High-efficiency and low-cost Li/ZnO catalysts for synthesis of glycerol carbonate from glycerol transesterification: The role of Li and ZnO interaction

2017 ◽  
Vol 532 ◽  
pp. 77-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianghai Song ◽  
Yuanfeng Wu ◽  
Fufeng Cai ◽  
Donghui Pan ◽  
Guomin Xiao
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-72
Author(s):  
Brahami Menaouer ◽  
Semaoune Khalissa ◽  
Mohammed El Amine Belayachi ◽  
Benslimane Amine

During the recent years, e-commerce has been constantly growing in various industrial sectors. E-commerce has also changed the buying pattern of customers. E-commerce is a concept that has gained enormous popularity in recent decades. There are a multitude of variants and strategies of e-commerce such as drop shipping, which is renowned for its low cost and high efficiency. However, e-commerce is a new technology that is growing rapidly. It has the ability to create a truly global digital economy. In this research paper, the authors study the state of the drop shipping market for e-commerce in Algeria and the possibility to introduce new models by analyzing different aspects that can have a huge impact on the evolution of drop shipping in e-commerce in order to promote economic development in Algeria. To develop a better understanding, an exploratory study via a structured questionnaire intended for the general Algerian public drop shipper market was carried out.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeles Garcia Mayor ◽  
Paul Berghuis ◽  
Max Rietkerk ◽  
Mara Baudena

<p>A low-cost restoration in patchy drylands aiming at recovering the ability of the ecosystem to capture and store water and nutrients is the installation of obstructions to break runoff pathways and retain these resources (hereafter, resource sinks). Field works in drylands worldwide have studied how the effectiveness of this action depends on the materials used to build the obstructions. However, the spatial pattern attributes of the resource sinks can also affect the effectiveness of the restoration and has not yet been investigated. In this work, we cover this knowledge gap by using a well-known dryland model to investigate how different initial amounts of cover and spatial distribution of installed resource sinks (i.e., random vs. regular) affects the recovery of the system. In agreement with field-work studies, our model results confirm that the installation of resource sinks can restore degraded drylands that are not able to recover naturally. More importantly, we found that a very small cover of resource sinks was sufficient to trigger the recovery of vegetation, while a high cover could lead to a complete failure of vegetation recovery. This was found for both random and regular distributions of resource sinks. However, a distribution similar to that of vegetation in the reference healthy system (i.e., regular distribution in our study system) was more effective: higher plant densities were reached for a given initial cover of resource sinks. Given the high efficiency of low covers of resource sinks suggested by our work, combined with the low-cost materials needed, the installation of resource sinks in severely degraded drylands has the potential to be a key contributor to the large restoration efforts needed to achieve land-degradation neutrality in the coming decades, particularly in developing countries.</p>


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Medyńska-Juraszek ◽  
Irmina Ćwieląg-Piasecka ◽  
Maria Jerzykiewicz ◽  
Justyna Trynda

There is an urgent need to search for new sorbents of pollutants presently delivered to the environment. Recently biochar has received much attention as a low-cost, highly effective heavy metal adsorbent. Biochar has been identified as an efficient material for cobalt (Co) immobilization from waters; however, little is known about the role of Co immobilization in soil. Hence, in this study, a batch experiment and a long-term incubation experiment with biochar application to multi-contaminated soil with distinct properties (sand, loam) were conducted to provide a brief explanation of the potential mechanisms of Co (II) sorption on wheat straw biochar and to describe additional processes that modify material efficiency for metal sorption in soil. The soil treatments with 5% (v/w) wheat straw biochar proved to be efficient in reducing Co mobility and bioavailability. The mechanism of these processes could be related to direct and indirect effects of biochar incorporation into soil. The FT-IR analysis confirmed that hydroxyl and carboxyl groups present on the biochar surface played a dominant role in Co (II) surface complexation. The combined effect of pH, metal complexation capacity, and the presence of Fe and Mn oxides added to wheat straw biochar resulted in an effective reduction of soluble Co (II), showing high efficiency of this material for cobalt sorption in contaminated soils.


Author(s):  
K.M. Hones ◽  
P. Sheldon ◽  
B.G. Yacobi ◽  
A. Mason

There is increasing interest in growing epitaxial GaAs on Si substrates. Such a device structure would allow low-cost substrates to be used for high-efficiency cascade- junction solar cells. However, high-defect densities may result from the large lattice mismatch (∼4%) between the GaAs epilayer and the silicon substrate. These defects can act as nonradiative recombination centers that can degrade the optical and electrical properties of the epitaxially grown GaAs. For this reason, it is important to optimize epilayer growth conditions in order to minimize resulting dislocation densities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an indication of the quality of the epitaxially grown GaAs layers by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine dislocation type and density as a function of various growth conditions. In this study an intermediate Ge layer was used to avoid nucleation difficulties observed for GaAs growth directly on Si substrates. GaAs/Ge epilayers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si substrates in a manner similar to that described previously.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlys Bezerra ◽  
Géssica Santos ◽  
Marilia Pupo ◽  
Maria Gomes ◽  
Ronaldo Silva ◽  
...  

<p>Electrochemical oxidation processes are promising solutions for wastewater treatment due to their high efficiency, easy control and versatility. Mixed metal oxides (MMO) anodes are particularly attractive due to their low cost and specific catalytic properties. Here, we propose an innovative thermal decomposition methodology using <a>polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)</a> as a solvent to prepare Ti/RuO<sub>2</sub>–IrO<sub>2</sub> anodes. Comparative anodes were prepared by conventional method employing a polymeric precursor solvent (Pechini method). The calcination temperatures studied were 300, 400 and 500 °C. The physical characterisation of all materials was performed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy, while electrochemical characterisation was done by cyclic voltammetry, accelerated service lifetime and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Both RuO<sub>2</sub> and IrO<sub>2</sub> have rutile-type structures for all anodes. Rougher and more compact surfaces are formed for the anodes prepared using PVA. Amongst temperatures studied, 300 °C using PVA as solvent is the most suitable one to produce anodes with expressive increase in voltammetric charge (250%) and accelerated service lifetime (4.3 times longer) besides reducing charge-transfer resistance (8 times lower). Moreover, the electrocatalytic activity of the anodes synthesised with PVA toward the Reactive Blue 21 dye removal in chloride medium (100 % in 30 min) is higher than that prepared by Pechini method (60 min). Additionally, the removal total organic carbon point out improved mineralisation potential of PVA anodes. Finally, this study reports a novel methodology using PVA as solvent to synthesise Ti/RuO<sub>2</sub>–IrO<sub>2</sub> anodes with improved properties that can be further extended to synthesise other MMO compositions.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuyuan Zheng ◽  
Taiping Hu ◽  
Xin Bin ◽  
Yunzhong Wang ◽  
Yuanping Yi ◽  
...  

Pure organic room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and luminescence from nonconventional luminophores have gained increasing attention. However, it remains challenging to achieve efficient RTP from unorthodox luminophores, on account of the unsophisticated understanding of the emission mechanism. Here we propose a strategy to realize efficient RTP in nonconventional luminophores through incorporation of lone pairs together with clustering and effective electronic interactions. The former promotes spin-orbit coupling and boost the consequent intersystem crossing, whereas the latter narrows energy gaps and stabilizes the triplets, thus synergistically affording remarkable RTP. Experimental and theoretical results of urea and its derivatives verify the design rationale. Remarkably, RTP from thiourea solids with unprecedentedly high efficiency of up to 24.5% is obtained. Further control experiments testify the crucial role of through-space delocalization on the emission. These results would spur the future fabrication of nonconventional phosphors, and moreover should advance understanding of the underlying emission mechanism.<br>


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-461
Author(s):  
Gabriela M. Baia ◽  
Otniel Freitas-Silva ◽  
Murillo F. Junior

Fruits and vegetables are foods that come into contact with various types of microorganisms from planting to their consumption. A lack or poor sanitation of these products after harvest can cause high losses due to deterioration and/ or pathogenic microorganisms. There are practically no post-harvest fungicides or bactericides with a broad spectrum of action that have no toxic residual effects and are safe. However, to minimize such problems, the use of sanitizers is an efficient device against these microorganisms. Chlorine is the most prevalent sanitizing agent because of its broad spectrum, low cost and well-established practices. However, the inevitable formation of disinfection by-products, such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), is considered one of the main threats to food safety. Alternative sanitizers, such as chlorine dioxide (ClO2) and ozone, are becoming popular as a substitute for traditional post-harvest treatments. Thus, this review addresses the use of chlorine, chlorine dioxide and ozone emphasizing aspects, such as usage, safe application, spectrum of action and legislation. In order to ensure the quality and safety of final products, the adoption of well-prepared sanitation and sanitation programs for post-harvest fruits and vegetables is essential.


Author(s):  
Zhengwang Xu ◽  
Wei Mei ◽  
Jiaqi Yu ◽  
Jiarui Zhang ◽  
Yuchun Yi ◽  
...  

As being restricted by factors such as cost, efficiency and size, the development of high-power solar LED street light controller is faced with plenty of difficulties. In case that a structure of two independent DC/DC is applied as the main circuit, it has to face problems such as large size and high cost; in case of applying the bidirectional BUCK/BOOST circuit, it requires change-over switches to control the solar panel and LED light. As being restricted by withstanding voltage, on-resistance and cost, a PMOS device cannot be used as the change-over switch of solar panel and LED light. However, when being used as a change-over switch, an NMOS device must apply the low-side mode under which the negative ends of the mentioned three parts are cut off. In the condition of applying the low-side mode, a differential circuit must be used to detect the voltage of the solar panel. Furthermore, in order to make sure batteries can still be regularly charged after wearing out in daylight, the controller must be supplied with power through a dual power supply circuit that can obtain power from both the solar panel and the battery. The demander has a requirement on extremely low standby power consumption of the product, and thus it is necessary to minimize the circuit that is live while working in standby mode. Methods: The bidirectional BUCK/BOOST circuit structure is applied to the main circuit to realize a higher change-over efficiency while giving considerations to both cost and size. The NMOS device, model IRFB4410ZPBF, with a price of about three yuan, is used as the switching device, and the low-side mode is applied, that is the switches inserted in between negative end of the solar panel or LED light and that of the DC/DC circuit. The low-cost rail-to-rail operational amplifier LM358 is used to form a differential amplification circuit for detecting the voltage of the solar panel. A XL1509-12E1 chip that only costs 0.88 yuan/pc is selected as the main change-over chip for the power supply, which has realized the highly-efficient and low-cost change-over of the power supply. A dual power supply circuit and a step-down protective circuit are designed for the XL1509-12E1 change-over chip. By comparing solar panel voltage with battery voltage, the solar panel booting circuit is realized. Only when solar panel voltage is higher than battery voltage, does the system program start to power it up for running, so that the outage of most of the circuits of the system under standby mode does not consume energy. Furthermore, the solar panel voltage detecting circuit, the solar panel booting circuit and several return difference functions are corrected during system debugging. Results: The circuit board of the entire controller features small size, low cost and high efficiency. It measures about 100*62*18mm in size, costs about 60 yuan, and the charge/discharge change-over efficiency reaches up to over 95%. The controller has many functions: it is capable of operating within a large scope, in which, solar panel voltage is subject to 15~50V, LED light voltage is subject to 15~60V, battery voltage is subject to 10~35V and battery-end charge/discharge current is 10A; it is capable of adapting to monocrystalline silicon/multicrystalline silicon/thin-film and many other kinds of solar panels, as well as lithium/lead-acid and many other kinds of batteries; it is capable of detecting the conversion of day and night, automatically controlling charging and discharging and automatically making adaptive adjustment according to seasonal variations; the current to be consumed during standby will be maintained below 3mA, and thus the power consumption is extremely low. Conclusion: By selecting the bidirectional BUCK/BOOST circuit structure, applying low-side mode for switching of solar panel and LED light, using a differential circuit to detect solar panel voltage, using a low-cost DC/DC chip to realize power supply change-over, designing a dual power supply circuit, introducing solar panel booting circuit and other hardware design, as well as MPPT algorithm, state recognition and control, return difference control and other software design, a solar LED street light control product featuring small size, low cost, high efficiency and multiple functions is successfully developed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8421
Author(s):  
Yuan Gao ◽  
Jiandong Huang ◽  
Meng Li ◽  
Zhongran Dai ◽  
Rongli Jiang ◽  
...  

Uranium mining waste causes serious radiation-related health and environmental problems. This has encouraged efforts toward U(VI) removal with low cost and high efficiency. Typical uranium adsorbents, such as polymers, geopolymers, zeolites, and MOFs, and their associated high costs limit their practical applications. In this regard, this work found that the natural combusted coal gangue (CCG) could be a potential precursor of cheap sorbents to eliminate U(VI). The removal efficiency was modulated by chemical activation under acid and alkaline conditions, obtaining HCG (CCG activated with HCl) and KCG (CCG activated with KOH), respectively. The detailed structural analysis uncovered that those natural mineral substances, including quartz and kaolinite, were the main components in CCG and HCG. One of the key findings was that kalsilite formed in KCG under a mild synthetic condition can conspicuous enhance the affinity towards U(VI). The best equilibrium adsorption capacity with KCG was observed to be 140 mg/g under pH 6 within 120 min, following a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. To understand the improved adsorption performance, an adsorption mechanism was proposed by evaluating the pH of uranyl solutions, adsorbent dosage, as well as contact time. Combining with the structural analysis, this revealed that the uranyl adsorption process was mainly governed by chemisorption. This study gave rise to a utilization approach for CCG to obtain cost-effective adsorbents and paved a novel way towards eliminating uranium by a waste control by waste strategy.


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