Search results for: non-conventional water resources

Authors: Yehia Manawi, Ahmad Kayvani Fard

Abstract:

Membrane distillation is an emerging technology which has been used to produce freshwater and purify different types of aqueous mixtures. Qatar is an arid country where almost 100% of its freshwater demand is supplied through the energy-intensive thermal desalination process. The country’s need for water has reached an all-time high which stipulates finding an alternative way to augment freshwater without adding any drastic affect to the environment. The objective of this paper was to investigate the potential of using the industrial low grade waste heat to produce freshwater using membrane distillation. The main part of this work was conducting a heat audit on selected Qatari chemical industries to estimate the amounts of freshwater produced if such industrial waste heat were to be recovered. By the end of this work, the main objective was met and the heat audit conducted on the Qatari chemical industries enabled us to estimate both the amounts of waste heat which can be potentially recovered in addition to the amounts of freshwater which can be produced if such waste heat were to be recovered.

By the end, the heat audit showed that around 605 Mega Watts of waste heat can be recovered from the studied Qatari chemical industries which resulted in a total daily production of 5078.7 cubic meter of freshwater.

This water can be used in a wide variety of applications such as human consumption or industry. The amount of produced freshwater may look small when compared to that produced through thermal desalination plants; however, one must bear in mind that this water comes from waste and can be used to supply water for small cities or remote areas which are not connected to the water grid. The idea of producing freshwater from the two widely-available wastes (thermal rejected brine and waste heat) seems promising as less environmental and economic impacts will be associated with freshwater production which may in the near future augment the conventional way of producing freshwater currently being thermal desalination. This work has shown that low grade waste heat in the chemical industries in Qatar and perhaps the rest of the world can contribute to additional production of freshwater using membrane distillation without significantly adding to the environmental impact.

Keywords: Membrane distillation, desalination, heat recovery, environment.

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Authors: B. Ghanbarian-Alavijeh, A.M. Liaghat, S. Sohrabi

Abstract:

Saturated hydraulic conductivity is one of the soil hydraulic properties which is widely used in environmental studies especially subsurface ground water. Since, its direct measurement is time consuming and therefore costly, indirect methods such as pedotransfer functions have been developed based on multiple linear regression equations and neural networks model in order to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from readily available soil properties e.g. sand, silt, and clay contents, bulk density, and organic matter. The objective of this study was to develop neural networks (NNs) model to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from available parameters such as sand and clay contents, bulk density, van Genuchten retention model parameters (i.e. r θ , α , and n) as well as effective porosity. We used two methods to calculate effective porosity: : (1) eff s FC φ =θ -θ , and (2) inf φ =θ -θ eff s , in which s θ is saturated water content, FC θ is water content retained at -33 kPa matric potential, and inf θ is water content at the inflection point. Total of 311 soil samples from the UNSODA database was divided into three groups as 187 for the training, 62 for the validation (to avoid over training), and 62 for the test of NNs model. A commercial neural network toolbox of MATLAB software with a multi-layer perceptron model and back propagation algorithm were used for the training procedure. The statistical parameters such as correlation coefficient (R2), and mean square error (MSE) were also used to evaluate the developed NNs model. The best number of neurons in the middle layer of NNs model for methods (1) and (2) were calculated 44 and 6, respectively. The R2 and MSE values of the test phase were determined for method (1), 0.94 and 0.0016, and for method (2), 0.98 and 0.00065, respectively, which shows that method (2) estimates saturated hydraulic conductivity better than method (1).

Keywords: Neural network, Saturated hydraulic conductivity, Soil physical properties.

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Authors: R. Andreola, O. A. A. Santos, L. M. M, Jorge

Abstract:

An industrial system for the production of white liquor of a paper industry, Klabin Paraná Papéis, formed by ten reactors was modeled, simulated, and analyzed. The developed model considered possible water losses by evaporation and reaction, in addition to variations in volumetric flow of lime mud across the reactors due to composition variations. The model predictions agreed well with the process measurements at the plant and the results showed that the slaking reaction is nearly complete at the third causticizing reactor, while causticizing ends by the seventh reactor. Water loss due to slaking reaction and evaporation occurs more pronouncedly in the slaking reaction than in the final causticizing reactors; nevertheless, the lime mud flow remains nearly constant across the reactors.

Keywords: Causticizing, lime, prediction, process.

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Authors: Yu-Wei Chang, Hsuan-Yu Ku, Jo-Shan Chiu, Shao-Fu Chang, Chien-Chon Chen

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This paper aims to discuss the hydrophilicity about the anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template with titania nanotubes (NTs). The AAO templates with pore size diameters of 20-250 nm were generated by anodizing 6061 aluminum alloy substrates in acid solution of sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄), oxalic acid (COOH)₂, and phosphoric acid (H₃PO₄), respectively. TiO₂-NTs were grown on AAO templates by the sol-gel deposition process successfully. The water contact angle on AAO/TiO₂-NTs surface was lower compared to the water contact angle on AAO surface. So, the characteristic of hydrophilicity was significantly associated with the AAO pore size and what kinds of materials were immersed variables.

Keywords: Anodic aluminum oxide, nanotube, anodization, Sol-Gel, hydrophilicity.

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Authors: Zhijun Ren, Zhang Lin, Zhao Ye, Zuo Xiangyu, Mei Dongxing

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As a pretreatment process of ballast water treatment, the performance of high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) technology for the removal of particulates and microorganisms was studied. The results showed that HGMS process could effectively remove suspended particles larger than 5 µm and had ability to resist impact load. Microorganism could also be effectively removed by HGMS process, and the removal effect increased with increasing magnetic field strength. The maximum removal rates for Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were 4016.1% and 9675.3% higher, respectively, than without the magnetic field. In addition, the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of the microbes decreased by 32.2% when the magnetic field strength was 15.4 mT for 72 min. The microstructure of the stainless steel wool was investigated, and the results showed that particle removal by HGMS has common function by the magnetic force of the high-strength, high-gradient magnetic field on weakly magnetic particles in the water, and on the stainless steel wool.

Keywords: HGMS, particulates, superoxide dismutase activity, steel wool magnetic medium.

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Authors: Amir Mirzaei, Rahim Naseri, Parvaneh Vafa, Meysam Moradi

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In order to investigate the effect of drought stress and row spacing on grain yield and associated traits of Mungbean, an experiment was conducted as a factorial in based on randomized complete block design with three replications in Ilam station, Iran during 2008-2009 growing season. This experiment was conducted in four stages on one kind of Mungbean named Gohar. The experimental factors including (80, 110 and 140mm cumulative evaporation from class A pan) and row spacing (25, 50, and 75cm) were selected. The results of the experiment showed that the varieties affected by the treatment showed significant differences. The highest total yield was obtained in the condition in which evaporation of water was 80mm. Of course some traits such as grain yield did not show a significant difference between the conditions in which evaporation of the irrigation water was 80 and 110mm. The traits under study also showed a significant difference to different raw spacing. Row spacing of 50cm had a higher total yield compared to other raw spaces. It was due to the higher number of pods per plant and grain weight. The interaction of drought stress and row spacing showed that in the condition in which the row space is 50 cm and the evaporation of the irrigation water is 80mm, the highest number of grain is achieved.

Keywords: Stress, Grain yield, Mungbean, Row spacing.

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Authors: Albana Hasimi, Edlira Tako, Partizan Malkaj, Elvin Çomo, Blerina Papajani, Mirela Ndrita, Ledjan Malaj

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Many endeavors have been exerted during the last years for developing new artificial polymeric membranes, which fulfill the demanded conditions for biomedical uses. One of the most tested polymers is Poly(vinyl alcohol) [PVA]. Our teams are based on the possibility of using PVA for personal protective equipment against COVID-19. In personal protective equipment, we explore the possibility of modifying the properties of the polymer by adding Montmorillonite [MMT]. Heat-treatment above the glass transition temperature is used to improve mechanical properties mainly by increasing the crystallinity of the polymer, which acts as a physical network. Temperature-Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetry (TMDSC) measurements indicated that the presence of 0.5% MMT in PVA causes a higher Tg value and shaped peak of crystallinity. Decomposition is observed at two of the melting points of the crystals during heating 25-240 oC and overlap of the recrystallization ridges during cooling 240-25 oC. This is indicative of the presence of two types (quality or structure) of polymer crystals. On the other hand, some indication of improvement of the quality of the crystals by heat-treatment is given by the distinct non-reversing contribution to melting. Data on sorption and transport of water in PVA films: PVA pure and PVA/MMT matrix, modified by thermal treatment are presented. The membranes become more rigid as a result of the heat treatment and because of this the water uptake is significantly lower in membranes. That is indicated by analysis of the resulting water uptake kinetics. The presence of 0.5% w/w of MMT has no significant impact on the properties of PVA membranes. Water uptake kinetics deviate from Fick’s law due to slow relaxation of glassy polymer matrix for all types of membranes.

Keywords: Crystallinity, montmorillonite, nanocomposite, poly(vinyl alcohol).

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Authors: R. J. Kuo, W. C. Cheng, W. C. Lien, T. J. Yang

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Taiwan is a hyper endemic area for the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). The estimated total number of HBsAg carriers in the general population who are more than 20 years old is more than 3 million. Therefore, a case record review is conducted from January 2003 to June 2007 for all patients with a diagnosis of acute hepatitis who were admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) of a well-known teaching hospital. The cost for the use of medical resources is defined as the total medical fee. In this study, principal component analysis (PCA) is firstly employed to reduce the number of dimensions. Support vector regression (SVR) and artificial neural network (ANN) are then used to develop the forecasting model. A total of 117 patients meet the inclusion criteria. 61% patients involved in this study are hepatitis B related. The computational result shows that the proposed PCA-SVR model has superior performance than other compared algorithms. In conclusion, the Child-Pugh score and echogram can both be used to predict the cost of medical resources for patients with acute hepatitis in the ED.

Keywords: Acute hepatitis, Medical resource cost, Artificial neural network, Support vector regression.

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Authors: Giovanni Cicceri, Roberta Maisano, Nathalie Morey, Salvatore Distefano

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The main goal of this paper is to present a solution for a water purification system based on an Environmental Internet of Things (EIoT) platform to monitor and control water quality and machine learning (ML) models to support decision making and speed up the processes of purification of water. A real case study has been implemented by deploying an EIoT platform and a network of devices, called Gramb meters and belonging to the Gramb project, on wastewater purification systems located in Calabria, south of Italy. The data thus collected are used to control the wastewater quality, detect anomalies and predict the behaviour of the purification system. To this extent, three different statistical and machine learning models have been adopted and thus compared: Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) autoencoder, and Facebook Prophet (FP). The results demonstrated that the ML solution (LSTM) out-perform classical statistical approaches (ARIMA, FP), in terms of both accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness in monitoring and controlling the wastewater purification processes.

Keywords: EIoT, machine learning, anomaly detection, environment monitoring.

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Authors: Sunita Verma , Divya Tiwari, Ajay Verma

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Water samples were collected from river Pandu at six stations where human and animal activities were high. Composite samples were analyzed for dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) , pH values during dry and wet seasons as well as the harmattan period. The total data points were used to establish relationships between the parameters and data were also subjected to statistical analysis and expressed as mean ± standard error of mean (SEM) at a level of significance of p<0.05. Regression analysis was carried out to establish relationships if any between studied parameters and relationships in form of scatter plots were obtained between DO/BOD, COD/DO, BOD/COD, COD/pH, BOD/pH and DO/pH. The high to moderate correlation coefficient observed, R2 ranged from 0.68 to 0.15 between these parameters.

Keywords: BOD, DO, COD, pH, Regression analysis.

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Authors: Jackson H. O. Onyuka, Rose Kakai, David M. Onyango, Peter F. Arama, John Gichuki, Ayub V.O. Ofulla

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A cross sectional study design and standard microbiological procedures were used to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium and Vibrio cholerae O1 isolated from water and two fish species Rastrineobola argentea and Oreochromis niloticus collected from fish landing beaches and markets in the Lake Victoria Basin of western Kenya. Out of 162 samples analyzed, 133 (82.1%) were contaminated, with S. typhimurium as the most prevalent (49.6%), followed by E. coli (46.6%), and lastly V. cholerae (2.8%). All the bacteria isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin. E. coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, cotrimoxazole, chloramphenical and gentamicin while S. typhimurium isolates exhibited resistance to ampicillin, tetracycline, and cotrimoxazole. The V. cholerae O1 isolates were resistant to tetracycline and ampicillin. The high prevalence of drug resistant enteric bacteria in water and fish from the study region needs public health intervention from the local government.

Keywords: Aquatic environments, Antimicrobial resistance, Enteric bacteria, Lake Victoria Basin

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Authors: Chu-Chu Liao, Ying-Xing Lin

Abstract:

The purpose of the study is to analyze the main tourism attraction in indigenous tribes, as well as for the development of tribal aboriginal tourism brings positive and negative impacts. This study used qualitative research methods, and Lilang, Tbulan, and Hrung three tribes as the object of investigation. The results showed that: 1. Because three tribes geographical proximity, but have their own development characteristics, not conflict situations. 2. Three tribes are located in National Scenic Area and National Forest Recreation Area near, so driven tribal tourism development. 3 In addition Hrung three tribal tribal no major attraction, mainly located in the provision of accommodation; another Lilang and Tbulan tribe has natural resources and cultural resources attraction. 4 in the tourism brings positive and negative impacts, respondents expressed positive than residents of negative impacts. Based on the above findings, this study not only provides advice for tribal tourism operators, but also for future research to provide specific directions.

Keywords: Indigenous tourism, tribes tourism, tourism developing, impact, attraction.

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Authors: Ornst J., Voracek J., Allouache A., Allouache D.

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Lack of resources for road infrastructure financing is a problem that currently affects not only eastern European economies but also many other countries especially in relation to the impact of global financial crisis. In this context, we are talking about the socalled short-investment problem as a result of long-term lack of investment resources. Based on an analysis of road infrastructure financing in the Czech Republic this article points out at weaknesses of current system and proposes a long-term planning methodology supported by system approach. Within this methodology and using created system dynamic model the article predicts the development of short-investment problem in the Country and in reaction on the downward trend of certain sources the article presents various scenarios resulting from the change of the structure of financial sources. In the discussion the article focuses more closely on the possibility of introduction of tax on vehicles instead of taxes with declining revenue streams and estimates its approximate price in relation to reaching various solutions of short-investment in time.

Keywords: Road financing, road infrastructure development, system dynamics

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Authors: A. Abdullah, A. Bakshwain, A. Aslam

Abstract:

Livestock is one of the fastest-growing sectors in agriculture. If carefully managed, have potential opportunities for economic growth, food sovereignty and food security. In this study we mainly analyse and compare long-term i.e. for year 2030 climate variability impact on predicted productivity of meat i.e. beef, mutton and poultry for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia w.r.t three factors i.e. i) climatic-change vulnerability ii) CO2 fertilization and iii) water scarcity and compare the results with two countries of the region i.e. Iraq and Yemen. We do the analysis using data from diverse sources, which was extracted, transformed and integrated before usage. The collective impact of the three factors had an overall negative effect on the production of meat for all the three countries, with adverse impact on Iraq. High similarity was found between CO2 fertilization (effecting animal fodder) and water scarcity i.e. higher than that between production of beef and mutton for the three countries considered. Overall, the three factors do not seem to be favorable for the three Middle-East countries considered. This points to possibility of a vegetarian year 2030 based on dependency on indigenous livestock population.

Keywords: Prediction, animal-source foods, pastures, CO2 fertilization, climatic-change vulnerability, water scarcity.

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Authors: Jingming Wu, Ruikang Hu, Junqi Yue, Zhaoguang Yang, Lifeng Zhang

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Fecal sterol has been proposed as a chemical indicator of human fecal pollution even when fecal coliform populations have diminished due to water chlorination or toxic effects of industrial effluents. This paper describes an improved derivatization procedure for simultaneous determination of four fecal sterols including coprostanol, epicholestanol, cholesterol and cholestanol using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), via optimization study on silylation procedures using N-O-bis (trimethylsilyl)-trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA), and N-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide (MTBSTFA), which lead to the formation of trimethylsilyl (TMS) and tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBS) derivatives, respectively. Two derivatization processes of injection-port derivatization and water bath derivatization (60 oC, 1h) were inspected and compared. Furthermore, the methylation procedure at 25 oC for 2h with trimethylsilydiazomethane (TMSD) for fecal sterols analysis was also studied. It was found that most of TMS derivatives demonstrated the highest sensitivities, followed by methylated derivatives. For BSTFA or MTBSTFA derivatization processes, the simple injection-port derivatization process could achieve the same efficiency as that in the tedious water bath derivatization procedure.

Keywords: Fecal Sterols, Methylation, Silylation, BSTFA, MTBSTFA, TMSD, GC-MS.

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Authors: Jingming Wu, Ruikang Hu, Junqi Yue, Zhaoguang Yang, Lifeng Zhang

Abstract:

Fecal sterol has been proposed as a chemical indicator of human fecal pollution even when fecal coliform populations have diminished due to water chlorination or toxic effects of industrial effluents. This paper describes an improved derivatization procedure for simultaneous determination of four fecal sterols including coprostanol, epicholestanol, cholesterol and cholestanol using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), via optimization study on silylation procedures using N-O-bis (trimethylsilyl)-trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA), and N-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide (MTBSTFA), which lead to the formation of trimethylsilyl (TMS) and tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBS) derivatives, respectively. Two derivatization processes of injection-port derivatization and water bath derivatization (60 oC, 1h) were inspected and compared. Furthermore, the methylation procedure at 25 oC for 2h with trimethylsilydiazomethane (TMSD) for fecal sterols analysis was also studied. It was found that most of TMS derivatives demonstrated the highest sensitivities, followed by methylated derivatives. For BSTFA or MTBSTFA derivatization processes, the simple injection-port derivatization process could achieve the same efficiency as that in the tedious water bath derivatization procedure.

Keywords: Fecal Sterols, Methylation, Silylation, BSTFA, MTBSTFA, TMSD, GC-MS.

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Authors: Phoevos K. Koukouvinis, John S. Anagnostopoulos, Dimitris E. Papantonis

Abstract:

This work is an attempt to use the standard Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics methodology for the simulation of the complex unsteady, free-surface flow in a rotating Turgo impulse water turbine. A comparison of two different geometries was conducted. The SPH method due to its mesh-less nature is capable of capturing the flow features appearing in the turbine, without diffusion at the water/air interface. Furthermore results are compared with a commercial CFD package (Fluent®) and the SPH algorithm proves to be capable of providing similar results, in much less time than the mesh based CFD program. A parametric study was also performed regarding the turbine inlet angle.

Keywords: Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, Mesh-lessmethods, Impulse turbines, Turgo turbine.

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Authors: G. B. Hong, H. W. Chen

Abstract:

Liquid-Liquid Equilibrium (LLE) data are measured for the ternary mixtures of water + 1-butanol + butyl acetate and quaternary mixtures of water + 1-butanol + butyl acetate + glycerol at atmospheric pressure at 313.15 K. In addition, isothermal vapor–liquid–liquid equilibrium (VLLE) data are determined experimentally at 333.15 K. The region of heterogeneity is found to increase as the hydrophilic agent (glycerol) is introduced into the aqueous mixtures. The experimental data are correlated with the NRTL model. The predicted results from the solution model with the model parameters determined from the constituent binaries are also compared with the experimental values.

Keywords: LLE, VLLE, hydrophilic agent, NRTL.

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Authors: Akinori Ozaki

Abstract:

In this study, in order to clarify wind-induced phenomena, especially vertical mixing of density stratification in a closed water area with floating-leaved plants, we conducted hydraulic experiments on wind flow characteristics, wind wave characteristics, entrainment phenomena and turbulent structure by using a wind tunnel test tank and simulated floating-leaved plants. From the experimental results of wind flow and wind wave characteristics, we quantified the impact of the occupancy rate of the plants on their resistance characteristics. From the experimental results of entrainment phenomena, we defined the parameter that could explain the magnitude of mixing between the density stratifications, and quantified the impact of the occupancy rate on vertical mixing between stratifications. From the experimental results of the turbulent structure of the upper layer, we clarified the differences in small-scale turbulence components at each occupancy rate and quantified the impact of the occupancy rate on the turbulence characteristics. For a summary of this study, we theoretically quantified wind-induced entrainment phenomena in a closed water area with luxuriant growth of floating-leaved plants. The results indicated that the impact of luxuriant growth of floating-leaved plants in a closed water body could be seen in the difference in small-scale fluid characteristics, and these characteristics could be expressed using the small-scale turbulent components.

Keywords: Density Stratification, Floating-leaved Plant, Wind-induced Entrainment Phenomenon, Turbulent Structure

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Authors: Vasilii V. Ananev

Abstract:

Oil-and-gas potential of Cuba is found through the discoveries among which there are the most large-scale deposits, such as the Boca de Jaruco and Varadero fields of heavy oils. Currently, the petroleum and petroleum products needs of the island state are satisfied by own sources by less than a half. The prospects of the hydrocarbon resource base development are connected with the adjacent water area of the Gulf of Mexico where foreign companies had been granted license blocks for geological study and further development since 2001. Two Russian companies - JSC Gazprom Neft and OJSC Zarubezhneft, among others, took part in the development of the Cuban part of the Gulf of Mexico. Since 2004, five oil wells have been drilled by various companies in the deep waters of the exclusive economic zone of Cuba. Commercial oil-and-gas bearing prospects have been established in neither of them for both geological and technological reasons. However, only a small part of the water area has been covered by drilling and the productivity of the drill core has been tested at the depth of Cretaceous sediments only. In our opinion, oil-and-gas bearing prospects of the exclusive economic zone of the Republic of Cuba in the Gulf of Mexico remain undervalued and the mentioned water area needs additional geological exploration. The planning of exploration work in this poorly explored region shall be carried out systematically and it shall be based on the results of the regional scientific research.

Keywords: Cuba, Catoche, geology, exploration.

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Authors: Basharat Yousuf, Abhaya K. Srivastava

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Psyllium gum alone and in combination with sunflower oil was investigated as a possible alternative edible coating for improvement of quality and shelf life of fresh-cut papaya. Different concentrations including 0.5, 1 and 1.5 percent of psyllium gum were used for coating of fresh-cut papaya. In some samples, refined sunflower oil was used as a lipid component to increase the effectiveness of coating in terms of water barrier properties. Soya lecithin was used as an emulsifier in coatings containing oil. Pretreatment with 1% calcium chloride was given to maintain the firmness of fresh-cut papaya cubes. 1% psyllium gum coating was found to yield better results. Further, addition of oil helped to maintain the quality and acted as a barrier to water vapour, therefore, minimizing the weight loss.

Keywords: Coating, fresh-cut, gum, papaya, psylllium.

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Authors: Nelson F.F. Ebecken, Gilberto C. Pereira

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The objective of this work is to explicit knowledge on the interactions between the chlorophyll-a and nine meroplankton larvae of epibenthonic fauna. The studied case is the Arraial do Cabo upwelling system, Southeastern of Brazil, which provides different environmental conditions. To assess this information a network approach based in probability estimative was used. Comparisons among the generated graphs are made in the light of different water masses, application of Shannon biodiversity index, and the closeness and betweenness centralities measurements. Our results show the main pattern among different water masses and how the core organisms belonging to the network skeleton are correlated to the main environmental variable. We conclude that the approach of complex networks is a promising tool for environmental diagnostic.

Keywords: Coastal upwelling, Ecological networks, Plankton - interactions, Environmental analysis.

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Authors: Achmad Zamroni, Masahiro Yamao

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Coastal resource management, community empowerment and socio economic development are the cornerstones for uplifting the lives of coastal area inhabitants. This paper aims to identify the positive impacts of coastal management projects toward fishermen-s economic well-being, to analyze the role of fishermen and their families in effecting economic change and to analyze the roles of stakeholders in managing coastal resources. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were prepared to obtain qualitative data, and interviews were conducted with fishermen. Findings show that community empowerment and conservation of coastal resources through local and central government projects have exerted positive impact on the coastal community. Some activities involved women who are more active particularly in “off-fishing" season. Traditionally, local fishermen together with local stakeholders have set up a zoning system to minimize conflicts between fishermen. In addition, zoning is used to protect certain ecosystems that can provide benefits well into the future.

Keywords: Economic development, Off-fishing, Resource management, Stakeholders' participation, Women's participation

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Authors: Tae Hyun Ahn, Gyo Woo Lee, Man Young Kim

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Because of high thermal efficiency and low CO2 emission, diesel engines are being used widely in many industrial fields although it makes many PM and NOx which give both human health and environment a negative effect. NOx regulations for diesel engines, however, are being strengthened and it is impossible to meet the emission standard without NOx reduction devices such as SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction), LNC (Lean NOx Catalyst), and LNT (Lean NOx Trap). Among the NOx reduction devices, urea-SCR system is known as the most stable and efficient method to solve the problem of NOx emission. But this device has some issues associated with the ammonia slip phenomenon which is occurred by shortage of evaporation and thermolysis time, and that makes it difficult to achieve uniform distribution of the injected urea in front of monolith. Therefore, this study has focused on the mixing enhancement between urea and exhaust gases to enhance the efficiency of the SCR catalyst equipped in catalytic muffler by changing inlet gas temperature and spray conditions to improve the spray uniformity of the urea water solution. Finally, it can be found that various parameters such as inlet gas temperature and injector and injection angles significantly affect the evaporation and mixing of the urea water solution with exhaust gases, and therefore, optimization of these parameters are required.

Keywords: Evaporation, Injection, Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR), Thermolysis, UWS (Urea-Water-Solution).

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Authors: A.Roshandel, N.Hedayat, H.kiamanesh

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Today, numerical simulation is a powerful tool to solve various hydraulic engineering problems. The aim of this research is numerical solutions of shallow water equations using finite volume method for Simulations of dam break over wet and dry bed. In order to solve Riemann problem, Roe-s approximate solver is used. To evaluate numerical model, simulation was done in 1D and 2D states. In 1D state, two dam break test over dry bed (with and without friction) were studied. The results showed that Structural failure around the dam and damage to the downstream constructions in bed without friction is more than friction bed. In 2D state, two tests for wet and dry beds were done. Generally in wet bed case, waves are propagated to canal sides but in dry bed it is not significant. Therefore, damage to the storage facilities and agricultural lands in wet bed case is more than in dry bed.

Keywords: dam break, dry bed, finite volume method, shallow water equations.

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Authors: M. A. Karim

Abstract:

In countries with hot climates, air-conditioning forms a large proportion of annual peak electrical demand, requiring expansion of power plants to meet the peak demand, which goes unused most of the time. Use of well-designed cool storage can offset the peak demand to a large extent. In this study, an air conditioning system with naturally stratified storage tank was designed, constructed and tested. A new type of diffuser was designed and used in this study. Factors that influence the performance of chilled water storage tanks were investigated. The results indicated that stratified storage tank consistently stratified well without any physical barrier. Investigation also showed that storage efficiency decreased with increasing flow rate due to increased mixing of warm and chilled water. Diffuser design and layout primarily affected the mixing near the inlet diffuser and the extent of this mixing had primary influence on the shape of the thermocline. The heat conduction through tank walls and through the thermocline caused widening of mixed volume. Thermal efficiency of stratified storage tanks was as high as 90 percent, which indicates that stratified tanks can effectively be used as a load management technique.

Keywords: Cool Thermal Storage, Diffuser, Natural Stratification, Efficiency Improvement, Load management.

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Authors: Mohanad Alata , Moh'd Al-Nimr, Rami Al-Jarrah

Abstract:

The present work demonstrates the design and simulation of a fuzzy control of an air conditioning system at different pressures. The first order Sugeno fuzzy inference system is utilized to model the system and create the controller. In addition, an estimation of the heat transfer rate and water mass flow rate injection into or withdraw from the air conditioning system is determined by the fuzzy IF-THEN rules. The approach starts by generating the input/output data. Then, the subtractive clustering algorithm along with least square estimation (LSE) generates the fuzzy rules that describe the relationship between input/output data. The fuzzy rules are tuned by Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). The results show that when the pressure increases the amount of water flow rate and heat transfer rate decrease within the lower ranges of inlet dry bulb temperatures. On the other hand, and as pressure increases the amount of water flow rate and heat transfer rate increases within the higher ranges of inlet dry bulb temperatures. The inflection in the pressure effect trend occurs at lower temperatures as the inlet air humidity increases.

Keywords: Air Conditioning, ANFIS, Fuzzy Control, Sugeno System.

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Authors: Keisuke Konishi, Yoshinari Hiroshiro, Kento Terashima, Atsushi Tsutsumi

Abstract:

Imazu Bay plays an important role for endangered species such as horseshoe crabs and black-faced spoonbills that stay in the bay for spawning or the passing of winter. However, this bay is semi-enclosed with slow water exchange, which could lead to eutrophication under the condition of excess nutrient inflow to the bay. Therefore, quantification of nutrient inflow is of great importance. Generally, analysis of nutrient inflow to the bays takes into consideration nutrient inflow from only the river, but that from groundwater should not be ignored for more accurate results. The main objective of this study is to estimate the amounts of nutrient inflow from river and groundwater to Imazu Bay by analyzing water budget in Zuibaiji River Basin and loads of T-N, T-P, NO3-N and NH4-N. The water budget computation in the basin is performed using groundwater recharge model and quasi three-dimensional two-phase groundwater flow model, and the multiplication of the measured amount of nutrient inflow with the computed discharge gives the total amount of nutrient inflow to the bay. In addition, in order to evaluate nutrient inflow to the bay, the result is compared with nutrient inflow from geologically similar river basins. The result shows that the discharge is 3.50×107 m3/year from the river and 1.04×107 m3/year from groundwater. The submarine groundwater discharge accounts for approximately 23 % of the total discharge, which is large compared to the other river basins. It is also revealed that the total nutrient inflow is not particularly large. The sum of NO3-N and NH4-N loadings from groundwater is less than 10 % of that from the river because of denitrification in groundwater. The Shin Seibu Sewage Treatment Plant located below the observation points discharges treated water of 15,400 m3/day and plans to increase it. However, the loads of T-N and T-P from the treatment plant are 3.9 mg/L and 0.19 mg/L, so that it does not contribute a lot to eutrophication.

Keywords: Eutrophication, groundwater recharge model, nutrient inflow, quasi three-dimensional two-phase groundwater flow model, Submarine groundwater discharge.

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Authors: A. S. Stoporev, A. Yu. Manakov

Abstract:

In this work we investigated the behavior of methane hydrates dispersed in crude oils from different fields at temperatures below 0°C. In case of crude oil emulsion the size of water droplets is in the range of 50e100"m. The size of hydrate particles formed from droplets is the same. The self-preservation is not expected in this field. However, the self-preservation of hydrates with the size of particles 24±18"m (electron microscopy data) in suspensions is observed. Similar results were obtained for four different kinds of crude oil and model system such as asphaltenes, resins and wax in ndecane. This result can allow developing effective methods to prevent the formation and elimination of gas-hydrate plugs in pipelines under low temperature conditions (e. g. in Eastern Siberia). There is a prospective to use experiment results for working out the technology of associated petroleum gas recovery.

Keywords: Gas hydrate, Gas liberation, Self-preservation, Water-in-oil emulsion.

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Authors: Y. Chiang, J. R. Wang, J. H. Yang, Y. S. Tseng, C. Shih, S. W. Chen

Abstract:

Kuosheng nuclear power plant (NPP) is a BWR/6 plant in Taiwan. There is more concern for the safety of Spent Fuel Pools (SFPs) in Taiwan after Fukushima event. In order to estimate the safety of Kuosheng NPP SFP, by using MELCOR2.1 and SNAP, the safety analysis of Kuosheng NPP SFP was performed combined with the mitigation strategy of NEI 06-12 report. There were several steps in this research. First, the Kuosheng NPP SFP models were established by MELCOR2.1/SNAP. Second, the Station Blackout (SBO) analysis of Kuosheng SFP was done by TRACE and MELCOR under the cooling system failure condition. The results showed that the calculations of MELCOR and TRACE were very similar in this case. Second, the mitigation strategy analysis was done with the MELCOR model by following the NEI 06-12 report. The results showed the effectiveness of NEI 06-12 strategy in Kuosheng NPP SFP. Finally, a sensitivity study of SFP quenching was done to check the differences of different water injection time and the phenomena during the quenching. The results showed that if the cladding temperature was over 1600 K, the water injection may have chance to cause the accident more severe with more hydrogen generation. It was because of the oxidation heat and the “Breakaway” effect of the zirconium-water reaction. An animation model built by SNAP was also shown in this study.

Keywords: MELCOR, SNAP, spent fuel pool, quenching.

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