Evaluation of staged air and overfire air in regulating air-staging conditions within a large-scale down-fired furnace

A finite element (FE) model simulates an unconstrained aluminum thin plate to which four macro-fiber composites are bonded. This plate model is experimentally validated for single and multiple inputs. While a single input excitation results in the frequency response functions and operational deflection shapes, two input excitations under prescribed conditions result in tailored traveling waves. The emphasis of this article is the application of projection-based model reduction techniques to scale-down the large-scale FE plate model. Four model reduction techniques are applied and their performances are studied. This article also discusses the stability issues associated with the rigid-body modes. Furthermore, the reduced-order models are utilized to simulate the steady-state frequency and time response of the plate. The results are in agreement with the experimental and the full-scale FE model results.

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Automation assisted anaerobic phenotyping for metabolic engineering

Microbial Cell Factories ◽

10.1186/s12934-021-01675-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kaushik Raj ◽

Naveen Venayak ◽

Patrick Diep ◽

Sai Akhil Golla ◽

Alexander F. Yakunin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Metabolic Engineering ◽

High Throughput ◽

Large Scale ◽

Plastic Waste ◽

Small Scale ◽

Chemical Production ◽

Liquid Handling ◽

Strain Design ◽

Wide Range ◽

Scale Down

Abstract Background Microorganisms can be metabolically engineered to produce a wide range of commercially important chemicals. Advancements in computational strategies for strain design and synthetic biological techniques to construct the designed strains have facilitated the generation of large libraries of potential candidates for chemical production. Consequently, there is a need for high-throughput laboratory scale techniques to characterize and screen these candidates to select strains for further investigation in large scale fermentation processes. Several small-scale fermentation techniques, in conjunction with laboratory automation have enhanced the throughput of enzyme and strain phenotyping experiments. However, such high throughput experimentation typically entails large operational costs and generate massive amounts of laboratory plastic waste. Results In this work, we develop an eco-friendly automation workflow that effectively calibrates and decontaminates fixed-tip liquid handling systems to reduce tip waste. We also investigate inexpensive methods to establish anaerobic conditions in microplates for high-throughput anaerobic phenotyping. To validate our phenotyping platform, we perform two case studies—an anaerobic enzyme screen, and a microbial phenotypic screen. We used our automation platform to investigate conditions under which several strains of E. coli exhibit the same phenotypes in 0.5 L bioreactors and in our scaled-down fermentation platform. We also propose the use of dimensionality reduction through t-distributed stochastic neighbours embedding (t-SNE) in conjunction with our phenotyping platform to effectively cluster similarly performing strains at the bioreactor scale. Conclusions Fixed-tip liquid handling systems can significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste generated in biological laboratories and our decontamination and calibration protocols could facilitate the widespread adoption of such systems. Further, the use of t-SNE in conjunction with our automation platform could serve as an effective scale-down model for bioreactor fermentations. Finally, by integrating an in-house data-analysis pipeline, we were able to accelerate the ‘test’ phase of the design-build-test-learn cycle of metabolic engineering.

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Rapid small-scale column tests for Cr(VI) removal by granular magnetite

Water Science & Technology Water Supply ◽

10.2166/ws.2015.164 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 525-532 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Efthimia Kaprara ◽

Konstantinos Simeonidis ◽

Anastasios Zouboulis ◽

Manassis Mitrakas

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Operation Time ◽

Drinking Water Treatment ◽

Small Scale ◽

Batch Experiments ◽

Flow Conditions ◽

Column Tests ◽

Removal Capacity ◽

Water Ph ◽

Scale Down

This study evaluates the possibility of using magnetite as an adsorbent for the removal of Cr(VI) in a bed column setup under continuous flow conditions. For this purpose, granular magnetite was synthesized on a large scale and tested in both batch and rapid small-scale column experiments using reliable conditions of drinking water treatment. Column tests, which were designed to scale-down larger adsorption systems in terms of size, time and water flow, indicate a higher removal capacity compared to that observed during batch experiments with magnetite powder, reaching 9.2 mg/g at pH 6.4 before residual Cr(VI) exceeds 10 μg/L. The main parameters of this process, including pH, contact time and granular size, were also examined under similar column tests suggesting the improvement of the overall effectiveness and operation time at lower water pH, higher empty bed contact times and larger particle dimensions.

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X-ray computed tomography investigation of structures in Opalinus Clay from large-scale to small-scale after mechanical testing

Solid Earth ◽

10.5194/se-7-1171-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 1171-1183 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Annette Kaufhold ◽

Matthias Halisch ◽

Gerhard Zacher ◽

Stephan Kaufhold

Keyword(s):

Computed Tomography ◽

Mechanical Testing ◽

Large Scale ◽

Data Interpretation ◽

Radioactive Waste Disposal ◽

Opalinus Clay ◽

Small Scale ◽

X Ray ◽

Scale Down ◽

X Ray Computed

Abstract. In the past years X-ray computed tomography (CT) has became more and more common for geoscientific applications and is used from the µm-scale (e.g. for investigations of microfossils or pore-scale structures) up to the dm-scale (full drill cores or soil columns). In this paper we present results from CT imaging and mineralogical investigations of an Opalinus Clay core on different scales and different regions of interest, emphasizing especially the 3-D evaluation and distribution of cracks and their impact on mechanical testing of such material. Enhanced knowledge of the testing behaviour of the Opalinus Clay is of great interest, especially since this material is considered for a long-term radioactive waste disposal and storage facility in Switzerland. Hence, results are compared regarding the mineral (i.e. phase) contrast resolution, the spatial resolution, and the overall scanning speed.With this extensive interdisciplinary scale-down approach it has been possible to characterize the general fracture propagation in comparison to mineralogical and textural features of the Opalinus Clay. Additionally, and as far as we know, a so-called mylonitic zone, located at an intersect of two main fractures, has been observed for the first time for an experimentally deformed Opalinus sample. The multi-scale results are in good accordance to data from naturally deformed Opalinus Clay samples, which enables us to perform systematical research under controlled laboratory conditions. Accompanying 3-D imaging greatly enhances the capability of data interpretation and assessment of such a material.

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