Search results for: Direct steam production
593 An Assessment of the Effects of Microbial Products on the Specific Oxygen Uptake in Submerged Membrane Bioreactor
Authors: M. F. R. Zuthi, H. H. Ngo, W. S. Guo, S. S. Chen, N. C. Nguyen, L. J. Deng, T. D. C. Tran
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Sustaining a desired rate of oxygen transfer for microbial activity is a matter of major concern for biological wastewater treatment (MBR). The study reported in the paper was aimed at assessing the effects of microbial products on the specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) in a conventional membrane bioreactor (CMBR) and that in a sponge submerged MBR (SSMBR). The production and progressive accumulation of soluble microbial products (SMP) and bound-extracellular polymeric substances (bEPS) were affecting the SOUR of the microorganisms which varied at different stages of operation of the MBR systems depending on the variable concentrations of the SMP/bEPS. The effect of bEPS on the SOUR was stronger in the SSMBR compared to that of the SMP, while relative high concentrations of SMP had adverse effects on the SOUR of the CMBR system. Of the different mathematical correlations analyzed in the study, logarithmic mathematical correlations could be established between SOUR and bEPS in SSMBR, and similar correlations could also be found between SOUR and SMP concentrations in the CMBR.
Keywords: Microbial products, Microbial activity, Specific oxygen uptake rate, Membrane bioreactor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1874592 Physicochemical Analysis of Soxhlet Extracted Oils from Selected Northern Nigerian Seeds
Authors: Abdulhamid Abubakar, Sani Ibrahim, Fakai I. Musa
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The aim of the present study is to investigate the potential use of the selected seed oils. The oil was extracted using Soxhlet apparatus and the physicochemical characteristics of the oil determined using standard methods. The following results were obtained for the physicochemical parameters analysed: for Egusi seed oil, Oil yield 53.20%, Saponification value 178.03±1.25 mgKOH/g, Iodine value 49.10±0.32 g I2/100g, Acid value 4.30±0.86 mgKOH/g, and Peroxide value 5.80±0.27 meq/kg were obtained. For Pawpaw seed oil, Oil yield 40.10%, Saponification value 24.13±3.93 mgKOH/g, Iodine value 24.87±0.19 g I2/100g, Acid value 9.46±0.40 mgKOH/g, and Peroxide value 3.12±1.22 meq/kg were obtained. For Sweet orange seed oil, Oil yield 43.10%, Saponification value 106.30±2.37 mgKOH/g, Iodine value 37.08±0.04 g I2/100g, Acid value 7.59±0.77 mgKOH/g, and Peroxide value 2.21±0.46 meq/kg were obtained. From the obtained values of the determined parameters, the oils can be extracted from the three selected seeds in commercial quantities and that the egusi and sweet orange seed oils may be utilized in the industrial soap production.
Keywords: Carica papaya, Citrus sinensis, iodine value, peroxide value, physicochemical.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6083591 Juxtaposition of the Past and the Present: A Pragmatic Stylistic Analysis of the Short Story “Too Much Happiness” by Alice Munro
Authors: Inas Hussein
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Alice Munro is a Canadian short-story writer who has been regarded as one of the greatest writers of fiction. Owing to her great contribution to fiction, she was the first Canadian woman and the only short-story writer ever to be rewarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013. Her literary works include collections of short stories and one book published as a novel. Her stories concentrate on the human condition and the human relationships as seen through the lens of daily life. The setting in most of her stories is her native Canada- small towns much similar to the one where she grew up. Her writing style is not only realistic but is also characterized by autobiographical, historical and regional features. The aim of this research is to analyze one of the key stylistic devices often adopted by Munro in her fictions: the juxtaposition of the past and the present, with reference to the title story in Munro's short story collection Too Much Happiness. The story under exploration is a brief biography of the Russian Mathematician and novelist Sophia Kovalevsky (1850 – 1891), the first woman to be appointed as a professor of Mathematics at a European University in Stockholm. Thus, the story has a historical protagonist and is set on the European continent. Munro dramatizes the severe historical and cultural constraints that hindered the career of the protagonist. A pragmatic stylistic framework is being adopted and the qualitative analysis is supported by textual reference. The stylistic analysis reveals that the juxtaposition of the past and the present is one of the distinctive features that characterize the author; in a typical Munrovian manner, the protagonist often moves between the units of time: the past, the present and, sometimes, the future. Munro's style is simple and direct but cleverly constructed and densely complicated by the presence of deeper layers and stories within the story. Findings of the research reveal that the story under investigation merits reading and analyzing. It is recommended that this story and other stories by Munro are analyzed to further explore the features of her art and style.
Keywords: Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness, juxtaposition of past and present, pragmatic stylistics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1005590 Water Demand Prediction for Touristic Mecca City in Saudi Arabia using Neural Networks
Authors: Abdel Hamid Ajbar, Emad Ali
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Saudi Arabia is an arid country which depends on costly desalination plants to satisfy the growing residential water demand. Prediction of water demand is usually a challenging task because the forecast model should consider variations in economic progress, climate conditions and population growth. The task is further complicated knowing that Mecca city is visited regularly by large numbers during specific months in the year due to religious occasions. In this paper, a neural networks model is proposed to handle the prediction of the monthly and yearly water demand for Mecca city, Saudi Arabia. The proposed model will be developed based on historic records of water production and estimated visitors- distribution. The driving variables for the model include annuallyvarying variables such as household income, household density, and city population, and monthly-varying variables such as expected number of visitors each month and maximum monthly temperature.Keywords: Water demand forecast; Neural Networks model; water resources management; Saudi Arabia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1797589 Trends and Prospects for the Development of Georgian Wine Market
Authors: E. Kharaishvili, M. Chavleishvili, M. Natsvaladze
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The article presents the trends in Georgian wine market development and evaluates the competitive advantages of Georgia to enter the wine market based on its customs, traditions and historical practices combined with modern technologies. In order to analyze the supply of wine, dynamics of vineyard land area and grape varieties are discussed, trends in wine production are presented, trends in export and import are evaluated, local wine market, its micro and macro environments are studied and analyzed based on the interviews with experts and analysis of initial recording materials. For strengthening its position on the international market, the level of competitiveness of Georgian wine is defined, which is evaluated by “ex-ante” and “ex-post” methods, as well as by four basic and two additional factors of the Porter’s diamond method; potential advantages and disadvantages of Georgian wine are revealed. Conclusions are made by identifying the factors that hinder the development of Georgian wine market. Based on the conclusions, relevant recommendations are developed.
Keywords: Georgian wine market, competitive advantage, bio wine, export-import, Porter's diamond model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4138588 A Numerical Description of a Fibre Reinforced Concrete Using a Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Henrik L. Funke, Lars Ulke-Winter, Sandra Gelbrich, Lothar Kroll
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This work reports about an approach for an automatic adaptation of concrete formulations based on genetic algorithms (GA) to optimize a wide range of different fit-functions. In order to achieve the goal, a method was developed which provides a numerical description of a fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) mixture regarding the production technology and the property spectrum of the concrete. In a first step, the FRC mixture with seven fixed components was characterized by varying amounts of the components. For that purpose, ten concrete mixtures were prepared and tested. The testing procedure comprised flow spread, compressive and bending tensile strength. The analysis and approximation of the determined data was carried out by GAs. The aim was to obtain a closed mathematical expression which best describes the given seven-point cloud of FRC by applying a Gene Expression Programming with Free Coefficients (GEP-FC) strategy. The seven-parametric FRC-mixtures model which is generated according to this method correlated well with the measured data. The developed procedure can be used for concrete mixtures finding closed mathematical expressions, which are based on the measured data.
Keywords: Concrete design, fibre reinforced concrete, genetic algorithms, GEP-FC.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 968587 Deicing and Corrosive Performances of Calcium Acetate Deicer Made from Bamboo-Vinegar
Authors: Xinyuan Jiang, Genan Li, Zhiping Wu
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Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) is environmentally benign deicing chemicals that can replace sodium chloride that is widely used on roads and highways at present for snow and ice control to provide safe driving conditions during winter. The price of CMA from petroleum-derived acetic acid is quite expensive. The bamboo vinegar is the by-product from bamboo charcoal production. The bamboo vinegar was used to prepare calcium acetate as raw materials, and its deicing and corrosive performances were studied in this paper. The results show that the freezing temperature of calcium acetate is lower than that of sodium chloride when they have same molar concentration, the deicing performance of calcium acetate is better than that of sodium chloride when they have same moles, while the deicing performance of sodium chloride is better than that of calcium acetate. The corrosion of sodium chloride on iron-nail and steel-nail is larger than that of calcium acetate whether they have same mass concentration or same molar concentration, and the corrosion of sodium chloride and calcium acetate on iron-nail is larger than that on steel-nail, and calcium acetate almost hasn't corrosion on steel-nail.Keywords: bamboo vinegar, calcium acetate, corrosion, deicer, deicing performance
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2545586 Intensification of Ethyl Esters Synthesis Using a Packed-Bed Tubular Reactor at Supercritical Conditions
Authors: Camila da Silva, Simone Belorte de Andrade, Vitor Augusto dos Santos Garcia, Vladimir Ferreira Cabral, J. Vladimir Oliveira Lúcio Cardozo-Filho
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In the present study, the non-catalytic transesterification of soybean oil in continuous mode using supercritical ethanol were investigated. Experiments were performed in a packed-bed tubular reactor (PBTR) and variable studied were reaction temperature (523 K to 598 K), pressure (10 MPa to 20 MPa), oil to ethanol molar ratio (1:10 to 1:40) and water concentration (0 wt% to 10 wt% in ethanol). Results showed that ethyl esters yields obtained in the PBTR were higher (> 20 wt%) than those verified in a tubular reactor (TR), due to improved mass transfer conditions attained in the PBTR. Results demonstrated that temperature, pressure, oil to ethanol molar ratio and water concentration had a positive effect on fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) production in the experimental range investigated, with appreciable reaction yields (90 wt%) achieved at 598 K, 20 MPa, oil to ethanol molar ratio of 1:40 and 10 wt% of water concentration.
Keywords: Packed bed reactor, ethyl esters, continuous process, catalyst-free process.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1287585 Transfer of Information Heritage between Algerian Veterinarians and Breeders: Assessment of Information and Communication Technology Using Mobile Phone
Authors: R. Bernaoui, P. Ohly
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Our research shows the use of the mobile phone that consolidates the relationship between veterinarians, and that between breeders and veterinarians. On the other hand it asserts that the tool in question is a means of economic development. The results of our survey reveal a positive return to the veterinary community, which shows that the mobile phone has become an effective means of sustainable development through the transfer of a rapid and punctual information inheritance via social networks; including many Internet applications. Our results show that almost all veterinarians use the mobile phone for interprofessional communication. We therefore believe that the use of the mobile phone by livestock operators has greatly improved the working conditions, just as the use of this tool contributes to a better management of the exploitation as long as it allows limit travel but also save time. These results show that we are witnessing a growth in the use of mobile telephony technologies that impact is as much in terms of sustainable development. Allowing access to information, especially technical information, the mobile phone, and Information and Communication of Technology (ICT) in general, give livestock sector players not only security, by limiting losses, but also an efficiency that allows them a better production and productivity.
Keywords: Algeria, Breeder-veterinarian, Digital Heritage, Networking, Mobile phone.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 600584 Visual Inspection of Work Piece with a Complex Shape by Means of Robot Manipulator
Authors: A. Y. Bani Hashim, N. S. A. Ramdan
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Inconsistency in manual inspection is real because humans get tired after some time. Recent trends show that automatic inspection is more appealing for mass production inspections. In such as a case, a robot manipulator seems the best candidate to run a dynamic visual inspection. The purpose of this work is to estimate the optimum workspace where a robot manipulator would perform a visual inspection process onto a work piece where a camera is attached to the end effector. The pseudo codes for the planned path are derived from the number of tool transit points, the delay time at the transit points, the process cycle time, and the configuration space that the distance between the tool and the work piece. It is observed that express start and swift end are acceptable in a robot program because applicable works usually in existence during these moments. However, during the mid-range cycle, there are always practical tasks programmed to be executed. For that reason, it is acceptable to program the robot such as that speedy alteration of actuator displacement is avoided. A dynamic visual inspection system using a robot manipulator seems practical for a work piece with a complex shape.
Keywords: Robot manipulator, Visual inspection, Work piece, Trajectory planning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1650583 Static Priority Approach to Under-Frequency Based Load Shedding Scheme in Islanded Industrial Networks: Using the Case Study of Fatima Fertilizer Company Ltd - FFL
Authors: S. H. Kazmi, T. Ahmed, K. Javed, A. Ghani
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In this paper static scheme of under-frequency based load shedding is considered for chemical and petrochemical industries with islanded distribution networks relying heavily on the primary commodity to ensure minimum production loss, plant downtime or critical equipment shutdown. A simplistic methodology is proposed for in-house implementation of this scheme using underfrequency relays and a step by step guide is provided including the techniques to calculate maximum percentage overloads, frequency decay rates, time based frequency response and frequency based time response of the system. Case study of FFL electrical system is utilized, presenting the actual system parameters and employed load shedding settings following the similar series of steps. The arbitrary settings are then verified for worst overload conditions (loss of a generation source in this case) and comprehensive system response is then investigated.Keywords: Islanding, under-frequency load shedding, frequency rate of change, static UFLS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2203582 The Determination of the Potassium Nitrate, Sodium Hydroxide and Boric Acid Molar Ratio in the Synthesis of Potassium Borates via Hydrothermal Method
Authors: M. Yildirim, A. S. Kipcak, F. T. Senberber, M. O. Asensio, E. M. Derun, S. Piskin
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Potassium borates, which are widely used in welding and metal refining industry, as a lubricating oil additive, cement additive, fiberglass additive and insulation compound, are one of the important groups of borate minerals. In this study the production of a potassium borate mineral via hydrothermal method is aimed. The potassium source of potassium nitrate (KNO3) was used along with a sodium source of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and boron source of boric acid (H3BO3). The constant parameters of reaction temperature and reaction time were determined as 80°C and 1 h, respectively. The molar ratios of 1:1:3 (as KNO3:NaOH:H3BO3), 1:1:4, 1:1:5, 1:1:6 and 1:1:7 were used. Following the synthesis the identifications of the produced products were conducted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman Spectroscopy. The results of the experiments and analysis showed in the ratio of 1:1:6, the Santite mineral with powder diffraction file number (pdf no.) of 01-072-1688, which is known as potassium pentaborate (KB5O8·4H2O) was synthesized as best.Keywords: Hydrothermal synthesis, potassium borate, potassium nitrate, santite.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3285581 An Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Technique for Combined Economic and Environmental Power Dispatch Including Valve Point Loading Effects
Authors: Badr M. Alshammari, T. Guesmi
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In recent years, the combined economic and emission power dispatch is one of the main problems of electrical power system. It aims to schedule the power generation of generators in order to minimize cost production and emission of harmful gases caused by fossil-fueled thermal units such as CO, CO2, NOx, and SO2. To solve this complicated multi-objective problem, an improved version of the particle swarm optimization technique that includes non-dominated sorting concept has been proposed. Valve point loading effects and system losses have been considered. The three-unit and ten-unit benchmark systems have been used to show the effectiveness of the suggested optimization technique for solving this kind of nonconvex problem. The simulation results have been compared with those obtained using genetic algorithm based method. Comparison results show that the proposed approach can provide a higher quality solution with better performance.
Keywords: Power dispatch, valve point loading effects, multiobjective optimization, Pareto solutions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 756580 Comparison of Three Turbulence Models in Wear Prediction of Multi-Size Particulate Flow through Rotating Channel
Authors: Pankaj K. Gupta, Krishnan V. Pagalthivarthi
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The present work compares the performance of three turbulence modeling approach (based on the two-equation k -ε model) in predicting erosive wear in multi-size dense slurry flow through rotating channel. All three turbulence models include rotation modification to the production term in the turbulent kineticenergy equation. The two-phase flow field obtained numerically using Galerkin finite element methodology relates the local flow velocity and concentration to the wear rate via a suitable wear model. The wear models for both sliding wear and impact wear mechanisms account for the particle size dependence. Results of predicted wear rates using the three turbulence models are compared for a large number of cases spanning such operating parameters as rotation rate, solids concentration, flow rate, particle size distribution and so forth. The root-mean-square error between FE-generated data and the correlation between maximum wear rate and the operating parameters is found less than 2.5% for all the three models.Keywords: Rotating channel, maximum wear rate, multi-sizeparticulate flow, k −ε turbulence models.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1760579 Forecast Based on an Empirical Probability Function with an Adjusted Error Using Propagation of Error
Authors: Oscar Javier Herrera, Manuel Ángel Camacho
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This paper addresses a cutting edge method of business demand forecasting, based on an empirical probability function when the historical behavior of the data is random. Additionally, it presents error determination based on the numerical method technique ‘propagation of errors.’ The methodology was conducted characterization and process diagnostics demand planning as part of the production management, then new ways to predict its value through techniques of probability and to calculate their mistake investigated, it was tools used numerical methods. All this based on the behavior of the data. This analysis was determined considering the specific business circumstances of a company in the sector of communications, located in the city of Bogota, Colombia. In conclusion, using this application it was possible to obtain the adequate stock of the products required by the company to provide its services, helping the company reduce its service time, increase the client satisfaction rate, reduce stock which has not been in rotation for a long time, code its inventory, and plan reorder points for the replenishment of stock.Keywords: Demand Forecasting, Empirical Distribution, Propagation of Error.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1830578 Enhancing Efficiency for Reducing Sugar from Cassava Bagasse by Pretreatment
Authors: S. Gaewchingduang, P. Pengthemkeerati
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Cassava bagasse is one of major biomass wastes in Thailand from starch processing industry, which contains high starch content of about 60%. The object of this study was to investigate the optimal condition for hydrothermally pretreating cassava baggasses with or without acid addition. The pretreated samples were measured reducing sugar yield directly or after enzymatic hydrolysis (alpha-amylase). In enzymatic hydrolysis, the highest reducing sugar content was obtained under hydrothermal conditions for at 125oC for 30 min. The result shows that pretreating cassava baggasses increased the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis. For acid hydrolysis, pretreating cassava baggasses with sulfuric acid at 120oC for 60 min gave a maximum reducing sugar yield. In this study, sulfuric acid had a greater capacity for hydrolyzing cassava baggasses than phosphoric acid. In comparison, dilute acid hydrolysis to provide a higher yield of reducing sugar than the enzymatic hydrolysis combined hydrothermal pretreatment. However, enzymatic hydrolysis in a combination with hydrothermal pretreatment was an alternative to enhance efficiency reducing sugar production from cassava bagasse.
Keywords: Acid hydrolysis, cassava bagasse, enzymatic hydrolysis, hydrothermal pretreatment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2961577 Optimization of Lean Methodologies in the Textile Industry Using Design of Experiments
Authors: Ahmad Yame, Ahad Ali, Badih Jawad, Daw Al-Werfalli Mohamed Nasser, Sabah Abro
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Industries in general have a lot of waste. Wool textile company, Baniwalid, Libya has many complex problems that led to enormous waste generated due to the lack of lean strategies, expertise, technical support and commitment. To successfully address waste at wool textile company, this study will attempt to develop a methodical approach that integrates lean manufacturing tools to optimize performance characteristics such as lead time and delivery. This methodology will utilize Value Stream Mapping (VSM) techniques to identify the process variables that affect production. Once these variables are identified, Design of Experiments (DOE) Methodology will be used to determine the significantly influential process variables, these variables are then controlled and set at their optimal to achieve optimal levels of productivity, quality, agility, efficiency and delivery to analyze the outputs of the simulation model for different lean configurations. The goal of this research is to investigate how the tools of lean manufacturing can be adapted from the discrete to the continuous manufacturing environment and to evaluate their benefits at a specific industrial.Keywords: Lean manufacturing, DOE, value stream mapping, textiles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1923576 Elemental Graph Data Model: A Semantic and Topological Representation of Building Elements
Authors: Yasmeen A. S. Essawy, Khaled Nassar
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With the rapid increase of complexity in the building industry, professionals in the A/E/C industry were forced to adopt Building Information Modeling (BIM) in order to enhance the communication between the different project stakeholders throughout the project life cycle and create a semantic object-oriented building model that can support geometric-topological analysis of building elements during design and construction. This paper presents a model that extracts topological relationships and geometrical properties of building elements from an existing fully designed BIM, and maps this information into a directed acyclic Elemental Graph Data Model (EGDM). The model incorporates BIM-based search algorithms for automatic deduction of geometrical data and topological relationships for each building element type. Using graph search algorithms, such as Depth First Search (DFS) and topological sortings, all possible construction sequences can be generated and compared against production and construction rules to generate an optimized construction sequence and its associated schedule. The model is implemented in a C# platform.
Keywords: Building information modeling, elemental graph data model, geometric and topological data models, and graph theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1180575 Optimization of Diluted Organic Acid Pretreatment on Rice Straw Using Response Surface Methodology
Authors: Rotchanaphan Hengaroonprasan, Malinee Sriariyanun, Prapakorn Tantayotai, Supacharee Roddecha, Kraipat Cheenkachorn
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Lignocellolusic material is a substance that is resistant to be degraded by microorganisms or hydrolysis enzymes. To be used as materials for biofuel production, it needs pretreatment process to improve efficiency of hydrolysis. In this work, chemical pretreatments on rice straw using three diluted organic acids, including acetic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid, were optimized. Using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), the effect of three pretreatment parameters, acid concentration, treatment time, and reaction temperature, on pretreatment efficiency were statistically evaluated. The results indicated that dilute oxalic acid pretreatment led to the highest enhancement of enzymatic saccharification by commercial cellulase and yielded sugar up to 10.67 mg/ml when using 5.04% oxalic acid at 137.11 oC for 30.01 min. Compared to other acid pretreatment by acetic acid, citric acid, and hydrochloric acid, the maximum sugar yields are 7.07, 6.30, and 8.53 mg/ml, respectively. Here, it was demonstrated that organic acids can be used for pretreatment of lignocellulosic materials to enhance of hydrolysis process, which could be integrated to other applications for various biorefinery processes.
Keywords: Lignocellolusic biomass, pretreatment, organic acid response surface methodology, biorefinery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2388574 Sectoral Energy Consumption in South Africa and Its Implication for Economic Growth
Authors: Kehinde Damilola Ilesanmi, Dev Datt Tewari
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South Africa is in its post-industrial era moving from the primary and secondary sector to the tertiary sector. The study investigated the impact of the disaggregated energy consumption (coal, oil, and electricity) on the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy between 1980 and 2012 in South Africa. Using vector error correction model, it was established that South Africa is an energy dependent economy, and that energy (especially electricity and oil) is a limiting factor of growth. This implies that implementation of energy conservation policies may hamper economic growth. Output growth is significantly outpacing energy supply, which has necessitated load shedding. To meet up the excess energy demand, there is a need to increase the generating capacity which will necessitate increased investment in the electricity sector as well as strategic steps to increase oil production. There is also need to explore more renewable energy sources, in order to meet the growing energy demand without compromising growth and environmental sustainability. Policy makers should also pursue energy efficiency policies especially at sectoral level of the economy.Keywords: Causality, economic growth, energy consumption, hypothesis, sectoral output.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1640573 Optimization of Surface Roughness and Vibration in Turning of Aluminum Alloy AA2024 Using Taguchi Technique
Authors: Vladimir Aleksandrovich Rogov, Ghorbani Siamak
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Determination of optimal conditions of machining parameters is important to reduce the production cost and achieve the desired surface quality. This paper investigates the influence of cutting parameters on surface roughness and natural frequency in turning of aluminum alloy AA2024. The experiments were performed at the lathe machine using two different cutting tools made of AISI 5140 and carbide cutting insert coated with TiC. Turning experiments were planned by Taguchi method L9 orthogonal array.Three levels for spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut and tool overhang were chosen as cutting variables. The obtained experimental data has been analyzed using signal to noise ratio and analysis of variance. The main effects have been discussed and percentage contributions of various parameters affecting surface roughness and natural frequency, and optimal cutting conditions have been determined. Finally, optimization of the cutting parameters using Taguchi method was verified by confirmation experiments.
Keywords: Turning, Cutting conditions, Surface roughness, Natural frequency, Taguchi method, ANOVA, S/N ratio.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4594572 Characterization of Electrospun Carbon Nanofiber Doped Polymer Composites
Authors: Atilla Evcin, Bahri Ersoy, Süleyman Akpınar, I. Sinan Atlı
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Ceramic, polymer and composite nanofibers are nowadays begun to be utilized in many fields of nanotechnology. By the means of dimensions, these fibers are as small as nano scale but because of having large surface area and microstructural characteristics, they provide unique mechanic, optical, magnetic, electronic and chemical properties. In terms of nanofiber production, electrospinning has been the most widely used technique in recent years. In this study, carbon nanofibers have been synthesized from solutions of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/ N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) by electrospinning method. The carbon nanofibers have been stabilized by oxidation at 250 °C for 2 h in air and carbonized at 750 °C for 1 h in H2/N2. Images of carbon nanofibers have been taken with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The images have been analyzed to study the fiber morphology and to determine the distribution of the fiber diameter using FibraQuant 1.3 software. Then polymer composites have been produced from mixture of carbon nanofibers and silicone polymer. The final polymer composites have been characterized by X-ray diffraction method and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurements. These results have been reported and discussed. At result, homogeneous carbon nanofibers with 100-167 nm of diameter were obtained with optimized electrospinning conditions.
Keywords: Electrospinning, characterization, composites, nanofiber.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 929571 Evaluating the Factors Influencing the Efficiency and Usage of Public Sports Services in a Chinese Province
Authors: Zhankun Wang, Timothy Makubuya
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The efficiency of public sports service of prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang from 2008 to 2012 was evaluated by applying the DEA method, then its influencing factors were also analyzed through Tobit model. Upon analysis, the results revealed the following; (i) the change in average efficiency of public sports service in Zhejiang present a smooth uptrend and at a relatively high level from 2008 to 2012 (ii) generally, the productivity of public sports service in Zhejiang improved from 2008 to 2012, the productivity efficiency varied greatly in different years, and the regional difference of production efficiency increased. (iii) The correlations for urbanization rate, aging rate, per capita GDP and the population density were significantly positive with the public sports service efficiency in Zhejiang, of which the most significant was the aging rate. However, the population density and per capita GDP had less impact on the efficiency of public sports service in Zhejiang. In addition, whether the efficiency of public sports services in different areas in Zhejiang reciprocates to overall benefits in public wellbeing in both rural and urban settings is still arguable.
Keywords: DEA Model, public sports service, efficiency, Tobit model, Malmquist productivity index, Zhejiang.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 771570 A Hybrid Multi Objective Algorithm for Flexible Job Shop Scheduling
Authors: Parviz Fattahi
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Scheduling for the flexible job shop is very important in both fields of production management and combinatorial optimization. However, it quit difficult to achieve an optimal solution to this problem with traditional optimization approaches owing to the high computational complexity. The combining of several optimization criteria induces additional complexity and new problems. In this paper, a Pareto approach to solve the multi objective flexible job shop scheduling problems is proposed. The objectives considered are to minimize the overall completion time (makespan) and total weighted tardiness (TWT). An effective simulated annealing algorithm based on the proposed approach is presented to solve multi objective flexible job shop scheduling problem. An external memory of non-dominated solutions is considered to save and update the non-dominated solutions during the solution process. Numerical examples are used to evaluate and study the performance of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm can be applied easily in real factory conditions and for large size problems. It should thus be useful to both practitioners and researchers.Keywords: Flexible job shop, Scheduling, Hierarchical approach, simulated annealing, tabu search, multi objective.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1995569 An Evaluation of Buying Behaviors and Perceptions of Organic Vegetable Consumers in Chiang Mai Province
Authors: Somdech Rungsrisawat
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The purpose of this research is to study of consumer perception and understanding consumer buying behavior that related between satisfied and factors affecting the purchasing. Methodology can be classified between qualitative and quantitative approaches for the qualitative research were interviews from middlemen who bought organic vegetables, and middlemen related to production and marketing system. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. The result show the reason to decision buying motives is Fresh products of organic vegetables is the most significant factor on individuals’ income, with a b of –.143, t = –2.470, the price of organic vegetables is the most significant factor on individuals’ income, with a b of .176, t = 2.561, p value = .011. The results show that most people with higher income think about the organic products are expensive and have negative attitudes towards organic vegetable as individuals with low and medium income level. Therefore, household income had a significant influence on the purchasing decision.
Keywords: Consumer behaviors, Consumer perceptions, Organic Vegetable.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2300568 Bioethanol: Indonesian Macro-Algae as a Renewable Feedstock for Liquid Fuel
Authors: T. Poespowati, E. Marsyahyo, R. Kartika-Dewi
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This experimental study aims at studying the conversion of macro-algae into bioethanol under several steps of procedure: preparation, pre-treatment, fermentation, and distillation. The main objective of this work was to investigate the role of buffer’s type as a stabiliser of pH level and fermentation time on the yield of ethanol. For this purpose, experiments were carried out on biomass macro-algae to de-couple the pre-treatment and fermentation processes from those associated with distillation process. β- glucosidase was used as cellulose decomposer during hydrolysis step and yeast was used during fermentation process. The species of macro-algae utilised as energy feedstock was Ulva lactuca and it was harvested from southern coast of Central of Java Island – Indonesia. Experiments were conducted in a simple fermenter over a different buffer: citrate buffer and acetic buffer, and over a range of fermentation times between 5 to 20 days. The ethanol production was found to be significantly affected by both variables. The optimum time of fermentation was 10 days with citrate buffer; result in 0.88458% of ethanol, and the ethanol content after distillation process was shown 0.985015%.
Keywords: Fermentation, ulva-lactuca, buffer, β-glucosidase, bioethanol.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2420567 Design, Fabrication and Evaluation of MR Damper
Authors: A. Ashfak, A. Saheed, K. K. Abdul Rasheed, J. Abdul Jaleel
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This paper presents the design, fabrication and evaluation of magneto-rheological damper. Semi-active control devices have received significant attention in recent years because they offer the adaptability of active control devices without requiring the associated large power sources. Magneto-Rheological (MR) dampers are semi- active control devices that use MR fluids to produce controllable dampers. They potentially offer highly reliable operation and can be viewed as fail-safe in that they become passive dampers if the control hardware malfunction. The advantage of MR dampers over conventional dampers are that they are simple in construction, compromise between high frequency isolation and natural frequency isolation, they offer semi-active control, use very little power, have very quick response, has few moving parts, have a relax tolerances and direct interfacing with electronics. Magneto- Rheological (MR) fluids are Controllable fluids belonging to the class of active materials that have the unique ability to change dynamic yield stress when acted upon by an electric or magnetic field, while maintaining viscosity relatively constant. This property can be utilized in MR damper where the damping force is changed by changing the rheological properties of the fluid magnetically. MR fluids have a dynamic yield stress over Electro-Rheological fluids (ER) and a broader operational temperature range. The objective of this papert was to study the application of an MR damper to vibration control, design the vibration damper using MR fluids, test and evaluate its performance. In this paper the Rheology and the theory behind MR fluids and their use on vibration control were studied. Then a MR vibration damper suitable for vehicle suspension was designed and fabricated using the MR fluid. The MR damper was tested using a dynamic test rig and the results were obtained in the form of force vs velocity and the force vs displacement plots. The results were encouraging and greatly inspire further research on the topic.Keywords: Magneto-rheological Fluid, MR Damper, Semiactive controller, Electro-rheological fluid.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5936566 Order Optimization of a Telecommunication Distribution Center through Service Lead Time
Authors: Tamás Hartványi, Ferenc Tóth
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European telecommunication distribution center performance is measured by service lead time and quality. Operation model is CTO (customized to order) namely, a high mix customization of telecommunication network equipment and parts. CTO operation contains material receiving, warehousing, network and server assembly to order and configure based on customer specifications. Variety of the product and orders does not support mass production structure. One of the success factors to satisfy customer is to have a proper aggregated planning method for the operation in order to have optimized human resources and highly efficient asset utilization. Research will investigate several methods and find proper way to have an order book simulation where practical optimization problem may contain thousands of variables and the simulation running times of developed algorithms were taken into account with high importance. There are two operation research models that were developed, customer demand is given in orders, no change over time, customer demands are given for product types, and changeover time is constant.
Keywords: CTO, aggregated planning, demand simulation, changeover time.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 779565 Visual Thing Recognition with Binary Scale-Invariant Feature Transform and Support Vector Machine Classifiers Using Color Information
Authors: Wei-Jong Yang, Wei-Hau Du, Pau-Choo Chang, Jar-Ferr Yang, Pi-Hsia Hung
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The demands of smart visual thing recognition in various devices have been increased rapidly for daily smart production, living and learning systems in recent years. This paper proposed a visual thing recognition system, which combines binary scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), bag of words model (BoW), and support vector machine (SVM) by using color information. Since the traditional SIFT features and SVM classifiers only use the gray information, color information is still an important feature for visual thing recognition. With color-based SIFT features and SVM, we can discard unreliable matching pairs and increase the robustness of matching tasks. The experimental results show that the proposed object recognition system with color-assistant SIFT SVM classifier achieves higher recognition rate than that with the traditional gray SIFT and SVM classification in various situations.Keywords: Color moments, visual thing recognition system, SIFT, color SIFT.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1014564 Deoxygenation of Beef Fat over Pd Supported Mesoporous TiO2 Catalyst Prepared by Single-Step Sol-Gel Process with Surfactant Template
Authors: Tossaporn Jindarat, Siriporn Jongpatiwut, Somchai Osuwan, Suchada Butnark
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Deoxygenation of beef fat for the production of hydrogenated biodiesel is investigated in a high pressure continuous flow fixed bed reactor over palladium-supported mesoporous titania catalyst synthesized via a combined single-step sol-gel process with surfactant-assisted templating method (SATM). The catalyst possessed a mesoporous charactheristic with high surface area and narrow pore size distribution. The main products of all Pd/TiO2 catalysts are n-heptadecane (n-C17) and n-pentadecane (n-C15) resulting from decarbonylation reaction. Pd/TiO2 catalyst synthesized via a combined single-step sol-gel process with SATM (SSSG) gave higher activity and selectivity to the desired products when compared to IWI/SG-TiO2 and IWI/P25-TiO2, respectively. SSSG catalyst gave the average conversion up to 80-90 % and 80 % for the selectivity in diesel range hydrocarbons. This result may cause by the higher surface area and the ability in dispersion of palladium ion in mesoporous of TiO2 during sol-gel process.
Keywords: Beef fat, Deoxygenation, Hydrogenated biodiesel, Pd/TiO2
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1429