanced biotechnology: metabolically engineered cells for the bio-based production of chemicals and fuels, materials, and health-care products.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Judith; Wittmann, Christoph

2015-03-09

Corynebacterium glutamicum, Escherichia coli, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in particular, have become established as important industrial workhorses in biotechnology. Recent years have seen tremendous progress in their advance into tailor-made producers, driven by the upcoming demand for sustainable processes and renewable raw materials. Here, the diversity and complexity of nature is simultaneously a challenge and a benefit. Harnessing biodiversity in the right manner through synergistic progress in systems metabolic engineering and chemical synthesis promises a future innovative bio-economy. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

BioSig3D: High Content Screening of Three-Dimensional Cell Culture Models.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cemal Cagatay Bilgin

Full Text Available BioSig3D is a computational platform for high-content screening of three-dimensional (3D cell culture models that are imaged in full 3D volume. It provides an end-to-end solution for designing high content screening assays, based on colony organization that is derived from segmentation of nuclei in each colony. BioSig3D also enables visualization of raw and processed 3D volumetric data for quality control, and integrates advanced bioinformatics analysis. The system consists of multiple computational and annotation modules that are coupled together with a strong use of controlled vocabularies to reduce ambiguities between different users. It is a web-based system that allows users to: design an experiment by defining experimental variables, upload a large set of volumetric images into the system, analyze and visualize the dataset, and either display computed indices as a heatmap, or phenotypic subtypes for heterogeneity analysis, or download computed indices for statistical analysis or integrative biology. BioSig3D has been used to profile baseline colony formations with two experiments: (i morphogenesis of a panel of human mammary epithelial cell lines (HMEC, and (ii heterogeneity in colony formation using an immortalized non-transformed cell line. These experiments reveal intrinsic growth properties of well-characterized cell lines that are routinely used for biological studies. BioSig3D is being released with seed datasets and video-based documentation.

Laser additive manufacturing of high-performance materials

CERN Document Server

Gu, Dongdong

2015-01-01

This book entitled “Laser Additive Manufacturing of High-Performance Materials” covers the specific aspects of laser additive manufacturing of high-performance new materials components based on an unconventional materials incremental manufacturing philosophy, in terms of materials design and preparation, process control and optimization, and theories of physical and chemical metallurgy. This book describes the capabilities and characteristics of the development of new metallic materials components by laser additive manufacturing process, including nanostructured materials, in situ composite materials, particle reinforced metal matrix composites, etc. The topics presented in this book, similar as laser additive manufacturing technology itself, show a significant interdisciplinary feature, integrating laser technology, materials science, metallurgical engineering, and mechanical engineering. This is a book for researchers, students, practicing engineers, and manufacturing industry professionals interested i...

Upgrading the lubricity of bio-oil via homogeneous catalytic esterification under vacuum distillation conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Yufu; Zheng, Xiaojing; Peng, Yubin; Li, Bao; Hu, Xianguo; Yin, Yanguo

2015-01-01

In order to accelerate the application of bio-oil in the internal combustion engines, homogeneous catalytic esterification technology under vacuum distillation conditions was used to upgrade the crude bio-oil. The lubricities of the crude bio-oil (BO) and refined bio-oil with homogeneous catalytic esterification (RBO hce ) or refined bio-oil without catalyst but with distillation operation (RBO wc ) were evaluated by a high frequency reciprocating test rig according to the ASTM D 6079 standard. The basic physiochemical properties and components of the bio-oils were analyzed. The surface morphology, contents and chemical valence of active elements on the worn surfaces were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The results show that RBO hce has better lubricities than those of BO, but RBO wc has worse lubricities than those of BO. The tribological mechanisms of the bio-oils are attributed to the combined actions of lubricating films and factors that will break the film. Compared with BO, plenty of phenols in RBO wc results in corrosion of the substrate and destroys the integrity of the lubricating films, which is responsible for its corrosive wear. However, more esters and alkanes in RBO hce contribute to forming a complete boundary lubricating film on the rubbed surfaces which result in its excellent antifriction and antiwear properties. - Highlights: • Refined bio-oil was prepared through homogeneous catalytic esterification technology. • Properties of the bio-oils before and after refining were assessed by HFRR. • Refined bio-oil showed better lubricities than crude bio-oil. • More esters and alkanes in refined bio-oil contributed to forming superior boundary lubrication

High School Teachers' Conceptions of Engineers and Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Hoh, Yin Kiong

2012-01-01

This paper describes a workshop activity the author has carried out with 80 high school science teachers to enable them to overcome their stereotypical perceptions of engineers and engineering. The activity introduced them to the biographies of prominent women in engineering, and raised their awareness of these female engineers' contributions to…

Bis-pyridinium quadrupolar derivatives. High Stokes shift selective probes for bio-imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Salice, Patrizio; Versari, Silvia; Bradamante, Silvia; Meinardi, Francesco; Macchi, Giorgio; Pagani, Giorgio A.; Beverina, Luca

2013-11-01

We describe the design, synthesis and characterization of five high Stokes shift quadrupolar heteroaryl compounds suitable as fluorescent probes in bio-imaging. In particular, we characterize the photophysical properties and the intracellular localization in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) and Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (HMSCs) for each dye. We show that, amongst all of the investigated derivatives, the 2,5-bis[1-(4-N-methylpyridinium)ethen-2-yl)]- N-methylpyrrole salt is the best candidates as selective mitochondrial tracker. Finally, we recorded the full emission spectrum of the most performing - exclusively mitochondrial selective - fluorescent probe directly from HUVEC stained cells. The emission spectrum collected from the stained mitochondria shows a remarkably more pronounced vibronic structure with respect to the emission of the free fluorophore in solution.

Development and Performance Evaluation of Optical Sensors for High Temperature Engine Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Adamovsky, G.; Varga, D.; Floyd, B.

2011-01-01

This paper discusses fiber optic sensors designed and constructed to withstand extreme temperatures of aircraft engine. The paper describes development and performance evaluation of fiber optic Bragg grating based sensors. It also describes the design and presents test results of packaged sensors subjected to temperatures up to 1000 C for prolonged periods of time.

BrisSynBio: a BBSRC/EPSRC-funded Synthetic Biology Research Centre.

Science.gov (United States)

Sedgley, Kathleen R; Race, Paul R; Woolfson, Derek N

2016-06-15

BrisSynBio is the Bristol-based Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)/Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)-funded Synthetic Biology Research Centre. It is one of six such Centres in the U.K. BrisSynBio's emphasis is on rational and predictive bimolecular modelling, design and engineering in the context of synthetic biology. It trains the next generation of synthetic biologists in these approaches, to facilitate translation of fundamental synthetic biology research to industry and the clinic, and to do this within an innovative and responsible research framework. © 2016 The Author(s).

Performances Study of a Hybrid Rocket Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian-Nicolae BUTURACHE

2018-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study which analyses the functioning and performances optimization of a hybrid rocket engine based on gaseous oxygen and polybutadiene polymer (HTPB. Calculations were performed with NASA CEA software in order to obtain the parameters resulted following the combustion process. Using these parameters, the main parameters of the hybrid rocket engine were optimized. Using the calculus previously stated, an experimental rocket engine producing 100 N of thrust was pre-dimensioned, followed by an optimization of the rocket engine as a function of several parameters. Having the geometry and the main parameters of the hybrid rocket engine combustion process, numerical simulations were performed in the CFX – ANSYS commercial software, which allowed visualizing the flow field and the jet expansion. Finally, the analytical calculus was validated through numerical simulations.

Hydrodeoxygenation of Pyrolysis Bio-Oil Over Ni Impregnated Mesoporous Materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, In-Gu; Lee, Heejin; Kang, Bo Sung; Kim, Young-Min; Kim, Sang Chai; Jung, Sang-Chul; Ko, Chang Hyun; Park, Young-Kwon

2018-02-01

The catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of bio-oil over Ni-supported mesoporous materials was performed using a high pressure autoclave reactor. The actual pyrolysis oil of cork oak wood was used as a sample, and Ni/Al-SBA-15 and Ni/Al-MSU-F were used as catalysts. In addition, supercritical ethanol was added as solvent. Both Ni-supported mesoporous catalysts showed efficient HDO reaction ability. A higher heating value and pH of bio-oil were achieved by the HDO reaction over both catalysts and upgraded bio-oil had a lower viscosity. Compared to Ni/Al-MSU-F, Ni/Al- SBA-15 produced more upgraded bio-oil with a lower oxygen content and higher heating value via a catalytic HDO process.

Concurrently adjusting interrelated control parameters to achieve optimal engine performance

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Li; Lee, Donghoon; Yilmaz, Hakan; Stefanopoulou, Anna

2015-12-01

Methods and systems for real-time engine control optimization are provided. A value of an engine performance variable is determined, a value of a first operating condition and a value of a second operating condition of a vehicle engine are detected, and initial values for a first engine control parameter and a second engine control parameter are determined based on the detected first operating condition and the detected second operating condition. The initial values for the first engine control parameter and the second engine control parameter are adjusted based on the determined value of the engine performance variable to cause the engine performance variable to approach a target engine performance variable. In order to cause the engine performance variable to approach the target engine performance variable, adjusting the initial value for the first engine control parameter necessitates a corresponding adjustment of the initial value for the second engine control parameter.

Analysis of gas turbine engines using water and oxygen injection to achieve high Mach numbers and high thrust

Science.gov (United States)

Henneberry, Hugh M.; Snyder, Christopher A.

1993-01-01

An analysis of gas turbine engines using water and oxygen injection to enhance performance by increasing Mach number capability and by increasing thrust is described. The liquids are injected, either separately or together, into the subsonic diffuser ahead of the engine compressor. A turbojet engine and a mixed-flow turbofan engine (MFTF) are examined, and in pursuit of maximum thrust, both engines are fitted with afterburners. The results indicate that water injection alone can extend the performance envelope of both engine types by one and one-half Mach numbers at which point water-air ratios reach 17 or 18 percent and liquid specific impulse is reduced to some 390 to 470 seconds, a level about equal to the impulse of a high energy rocket engine. The envelope can be further extended, but only with increasing sacrifices in liquid specific impulse. Oxygen-airflow ratios as high as 15 percent were investigated for increasing thrust. Using 15 percent oxygen in combination with water injection at high supersonic Mach numbers resulted in thrust augmentation as high as 76 percent without any significant decrease in liquid specific impulse. The stoichiometric afterburner exit temperature increased with increasing oxygen flow, reaching 4822 deg R in the turbojet engine at a Mach number of 3.5. At the transonic Mach number of 0.95 where no water injection is needed, an oxygen-air ratio of 15 percent increased thrust by some 55 percent in both engines, along with a decrease in liquid specific impulse of 62 percent. Afterburner temperature was approximately 4700 deg R at this high thrust condition. Water and/or oxygen injection are simple and straightforward strategies to improve engine performance and they will add little to engine weight. However, if large Mach number and thrust increases are required, liquid flows become significant, so that operation at these conditions will necessarily be of short duration.

Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex: wide-coverage evaluation sets of word similarity in biomedicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Billy; Pyysalo, Sampo; Vulić, Ivan; Korhonen, Anna

2018-02-05

Word representations support a variety of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. The quality of these representations is typically assessed by comparing the distances in the induced vector spaces against human similarity judgements. Whereas comprehensive evaluation resources have recently been developed for the general domain, similar resources for biomedicine currently suffer from the lack of coverage, both in terms of word types included and with respect to the semantic distinctions. Notably, verbs have been excluded, although they are essential for the interpretation of biomedical language. Further, current resources do not discern between semantic similarity and semantic relatedness, although this has been proven as an important predictor of the usefulness of word representations and their performance in downstream applications. We present two novel comprehensive resources targeting the evaluation of word representations in biomedicine. These resources, Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex, address the previously mentioned problems, and can be used for evaluations of verb and noun representations respectively. In our experiments, we have computed the Pearson's correlation between performances on intrinsic and extrinsic tasks using twelve popular state-of-the-art representation models (e.g. word2vec models). The intrinsic-extrinsic correlations using our datasets are notably higher than with previous intrinsic evaluation benchmarks such as UMNSRS and MayoSRS. In addition, when evaluating representation models for their abilities to capture verb and noun semantics individually, we show a considerable variation between performances across all models. Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex enable intrinsic evaluation of word representations. This evaluation can serve as a predictor of performance on various downstream tasks in the biomedical domain. The results on Bio-SimVerb and Bio-SimLex using standard word representation models highlight the importance of developing dedicated

Engineering tolerance to industrially relevant stress factors in yeast cell factories.

Science.gov (United States)

Deparis, Quinten; Claes, Arne; Foulquié-Moreno, Maria R; Thevelein, Johan M

2017-06-01

The main focus in development of yeast cell factories has generally been on establishing optimal activity of heterologous pathways and further metabolic engineering of the host strain to maximize product yield and titer. Adequate stress tolerance of the host strain has turned out to be another major challenge for obtaining economically viable performance in industrial production. Although general robustness is a universal requirement for industrial microorganisms, production of novel compounds using artificial metabolic pathways presents additional challenges. Many of the bio-based compounds desirable for production by cell factories are highly toxic to the host cells in the titers required for economic viability. Artificial metabolic pathways also turn out to be much more sensitive to stress factors than endogenous pathways, likely because regulation of the latter has been optimized in evolution in myriads of environmental conditions. We discuss different environmental and metabolic stress factors with high relevance for industrial utilization of yeast cell factories and the experimental approaches used to engineer higher stress tolerance. Improving stress tolerance in a predictable manner in yeast cell factories should facilitate their widespread utilization in the bio-based economy and extend the range of products successfully produced in large scale in a sustainable and economically profitable way. © FEMS 2017.

Engineering tolerance to industrially relevant stress factors in yeast cell factories

Science.gov (United States)

Deparis, Quinten; Claes, Arne; Foulquié-Moreno, Maria R.

2017-01-01

Abstract The main focus in development of yeast cell factories has generally been on establishing optimal activity of heterologous pathways and further metabolic engineering of the host strain to maximize product yield and titer. Adequate stress tolerance of the host strain has turned out to be another major challenge for obtaining economically viable performance in industrial production. Although general robustness is a universal requirement for industrial microorganisms, production of novel compounds using artificial metabolic pathways presents additional challenges. Many of the bio-based compounds desirable for production by cell factories are highly toxic to the host cells in the titers required for economic viability. Artificial metabolic pathways also turn out to be much more sensitive to stress factors than endogenous pathways, likely because regulation of the latter has been optimized in evolution in myriads of environmental conditions. We discuss different environmental and metabolic stress factors with high relevance for industrial utilization of yeast cell factories and the experimental approaches used to engineer higher stress tolerance. Improving stress tolerance in a predictable manner in yeast cell factories should facilitate their widespread utilization in the bio-based economy and extend the range of products successfully produced in large scale in a sustainable and economically profitable way. PMID:28586408

Recent approaches in food bio-preservation - a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Veer Pal

2018-01-01

Bio-preservation is a technique of extending the shelf life of food by using natural or controlled microbiota or antimicrobials. The fermentation products as well as beneficial bacteria are generally selected in this process to control spoilage and render pathogen inactive. The special interest organism or central organism used for this purpose is lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their metabolites. They are capable to exhibit antimicrobial properties and helpful in imparting unique flavour and texture to the food products. The major compounds produced by LAB are bacteriocin, organic acids and hydrogen peroxide. Bacteriocin is peptides or proteins with antimicrobial activity. On the basis of size, structure and post-translational modification, bacteriocin is divided into four different classes. Due to non-toxic, non-immunogenic, thermo-resistance characteristics and broad bactericidal activity, LAB bacteriocins are considered good bio-preservative agents. The most common LAB bactriocin is nisin which has wider applications in food industry and has been Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved. Nisin and other bacteriocin are being used in vegetables products, dairy and meat industries. Apart from LAB metabolites, bacteriophages and endolysins has promising role in food processing, preservation and safety. Bacteriocins and endolysins are more suitable for DNA shuffling and protein engineering to generate highly potent variants with expanded activity spectrum. Genetically modified bacteriophages may also be helpful in bio-preservation, however; their safety issues must be addressed properly before selection as bio-preservative agent.

Recent approaches in food bio-preservation - a review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Veer Pal Singh

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Bio-preservation is a technique of extending the shelf life of food by using natural or controlled microbiota or antimicrobials. The fermentation products as well as beneficial bacteria are generally selected in this process to control spoilage and render pathogen inactive. The special interest organism or central organism used for this purpose is lactic acid bacteria (LAB and their metabolites. They are capable to exhibit antimicrobial properties and helpful in imparting unique flavour and texture to the food products. The major compounds produced by LAB are bacteriocin, organic acids and hydrogen peroxide. Bacteriocin is peptides or proteins with antimicrobial activity. On the basis of size, structure and post-translational modification, bacteriocin is divided into four different classes. Due to non-toxic, non-immunogenic, thermo-resistance characteristics and broad bactericidal activity, LAB bacteriocins are considered good bio-preservative agents. The most common LAB bactriocin is nisin which has wider applications in food industry and has been Food and Drug Administration (FDA approved. Nisin and other bacteriocin are being used in vegetables products, dairy and meat industries. Apart from LAB metabolites, bacteriophages and endolysins has promising role in food processing, preservation and safety. Bacteriocins and endolysins are more suitable for DNA shuffling and protein engineering to generate highly potent variants with expanded activity spectrum. Genetically modified bacteriophages may also be helpful in bio-preservation, however; their safety issues must be addressed properly before selection as bio-preservative agent.

Fabrication and characterization of bio-engineered cardiac pseudo tissues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu Tao; Boland, Thomas [Department of Bioengineering, 420 Rhodes Hall, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634 (United States); Baicu, Catalin; Aho, Michael; Zile, Michael, E-mail: tboland@clemson.ed [Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425 (United States)

2009-09-15

We report on fabricating functional three-dimensional (3D) tissue constructs using an inkjet based bio-prototyping method. With the use of modified inkjet printers, contractile cardiac hybrids that exhibit the forms of the 3D rectangular sheet and even the 'half heart' (with two connected ventricles) have been fabricated by arranging alternate layers of biocompatible alginate hydrogels and mammalian cardiac cells according to pre-designed 3D patterns. In this study, primary feline adult and H1 cardiomyocytes were used as model cardiac cells. Alginate hydrogels with controlled micro-shell structures were built by spraying cross-linkers in micro-drops onto un-gelled alginic acid. The cells remained viable in constructs as thick as 1 cm due to the programmed porosity. Microscopic and macroscopic contractile functions of these cardiomyocyte constructs were observed in vitro. These results suggest that the inkjet bio-prototyping method could be used for hierarchical design of functional cardiac pseudo tissues, balanced with porosity for mass transport and structural support.

Fabrication and characterization of bio-engineered cardiac pseudo tissues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Tao; Boland, Thomas; Baicu, Catalin; Aho, Michael; Zile, Michael

2009-01-01

We report on fabricating functional three-dimensional (3D) tissue constructs using an inkjet based bio-prototyping method. With the use of modified inkjet printers, contractile cardiac hybrids that exhibit the forms of the 3D rectangular sheet and even the 'half heart' (with two connected ventricles) have been fabricated by arranging alternate layers of biocompatible alginate hydrogels and mammalian cardiac cells according to pre-designed 3D patterns. In this study, primary feline adult and H1 cardiomyocytes were used as model cardiac cells. Alginate hydrogels with controlled micro-shell structures were built by spraying cross-linkers in micro-drops onto un-gelled alginic acid. The cells remained viable in constructs as thick as 1 cm due to the programmed porosity. Microscopic and macroscopic contractile functions of these cardiomyocyte constructs were observed in vitro. These results suggest that the inkjet bio-prototyping method could be used for hierarchical design of functional cardiac pseudo tissues, balanced with porosity for mass transport and structural support.

Bio-coloration of bacterial cellulose assisted by immobilized laccase.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Ji Eun; Su, Jing; Noro, Jennifer; Cavaco-Paulo, Artur; Silva, Carla; Kim, Hye Rim

2018-02-13

In this work a process for the bio-coloration of bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes was developed. Laccase from Myceliophthora thermophila was immobilized onto BC membranes and retained up to 88% of residual activity after immobilization. Four compounds belonging to the flavonoids family were chosen to test the in situ polymerase activity of immobilized laccase. All the flavonoids were successfully polymerized by laccase giving rise to yellow, orange and dark brown oligomers which conferred color to the BC support. The optimal bio-coloration conditions were studied for two of the tested flavonoids, catechol and catechin, by varying the concentration and time of incubation. High color depth and resistance to washing were obtained for both compounds. The highly porous bacterial cellulose material demonstrated great performance as a bio-coloration support, in contrast to other materials cited in literature, like cotton or wool. The process developed is presented as an environmentally friendly alternative for bacterial cellulose bio-coloration and will contribute deeply for the development of new fashionable products within this material.

Three-dimensional bio-printing.

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Qi; Hao, Jie; Lu, YangJie; Wang, Liu; Wallace, Gordon G; Zhou, Qi

2015-05-01

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has been widely used in various manufacturing operations including automotive, defence and space industries. 3D printing has the advantages of personalization, flexibility and high resolution, and is therefore becoming increasingly visible in the high-tech fields. Three-dimensional bio-printing technology also holds promise for future use in medical applications. At present 3D bio-printing is mainly used for simulating and reconstructing some hard tissues or for preparing drug-delivery systems in the medical area. The fabrication of 3D structures with living cells and bioactive moieties spatially distributed throughout will be realisable. Fabrication of complex tissues and organs is still at the exploratory stage. This review summarize the development of 3D bio-printing and its potential in medical applications, as well as discussing the current challenges faced by 3D bio-printing.

Workshop: High-performance coatings for internal combustion engines; Workshop: Hochleistungsschichten fuer Verbrennungsmotoren

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blau, W. [Foerdergemeinschaft Duenne Schichten e.V., Dresden (Germany). Transferzentrum Oberflaechen- und Schichttechnologie; Lugscheider, E. [Technische Hochschule Aachen (Germany). Lehr- und Forschungsgebiet Werkstoffwissenschaften; Suchentrunk, R. (comps.) [DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (Dasa), Muenchen (Germany)

1999-07-01

Progress in vehicles is closely related to progress in materials. Engine components must withstand high thermal, corrosive and mechanical loads. The workshop focused on the coating and boundary layer treatment of components especially of piston engines, although gas turbine technology was gone into as well. [German] Fortschritte in der Verkehrstechnik sind oft eng mit Fortschritten in der Werkstofftechnik verknuepft. Besonders hoch sind die Anforderungen hinsichtlich thermischer, korrosiver und mechanischer Belastbarkeit bei Bauteilen von Verbrennungsmotoren. Der Workshop widmet sich ausschliesslich dem Teilgebiet die Beschichtung und Randschichtbehandlung von Bauteilen. Kolbenmotoren stehen im Mittelpunkt, Querverbindungen zur Gasturbinentechnik werden angesprochen. (orig./AKF)

Low grade bioethanol for fuel mixing on gasoline engine using distillation process

Science.gov (United States)

Abikusna, Setia; Sugiarto, Bambang; Suntoro, Dedi; Azami

2017-03-01

Utilization of renewable energy in Indonesia is still low, compared to 34% oil, 20% coal and 20% gas, utilization of energy sources for water 3%, geothermal 1%, 2% biofuels, and biomass 20%. Whereas renewable energy sources dwindling due to the increasing consumption of gasoline as a fuel. It makes us have to look for alternative renewable energy, one of which is bio ethanol. Several studies on the use of ethanol was done to the researchers. Our studies using low grade bio ethanol which begins with the disitillation independently utilize flue gas heat at compact distillator, produces high grade bio ethanol and ready to be mixed with gasoline. Stages of our study is the compact distillator design of the motor dynamic continued with good performance and emission testing and ethanol distilled. Some improvement is made is through the flue gas heat control mechanism in compact distillator using gate valve, at low, medium, and high speed engine. Compact distillator used is kind of a batch distillation column. Column design process using the shortcut method, then carried the tray design to determine the overall geometry. The distillation is done by comparing the separator with a tray of different distances. As well as by varying the volume of the feed and ethanol levels that will feed distilled. In this study, we analyzed the mixing of ethanol through variation between main jet and pilot jet in the carburetor separately interchangeably with gasoline. And finally mixing mechanism bio ethanol with gasoline improved with fuel mixer for performance.

Effect of biodiesel blends on engine performance and exhaust emission for diesel dual fuel engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohsin, R.; Majid, Z.A.; Shihnan, A.H.; Nasri, N.S.; Sharer, Z.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Engine and emission characteristics of biodiesel DDF engine system were measured. • Biodiesel DDF fuelled system produced high engine performance. • Lower hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide was emitted by biodiesel DDF system. • Biodiesel DDF produced slightly higher carbon monoxide and nitric oxides emission. - Abstract: Biodiesel derived from biomass is a renewable source of fuel. It is renovated to be the possible fuel to replace fossil derived diesel due to its properties and combustion characteristics. The integration of compressed natural gas (CNG) in diesel engine known as diesel dual fuel (DDF) system offered better exhaust emission thus become an attractive option for reducing the pollutants emitted from transportation fleets. In the present study, the engine performance and exhaust emission of HINO H07C DDF engine; fuelled by diesel, biodiesel, diesel–CNG, and biodiesel–CNG, were experimentally studied. Biodiesel and diesel fuelled engine system respectively generated 455 N m and 287 N m of torque. The horse power of biodiesel was found to be 10–20% higher compared to diesel. Biodiesel–CNG at 20% (B20-DDF) produced the highest engine torque compared to other fuel blends Biodiesel significantly increase the carbon monoxide (15–32%) and nitric oxides (6.67–7.03%) but in contrast reduce the unburned hydrocarbons (5.76–6.25%) and carbon dioxide (0.47–0.58%) emissions level. These results indicated that biodiesel could be used without any engine modifications as an alternative and environmentally friendly fuel especially the heavy transportation fleets

Performance of a hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engine under various operating conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ji, Changwei; Wang, Shuofeng; Zhang, Bo

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We develop a combustion strategy for the hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engine (HHGE). ► The HHGE produced much lower HC and CO emissions at cold start. ► The H 2 -gasoline blends were effective for improving engine performance at idle and part loads. ► The HHGE could run smoothly at lean conditions. -- Abstract: This paper proposed a new combustion strategy for the spark-ignited (SI) engines. A gasoline engine was converted into a hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engine (HHGE) by adding a hydrogen injection system and a hybrid electronic control unit. Different from the conventional gasoline and hydrogen–enriched gasoline engines, the HHGE is fueled with the pure hydrogen at cold start to produce almost zero emissions, with the hydrogen–gasoline blends at idle and part loads to further improve thermal efficiency and reduce emissions, and with the pure gasoline to ensure the engine power output at high loads. Because the HHGE is fueled with the pure gasoline at high loads and speeds, experiments are only conducted at clod start, idle and part load conditions. Since lean combustion avails the further improvement of the engine performance, the HHGE was fueled with the lean mixtures in all tests. The experimental results showed that the hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engine was started successfully with the pure hydrogen, which produced 94.7% and 99.5% reductions in HC and CO emissions within 100 s from the onset of the cold start, compared with the original gasoline engine. At an excess air ratio of 1.37 and idle conditions, indicated thermal efficiency of the 3% hydrogen–blended gasoline engine was 46.3% higher than that of the original engine. Moreover, the engine cyclic variation was eased, combustion duration was shortened and HC, CO and NOx emissions were effectively reduced for the hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engines.

Bio-oil fueled diesel power plant; Biooeljyllae toimiva dieselvoimala

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vuorinen, A. [Modigen Oy, Helsinki (Finland)

1995-12-31

The project mission is to develop a diesel power plant which is capable of using liquid bio-oils as the main fuel of the power plant. The applicable bio-oils are rape seed oils and pyrolysis oils. The project was started in 1994 by installing a 1.5 MW Vasa 4L32 engine in VTT Energy laboratory in Otaniemi. During 1995 the first tests with the rape seed oils were made. The tests show that the rape seed oil can be used in Vasa 32 engines without difficulties. In the second phase of the project during 1996 and 1997 pyrolysis oil made of wood will be tested. Finally a diesel power plant concept with integrated pyrolysis oil, electricity and heat production will be developed

Bio-oil fueled diesel power plant; Biooeljyllae toimiva dieselvoimala

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vuorinen, A [Modigen Oy, Helsinki (Finland)

1996-12-31

The project mission is to develop a diesel power plant which is capable of using liquid bio-oils as the main fuel of the power plant. The applicable bio-oils are rape seed oils and pyrolysis oils. The project was started in 1994 by installing a 1.5 MW Vasa 4L32 engine in VTT Energy laboratory in Otaniemi. During 1995 the first tests with the rape seed oils were made. The tests show that the rape seed oil can be used in Vasa 32 engines without difficulties. In the second phase of the project during 1996 and 1997 pyrolysis oil made of wood will be tested. Finally a diesel power plant concept with integrated pyrolysis oil, electricity and heat production will be developed

Bio-oil fuelled diesel power plant; Biooeljyllae toimiva dieselvoimala

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vuorinen, A [Modigen Oy, Helsinki (Finland)

1997-12-01

The project mission is to develop a diesel power plant which is capable of using liquid bio-oils as the main fuel of the power plant. The applicable bio-oils are rape seed oils and pyrolysis oils. The project was started in 1994 by installing a 1.5 MW Vasa 4L32 engine in VTT Energy laboratory in Otaniemi. During 1995 the first tests with the rape seed oils were made. The tests show that the rape seed oil can be used in Vasa 32 engines without difficulties. In the second phase of the project during 1996 pyrolysis oil made of wood was tested. Finally a diesel power plant concept with integrated pyrolysis oil, electricity and heat production will be developed

Engineering development of coal-fired high-performance power systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

A High Performance Power System (HIPPS) is being developed. This system is a coal-fired, combined cycle plant with indirect heating of gas turbine air. Foster Wheeler Development Corporation and a team consisting of Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation, Bechtel Corporation, University of Tennessee Space Institute and Westinghouse Electric Corporation are developing this system. In Phase 1 of the project, a conceptual design of a commercial plant was developed. Technical and economic analyses indicated that the plant would meet the goals of the project which include a 47 percent efficiency (HHV) and a 10 percent lower cost of electricity than an equivalent size PC plant. The concept uses a pyrolyzation process to convert coal into fuel gas and char. The char is fired in a High Temperature Advanced Furnace (HITAF). The HITAF is a pulverized fuel-fired boiler/air heater where steam is generated and gas turbine air is indirectly heated. The fuel gas generated in the pyrolyzer is then used to heat the gas turbine air further before it enters the gas turbine. The project is currently in Phase 2, which includes engineering analysis, laboratory testing and pilot plant testing. Research and development is being done on the HIPPS systems that are not commercial or being developed on other projects. Pilot plant testing of the pyrolyzer subsystem and the char combustion subsystem are being done separately, and after each experimental program has been completed, a larger scale pyrolyzer will be tested at the Power Systems Development Facility (PSDF) in Wilsonville, Al. The facility is equipped with a gas turbine and a topping combustor, and as such, will provide an opportunity to evaluate integrated pyrolyzer and turbine operation. During this quarter, initial char combustion tests were performed at the CETF using a Foster Wheeler commercial burner. These preliminary tests were encouraging and will be used to support the development of an innovative char burner for the HIPPS

Awareness of Consequence of High School Students on Loss of Bio-Diversity

Science.gov (United States)

Kasot, Nazim; Özbas, Serap

2015-01-01

The aim of this study is to assess the egoistic, altruistic and biospheric awareness of the consequence of high school students regarding the loss of bio-diversity, then comparing the results on the basis of some independent variables (gender, class and family income). The research data were collected from 884 ninth and tenth grade high school…

A New, Highly Improved Two-Cycle Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Wiesen, Bernard

2008-01-01

The figure presents a cross-sectional view of a supercharged, variable-compression, two-cycle, internal-combustion engine that offers significant advantages over prior such engines. The improvements are embodied in a combination of design changes that contribute synergistically to improvements in performance and economy. Although the combination of design changes and the principles underlying them are complex, one of the main effects of the changes on the overall engine design is reduced (relative to prior two-cycle designs) mechanical complexity, which translates directly to reduced manufacturing cost and increased reliability. Other benefits include increases in the efficiency of both scavenging and supercharging. The improvements retain the simplicity and other advantages of two-cycle engines while affording increases in volumetric efficiency and performance across a wide range of operating conditions that, heretofore have been accessible to four-cycle engines but not to conventionally scavenged two-cycle ones, thereby increasing the range of usefulness of the two-cycle engine into all areas now dominated by the four-cycle engine. The design changes and benefits are too numerous to describe here in detail, but it is possible to summarize the major improvements: Reciprocating Shuttle Inlet Valve The entire reciprocating shuttle inlet valve and its operating gear is constructed as a single member. The shuttle valve is actuated in a lost-motion arrangement in which, at the ends of its stroke, projections on the shuttle valve come to rest against abutments at the ends of grooves in a piston skirt. This shuttle-valve design obviates the customary complex valve mechanism, actuated from an engine crankshaft or camshaft, yet it is effective with every type of two-cycle engine, from small high-speed single cylinder model engines, to large low-speed multiple cylinder engines.

Effects of chemical equilibrium on turbine engine performance for various fuels and combustor temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Donald H.; Snyder, Christopher A.

1992-01-01

A study was performed to quantify the differences in turbine engine performance with and without the chemical dissociation effects for various fuel types over a range of combustor temperatures. Both turbojet and turbofan engines were studied with hydrocarbon fuels and cryogenic, nonhydrocarbon fuels. Results of the study indicate that accuracy of engine performance decreases when nonhydrocarbon fuels are used, especially at high temperatures where chemical dissociation becomes more significant. For instance, the deviation in net thrust for liquid hydrogen fuel can become as high as 20 percent at 4160 R. This study reveals that computer central processing unit (CPU) time increases significantly when dissociation effects are included in the cycle analysis.

Clojure high performance programming

CERN Document Server

Kumar, Shantanu

2013-01-01

This is a short, practical guide that will teach you everything you need to know to start writing high performance Clojure code.This book is ideal for intermediate Clojure developers who are looking to get a good grip on how to achieve optimum performance. You should already have some experience with Clojure and it would help if you already know a little bit of Java. Knowledge of performance analysis and engineering is not required. For hands-on practice, you should have access to Clojure REPL with Leiningen.

Lateral ridge augmentation with Bio-Oss alone or Bio-Oss mixed with particulate autogenous bone graft: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Aludden, H C; Mordenfeld, A; Hallman, M; Dahlin, C; Jensen, T

2017-08-01

The objective of this systematic review was to test the hypothesis of no difference in implant treatment outcomes when using Bio-Oss alone or Bio-Oss mixed with particulate autogenous bone grafts for lateral ridge augmentation. A search of the MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases in combination with a hand-search of relevant journals was conducted. Human studies published in English from 1 January 1990 to 1 May 2016 were included. The search provided 337 titles and six studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Considerable variation prevented a meta-analysis from being performed. The two treatment modalities have never been compared within the same study. Non-comparative studies demonstrated a 3-year implant survival of 96% with 50% Bio-Oss mixed with 50% autogenous bone graft. Moreover, Bio-Oss alone or Bio-Oss mixed with autogenous bone graft seems to increase the amount of newly formed bone as well as the width of the alveolar process. Within the limitations of this systematic review, lateral ridge augmentation with Bio-Oss alone or in combination with autogenous bone graft seems to induce newly formed bone and increase the width of the alveolar process, with high short-term implant survival. However, long-term studies comparing the two treatment modalities are needed before final conclusions can be drawn. Copyright © 2017 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Performance of engineered barriers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rajaram, V.; Dean, P.V.; McLellan, S.A.

1997-01-01

Engineered barriers, both vertical and horizontal, have been used to isolate hazardous wastes from contact, precipitation, surface water and groundwater. The primary objective of this study was to determine the performance of subsurface barriers installed throughout the U.S. over the past 20 years to contain hazardous wastes. Evaluation of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle C or equivalent caps was a secondary objective. A nationwide search was launched to select hazardous waste sites at which vertical barrier walls and/or caps had been used as the containment method. None of the sites selected had an engineered floor. From an initial list of 130 sites, 34 sites were selected on the basis of availability of monitoring data for detailed analysis of actual field performance. This paper will briefly discuss preliminary findings regarding the design, construction quality assurance/construction quality control (CQA/CQC), and monitoring at the 34 sites. In addition, the short-term performance of these sites (less than 5 years) is presented since very little long-term performance data was available

Experimental study of dual fuel engine performance using variable LPG composition and engine parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elnajjar, Emad; Selim, Mohamed Y.E.; Hamdan, Mohammad O.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • The effect of using variable LPG is studied. • Five fuels with propane to butane % volume ratio are: 100-70-55-25-0. • 100% Propane composition shows the highest noise levels with similar performance. • At 45° BTDC injection timing 55% Propane LPG the only fuel experience knocking. • LPG fuels gave similar engine performance, with differences in levels of noise. - Abstract: The present work investigates experimentally the effect of LPG fuel with different composition and engine parameters on the performance of a dual compression engine. Five different blends of LPG fuels are used with Propane to Butane volume ratio of 100:0, 70:30, 55:45, 25:75, and 0:100. A single cylinder, naturally aspirated, four strokes, indirectly injected, water cooled modified Ricardo E6 engine, is used in this study. The study is carried out by measuring the cylinder pressure, engine load, engine speed, crank angle, and the fuel’s flow rate. The engine performance under variable LPG fuel composition, engine load, pilot fuel injection timing, compression ratio, pilot fuel mass and engine speed, are estimated by comparing the following engine parameters: the cylinder maximum pressure, the indicated mean effective pressure, the maximum rate of pressure rise, and the thermal efficiency. The experimental data indicates that the engine parameters are playing a major role on the engine’s performance. Different LPG fuel composition did not show a major effect on the engine efficiency but directly impacted the levels of generated combustion noise

Aspectos relacionados com a otimização do treinamento aeróbio para o alto rendimento Related aspects of aerobic training optimization for high performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Fernandes Mendes de Oliveira

2010-02-01

Full Text Available O objetivo deste trabalho foi apresentar recomendações visando à otimização do treinamento aeróbio, a partir do conhecimento dos índices de aptidão funcional e seus mecanismos fisiológicos. Em atletas altamente treinados, a precisão na elaboração do treinamento pode ser o meio mais seguro para a melhora do rendimento, pois nesses indivíduos é comum a carga de treinamento oscilar entre o estimulo insuficiente e o aparecimento do excesso de treinamento. Existe, portanto, uma variedade muito grande de fatores que devem ser considerados na elaboração de um programa de treinamento. O entendimento dos mecanismos de fadiga e das respostas fisiológicas associadas às diferentes durações e intensidades de exercício é essencial para uma correta elaboração das sessões de treinamento. Além disso, treinos intervalados de alta intensidade são imprescindíveis para melhora de rendimento em atletas altamente treinados, porém, é recomendado que ele seja realizado após um razoável período de recuperação das sessões de treino anteriores. Assim, o contato entre o atleta e o treinador é importante para um planejamento cuidadoso dos períodos de recuperação antes da ocorrência de fadiga excessiva. O treinador deveria arquivar um histórico das cargas de treino e recuperações, aprendendo com a própria experiência os tipos de cargas que podem ser toleradas individualmente. Entre os fatores que podem afetar o rendimento aeróbio, o planejamento de um aquecimento apropriado e as condições ambientais adversas são aspectos muito importantes. Após reunir todas essas informações, é possível elaborar as bases do treinamento (frequência, volume, intensidade e recuperação visando melhora contínua do rendimento aeróbio.The objective of this work was to present recommendations aiming the aerobic training optimization, from the knowledge of the indexes of functional fitness and their physiological mechanisms. Concerning highly

High-solid anaerobic digestion of corn straw for methane production and pretreatment of bio-briquette.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yeqing; Yan, Fang; Li, Tao; Zhou, Ying; Jiang, Hao; Qian, Mingyu; Xu, Quan

2018-02-01

In this study, an integrated process was developed to produce methane and high-quality bio-briquette (BB) using corn straw (CS) through high-solid anaerobic digestion (HS-AD). CS was anaerobic digested by using a leach bed reactor at four leachate recirculation strategies. After digesting for 28 days, highest methane yield of 179.6 mL/g-VS, which was corresponded to energy production of 5.55 MJ/kg-CS, was obtained at a higher initial recirculation rate of 32 L-leachate per day. Compared with bio-briquette manufactured from raw CS and lignite, the compressive, immersion and falling strength properties of bio-briquette made from AD-treated CS (solid digestate) and lignite were significantly improved. A preferred BB can be obtained with side compressive strength of 863.8 ± 10.8 N and calorific value of 20.21 MJ/kg-BB. The finding of this study indicated that the integrated process could be an alternative way to produce methane and high-quality BB with CS. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Production of bio-energies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gurtler, J.L.; Femenias, A.; Blondy, J.

2009-01-01

After having indicated the various possible origins of biomass, this paper considers the issue of bio-energies, i.e., energies produced with biomass related to forest or agriculture production. Some indicators are defined (share of renewable energies, share of biomass in the energy production and consumption, number of production units). Stake holders are identified. Then, major and emerging trends are identified and discussed. The major trends are: development and diversification of renewable energies, development of bio-fuels with the support of incentive policies, prevalence of the wood-energy sector on the whole renewable energies, increase of surfaces dedicated to bio-fuels since the end of the 1990's, a French biogas sector which is late with respect to other countries. The emerging trends are: the important role of oil price in the development of bio-fuels, a necessary public support for the development of biogas, mobilization of research and development of competitiveness poles for bio-industries. Some prospective issues are also discussed in terms of uncertainties (soil availabilities, environmental performance of bio-fuels, available biomass resource, need of a technological advance, and evolution of energy needs on a medium term, tax and public policy). Three hypotheses of bio-energy evolutions are discussed

High performance bio-based thermosets for composites and coatings

Science.gov (United States)

Paramarta, Adlina Ambeg

In the recent decade, there has been increasing interest in using renewable feedstocks as chemical commodities for composites and coatings application. Vegetable oils are promising renewable resources due to their wide availability with affordable cost. In fact, the utilization of vegetable oils to produce composite and coatings products has been around for centuries; linseed oil was widely used for wide variety of paints. However, due to its chemical structure, the application of vegetable oils for high-performance materials is limited; and thus chemical modification is necessary. One of the modification approaches is by substituting the glycerol core in the triglycerides with sucrose to form sucrose esters of vegetable oil fatty acids, in which this resin possesses a higher number of functional group per molecule and a more rigid core. In this research, thermosets of highly functionalized sucrose esters of vegetable oils were developed. Two crosslinking methods of epoxidized surcrose soyate (ESS) resins were explored: direct polymerization with anhydride moieties for composite applications and Michael-addition reaction of acrylated-epoxidized sucrose soyate (AESS) for coatings applications. In the first project, it was shown that the reaction kinetics, thermal and mechanical properties of the materials can be tuned by varying the molar ratio between the epoxide and anhydride, plus the type and amount of catalyst. Furthermore, the toughness properties of the ESS-based thermosets can be improved by changing the type of anhydride crosslinkers and incorporating secondary phase rubbers. Then, in the second system, the epoxy functionality in the ESS was converted into acrylate group, which then crosslinked with amine groups through the Michael-addition reaction to produce coatings systems. The high number of functional groups and the fast reactivity of the crosslinker results in coatings that can be cured at ambient temperature, yet still possess moderately high glass

Enabling performance skills: Assessment in engineering education

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrone, Jenny Kristina

Current reform in engineering education is part of a national trend emphasizing student learning as well as accountability in instruction. Assessing student performance to demonstrate accountability has become a necessity in academia. In newly adopted criterion proposed by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), undergraduates are expected to demonstrate proficiency in outcomes considered essential for graduating engineers. The case study was designed as a formative evaluation of freshman engineering students to assess the perceived effectiveness of performance skills in a design laboratory environment. The mixed methodology used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to assess students' performance skills and congruency among the respondents, based on individual, team, and faculty perceptions of team effectiveness in three ABET areas: Communications Skills. Design Skills, and Teamwork. The findings of the research were used to address future use of the assessment tool and process. The results of the study found statistically significant differences in perceptions of Teamwork Skills (p performance skills, such as teamwork, among freshman engineering students; (2) incorporate feedback into the learning process; (3) strengthen the assessment process with a follow-up plan that specifically targets performance skill deficiencies, and (4) integrate the assessment instrument and practice with ongoing curriculum development. The findings generated by this study provides engineering departments engaged in assessment activity, opportunity to reflect, refine, and develop their programs as it continues. It also extends research on ABET competencies of engineering students in an under-investigated topic of factors correlated with team processes, behavior, and student learning.

A self-sustaining high-strength wastewater treatment system using solar-bio-hybrid power generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bustamante, Mauricio; Liao, Wei

2017-06-01

This study focuses on system analysis of a self-sustaining high-strength wastewater treatment concept combining solar technologies, anaerobic digestion, and aerobic treatment to reclaim water. A solar bio-hybrid power generation unit was adopted to power the wastewater treatment. Concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaics (PV) were combined with biogas energy from anaerobic digestion. Biogas is also used to store the extra energy generated by the hybrid power unit and ensure stable and continuous wastewater treatment. It was determined from the energy balance analysis that the PV-bio hybrid power unit is the preferred energy unit to realize the self-sustaining high-strength wastewater treatment. With short-term solar energy storage, the PV-bio-hybrid power unit in Phoenix, AZ requires solar collection area (4032m 2 ) and biogas storage (35m 3 ), while the same unit in Lansing, MI needs bigger solar collection area and biogas storage (5821m 2 and 105m 3 , respectively) due to the cold climate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hydrogen engine performance analysis project. Second annual report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adt, Jr., R. R.; Swain, M. R.; Pappas, J. M.

1980-01-01

Progress in a 3 year research program to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines is reported. Fifteen hydrogen engine configurations will be subjected to performance and emissions characterization tests. During the first two years, baseline data for throttled and unthrottled, carburetted and timed hydrogen induction, Pre IVC hydrogen-fueled engine configurations, with and without exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and water injection, were obtained. These data, along with descriptions of the test engine and its components, the test apparatus, experimental techniques, experiments performed and the results obtained, are given. Analyses of other hydrogen-engine project data are also presented and compared with the results of the present effort. The unthrottled engine vis-a-vis the throttled engine is found, in general, to exhibit higher brake thermal efficiency. The unthrottled engine also yields lower NO/sub x/ emissions, which were found to be a strong function of fuel-air equivalence ratio. (LCL)

BioMEMS and Lab-on-a-Chip Course Education at West Virginia University

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuxin Liu

2011-01-01

Full Text Available With the rapid growth of Biological/Biomedical MicroElectroMechanical Systems (BioMEMS and microfluidic-based lab-on-a-chip (LOC technology to biological and biomedical research and applications, demands for educated and trained researchers and technicians in these fields are rapidly expanding. Universities are expected to develop educational plans to address these specialized needs in BioMEMS, microfluidic and LOC science and technology. A course entitled BioMEMS and Lab-on-a-Chip was taught recently at the senior undergraduate and graduate levels in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at West Virginia University (WVU. The course focused on the basic principles and applications of BioMEMS and LOC technology to the areas of biomedicine, biology, and biotechnology. The course was well received and the enrolled students had diverse backgrounds in electrical engineering, material science, biology, mechanical engineering, and chemistry. Student feedback and a review of the course evaluations indicated that the course was effective in achieving its objectives. Student presentations at the end of the course were a highlight and a valuable experience for all involved. The course proved successful and will continue to be offered regularly. This paper provides an overview of the course as well as some development and future improvements.

Designing Liquid Rocket Engine Injectors for Performance, Stability, and Cost

Science.gov (United States)

Westra, Douglas G.; West, Jeffrey S.

2014-01-01

NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS) for crewed exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is designing rocket engines for the SLS Advanced Booster (AB) concepts being developed to replace the Shuttle-derived solid rocket boosters. One AB concept uses large, Rocket-Propellant (RP)-fueled engines that pose significant design challenges. The injectors for these engines require high performance and stable operation while still meeting aggressive cost reduction goals for access to space. Historically, combustion stability problems have been a critical issue for such injector designs. Traditional, empirical injector design tools and methodologies, however, lack the ability to reliably predict complex injector dynamics that often lead to combustion stability. Reliance on these tools alone would likely result in an unaffordable test-fail-fix cycle for injector development. Recently at MSFC, a massively parallel computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program was successfully applied in the SLS AB injector design process. High-fidelity reacting flow simulations were conducted for both single-element and seven-element representations of the full-scale injector. Data from the CFD simulations was then used to significantly augment and improve the empirical design tools, resulting in a high-performance, stable injector design.

Performance of a RBCC Engine in Rocket-Operation

Science.gov (United States)

Tomioka, Sadatake; Kubo, Takahiro; Noboru Sakuranaka; Tani, Koichiro

Combination of a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) flow-pass with embedded rocket engines (the combined system termed as Rocket-based Combined Cycle engine) are expected to be the most effective propulsion system for space launch vehicles. Either SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) system or TSTO (Two Stage To Orbit) system with separation at high altitude needs final stage acceleration in space, so that the RBCC (Rocket Based Combined Cycle) engine should be operated as rocket engines. Performance of the scramjet combustor as the extension to the rocket nozzle, was experimentally evaluated by injecting inert gas at various pressure through the embedded rocket chamber while the whole sub-scaled model was placed in a low pressure chamber connected to an air-driven ejector system. The results showed that the thrust coefficient was about 1.2, the low value being found to mainly due to the friction force on the scramjet combustor wall, while blocking the scramjet flow pass’s opening to increase nozzle extension thrust surface, was found to have little effects on the thrust performance. The combustor was shortened to reduce the friction loss, however, degree of reduction was limited as friction decreased rapidly with distance from the onset of the scramjet combustor.

The potential of activated carbon derived from bio-char waste of bio-oil pyrolysis as adsorbent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zulkania Ariany

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Activated carbon from bio-char waste of bio oil pyrolysis of mixed sugarcane bagasse and Rambutan twigs was investigated. Bio-char as by-product of bio-oil pyrolysis has potential to be good adsorbed by activating process. Bio-chars waste was activated in fixed bed reactor inside furnace without presenting oxygen. Gas N2 and CO2 were employed to drive out oxygen from the reactor and as activator, respectively. One of the best activation treatments is achieved by performing activation in different temperature and time to produce standard activated carbon. The experiment was performed at different temperatures and activation time, i.e. 800, 850, and 900° C and 80 and 120 minutes, respectively, to determine the optimal operating condition. Activated carbon was characterized by analysis of moisture content, ash content pH, and methylene blue test. The results showed that optimum activation was at 850°C and 80 minute, where activated carbon produced indicated the best adsorption capacity. The ash content and pH had significant role in resulting good activated carbon.

Performance comparison of a novel configuration of beta-type Stirling engines with rhombic drive engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Solmaz, Hamit; Karabulut, Halit

2014-01-01

Highlights: • The paper describes a novel arrangement of a beta-type Stirling engine. • Its performance was compared with rhombic drive engine. • The power output of the engine was found to be greater than rhombic drive. • Efficiency was found to be higher than rhombic drive at the same working fluid mass. • Efficiency was found to be lower than rhombic drive at the same charge pressure. - Abstract: This study presents a beta type Stirling engine mechanism and its performance analysis. The displacer motion of the engine is performed by a lever mechanism. The performance of the engine was investigated via comparing with a rhombic-drive engine possessing an equal sided rhombic. Comparison was made for kinematic behaviors, power and thermal efficiency. For comparison; the piston swept volume, the inner heat transfer area, the hot and cold end temperatures, the inner heat transfer coefficient, charge pressure and dead volumes were kept equal for both engines. As working fluid the helium was used. Thermodynamic treatments of engines were performed via the nodal analysis. The power of the lever driven engine was found to be greater than the power of the rhombic drive engine. Under the equal charge pressure, the thermal efficiency of the lever driven engine was found to be lower than the efficiency of the rhombic drive engine however, under the equal working fluid mass the thermal efficiency of the lever driven engine was found to be greater than that of the rhombic drive engine. The external volume and mass of the lever driven engine is lower than the rhombic drive engine

Bio-inspired vision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Posch, C

2012-01-01

Nature still outperforms the most powerful computers in routine functions involving perception, sensing and actuation like vision, audition, and motion control, and is, most strikingly, orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than its artificial competitors. The reasons for the superior performance of biological systems are subject to diverse investigations, but it is clear that the form of hardware and the style of computation in nervous systems are fundamentally different from what is used in artificial synchronous information processing systems. Very generally speaking, biological neural systems rely on a large number of relatively simple, slow and unreliable processing elements and obtain performance and robustness from a massively parallel principle of operation and a high level of redundancy where the failure of single elements usually does not induce any observable system performance degradation. In the late 1980's, Carver Mead demonstrated that silicon VLSI technology can be employed in implementing ''neuromorphic'' circuits that mimic neural functions and fabricating building blocks that work like their biological role models. Neuromorphic systems, as the biological systems they model, are adaptive, fault-tolerant and scalable, and process information using energy-efficient, asynchronous, event-driven methods. In this paper, some basics of neuromorphic electronic engineering and its impact on recent developments in optical sensing and artificial vision are presented. It is demonstrated that bio-inspired vision systems have the potential to outperform conventional, frame-based vision acquisition and processing systems in many application fields and to establish new benchmarks in terms of redundancy suppression/data compression, dynamic range, temporal resolution and power efficiency to realize advanced functionality like 3D vision, object tracking, motor control, visual feedback loops, etc. in real-time. It is argued that future artificial vision systems

Syntrophic co-culture of aerobic Bacillus and anaerobic Clostridium for bio-fuels and bio-hydrogen production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chang, Jui-Jen; Ho, Cheng-Yu.; Chen, Wei-En; Huang, Chieh-Chen [Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung (China); Chou, Chia-Hung; Lay, Jiunn-Jyi [Department of Science and Technology, National Kaohsiung First University, Kaohsiung (China)

2008-10-15

By using brewery yeast waste and microflora from rice straw compost, an anaerobic semi-solid bio-hydrogen-producing system has been established. For the purpose of industrialization, the major players of both aerobic and anaerobic bacterial strains in the system were isolated and their combination for an effective production of bio-hydrogen and other bio-fuels was examined in this study. The phylogenetic analysis found that four anaerobic isolates (Clostridium beijerinckii L9, Clostridium diolis Z2, Clostridium roseum Z5-1, and C. roseum W8) were highly related with each other and belongs to the cluster I clostridia family, the family that many of solvent-producing strains included. On the other hand, one of the aerobic isolates, the Bacillus thermoamylovorans strain I, shown multiple extracellular enzyme activities including lipase, protease, {alpha}-amylase, pectinase and cellulase, was suggested as a good partner for creating an anaerobic environment and pre-saccharification of substrate for those co-cultured solventogenic clostridial strain. Among these clostridial strains, though C. beijerinckii L9 do not show as many extracellular enzyme activities as Bacillus, but it performs the highest hydrogen-producing ability. The original microflora can be updated to a syntrophic bacterial co-culture system contended only with B. thermoamylovorans I and C. beijerinckii L9. The combination of aerobic Bacillus and anaerobic Clostridium may play the key role for developing the industrialized bio-fuels and bio-hydrogen-producing system from biomass. (author)

Vehicle driving cycle performance of the spark-less di-ji hydrogen engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boretti, Alberto A. [School of Science and Engineering, University of Ballarat, PO Box663, Ballarat, VIC 3353 (Australia)

2010-05-15

The paper describes coupled CFD combustion simulations and CAE engine performance computations to describe the operation over the full range of load and speed of an always lean burn, Direct Injection Jet Ignition (DI-JI) hydrogen engine. Jet ignition pre-chambers and direct injection are enablers of high efficiencies and load control by quantity of fuel injected. Towards the end of the compression stroke, a small quantity of hydrogen is injected within the spark-less pre-chamber of the DI-JI engine, where it mixes with the air entering from the main chamber and auto-ignites because of the high temperature of the hot glow plug. Then, jets of partially combusted hot gases enter the main chamber igniting there in the bulk, over multiple ignition points, lean stratified mixtures of air and fuel. Engine maps of brake specific fuel consumption vs. speed and brake mean effective pressure are computed first. CAE vehicle simulations are finally performed evaluating the fuel consumption over emission cycles of a vehicle equipped with this engine. (author)

High-End Computing Challenges in Aerospace Design and Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Bailey, F. Ronald

2004-01-01

High-End Computing (HEC) has had significant impact on aerospace design and engineering and is poised to make even more in the future. In this paper we describe four aerospace design and engineering challenges: Digital Flight, Launch Simulation, Rocket Fuel System and Digital Astronaut. The paper discusses modeling capabilities needed for each challenge and presents projections of future near and far-term HEC computing requirements. NASA's HEC Project Columbia is described and programming strategies presented that are necessary to achieve high real performance.

Leveraging knowledge engineering and machine learning for microbial bio-manufacturing.

Science.gov (United States)

Oyetunde, Tolutola; Bao, Forrest Sheng; Chen, Jiung-Wen; Martin, Hector Garcia; Tang, Yinjie J

2018-05-03

Genome scale modeling (GSM) predicts the performance of microbial workhorses and helps identify beneficial gene targets. GSM integrated with intracellular flux dynamics, omics, and thermodynamics have shown remarkable progress in both elucidating complex cellular phenomena and computational strain design (CSD). Nonetheless, these models still show high uncertainty due to a poor understanding of innate pathway regulations, metabolic burdens, and other factors (such as stress tolerance and metabolite channeling). Besides, the engineered hosts may have genetic mutations or non-genetic variations in bioreactor conditions and thus CSD rarely foresees fermentation rate and titer. Metabolic models play important role in design-build-test-learn cycles for strain improvement, and machine learning (ML) may provide a viable complementary approach for driving strain design and deciphering cellular processes. In order to develop quality ML models, knowledge engineering leverages and standardizes the wealth of information in literature (e.g., genomic/phenomic data, synthetic biology strategies, and bioprocess variables). Data driven frameworks can offer new constraints for mechanistic models to describe cellular regulations, to design pathways, to search gene targets, and to estimate fermentation titer/rate/yield under specified growth conditions (e.g., mixing, nutrients, and O 2 ). This review highlights the scope of information collections, database constructions, and machine learning techniques (such as deep learning and transfer learning), which may facilitate "Learn and Design" for strain development. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Polycaprolactone Scaffolds Fabricated via Bioextrusion for Tissue Engineering Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Domingos

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The most promising approach in Tissue Engineering involves the seeding of porous, biocompatible/biodegradable scaffolds, with donor cells to promote tissue regeneration. Additive biomanufacturing processes are increasingly recognized as ideal techniques to produce 3D structures with optimal pore size and spatial distribution, providing an adequate mechanical support for tissue regeneration while shaping in-growing tissues. This paper presents a novel extrusion-based system to produce 3D scaffolds with controlled internal/external geometry for TE applications.The BioExtruder is a low-cost system that uses a proper fabrication code based on the ISO programming language enabling the fabrication of multimaterial scaffolds. Poly(ε-caprolactone was the material chosen to produce porous scaffolds, made by layers of directionally aligned microfilaments. Chemical, morphological, and in vitro biological evaluation performed on the polymeric constructs revealed a high potential of the BioExtruder to produce 3D scaffolds with regular and reproducible macropore architecture, without inducing relevant chemical and biocompatibility alterations of the material.

Self-Control and Academic Performance in Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Honken, Nora; Ralston, Patricia A.; Tretter, Thomas R.

2016-01-01

Self-control has been related to positive student outcomes including academic performance of college students. Because of the critical nature of the first semester academic performance for engineering students in terms of retention and persistence in pursuing an engineering degree, this study investigated the relationship between freshmen…

Assessment of bio-ethanol as a transport fuel in the UK

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marrow, J.E.; Coombs, J.; Lees, E.W.

1987-10-01

The technical and economic issues associated with the production of bio-ethanol as a road transport fuel (fuel ethanol) in the UK are assessed. This volume addresses the current situation (May 1987) and covers the production of bio-ethanol from available raw materials using technology that is well established on an industrial scale, as well as the use of ethanol-petrol blends in existing petrol engines.

Comparative analysis of main bio-active components in the herb pair Danshen-Honghua and its single herbs by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Cheng; Pu, Zong-Jin; Zhou, Gui-Sheng; Wang, Jun; Zhu, Zhen-Hua; Yue, Shi-Jun; Li, Jian-Ping; Shang, Li-Li; Tang, Yu-Ping; Shi, Xu-Qin; Liu, Pei; Guo, Jian-Ming; Sun, Jing; Tang, Zhi-Shu; Zhao, Jing; Zhao, Bu-Chang; Duan, Jin-Ao

2017-09-01

A sensitive, reliable, and powerful ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for simultaneous quantification of the 15 main bio-active components including phenolic acids and flavonoids within 13 min for the first time. The proposed method was first reported and validated by good linearity (r 2  > 0.9975), limit of detection (1.12-7.01 ng/mL), limit of quantification (3.73-23.37 ng/mL), intra- and inter-day precisions (RSD ≤ 1.92%, RSD ≤ 2.45%), stability (RSD ≤ 5.63%), repeatability (RSD ≤ 4.34%), recovery (96.84-102.12%), and matrix effects (0.92-1.02). The established analytical methodology was successfully applied to comparative analysis of main bio-active components in the herb pair Danshen-Honghua and its single herbs. Compared to the single herb, the content of most flavonoid glycosides was remarkably increased in their herb pair, and main phenolic acids were decreased, conversely. The content changes of the main components in the herb pair supported the synergistic effects on promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. The results provide a scientific basis and reference for the quality control of Danshen-Honghua herb pair and the drug interactions based on variation of bio-active components in herb pairs. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

tmBioC: improving interoperability of text-mining tools with BioC.

Science.gov (United States)

Khare, Ritu; Wei, Chih-Hsuan; Mao, Yuqing; Leaman, Robert; Lu, Zhiyong

2014-01-01

The lack of interoperability among biomedical text-mining tools is a major bottleneck in creating more complex applications. Despite the availability of numerous methods and techniques for various text-mining tasks, combining different tools requires substantial efforts and time owing to heterogeneity and variety in data formats. In response, BioC is a recent proposal that offers a minimalistic approach to tool interoperability by stipulating minimal changes to existing tools and applications. BioC is a family of XML formats that define how to present text documents and annotations, and also provides easy-to-use functions to read/write documents in the BioC format. In this study, we introduce our text-mining toolkit, which is designed to perform several challenging and significant tasks in the biomedical domain, and repackage the toolkit into BioC to enhance its interoperability. Our toolkit consists of six state-of-the-art tools for named-entity recognition, normalization and annotation (PubTator) of genes (GenNorm), diseases (DNorm), mutations (tmVar), species (SR4GN) and chemicals (tmChem). Although developed within the same group, each tool is designed to process input articles and output annotations in a different format. We modify these tools and enable them to read/write data in the proposed BioC format. We find that, using the BioC family of formats and functions, only minimal changes were required to build the newer versions of the tools. The resulting BioC wrapped toolkit, which we have named tmBioC, consists of our tools in BioC, an annotated full-text corpus in BioC, and a format detection and conversion tool. Furthermore, through participation in the 2013 BioCreative IV Interoperability Track, we empirically demonstrate that the tools in tmBioC can be more efficiently integrated with each other as well as with external tools: Our experimental results show that using BioC reduces >60% in lines of code for text-mining tool integration. The tmBioC toolkit

Bio-electrospraying and droplet-based microfluidics: control of cell numbers within living residues

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hong Jongin; DeMello, Andrew J [Nanostructured Materials and Devices Group, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom); Jayasinghe, Suwan N, E-mail: a.demello@imperial.ac.u, E-mail: s.jayasinghe@ucl.ac.u [BioPhysics Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE (United Kingdom)

2010-04-15

Bio-electrospraying (BES) has demonstrated great promise as a rapidly evolving strategy for tissue engineering and regenerative biology/medicine. Since its discovery in 2005, many studies have confirmed that cells (immortalized, primary and stem cells) and whole organisms (Danio rerio, Xenopus tropicalis, Caenorhabditis elegans to Drosophila) remain viable post-bio-electrospraying. Although this bio-protocol has achieved much, it suffers from one crucial problem, namely the ability to precisely control the number of cells within droplets and or encapsulations. If overcome, BES has the potential to become a high-efficiency biotechnique for controlled cell encapsulation, a technique most useful for a wide range of applications in biology and medicine ranging from the forming of three-dimensional cultures to an approach for treating diseases such as type I diabetes. In this communication, we address this issue by demonstrating the coupling of BES with droplet-based microfluidics for controlling live cell numbers within droplets and residues. (communication)

Bio-electrospraying and droplet-based microfluidics: control of cell numbers within living residues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hong Jongin; DeMello, Andrew J; Jayasinghe, Suwan N

2010-01-01

Bio-electrospraying (BES) has demonstrated great promise as a rapidly evolving strategy for tissue engineering and regenerative biology/medicine. Since its discovery in 2005, many studies have confirmed that cells (immortalized, primary and stem cells) and whole organisms (Danio rerio, Xenopus tropicalis, Caenorhabditis elegans to Drosophila) remain viable post-bio-electrospraying. Although this bio-protocol has achieved much, it suffers from one crucial problem, namely the ability to precisely control the number of cells within droplets and or encapsulations. If overcome, BES has the potential to become a high-efficiency biotechnique for controlled cell encapsulation, a technique most useful for a wide range of applications in biology and medicine ranging from the forming of three-dimensional cultures to an approach for treating diseases such as type I diabetes. In this communication, we address this issue by demonstrating the coupling of BES with droplet-based microfluidics for controlling live cell numbers within droplets and residues. (communication)

A preliminary investigation on the effects of characteristics and contractual behaviour on civil engineering project performance

Science.gov (United States)

Ismail, W. N. W.; Adnan, H.; Yusuwan, N.; Maisham, M.; Hassan, A. A.

2018-02-01

The significant role of civil engineering project is not only to make the lives of people easier and secure but also to trigger the economic growth by providing infrastructure facilities as well as job opportunities. As it is dominantly initiated by government sectors, performance of the civil engineering projects is always observed. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of civil engineering project and the contractual behavior of the key participants and how do these two factors affect civil engineering projects performance. Literature reviews, content analysis and questionnaires survey were conducted to undertake the research. A total of 50 questionnaires were distributed and 10 questionnaires were returned, resulting in a 20% response rate. The research unveiled that performance of civil engineering projects are influenced greatly by the ability to handle the unpredictable character of the civil engineering projects and adequate behavioral management. Apart from that, balancing the factors with high quality of workmanship, avoidance or well managed conflicts and high satisfaction level will ensure performance in projects.

High selectivity and stability of Mg-doped Al-MCM-41 for in-situ catalytic upgrading fast pyrolysis bio-oil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karnjanakom, Surachai; Suriya-umporn, Thanyamai; Bayu, Asep; Kongparakul, Suwadee; Samart, Chanatip; Fushimi, Chihiro; Abudula, Abuliti; Guan, Guoqing

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Mg-doped Al-MCM-41 was developed for in-situ catalytic upgrading of bio-oils. • Mg/Al-MCM-41 exhibited high selectivity to aromatic hydrocarbons. • The ratio of produced hydrocarbon reached up to 80% in upgraded bio-oil. • 1 wt.% Mg/Al-MCM-41 showed the highest catalytic activity. • Mg/Al-MCM-41 had stable reusability due to its coking inhabitation ability. - Abstract: In-situ catalytic upgrading of bio-oils derived from the fast pyrolysis of cellulose, lignin or sunflower stalk over Mg-doped Al-MCM-41 was investigated in details. It is found that Mg species with doping amounts ranged between 0.25 and 10 wt.% was well dispersed on Al-MCM-41, and that doping Mg on Al-MCM-41 effectively adjusted the acidity and basicity of the catalysts, resulting in significant improvement of bio-oil quality. Mg/Al-MCM-41 exhibited high selective conversion of bio-oils derived from cellulose, lignin or sunflower stalk to high value-added aromatic hydrocarbons via catalytic cracking, deoxygenation and aromatization. In the upgraded bio-oil, the relative total hydrocarbon amount reached up to approximately ≥80%, which consisted of aromatic hydrocarbon approximately 76% and aliphatic hydrocarbon approximately 4% for all feedstocks. The selectivity to the monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (MAHs) such as benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTXs) increased while the coke formed on the catalyst decreased with the increase in Mg doping amount. 1 wt.% Mg/Al-MCM-41 resulted in the highest relative total hydrocarbon amount in the upgraded bio-oil at lower catalytic deoxygenation temperature, and showed stable reusability for at least 5 cycles. It is expected that Mg/Al-MCM-41 can be widely applied for bio-oil upgrading in a practical process.

Comparative evaluation of GHG emissions from the use of Miscanthus for bio-hydrocarbon production via fast pyrolysis and bio-oil upgrading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shemfe, Mobolaji B.; Whittaker, Carly; Gu, Sai; Fidalgo, Beatriz

2016-01-01

Highlights: • GHG emissions from the upgrading of pyrolysis-derived bio-oil is quantified.. • Soil organic carbon sequestration rate had a significant effect on GHG emission. • Increasing plant scale could improve the environmental performance of the system. • Nitrogen to the pyrolysis reactor had significant impact on GHG emissions. - Abstract: This study examines the GHG emissions associated with producing bio-hydrocarbons via fast pyrolysis of Miscanthus. The feedstock is then upgraded to bio-oil products via hydroprocessing and zeolite cracking. Inventory data for this study were obtained from current commercial cultivation practices of Miscanthus in the UK and state-of-the-art process models developed in Aspen Plus®. The system boundary considered spans from the cultivation of Miscanthus to conversion of the pyrolysis-derived bio-oil into bio-hydrocarbons up to the refinery gate. The Miscanthus cultivation subsystem considers three scenarios for soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration rates. These were assumed as follows: (i) excluding (SOC), (ii) low SOC and (iii) high (SOC) for best and worst cases. Overall, Miscanthus cultivation contributed moderate to negative values to GHG emissions, from analysis of excluding SOC to high SOC scenarios. Furthermore, the rate of SOC in the Miscanthus cultivation subsystem has significant effects on total GHG emissions. Where SOC is excluded, the fast pyrolysis subsystem shows the highest positive contribution to GHG emissions, while the credit for exported electricity was the main ‘negative’ GHG emission contributor for both upgrading pathways. Comparison between the bio-hydrocarbons produced from the two upgrading routes and fossil fuels indicates GHG emission savings between 68% and 87%. Sensitivity analysis reveals that bio-hydrocarbon yield and nitrogen gas feed to the fast pyrolysis reactor are the main parameters that influence the total GHG emissions for both pathways.

Bio-optofluidics and Bio-photonics: Programmable Phase Optics activities at DTU Fotonik

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bañas, Andrew Rafael; Palima, Darwin; Pedersen, Finn

We present ongoing research and development activities for constructing a compact next generation BioPhotonics Workstation and a Bio-optofluidic Cell Sorter (cell-BOCS) for all-optical micromanipulation platforms utilizing low numerical aperture beam geometries. Unlike conventional high NA optical...... tweezers, the BioPhotonics workstation is e.g. capable of long range 3D manipulation. This enables a variety of biological studies such as manipulation of intricate microfabricated assemblies or for automated and parallel optofluidic cell sorting. To further reduce its overhead, we propose ways of making...... the BioPhotonics Workstation platform more photon efficient by studying the 3D distribution of the counter propagating beams and utilizing the Generalized Phase Contrast (GPC) method for illuminating the applied spatial light modulators....

Engineering Self-Efficacy Contributing to the Academic Performance of AMAIUB Engineering Students: A Qualitative Investigation

Science.gov (United States)

Aleta, Beda T.

2016-01-01

This research study aims to determine the factors of engineering skills self- efficacy sources contributing on the academic performance of AMAIUB engineering students. Thus, a better measure of engineering self-efficacy is needed to adequately assess engineering students' beliefs in their capabilities to perform tasks in their engineering…

Attrition-free pyrolysis to produce bio-oil and char.

Science.gov (United States)

Mauviel, Guillain; Guillain, Mauviel; Kies, Fairouz; Fairouz, Kies; René, Mar Sans; Mar, Sans Rene; Ferrer, Monique; Monique, Ferrer; Lédé, Jacques; Jacques, Lédé

2009-12-01

Experiments are performed on a laboratory scale setup where beech wood chips are heated by gas convection and walls radiation. This study shows that it is possible to obtain high bio-oil and char yields with relatively low external heat transfer coefficients. The main advantage of this convection/radiation heat transfer mode compared to solid-solid collisions, applied in fluidized bed or twin screw reactors, is the reduction of solid attrition (char and sand). Thus tricky gas-solid separation through hot cyclones and/or hot filters could be avoided or reduced. It should be possible to recover directly bio-oil with less char particles and char free of sand dust. These qualities would allow easier use of these bio-products in different applications.

In vitro study of nano-hydroxyapatite/chitosan–gelatin composites for bio-applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khaled R. Mohamed

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The present work aims to study the in vitro properties of nano-hydroxyapatite/chitosan–gelatin composite materials. In vitro behavior was performed in simulated body fluid (SBF to verify the formation of apatite layer onto the composite surfaces. The in vitro data proved the deposition of calcium and phosphorus ions onto hydroxyapatite /polymeric composite surfaces especially those containing high concentrations of polymer content. The degradation of the composites decreased with increase in the polymeric matrix content and highly decreased in the presence of citric acid (CA, especially these composites which contain 30% polymeric content. The water absorption of the composites increased with increase in the polymeric content and highly increased with CA addition. The Fourier transformed infrared reflectance (FT-IR and scanning electron microscope (SEM for the composites confirmed the formation of bone-like apatite layer on the composite surfaces, especially those containing high content of polymers (30% with 0.2 M of CA. These promising composites have suitable properties for bio-applications such as bone grafting and bone tissue engineering applications in the future.

High Performance Computing in Science and Engineering '02 : Transactions of the High Performance Computing Center

CERN Document Server

Jäger, Willi

2003-01-01

This book presents the state-of-the-art in modeling and simulation on supercomputers. Leading German research groups present their results achieved on high-end systems of the High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) for the year 2002. Reports cover all fields of supercomputing simulation ranging from computational fluid dynamics to computer science. Special emphasis is given to industrially relevant applications. Moreover, by presenting results for both vector sytems and micro-processor based systems the book allows to compare performance levels and usability of a variety of supercomputer architectures. It therefore becomes an indispensable guidebook to assess the impact of the Japanese Earth Simulator project on supercomputing in the years to come.

Performance engineering challenges: the view from RENCI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fowler, R; Gamblin, T; Porterfield, A; Dreher, P; Huang, S; Joo, B

2008-01-01

Trends in chip technology and system design are causing a revolution in high-performance computing. The emergence of multicore processor chips, the construction of very large computing systems, and the increasing need to deal with power and energy issues in these systems are three of the most significant changes. We focus on the way that these trends have created a new set of challenges in the area of performance engineering, the measurement, analysis, and tuning of computing systems and applications. We discuss these changes and outline recent work at the Renaissance Computing Institute to meet these challenges

From marine bio-corrosion to new bio-processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergel, A.; Dasilva, S.; Basseguy, R.; Feron, D.; Mollica, A.

2004-01-01

Full text of publication follows: From the middle of the last century it has been observed that the development of marine bio-films on the surface of stainless steels and different metallic materials induces the ennoblement of their free corrosion potential. A main step in deciphering the mechanisms of aerobic marine bio-corrosion has been achieved around 1976 with the demonstration that the potential ennoblement was due to the modification of the cathodic process. Since this date, the catalysis of oxygen reduction by marine bio-films has been the topic of numerous controversies, but it is now commonly agreed as a basic phenomena in aerobic corrosion. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the fine mechanisms of the bio-film-catalysed reduction of oxygen: intermediate formation of hydrogen peroxide, modification of the oxide layer on the stainless steel surface, involvement of manganese species and manganese oxidising bacteria, catalysis by proteins produced by the micro-organisms... Recent results may confirm the possible involvement of hemic enzymes or proteins. Whatever the mechanisms, very promising results have been obtained with the possible application of bio-film-catalysed oxygen reduction to conceive innovative biofuel cells with stainless steel electrodes. Actually, the catalysis of oxygen reduction is a key step that still drastically hinders the development of economically efficient hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells. The current technology requires high amounts of platinum or platinum-based materials to catalyze oxygen reduction on the cathode of these cells. The prohibitive cost of platinum is a main obstacle to the commercialization of low-cost fuel cells. Unpublished results recently showed that adapting the enzyme-catalysed reaction that was assumed for bio-corrosion on the cathode of hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells may lead to a significant decrease in the charge of platinum. Moreover, it was demonstrated on a laboratory-scale fuel cell pilot that

Elsevier’s approach to the bioCADDIE 2016 Dataset Retrieval Challenge

Science.gov (United States)

Scerri, Antony; Kuriakose, John; Deshmane, Amit Ajit; Stanger, Mark; Moore, Rebekah; Naik, Raj; de Waard, Anita

2017-01-01

Abstract We developed a two-stream, Apache Solr-based information retrieval system in response to the bioCADDIE 2016 Dataset Retrieval Challenge. One stream was based on the principle of word embeddings, the other was rooted in ontology based indexing. Despite encountering several issues in the data, the evaluation procedure and the technologies used, the system performed quite well. We provide some pointers towards future work: in particular, we suggest that more work in query expansion could benefit future biomedical search engines. Database URL: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/zd9dxpyybg/1 PMID:29220454

High-performance computing in seismology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-09-01

The scientific, technical, and economic importance of the issues discussed here presents a clear agenda for future research in computational seismology. In this way these problems will drive advances in high-performance computing in the field of seismology. There is a broad community that will benefit from this work, including the petroleum industry, research geophysicists, engineers concerned with seismic hazard mitigation, and governments charged with enforcing a comprehensive test ban treaty. These advances may also lead to new applications for seismological research. The recent application of high-resolution seismic imaging of the shallow subsurface for the environmental remediation industry is an example of this activity. This report makes the following recommendations: (1) focused efforts to develop validated documented software for seismological computations should be supported, with special emphasis on scalable algorithms for parallel processors; (2) the education of seismologists in high-performance computing technologies and methodologies should be improved; (3) collaborations between seismologists and computational scientists and engineers should be increased; (4) the infrastructure for archiving, disseminating, and processing large volumes of seismological data should be improved.

Toxicological properties of emission particles from heavy duty engines powered by conventional and bio-based diesel fuels and compressed natural gas.

Science.gov (United States)

Jalava, Pasi I; Aakko-Saksa, Päivi; Murtonen, Timo; Happo, Mikko S; Markkanen, Ari; Yli-Pirilä, Pasi; Hakulinen, Pasi; Hillamo, Risto; Mäki-Paakkanen, Jorma; Salonen, Raimo O; Jokiniemi, Jorma; Hirvonen, Maija-Riitta

2012-09-29

One of the major areas for increasing the use of renewable energy is in traffic fuels e.g. bio-based fuels in diesel engines especially in commuter traffic. Exhaust emissions from fossil diesel fuelled engines are known to cause adverse effects on human health, but there is very limited information available on how the new renewable fuels may change the harmfulness of the emissions, especially particles (PM). We evaluated the PM emissions from a heavy-duty EURO IV diesel engine powered by three different fuels; the toxicological properties of the emitted PM were investigated. Conventional diesel fuel (EN590) and two biodiesels were used - rapeseed methyl ester (RME, EN14214) and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) either as such or as 30% blends with EN590. EN590 and 100% HVO were also operated with or without an oxidative catalyst (DOC + POC). A bus powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) was included for comparison with the liquid fuels. However, the results from CNG powered bus cannot be directly compared to the other situations in this study. High volume PM samples were collected on PTFE filters from a constant volume dilution tunnel. The PM mass emission with HVO was smaller and with RME larger than that with EN590, but both biofuels produced lower PAH contents in emission PM. The DOC + POC catalyst greatly reduced the PM emission and PAH content in PM with both HVO and EN590. Dose-dependent TNFα and MIP-2 responses to all PM samples were mostly at the low or moderate level after 24-hour exposure in a mouse macrophage cell line RAW 264.7. Emission PM from situations with the smallest mass emissions (HVO + cat and CNG) displayed the strongest potency in MIP-2 production. The catalyst slightly decreased the PM-induced TNFα responses and somewhat increased the MIP-2 responses with HVO fuel. Emission PM with EN590 and with 30% HVO blended in EN590 induced the strongest genotoxic responses, which were significantly greater than those with EN590�

Flexible 75 kWel Stirling CHP-plant for bio-fuels with low emissions and a high fuel utilization. Final technical report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2011-07-01

The objective of the project ''Flexible 75 kWel Stirling CHP-plant for bio-fuels with low emissions and a high fuel utilization'' was to combine the Danish experiences with the Stirling engine and updraft gasification with the application of the FLOX gas burner technology for developing and demonstrating a flexible biomass-based small scale CHP plant with 75 kW electrical output, high power efficiency and low emissions. Further, the project has aimed at increasing the technology's reliability and decreasing the need for service. Also, the project has included the development of a control and communication system for unmanned start-up and operation of the plant. During the project the objective was altered and so the development of a new Stirling engine design was done on the 4-cylindred 35 kWe Stirling engine instead of the 8-cylindred 75 kWe Stirling engine. Focus has been on designing a more durable engine designed for easy and fast service. Cold test of the engine has been successful and now full-scale hot tests are to be performed. In the project Stirling DK has also in cooperation with project partner Danish gas Technology Centre developed the Stirling Engine with Diluted Oxidation (SEDIOX) concept which is a combustion technology based on the diluted oxidation principle. A trademark is obtained and also a patent application is filed and pending regarding the SEDIOX combustion chamber concept. All components for the Stirling gasification plant were produced and installed at Svanholm Estate. The plant consisted of one conventional combustion chamber and one SD3E-type Stirling engine. The plant was commissioned in June 2009 and 1,472 hours of operation and 43 MWh of electricity production was achieved before the plant was de-commissioned in February 2010 due to divergences between Svanholm Estate and Stirling DK. During operation the control system including remote access was tested thoroughly and with great success. The new overall

Enhanced Engine Performance During Emergency Operation Using a Model-Based Engine Control Architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Csank, Jeffrey T.; Connolly, Joseph W.

2016-01-01

This paper discusses the design and application of model-based engine control (MBEC) for use during emergency operation of the aircraft. The MBEC methodology is applied to the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (CMAPSS40k) and features an optimal tuner Kalman Filter (OTKF) to estimate unmeasured engine parameters, which can then be used for control. During an emergency scenario, normally-conservative engine operating limits may be relaxed to increase the performance of the engine and overall survivability of the aircraft; this comes at the cost of additional risk of an engine failure. The MBEC architecture offers the advantage of estimating key engine parameters that are not directly measureable. Estimating the unknown parameters allows for tighter control over these parameters, and on the level of risk the engine will operate at. This will allow the engine to achieve better performance than possible when operating to more conservative limits on a related, measurable parameter.

Mechanically activated fly ash as a high performance binder for civil engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rieger, D; Kullová, L; Čekalová, M; Novotný, P; Pola, M

2017-01-01

This study is aimed for investigation of fly ash binder with suitable properties for civil engineering needs. The fly ash from Czech brown coal power plant Prunerov II was used and mechanically activated to achieve suitable particle size for alkaline activation of hardening process. This process is driven by dissolution of aluminosilicate content of fly ash and by subsequent development of inorganic polymeric network called geopolymer. Hardening kinetics at 25 and 30 °C were measured by strain controlled small amplitude oscillatory rheometry with strain of 0.01 % and microstructure of hardened binder was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy. Strength development of hardened binder was investigated according to compressional and flexural strength for a period of 180 days. Our investigation finds out, that mechanically activated fly ash can be comparable to metakaolin geopolymers, according to setting time and mechanical parameters even at room temperature curing. Moreover, on the bases of long time strength development, achieved compressional strength of 134.5 after 180 days is comparable to performance of high grade Portland cement concretes. (paper)

Performance and driveline analyses of engine capacity in range extender engine hybrid vehicle

Science.gov (United States)

Praptijanto, Achmad; Santoso, Widodo Budi; Nur, Arifin; Wahono, Bambang; Putrasari, Yanuandri

2017-01-01

In this study, range extender engine designed should be able to meet the power needs of a power generator of hybrid electrical vehicle that has a minimum of 18 kW. Using this baseline model, the following range extenders will be compared between conventional SI piston engine (Baseline, BsL), engine capacity 1998 cm3, and efficiency-oriented SI piston with engine capacity 999 cm3 and 499 cm3 with 86 mm bore and stroke square gasoline engine in the performance, emission prediction of range extender engine, standard of charge by using engine and vehicle simulation software tools. In AVL Boost simulation software, range extender engine simulated from 1000 to 6000 rpm engine loads. The highest peak engine power brake reached up to 38 kW at 4500 rpm. On the other hand the highest torque achieved in 100 Nm at 3500 rpm. After that using AVL cruise simulation software, the model of range extended electric vehicle in series configuration with main components such as internal combustion engine, generator, electric motor, battery and the arthemis model rural road cycle was used to simulate the vehicle model. The simulation results show that engine with engine capacity 999 cm3 reported the economical performances of the engine and the emission and the control of engine cycle parameters.

Promotion of hydrogen-rich gas and phenolic-rich bio-oil production from green macroalgae Cladophora glomerata via pyrolysis over its bio-char.

Science.gov (United States)

Norouzi, Omid; Jafarian, Sajedeh; Safari, Farid; Tavasoli, Ahmad; Nejati, Behnam

2016-11-01

Conversion of Cladophora glomerata (C. glomerata) as a Caspian Sea's green macroalgae into gaseous, liquid and solid products was carried out via pyrolysis at different temperatures to determine its potential for bio-oil and hydrogen-rich gas production for further industrial utilization. Non-catalytic tests were performed to determine the optimum condition for bio-oil production. The highest portion of bio-oil was retrieved at 500°C. The catalytic test was performed using the bio-char derived at 500°C as a catalyst. Effect of the addition of the algal bio-char on the composition of the bio-oil and also gaseous products was investigated. Pyrolysis derived bio-char was characterized by BET, FESEM and ICP method to show its surface area, porosity, and presence of inorganic metals on its surface, respectively. Phenols were increased from 8.5 to 20.76area% by the addition of bio-char. Moreover, the hydrogen concentration and hydrogen selectivity were also enhanced by the factors of 1.37, 1.59 respectively. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A brief review of extrusion-based tissue scaffold bio-printing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ning, Liqun; Chen, Xiongbiao

2017-08-01

Extrusion-based bio-printing has great potential as a technique for manipulating biomaterials and living cells to create three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds for damaged tissue repair and function restoration. Over the last two decades, advances in both engineering techniques and life sciences have evolved extrusion-based bio-printing from a simple technique to one able to create diverse tissue scaffolds from a wide range of biomaterials and cell types. However, the complexities associated with synthesis of materials for bio-printing and manipulation of multiple materials and cells in bio-printing pose many challenges for scaffold fabrication. This paper presents an overview of extrusion-based bio-printing for scaffold fabrication, focusing on the prior-printing considerations (such as scaffold design and materials/cell synthesis), working principles, comparison to other techniques, and to-date achievements. This paper also briefly reviews the recent development of strategies with regard to hydrogel synthesis, multi-materials/cells manipulation, and process-induced cell damage in extrusion-based bio-printing. The key issue and challenges for extrusion-based bio-printing are also identified and discussed along with recommendations for future, aimed at developing novel biomaterials and bio-printing systems, creating patterned vascular networks within scaffolds, and preserving the cell viability and functions in scaffold bio-printing. The address of these challenges will significantly enhance the capability of extrusion-based bio-printing. Copyright © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Experimental Evaluation of a Low Emissions High Performance Duct Burner for Variable Cycle Engines (VCE)

Science.gov (United States)

Lohmann, R. P.; Mador, R. J.

1979-01-01

An evaluation was conducted with a three stage Vorbix duct burner to determine the performance and emissions characteristics of the concept and to refine the configuration to provide acceptable durability and operational characteristics for its use in the variable cycle engine (VCE) testbed program. The tests were conducted at representative takeoff, transonic climb, and supersonic cruise inlet conditions for the VSCE-502B study engine. The test stand, the emissions sampling and analysis equipment, and the supporting flow visualization rigs are described. The performance parameters including the fuel-air ratio, the combustion efficiency/exit temperature, thrust efficiency, and gaseous emissions calculations are defined. The test procedures are reviewed and the results are discussed.

Nano-Structured Bio-Inorganic Hybrid Material for High Performing Oxygen Reduction Catalyst.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Rongzhong; Tran, Dat T; McClure, Joshua P; Chu, Deryn

2015-08-26

In this study, we demonstrate a non-Pt nanostructured bioinorganic hybrid (BIH) catalyst for catalytic oxygen reduction in alkaline media. This catalyst was synthesized through biomaterial hemin, nanostructured Ag-Co alloy, and graphene nano platelets (GNP) by heat-treatment and ultrasonically processing. This hybrid catalyst has the advantages of the combined features of these bio and inorganic materials. A 10-fold improvement in catalytic activity (at 0.8 V vs RHE) is achieved in comparison of pure Ag nanoparticles (20-40 nm). The hybrid catalyst reaches 80% activity (at 0.8 V vs RHE) of the state-of-the-art catalyst (containing 40% Pt and 60% active carbon). Comparable catalytic stability for the hybrid catalyst with the Pt catalyst is observed by chronoamperometric experiment. The hybrid catalyst catalyzes 4-electron oxygen reduction to produce water with fast kinetic rate. The rate constant obtained from the hybrid catalyst (at 0.6 V vs RHE) is 4 times higher than that of pure Ag/GNP catalyst. A catalytic model is proposed to explain the oxygen reduction reaction at the BIH catalyst.

Model Engine Performance Measurement From Force Balance Instrumentation

Science.gov (United States)

Jeracki, Robert J.

1998-01-01

A large scale model representative of a low-noise, high bypass ratio turbofan engine was tested for acoustics and performance in the NASA Lewis 9- by 15-Foot Low-Speed Wind Tunnel. This test was part of NASA's continuing Advanced Subsonic Technology Noise Reduction Program. The low tip speed fan, nacelle, and an un-powered core passage (with core inlet guide vanes) were simulated. The fan blades and hub are mounted on a rotating thrust and torque balance. The nacelle, bypass duct stators, and core passage are attached to a six component force balance. The two balance forces, when corrected for internal pressure tares, measure the total thrust-minus-drag of the engine simulator. Corrected for scaling and other effects, it is basically the same force that the engine supports would feel, operating at similar conditions. A control volume is shown and discussed, identifying the various force components of the engine simulator thrust and definitions of net thrust. Several wind tunnel runs with nearly the same hardware installed are compared, to identify the repeatability of the measured thrust-minus-drag. Other wind tunnel runs, with hardware changes that affected fan performance, are compared to the baseline configuration, and the thrust and torque effects are shown. Finally, a thrust comparison between the force balance and nozzle gross thrust methods is shown, and both yield very similar results.

Novel fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} bio-nanocomposites as high performance adsorbents for the removal of radionuclides

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ding, Congcong [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031 (China); University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230000 (China); Cheng, Wencai [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031 (China); Sun, Yubing, E-mail: sunyb@ipp.ac.cn [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031 (China); School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X), Soochow University and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, 215123 Suzhou (China); School of Environment and Chemical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China); Wang, Xiangke, E-mail: xkwang@ipp.ac.cn [Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, P.O. Box 1126, Hefei 230031 (China); School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X), Soochow University and Collaborative Innovation Center of Radiation Medicine of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, 215123 Suzhou (China); School of Environment and Chemical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China); Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589 (Saudi Arabia)

2015-09-15

Highlights: • Fungus was used as a template for the assembly of nano-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}. • Fungal template directed the nano-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} structure from the micro-scale level. • Fungal template enhanced the dispersity and stability of nano-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}. • Fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} exhibited high sorption capacity for Sr(II), Th(IV) and U(VI). • Fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} possessed satisfactory regeneration performance and reusability. - Abstract: The bio-nanocomposites of fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} were successfully synthesized using a low-cost self-assembly technique. SEM images showed uniform decoration of nano-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} particles on fungus surface. The FTIR analysis indicated that nano-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} was combined to the fungus surface by chemical bonds. The sorption ability of fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} toward Sr(II), Th(IV) and U(VI) was evaluated by batch techniques. Radionuclide sorption on fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} was independent of ionic strength, indicating that inner-sphere surface complexion dominated their sorption. XPS analysis indicated that the inner-sphere radionuclide complexes were formed by mainly bonding with oxygen-containing functional groups (i.e., alcohol, acetal and carboxyl) of fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}. The maximum sorption capacities of fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} calculated from Langmuir isotherm model were 100.9, 223.9 and 280.8 mg/g for Sr(II) and U(VI) at pH 5.0, and Th(IV) at pH 3.0, respectively, at 303 K. Fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} also exhibited excellent regeneration performance for the preconcentration of radionuclides. The calculated thermodynamic parameters showed that the sorption of radionuclides on fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} was a spontaneous and endothermic process. The findings herein highlight the novel synthesis method of fungus-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} and its high sorption ability for radionuclides.

[Research progress on the technique and materials for three-dimensional bio-printing].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Runhuai; Chen, Yueming; Ma, Changwang; Wang, Huiqin; Wang, Shuyue

2017-04-01

Three-dimensional (3D) bio-printing is a novel engineering technique by which the cells and support materials can be manufactured to a complex 3D structure. Compared with other 3D printing methods, 3D bio-printing should pay more attention to the biocompatible environment of the printing methods and the materials. Aimed at studying the feature of the 3D bio-printing, this paper mainly focuses on the current research state of 3D bio-printing, with the techniques and materials of the bio-printing especially emphasized. To introduce current printing methods, the inkjet method, extrusion method, stereolithography skill and laser-assisted technique are described. The printing precision, process, requirements and influence of all the techniques on cell status are compared. For introduction of the printing materials, the cross-link, biocompatibility and applications of common bio-printing materials are reviewed and compared. Most of the 3D bio-printing studies are being remained at the experimental stage up to now, so the review of 3D bio-printing could improve this technique for practical use, and it could also contribute to the further development of 3D bio-printing.

Mississippi State University Cooling, Heating, and Power (Micro-CHP) and Bio-Fuel Center

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mago, Pedro [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States); Newell, LeLe [Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States)

2014-01-31

Between 2008 and 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy funded the MSU Micro-CHP and Bio-Fuel Center located at Mississippi State University. The overall objective of this project was to enable micro-CHP (micro-combined heat and power) utilization, to facilitate and promote the use of CHP systems and to educate architects, engineers, and agricultural producers and scientists on the benefits of CHP systems. Therefore, the work of the Center focused on the three areas: CHP system modeling and optimization, outreach, and research. In general, the results obtained from this project demonstrated that CHP systems are attractive because they can provide energy, environmental, and economic benefits. Some of these benefits include the potential to reduce operational cost, carbon dioxide emissions, primary energy consumption, and power reliability during electric grid disruptions. The knowledge disseminated in numerous journal and conference papers from the outcomes of this project is beneficial to engineers, architects, agricultural producers, scientists and the public in general who are interested in CHP technology and applications. In addition, more than 48 graduate students and 23 undergraduate students, benefited from the training and research performed in the MSU Micro-CHP and Bio-Fuel Center.

Bio-fuels for diesel engines: Experience in Italy and Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rocchietta, C.

1992-01-01

With the aim of meeting stringent European Communities air pollution regulations, reducing the necessity of petroleum imports and creating new markets for agricultural products, Italy's Ferruzzi-Montedison Group is developing diesel engine fuels derived from vegetable oils. The innovative feature of these fuels, from the environmental protection stand-point, is that they don't contain any sulfur, the main cause of acid rain. This paper provides brief notes of the key chemical-physical properties of these diesel fuels, whose application doesn't require any modifications to diesel engines, and assesses the relative production technologies and commercialization prospects. Reference is made to the results of recent performance tests conducted on buses and taxis

Bio-EdIP: An automatic approach for in vitro cell confluence images quantification.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardona, Andrés; Ariza-Jiménez, Leandro; Uribe, Diego; Arroyave, Johanna C; Galeano, July; Cortés-Mancera, Fabian M

2017-07-01

Cell imaging is a widely-employed technique to analyze multiple biological processes. Therefore, simple, accurate and quantitative tools are needed to understand cellular events. For this purpose, Bio-EdIP was developed as a user-friendly tool to quantify confluence levels using cell culture images. The proposed algorithm combines a pre-processing step with subsequent stages that involve local processing techniques and a morphological reconstruction-based segmentation algorithm. Segmentation performance was assessed in three constructed image sets, comparing F-measure scores and AUC values (ROC analysis) for Bio-EdIP, its previous version and TScratch. Furthermore, segmentation results were compared with published algorithms using eight public benchmarks. Bio-EdIP automatically segmented cell-free regions from images of in vitro cell culture. Based on mean F-measure scores and ROC analysis, Bio-EdIP conserved a high performance regardless of image characteristics of the constructed dataset, when compared with its previous version and TScratch. Although acquisition quality of the public dataset affected Bio-EdIP segmentation, performance was better in two out of eight public sets. Bio-EdIP is a user-friendly interface, which is useful for the automatic analysis of confluence levels and cell growth processes using in vitro cell culture images. Here, we also presented new manually annotated data for algorithms evaluation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.