Search results for: biomass fuel

Authors: Kemal Çomakli, Uğur Çakir, Ayşegül Çokgez Kuş, Erol Şahin

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A lower consumption of thermal energy will contribute not only to a reduction in the running costs, but also in the reduction of pollutant emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect. Cogeneration or CHP (Combined Heat and Power) is the system that produces power and usable heat simultaneously by decreasing the pollutant emissions and increasing the efficiency. Combined production of mechanical or electrical and thermal energy using a simple energy source, such as oil, coal, natural or liquefied gas, biomass or the sun; affords remarkable energy savings and frequently makes it possible to operate with greater efficiency when compared to a system producing heat and power separately. This study aims to bring out the contributions of cogeneration systems to the environment and sustainability by saving the energy and reducing the emissions. In this way we made a comprehensive investigation in the literature by focusing on the environmental aspects of the cogeneration systems. In the light of these studies we reached that, cogeneration systems must be consider in sustainability and their benefits on protecting the ecology must be investigated.

Keywords: Sustainability, cogeneration systems, energy economy, energy saving.

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Authors: Sudip K. Ganguly

Abstract:

In order to meet environmental norms, Indian fuel policy aims at producing ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD) in near future. A catalyst for meeting such requirements has been developed and kinetics of this catalytic process is being looked into. In the present investigations, effect of mass transfer on kinetics of ultra deep hydrodesulphurization (UDHDS) to produce ULSD has been studied to determine intrinsic kinetics over a pre-sulphided catalyst. Experiments have been carried out in a continuous flow micro reactor operated in the temperature range of 330 to 3600C, whsv of 1 hr-1 at a pressure of 35 bar, and its parameters estimated. Based on the derived rate expression and estimated parameters optimum operation range has been determined for this UDHDS catalyst to obtain ULSD product.

Keywords: Diesel, hydrodesulphurization, kinetics, mass transfer.

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Authors: Wennan Long, Yuhao Nie, Yunan Li, Adam Brandt

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To fight against climate change, California government issued the Senate Bill No. 100 (SB-100) in 2018 September, which aims at achieving a target of 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2045. A capacity expansion problem is solved in this case study using a binary quadratic programming model. The optimal locations and capacities of the potential renewable power plants (i.e., solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydropower), the phase-out schedule of existing fossil-based (nature gas) power plants and the transmission of electricity across the entire network are determined with the minimal total annualized cost measured by net present value (NPV). The results show that the renewable electricity contribution could increase to 85.9% by 2030 and reach 100% by 2035. Fossil-based power plants will be totally phased out around 2035 and solar and wind will finally become the most dominant renewable energy resource in California electricity mix.

Keywords: 100% renewable electricity, California, capacity expansion, binary quadratic programming.

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Authors: M.Jalali Azizpour, S.norouzi, H.mohammadi majd, H.Talebi, A.Ghamari

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In this paper, the application of thermal spray coatings in high speed shafts by a revolution up to 23000 RPM has been studied. Gas compressor shafts are worn in contact zone with journal therefore will be undersized. Wear mechanisms of compressor shaft were identified. The predominant wear mechanism is abrasion wear. The worn surface was coated by hard WC-Co cermets using high velocity oxy fuel (HVOF) after preparation. The shafts were in satisfactory service in 8000h period. The metallurgical and Tribological studies has been made on the worn and coated shaft using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction.

Keywords: Thermal spray, Residual stress, Wear mechanism, HVOF, Gas compressor shafts.

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Authors: Soukaina Oujana, Peggy Zwolinski

Abstract:

Fines are heterogeneous residues created during the shredding of non-hazardous waste. They are one of the most challenging issues faced by recyclers, because they are at the present time considered as non-sortable and non-reusable mixtures destined to landfill. However, fines contain a large amount of recoverable materials that could be recycled or reused for the production of solid recovered fuel. This research is conducted in relation to a project named ValoRABES. The aim is to characterize fines and establish a suitable sorting process in order to extract the materials contained in the mixture and define their suitable recovery paths. This paper will highlight the importance of a good sampling and will propose a sampling methodology for fines characterization. First results about the characterization will be also presented.

Keywords: Fines, non-hazardous waste, recovery, shredding residues, waste characterization, waste sampling.

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Authors: Nishanth Murugan, Mohammed Niyasdeen Nejaamtheen, S. Sounder Rajan

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The accelerated growth in aircraft industries desire effectual schemes, programs, innovative designs of advanced systems to accomplishing the augmenting need for home-free air transportation. In this paper, a contemporary conceptual design of an airplane has been proposed without landing gear systems in order to reducing accidents, time consumption, and to eliminating drawbacks by using superconducting levitation phenomenon. This invention of an airplane with superconductive material coating, on the solar plexus region assist to reduce weight by approximately 4% of the total takeoff weight, and cost effective. Moreover, we conjectured that superconductor landing system reduces ground friction, mission fuel, total drag, take-off and landing distance.

Keywords: Aircraft landing system, Magnetic levitation, Superconductors, Take-off and landing.

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Authors: Ali Zaker, Zhi Chen

Abstract:

Due to the concerns about the depletion of fossil fuel sources and the deteriorating environment, the attempt to investigate the production of renewable energy will play a crucial role as a potential to alleviate the dependency on mineral fuels. One particular area of interest is generation of bio-oil through sewage sludge (SS) pyrolysis. SS can be a potential candidate in contrast to other types of biomasses due to its availability and low cost. However, the presence of high molecular weight hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds in the SS bio-oil hinders some of its fuel applications. In this context, catalytic pyrolysis is another attainable route to upgrade bio-oil quality. Among different catalysts (i.e., zeolites) studied for SS pyrolysis, activated chars (AC) are eco-friendly alternatives. The beneficial features of AC derived from SS comprise the comparatively large surface area, porosity, enriched surface functional groups and presence of a high amount of metal species that can improve the catalytic activity. Hence, a sludge-based AC catalyst was fabricated in a single-step pyrolysis reaction with NaOH as the activation agent and was compared with HZSM5 zeolite in this study. The thermal decomposition and kinetics were invested via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for guidance and control of pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis and the design of the pyrolysis setup. The results indicated that the pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis contain four obvious stages and the main decomposition reaction occurred in the range of 200-600 °C. Coats-Redfern method was applied in the 2nd and 3rd devolatilization stages to estimate the reaction order and activation energy (E) from the mass loss data. The average activation energy (Em) values for the reaction orders n = 1, 2 and 3 were in the range of 6.67-20.37 kJ/mol for SS; 1.51-6.87 kJ/mol for HZSM5; and 2.29-9.17 kJ/mol for AC, respectively. According to the results, AC and HZSM5 both were able to improve the reaction rate of SS pyrolysis by abridging the Em value. Moreover, to generate and examine the effect of the catalysts on the quality of bio-oil, a fixed-bed pyrolysis system was designed and implemented. The composition analysis of the produced bio-oil was carried out via gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The selected SS to catalyst ratios were 1:1, 2:1 and 4:1. The optimum ratio in terms of cracking the long-chain hydrocarbons and removing oxygen-containing compounds was 1:1 for both catalysts. The upgraded bio-oils with HZSM5 and AC were in the total range of C4-C17 with around 72% in the range of C4-C9. The bio-oil from pyrolysis of SS contained 49.27% oxygenated compounds while the presence of HZSM5 and AC dropped to 7.3% and 13.02%, respectively. Meanwhile, generation of value-added chemicals such as light aromatic compounds were significantly improved in the catalytic process. Furthermore, the fabricated AC catalyst was characterized by BET, SEM-EDX, FT-IR and TGA techniques. Overall, this research demonstrated that AC is an efficient catalyst in the pyrolysis of SS and can be used as a cost-competitive catalyst in contrast to HZSM5.

Keywords: Activated char, bio-oil, catalytic pyrolysis, HZSM5, sewage sludge.

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Authors: F. Behrouzi, A. Maimun, M. Nakisa

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The growth of population, rising fossil fuel prices (limited and decreasing day by day), pollution problem due to use of fossil fuels and increasing electrical demand are important factors that encourage the use of green and renewable energy technologies. Among the different renewable energy technologies, hydro power generation (large and small scale) is the prime choice in terms of contribution to the world's electricity generation by using water current turbines. Currently, researchers mainly focused on design and development of different kind of turbines to capture hydropower to generate electricity as clean and reliable energy. This paper is a review of the status of research on water current turbines carried out to generate electricity from hydrokinetic energy especially in places where there is no electricity, but there is access to flowing water.

Keywords: Turbines, Renewable Energy, Hydropower.

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Authors: P. V. V. Rama Rao, B. Kali Prasanna, Y. T. R. Palleswari

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Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, and bio-fuels and hydrogen derived from renewable resources. Each of these sources has unique characteristics which influence how and where they are used. This paper presents the modeling the simulation of solar and hydro hybrid energy sources in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. It simulates all quantities of Hybrid Electrical Power system (HEPS) such as AC output current of the inverter that injected to the load/grid, load current, grid current. It also simulates power output from PV and Hydraulic Turbine Generator (HTG), power delivered to or from grid and finally power factor of the inverter for PV, HTG and grid. The proposed circuit uses instantaneous p-q (real-imaginary) power theory.

Keywords: Photovoltaic Array, Hydraulic Turbine Generator, Electrical Utility (EU), Hybrid Electrical Power Supply.

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Authors: S. C. Santos, S. R. Dionísio, A. L. D. De Andrade, L. R. Roque, A. C. Da Costa, J. L. Ienczak

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In this work, two fermentations at different temperatures (25 and 30ºC), with cell recycling, were accomplished to produce ethanol, using a mix of commercial substrates, xylose (70%) and glucose (30%), as organic source for Scheffersomyces stipitis. Five consecutive fermentations of 80 g L-1 (1º, 2º and 3º recycles), 96 g L-1 (4º recycle) and 120 g L-1 (5º recycle)reduced sugars led to a final maximum ethanol concentration of 17.2 and 34.5 g L-1, at 25 and 30ºC, respectively. Glucose was the preferred substrate; moreover xylose startup degradation was initiated after a remaining glucose presence in the medium. Results showed that yeast acid treatment, performed before each cycle, provided improvements on cell viability, accompanied by ethanol productivity of 2.16 g L-1 h- 1 at 30ºC. A maximum 36% of xylose was retained in the fermentation medium and after five-cycle fermentation an ethanol yield of 0.43 g ethanol/g sugars was observed. S. stipitis fermentation capacity and tolerance showed better results at 30ºC with 83.4% of theoretical yield referenced on initial biomass.

Keywords: 5-carbon sugar, cell recycling fermenter, mixed sugars, xylose-fermenting yeast.

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Authors: F. Ardestani, S.A. Fatemi, B. Yakhchali, M. Hosseyni, G. Najafpour

Abstract:

Mycophenolic acid “MPA" is a secondary metabolite of Penicillium bervicompactum with antibiotic and immunosuppressive properties. In this study, fermentation process was established for production of mycophenolic acid by Penicillium bervicompactum MUCL 19011 in shake flask. The maximum MPA production, product yield and productivity were 1.379 g/L, 18.6 mg/g glucose and 4.9 mg/L.h respectively. Glucose consumption, biomass and MPA production profiles were investigated during fermentation time. It was found that MPA production starts approximately after 180 hours and reaches to a maximum at 280 h. In the next step, the effects of methionine and acetate concentrations on MPA production were evaluated. Maximum MPA production, product yield and productivity (1.763 g/L, 23.8 mg/g glucose and 6.30 mg/L. h respectively) were obtained with using 2.5 g/L methionine in culture medium. Further addition of methionine had not more positive effect on MPA production. Finally, results showed that the addition of acetate to the culture medium had not any observable effect on MPA production.

Keywords: Penicillium bervicompactum, Methionine, Mycophenolic acid, Submerged culture

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Authors: Ahmed Arkoazi, Hussein Znad, Ranjeet Utikar

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The synergistic impact and optimization of gas flow rate, concentration of CO₂, and light intensity on CO₂ biofixation rate were investigated using wastewater as a medium to cultivate Chlorella vulgaris under different conditions (gas flow rate 1-8 L/min), CO₂ concentration (0.03-7%), and light intensity (150-400 µmol/m².s)). Response Surface Methodology and Box-Behnken experimental Design were applied to find optimum values for gas flow rate, CO₂ concentration, and light intensity. The optimum values of the three independent variables (gas flow rate, concentration of CO₂, and light intensity) and desirability were 7.5 L/min, 3.5%, and 400 µmol/m².s, and 0.904, respectively. The highest amount of biomass produced and CO₂ biofixation rate at optimum conditions were 5.7 g/L, 1.23 gL^-1d^-1, respectively. The synergistic effect between gas flow rate and concentration of CO₂, and between gas flow rate and light intensity was significant on the three responses, while the effect between CO₂ concentration and light intensity was less significant on CO₂ biofixation rate. The results of this study could be highly helpful when using microalgae for CO₂ biofixation in wastewater treatment.

Keywords: Synergistic impact, optimization, CO2 biofixation, airlift reactor.

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Authors: N. Phanthuna, J. Jaturacherdchaiskul, S. Lerdvanittip, S. Auchariyamet

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This paper proposes a particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique to solve the economic load dispatch (ELD) problems. For the ELD problem in this work, the objective function is to minimize the total fuel cost of all generator units for a given daily load pattern while the main constraints are power balance and generation output of each units. Case study in the test system of 40-generation units with 6 load patterns is presented to demonstrate the performance of PSO in solving the ELD problem. It can be seen that the optimal solution given by PSO provides the minimum total cost of generation while satisfying all the constraints and benefiting greatly from saving in power loss reduction.

Keywords: Particle Swarm Optimization, Economic Load Dispatch, Loss Reduction.

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Authors: Tung-Sheng Zhan, Chih-Cheng Kao, Chin-Der Yang, Jong-Ian Tsai

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Fossil fuel-firing power plants dominate electric power generation in Taiwan, which are also the major contributor to Green House gases (GHG). CO2 is the most important greenhouse gas that cause global warming. This paper penetrates the relationship between carbon trading for GHG reduction and power generation expansion planning (GEP) problem for the electrical utility. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm is presented to deal with the generation expansion planning strategy of the utility with independent power providers (IPPs). The utility has to take both the IPPs- participation and environment impact into account when a new generation unit is considering expanded from view of supply side.

Keywords: Carbon Trading, CO2 Emission, GenerationExpansion Planning (GEP), Green House gases (GHG), ParticleSwarm Optimization (PSO).

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Authors: Boonyisa Wanitwattanarumlug, Apanee Luengnaruemitchai, Sujitra Wongkasemjit

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The complexity of lignocellulosic biomass requires a pretreatment step to improve the yield of fermentable sugars. The efficient pretreatment of corn cobs using microwave and potassium hydroxide and enzymatic hydrolysis was investigated. The objective of this work was to characterize the optimal condition of pretreatment of corn cobs using microwave and potassium hydroxide enhance enzymatic hydrolysis. Corn cobs were submerged in different potassium hydroxide concentration at varies temperature and resident time. The pretreated corn cobs were hydrolyzed to produce the reducing sugar for analysis. The morphology and microstructure of samples were investigated by Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA, scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that lignin and hemicellulose were removed by microwave/potassium hydroxide pretreatment. The crystallinity of the pretreated corn cobs was higher than the untreated. This method was compared with autoclave and conventional heating method. The results indicated that microwave-alkali treatment was an efficient way to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis rate by increasing its accessibility hydrolysis enzymes.

Keywords: Corn cobs, Enzymatic hydrolysis, Microwave, Potassium hydroxide, Pretreatment.

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Authors: Balasubramanian P, Ligy Philip, S. Murty Bhallamudi

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In this study, cometabolic biodegradation of chloroform was experimented with mixed cultures in the presence of various organic solvents like methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, acetone, acetonitrile and toluene as these are predominant discharges in pharmaceutical industries. Toluene and acetone showed higher specific chloroform degradation rate when compared to other compounds. Cometabolic degradation of chloroform was further confirmed by observation of free chloride ions in the medium. An extended Haldane model, incorporating the inhibition due to chloroform and the competitive inhibition between primary substrates, was developed to predict the biodegradation of primary substrates, cometabolic degradation of chloroform and the biomass growth. The proposed model is based on the use of biokinetic parameters obtained from single substrate degradation studies. The model was able to satisfactorily predict the experimental results of ternary and quaternary mixtures. The proposed model can be used for predicting the performance of bioreactors treating discharges from pharmaceutical industries.

Keywords: Chloroform, Cometabolic biodegradation, Competitive inhibition, Extended Haldane model, Pharmaceuticalindustry.

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Authors: E.Kvesitadze, T.Sadunishvili, G.Kvesitadze

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As a result of urbanization, the unpredictable growth of industry and transport, production of chemicals, military activities, etc. the concentration of anthropogenic toxicants spread in nature exceeds all the permissible standards. Most dangerous among these contaminants are organic compounds having great persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity along with our awareness of their prominent occurrence in the environment and food chain. Among natural ecological tools, plants still occupying above 40% of the world land, until recently, were considered as organisms having only a limited ecological potential, accumulating in plant biomass and partially volatilizing contaminants of different structure. However, analysis of experimental data of the last two decades revealed the essential role of plants in environment remediation due to ability to carry out intracellular degradation processes leading to partial or complete decomposition of carbon skeleton of different structure contaminants. Though, phytoremediation technologies still are in research and development, their various applications have been successfully used. The paper aims to analyze mechanisms of organic contaminants uptake and detoxification in plants, being the less studied issue in evaluation and exploration of plants potential for environment remediation.

Keywords: organic contaminants, Detoxification, metalloenzymes, plant ultrastructure.

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Authors: S. Bokka

Abstract:

Fiber filter membranes have a high surface area-to-volume ratio and high porosity making them ideal for various filtration and separation applications. Using the conventional filter membrane, a filtration efficiency of > 95% can be achieved. Specific applications such as air and fuel filtration require nearly 100% filtration efficiency, which is harder to achieve using conventional filter membranes. To achieve high filtration efficiencies additional costs are incurred due to increasing the cost of membrane and operating cost. Due to the simultaneous electrostatic attraction and mechanical capture, the electret filters have shown nearly 100% filtration efficiency. This article presents an overview of the charged filter membrane, its applications, and a discussion on factors contributing to increasing charge.

Keywords: Charged fiber membrane, piezoelectric materials, filtration, polymeric materials.

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Authors: Eduardo F. Arias, William Cooke III, Zhaofei Fan, William Kingery

Abstract:

During the last decade Panicum virgatum, known as Switchgrass, has been broadly studied because of its remarkable attributes as a substitute pasture and as a functional biofuel source. The objective of this investigation was to establish soil suitability for Switchgrass in the State of Mississippi. A linear weighted additive model was developed to forecast soil suitability. Multicriteria analysis and Sensitivity analysis were utilized to adjust and optimize the model. The model was fit using seven years of field data associated with soils characteristics collected from Natural Resources Conservation System - United States Department of Agriculture (NRCS-USDA). The best model was selected by correlating calculated biomass yield with each model's soils-based output for Switchgrass suitability. Coefficient of determination (r2) was the decisive factor used to establish the 'best' soil suitability model. Coefficients associated with the 'best' model were implemented within a Geographic Information System (GIS) to create a map of relative soil suitability for Switchgrass in Mississippi. A Geodatabase associated with soil parameters was built and is available for future Geographic Information System use.

Keywords: Aptness, GIS, sensitivity analysis, switchgrass, soil.

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Authors: Mohammed Farag, Mina Attari, S. Andrew Gadsden, Saeid R. Habibi

Abstract:

Battery state of charge (SOC) estimation is an important parameter as it measures the total amount of electrical energy stored at a current time. The SOC percentage acts as a fuel gauge if it is compared with a conventional vehicle. Estimating the SOC is, therefore, essential for monitoring the amount of useful life remaining in the battery system. This paper looks at the implementation of three nonlinear estimation strategies for Li-Ion battery SOC estimation. One of the most common behavioral battery models is the one state hysteresis (OSH) model. The extended Kalman filter (EKF), the smooth variable structure filter (SVSF), and the time-varying smoothing boundary layer SVSF are applied on this model, and the results are compared.

Keywords: State of charge estimation, battery modeling, one-state hysteresis, filtering and estimation.

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Authors: Khaled M. Khader, Mamdouh I. Elimy, Omayma A. Nada

Abstract:

Sustainable development is the nominal goal of most countries at present. In general, fossil fuels are the development mainstay of most world countries. Regrettably, the fossil fuel consumption rate is very high, and the world is facing the problem of conventional fuels depletion soon. In addition, there are many problems of environmental pollution resulting from the emission of harmful gases and vapors during fuel burning. Thus, clean, renewable energy became the main concern of most countries for filling the gap between available energy resources and their growing needs. There are many renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and wave energy. Energy can be obtained from the motion of sea waves almost all the time. However, power generation from solar or wind energy is highly restricted to sunny periods or the availability of suitable wind speeds. Moreover, energy produced from sea wave motion is one of the cheapest types of clean energy. In addition, renewable energy usage of sea waves guarantees safe environmental conditions. Cheap electricity can be generated from wave energy using different systems such as oscillating bodies' system, pendulum gate system, ocean wave dragon system and oscillating water column device. In this paper, a multi-criteria model has been developed using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to support the decision of selecting the most effective system for generating power from sea waves. This paper provides a widespread overview of the different design alternatives for sea wave energy converter systems. The considered design alternatives have been evaluated using the developed AHP model. The multi-criteria assessment reveals that the off-shore Oscillating Water Column (OWC) system is the most appropriate system for generating power from sea waves. The OWC system consists of a suitable hollow chamber at the shore which is completely closed except at its base which has an open area for gathering moving sea waves. Sea wave's motion pushes the air up and down passing through a suitable well turbine for generating power. Improving the power generation capability of the OWC system is one of the main objectives of this research. After investigating the effect of some design modifications, it has been concluded that selecting the appropriate settings of some effective design parameters such as the number of layers of Wells turbine fans and the intermediate distance between the fans can result in significant improvements. Moreover, simple dynamic analysis of the Wells turbine is introduced. Furthermore, this paper strives for comparing the theoretical and experimental results of the built experimental prototype.

Keywords: Renewable energy, oscillating water column, multi-criteria selection, wells turbine.

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Authors: Candido. R.G., Godoy, G.G., Gonçalves, A.R

Abstract:

To produce sugar and ethanol, sugarcane processing generates several agricultural residues, being straw and bagasse is considered as the main among them. And what to do with this residues has been subject of many studies and experiences in an industry that, in recent years, highlighted by the ability to transform waste into valuable products such as electric power. Cellulose is the main component of these materials. It is the most common organic polymer and represents about 1.5 x 1012 tons of total production of biomass per year and is considered an almost inexhaustible source of raw material. Pretreatment with mineral acids is one of the most widely used as stage of cellulose extraction from lignocellulosic materials for solubilizing most of the hemicellulose content. This study had as goal to find the best reaction time of sugarcane bagasse pretreatment with sulfuric acid in order to minimize the losses of cellulose concomitantly with the highest possible removal of hemicellulose and lignin. It was found that the best time for this reaction was 40 minutes, in which it was reached a loss of hemicelluloses around 70% and lignin and cellulose, around 15%. Over this time, it was verified that the cellulose loss increased and there was no loss of lignin and hemicellulose.

Keywords: cellulose, acid pretreatment, hemicellulose removal, sugarcane bagasse

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Authors: Jidapa Manaso, Apanee Luengnaruemitchai, Sujitra Wongkasemjit

Abstract:

Pretreatment is an essential step in the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugar that used for biobutanol production. Among pretreatment processes, microwave is considered to improve pretreatment efficiency due to its high heating efficiency, easy operation, and easily to combine with chemical reaction. The main objectives of this work are to investigate the feasibility of microwave pretreatment to enhance enzymatic hydrolysis of corncobs and to determine the optimal conditions using response surface methodology. Corncobs were pretreated via two-stage pretreatment in dilute sodium hydroxide (2 %) followed by dilute sulfuric acid 1 %. Pretreated corncobs were subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis to produce reducing sugar. Statistical experimental design was used to optimize pretreatment parameters including temperature, residence time and solid-to-liquid ratio to achieve the highest amount of glucose. The results revealed that solid-to-liquid ratio and temperature had a significant effect on the amount of glucose.

Keywords: Corncobs, Microwave radiation, Pretreatment, Response Surface Methodology.

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Authors: M. Wendeker, K. Siadkowska, P. Magryta, Z. Czyz, K. Skiba

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In the paper environmental impact analysis the optimal Diesel engine for a light helicopter was performed. The paper consist an answer to the question of what the optimal Diesel engine for a light helicopter is, taking into consideration its expected performance and design capacity. The use of turbocharged engine with self-ignition and an electronic control system can substantially reduce the negative impact on the environment by decreasing toxic substance emission, fuel consumption and therefore carbon dioxide emission. In order to establish the environmental benefits of the diesel engine technologies, mathematical models were created, providing additional insight on the environmental impact and performance of a classic turboshaft and an advanced diesel engine light helicopter, incorporating technology developments.

Keywords: Diesel engine, helicopter, simulation, environmental impact.

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Authors: Kyoung Hoon Kim, Giman Kim

Abstract:

The cycles of the steam-injection gas-turbine systems are studied. The analyses of the parametric effects and the optimal operating conditions for the steam-injection gas-turbine (STIG) system and the regenerative steam-injection gas-turbine (RSTIG) system are investigated to ensure the maximum performance. Using the analytic model, the performance parameters of the system such as thermal efficiency, fuel consumption and specific power, and also the optimal operating conditions are evaluated in terms of pressure ratio, steam injection ratio, ambient temperature and turbine inlet temperature (TIT). It is shown that the computational results are presented to have a notable enhancement of thermal efficiency and specific power.

Keywords: gas turbine, RSTIG, steam injection, STIG, thermal efficiency.

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Authors: Fatemeh Ardestani, Seyed Safa-ali Fatemi, Bagher Yakhchali, Seyed Morteza Hosseyni, Ghasem Najafpour

Abstract:

Mycophenolic acid “MPA" is a secondary metabolite of Penicillium bervicompactum with antibiotic and immunosuppressive properties. In this study, fermentation process was established for production of mycophenolic acid by Penicillium bervicompactum MUCL 19011 in shake flask. The maximum MPA production, product yield and productivity were 1.379 g/L, 18.6 mg/g glucose and 4.9 mg/L.h respectively. Glucose consumption, biomass and MPA production profiles were investigated during fermentation time. It was found that MPA production starts approximately after 180 hours and reaches to a maximum at 280 h. In the next step, the effects of methionine and acetate concentrations on MPA production were evaluated. Maximum MPA production, product yield and productivity (1.763 g/L, 23.8 mg/g glucose and 6.30 mg/L. h respectively) were obtained with using 2.5 g/L methionine in culture medium. Further addition of methionine had not more positive effect on MPA production. Finally, results showed that the addition of acetate to the culture medium had not any observable effect on MPA production

Keywords: Penicillium bervicompactum, Methionine, Mycophenolic acid, Submerged culture.

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Authors: G. Meccariello, L. Della Ragione

Abstract:

The exposure to outdoor air pollution causes lung cancer and increases the risk of bladder cancer. Because air pollution in urban areas is mainly caused by transportation, it is necessary to evaluate pollutant exhaust emissions from vehicles during their realworld use. Nevertheless their evaluation and reduction is a key problem, especially in the cities, that account for more than 50% of world population. A particular attention was given to the slope variability along the streets during each journey performed by the instrumented vehicle. In this paper we dealt with the problem of describing a quantitatively approach for the reconstruction of GPS coordinates and altitude, in the context of correlation study between driving cycles / emission / geographical location, during an experimental campaign realized with some instrumented cars. Finally the slope analysis can be correlated to the emission and consumption values in a specific road position, and it could be evaluated its influence on their behaviour.

Keywords: Air pollution, Driving cycles, GPS signal, Slope, Emission factor, fuel consumption.

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Authors: Fridhi Hadia, Soua Wadhah, Hidouri Ammar, Omri Ahmed

Abstract:

In this research, the effects of the engine parameters like compression ratios and steam injection on igniting timing and emission characteristics have been investigated numerically. The in-cylinder temperature and pressure at four different compression ratios have been compared with numerical results, and they show a good agreement with the published data. Two different fuels have been used in this study: Isooctane (IC₈H₁₈), and ethanol (C₂H₅OH). The increasing of the compression ratio (CR) advances the ignition timing, decreases the burn duration and increases the temperature and the pressure. The injection of water vapor lower than 40% decreased the peak temperature and slowed the combustion rate which leads to a lower NOx emission.

Keywords: Compression ratio, emission, HCCI engine, ignition timing, steam injection.

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Authors: R. J. Parham, J. D. Knight

Abstract:

Organic farmers across Saskatchewan face soil phosphorus (P) shortages. Due to the restriction on inputs in organic systems, farmers rely on crop rotation and naturally-occurring arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) for plant P supply. Crop rotation is important for disease, pest, and weed management. Crops that are not colonized by AMF (non-mycorrhizal) can decrease colonization of a following crop. An experiment was performed to quantify soil P cycling in four cropping sequences under organic management and determine if mustard (non-mycorrhizal) was delaying the colonization of subsequent wheat. Soils from the four cropping sequences were measured for inorganic soil P (Pi), AMF spore density (SD), phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA, for AMF biomarker counts), and alkaline phosphatase activity (ALPase, related to AMF metabolic activity). Plants were measured for AMF colonization and P content and uptake of above-ground biomass. A lack of difference in AMF activity indicated that mustard was not depressing colonization. Instead, AMF colonization was largely determined by crop type and crop rotation.

Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, crop rotation, organic farming, phosphorous, soil microbiology.

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Authors: Natarajan. E, Ganapathy Sundaram. E

Abstract:

Fixed-bed slow pyrolysis experiments of rice husk have been conducted to determine the effect of pyrolysis temperature, heating rate, particle size and reactor length on the pyrolysis product yields. Pyrolysis experiments were performed at pyrolysis temperature between 400 and 600°C with a constant heating rate of 60°C/min and particle sizes of 0.60-1.18 mm. The optimum process conditions for maximum liquid yield from the rice husk pyrolysis in a fixed bed reactor were also identified. The highest liquid yield was obtained at a pyrolysis temperature of 500°C, particle size of 1.18-1.80 mm, with a heating rate of 60°C/min in a 300 mm length reactor. The obtained yield of, liquid, gas and solid were found be in the range of 22.57-31.78 %, 27.75-42.26 % and 34.17-42.52 % (all weight basics) respectively at different pyrolysis conditions. The results indicate that the effects of pyrolysis temperature and particle size on the pyrolysis yield are more significant than that of heating rate and reactor length. The functional groups and chemical compositions present in the liquid obtained at optimum conditions were identified by Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography/ Mass Spectroscopy (GC/MS) analysis respectively.

Keywords: Slow pyrolysis, Rice husk, Recycling, Biomass.

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