Chemical Engineering for Improvement of the Efficiency of Microwave Energy Use in Processing of Plant Biomass

2021 ◽  
Vol 903 ◽  
pp. 87-92
Author(s):  
Yegor Akyshin ◽  
Alexandr Semenischev ◽  
Alexandr Arshanitsa ◽  
Galina Telysheva

Combined coaxial-circular waveguide equipped with protective module allowing the transmission of microwave energy of three magnetrons with the output of 0.9 kW per each into the pressurized reaction chamber and capable of operating at temperatures of up to 250 °C and a pressure of up to 10 bars was designed and tested. Choke flange junction of the waveguide sections was used instead of contact flange connection. The developed waveguide construction allows to place the radio transparent partition inside the free space volume of a choke flange junction performing protection of emitters and summing of microwave energy of three magnetrons with an efficiency close to 100% that was proven by tests with fresh water as a microwave energy absorber. The extraction set-up equipped with the above-mentioned waveguide has demonstrated the stable and safety operation of the transmitting block and the accurate automatic control of the temperature and pressure inside the reaction chamber in the presence of a strong electromagnetic field. The construction of the microwave extraction set-up allows to use the impact of the combination of temperature and pressure on the cell wall, promoting the high rate isolation of secondary metabolites from biomass that was demonstrated by water extraction of black alder bark.

2006 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 1529 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. R. Blanche ◽  
M. Hughes ◽  
J. A. Ludwig ◽  
S. A. Cunningham

It has been demonstrated that tripping of peanut flowers by large bees enhances pollination and improves peanut yields of some early commercial peanut varieties but this phenomenon has not been evaluated for recently developed peanut varieties. Our study aimed to establish whether bees provide this service for peanut varieties currently grown on the Atherton Tableland, north Queensland. To measure the impact of native and introduced bees occurring without assistance in crops, we set up 3 cage treatments (meshed to exclude large bees; partly meshed to allow bee access but take cage effects into account; and unmeshed) in each of 7 peanut crops. We also trapped bees in each crop for the entire flowering period. In a separate experiment, designed to ensure that suitable large bees were abundant nearby, we set up 6 replicates of the same 3 cage treatments in another peanut crop where 4 honeybee colonies were located. On a sunny day, during peak flowering, we monitored the number of honeybee visits to the peanut flowers in this crop between 0820 and 1730 hours. At harvest, we found that there was no effect of treatment on peanut yield (number of peanuts/g plant biomass). Thus, bees were not contributing to peanut pollination. This was reflected in the fact that no honeybees (or native bees) were observed visiting peanut flowers in the crop augmented with honeybees, and even though we caught 6 species of suitably sized bees in the other peanut crops, no bee species was common. It seems likely that selection for other desirable peanut traits has resulted in development of varieties that are no longer attractive to flower-tripping bees and that there is no advantage to be gained by north Queensland growers promoting bees in crops of these varieties.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umar Mukhtar ◽  
Zhong Zhangbao ◽  
Tian Beihai ◽  
Muhammad Asad Ur Rehman Naseer ◽  
Amar Razzaq ◽  
...  

The rate of urbanization in Pakistan especially in Punjab is quite high. The reason behind this is the high population growth that is about 2.4 percent in the last decade. This causes a burden on the farm size and in rural areas people have no choice except to move in the urban areas for their livelihood. The main objective of this study was to identify the key influential factors that affect the decision to migrate. Study evaluated the impact of economic, social, demographic, natural and climatic factors on the welfare of the migrants and non-migrant’s households. For this purpose, an extensive survey from 504 respondents was carried out in four districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Due to the dichotomous nature of the dependent variable i.e. migrant and non-migrant, logistic regression was employed on the collected data using Stata. Results revealed that unemployment, educational and health facilities, family conflicts, small farm size for agricultural activities, and greater family size are the main influencing factors affecting migration decision from rural to urban areas. This creates the strong implications i.e. putting burden on the urban areas due to the high rate of urbanization. So, it is however recommended to stem down the rate of migration all necessary facilities should be provided in the rural areas and Agro-based must be set up near the rural areas providing employment opportunities for the rural dwellers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Murisal Murisal

Motif and Impact of Early Marriage in Indarung Ngalau Batu Gadang.Penelitian is motivated by teenagers who married early on. Today, young men and women have a tendency to be less prepared to enter the home life, they are only ready to marry (ready here can be interpreted, maturity in terms of financial, understand what the meaning of marriage according to marriage law) is the bond of inner birth between a man and a woman as husband and wife for the purpose of forming a happy and eternal family (household) based on the Supreme Godhead while they are not ready to set up a home, whereas to build a household requires preparation both physically and spiritually . The purpose of this study to determine the motives underlying adolescents to make early marriage and the impact caused in the household as a result of the marriage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1303-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Alexandru Gitea ◽  
Simona Bungau ◽  
Daniela Gitea ◽  
Lavinia Purza ◽  
Sebastian Nemeth ◽  
...  

Chemistry in agriculture has been considered for several decades a formula synonymous with progress and development, as chemical engineering, mechanization, irrigation, modern agro-technical processes have contributed to a substantial increase in production. At present, the use of pesticides to increase agricultural productivity is considered to be a global hazard to the environment. This study examines changes in tree tolerance for major diseases and pests, disease and pest behavior, and the changes that occur in the recommended pesticide treatment. The researches were carried out on different species of fruit trees (apple, plum, and almond), cultivated in an intensive system, in five orchards located in Bihor county. The behavior of each species, as well as the behavior of different varieties with respect to tolerance to major diseases and pests, have been observed over the last 5 years (2013-2017). In addition, pesticide residues were monitored from all crops of apple, plum and almond. During 2015-2017, from March to May, the diseases were more virulent, requiring intensive intervention with systemic and contact fungicide combinations to achieve optimal efficiency; this fact has been correlated with the increase in the number of samples containing pesticide residues. This perspective allows an ecological remodeling of current progress in orchard development, including all aspects of environmental protection and the impact on population2 s health.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (10) ◽  
pp. 1607-1618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Yun Lee ◽  
Sunho Jung ◽  
Sangdo Oh ◽  
Seong Hoon Park

We proposed that a moderator, others' similarity, would determine the impact of high participation rates of others on an individual's charitable behavior, and aimed to show that this moderator would work through the diffusion of responsibility motive. Participants (N = 152 undergraduate students) completed measures of charitable behavior and diffusion of responsibility, after being assigned to 1 of 2 conditions where a set percentage of other students (manipulated as either similar undergraduate students or dissimilar graduate students) were stated to have already donated to a charitable campaign (high contribution condition = 70% participation, low contribution condition = 30% participation). Our results showed that the high participation rate of others increased an individual's charitable behavior when the others in question were similar to that individual, but not when the others were dissimilar. In addition, the high rate of participation by others increased the diffusion of responsibility motive when the others in question were dissimilar to that individual, leading to a negative effect on that individual's charitable behavior.


Author(s):  
Mark Burden

Much eighteenth-century Dissenting educational activity was built on an older tradition of Puritan endeavour. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the godly had seen education as an important tool in spreading their ideas but, in the aftermath of the Restoration, had found themselves increasingly excluded from universities and schools. Consequently, Dissenters began to develop their own higher educational institutions (in the shape of Dissenting academies) and also began to set up their own schools. While the enforcement of some of the legal restrictions that made it difficult for Dissenting institutions diminished across the eighteenth century, the restrictions did not disappear entirely. While there has been considerable focus on Dissenting academies and their contribution to debates about doctrinal orthodoxy, the impact of Dissenting schools was also considerable.


The theory of the vibrations of the pianoforte string put forward by Kaufmann in a well-known paper has figured prominently in recent discussions on the acoustics of this instrument. It proceeds on lines radically different from those adopted by Helmholtz in his classical treatment of the subject. While recognising that the elasticity of the pianoforte hammer is not a negligible factor, Kaufmann set out to simplify the mathematical analysis by ignoring its effect altogether, and treating the hammer as a particle possessing only inertia without spring. The motion of the string following the impact of the hammer is found from the initial conditions and from the functional solutions of the equation of wave-propagation on the string. On this basis he gave a rigorous treatment of two cases: (1) a particle impinging on a stretched string of infinite length, and (2) a particle impinging on the centre of a finite string, neither of which cases is of much interest from an acoustical point of view. The case of practical importance treated by him is that in which a particle impinges on the string near one end. For this case, he gave only an approximate theory from which the duration of contact, the motion of the point struck, and the form of the vibration-curves for various points of the string could be found. There can be no doubt of the importance of Kaufmann’s work, and it naturally becomes necessary to extend and revise his theory in various directions. In several respects, the theory awaits fuller development, especially as regards the harmonic analysis of the modes of vibration set up by impact, and the detailed discussion of the influence of the elasticity of the hammer and of varying velocities of impact. Apart from these points, the question arises whether the approximate method used by Kaufmann is sufficiently accurate for practical purposes, and whether it may be regarded as applicable when, as in the pianoforte, the point struck is distant one-eighth or one-ninth of the length of the string from one end. Kaufmann’s treatment is practically based on the assumption that the part of the string between the end and the point struck remains straight as long as the hammer and string remain in contact. Primâ facie , it is clear that this assumption would introduce error when the part of the string under reference is an appreciable fraction of the whole. For the effect of the impact would obviously be to excite the vibrations of this portion of the string, which continue so long as the hammer is in contact, and would also influence the mode of vibration of the string as a whole when the hammer loses contact. A mathematical theory which is not subject to this error, and which is applicable for any position of the striking point, thus seems called for.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6875
Author(s):  
Irene Poza-Casado ◽  
Raquel Gil-Valverde ◽  
Alberto Meiss ◽  
Miguel Ángel Padilla-Marcos

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in educational buildings is a key element of the students’ well-being and academic performance. Window-opening behavior and air infiltration, generally used as the sole ventilation sources in existing educational buildings, often lead to unhealthy levels of indoor pollutants and energy waste. This paper evaluates the conditions of natural ventilation in classrooms in order to study how climate conditions affect energy waste. For that purpose, the impact of the air infiltration both on the IAQ and on the efficiency of the ventilation was evaluated in two university classrooms with natural ventilation in the Continental area of Spain. The research methodology was based on site sensors to analyze IAQ parameters such as CO2, Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC), Particulate Matter (PM), and other climate parameters for a week during the cold season. Airtightness was then assessed within the classrooms and the close built environment by means of pressurization tests, and infiltration rates were estimated. The obtained results were used to set up a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to evaluate the age of the local air and the ventilation efficiency value. The results revealed that ventilation cannot rely only on air infiltration, and, therefore, specific controlled ventilation strategies should be implemented to improve IAQ and to avoid excessive energy loss.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 7051
Author(s):  
Vitalii Kim ◽  
Emily Gudvangen ◽  
Oleg Kondratiev ◽  
Luis Redondo ◽  
Shu Xiao ◽  
...  

Intense pulsed electric fields (PEF) are a novel modality for the efficient and targeted ablation of tumors by electroporation. The major adverse side effects of PEF therapies are strong involuntary muscle contractions and pain. Nanosecond-range PEF (nsPEF) are less efficient at neurostimulation and can be employed to minimize such side effects. We quantified the impact of the electrode configuration, PEF strength (up to 20 kV/cm), repetition rate (up to 3 MHz), bi- and triphasic pulse shapes, and pulse duration (down to 10 ns) on eliciting compound action potentials (CAPs) in nerve fibers. The excitation thresholds for single unipolar but not bipolar stimuli followed the classic strength–duration dependence. The addition of the opposite polarity phase for nsPEF increased the excitation threshold, with symmetrical bipolar nsPEF being the least efficient. Stimulation by nsPEF bursts decreased the excitation threshold as a power function above a critical duty cycle of 0.1%. The threshold reduction was much weaker for symmetrical bipolar nsPEF. Supramaximal stimulation by high-rate nsPEF bursts elicited only a single CAP as long as the burst duration did not exceed the nerve refractory period. Such brief bursts of bipolar nsPEF could be the best choice to minimize neuromuscular stimulation in ablation therapies.


Fuels ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-209
Author(s):  
Akira Nishimura ◽  
Tomohiro Takada ◽  
Satoshi Ohata ◽  
Mohan Lal Kolhe

Biogas, consisting of CH4 and CO2, is a promising energy source and can be converted into H2 by a dry reforming reaction. In this study, a membrane reactor is adopted to promote the performance of biogas dry reforming. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of pressure of sweep gas on a biogas dry reforming to get H2. The effect of molar ratio of supplied CH4:CO2 and reaction temperature is also investigated. It is observed that the impact of psweep on concentrations of CH4 and CO2 is small irrespective of reaction temperature. The concentrations of H2 and CO increase with an increase in reaction temperature t. The concentration of H2, at the outlet of the reaction chamber, reduces with a decrease in psweep. It is due to an increase in H2 extraction from the reaction chamber to the sweep chamber. The highest concentration of H2 is obtained in the case of the molar ratio of CH4:CO2 = 1:1. The concentration of CO is the highest in the case of the molar ratio of CH4:CO2 = 1.5:1. The highest sweep effect is obtained at reaction temperature of 500 °C and psweep of 0.045 MPa.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document