Honey moisture reduction using several thermal methods and their effects on its quality

Honey is thermally heated at various methods to decrease the moisture content and prolong the shelf life. The heating methods might decrease the quality of honey's physicochemical and biochemical properties. The present study thermally treated the honey with a pasteurizer, evaporator, and dehumidifier. The most thermally affected to decrease the moisture content were treatment by dehumidifier (14.09%), subsequent evaporation (8.41%), and pasteurization (8.41%). After heating, significant differentiation was also observed in the variation of both HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural) content and diastase activity according to the botanical origin of the honey sample. In line with the biochemical analysis of honey, total phenolic decreased significantly during the pasteurization treatment. Evaporation was the most resistant thermal treatment due to its ability to maintain the level of HMF and the enzyme diastase as a standard for honey quality. However, changes made in physicochemical and biochemical quality are still in compliance with national and international legal limits.

Novel Techniques for Microbiological Safety in Meat and Fish Industries

The consumer tendency towards convenient, minimally processed meat items has placed extreme pressure on processors to certify the safety of meat or meat products without compromising the quality of product and to meet consumer’s demand. This has prompted difficulties in creating and carrying out novel processing advancements, as the utilization of more up-to-date innovations may influence customer decisions and assessments of meat and meat products. Novel advances received by the fish and meat industries for controlling food-borne microbes of huge potential general wellbeing concern, gaps in the advancements, and the requirement for improving technologies that have been demonstrated to be effective in research settings or at the pilot scale shall be discussed. Novel preparing advancements in the meat industries warrant microbiological approval before being named as industrially suitable alternatives and authorizing infra-structural changes. This miniature review presents the novel techniques for the microbiological safety of meat products, including both thermal and non-thermal methods. These technologies are being successfully implemented and rationalized in subsisting processing surroundings.

A computational scheme for calculating the temperature field when oil production problems

The paper presents an approach to coupled modeling of hydrodynamic and thermal processes occurring in the oil reservoir during field development using thermal methods of enhanced oil recovery. To simulate the processes of non-isothermal multiphase flow, an approach based on implicit calculation of pressure using the finite element method and an explicit calculation of phase saturations is used. A computational scheme for calculating the temperature field is considered. This scheme makes it possible to take into account both heat transfer between phases and heat transfer of a fluid mixture and matrix-rock. In order to take into account the effect of thermal conductivity, a coefficient characterizing the rate of heat transfer between the fluid mixture and the rock is used. The proposed scheme also takes into account the effect of the temperature field on the phases flow in the field reservoir and provides for the possibility of heat sources and sinks occured due to chemical reactions or thermodynamic processes in gaseous phases. Numerical experiments were carried out on a model of a real oil field obtained as a result of history matching of well data. The model contains a large number of wells and is characterized by a high heterogeneity of the porous medium. The applicability of the considered computational scheme is demonstrated on the example of modeling hot water injection into wells crossing a formation with super-viscous oil. The efficiency of thermal methods for the development of super-viscous oil fields is shown. When hot water was injected into the reservoir, the increase in oil production was about 25 % due to a significant decrease in oil viscosity. The time spent for calculating the temperature field while simulating a multiphase flow did not exceed 6 % of the total computational time.

Tuning the Morphology in the Nanoscale of NH4CN Polymers Synthesized by Microwave Radiation: A Comparative Study

A systematic study is presented to explore the NH4CN polymerization induced by microwave (MW) radiation, keeping in mind the recent growing interest in these polymers in material science. Thus, a first approach through two series, varying the reaction times and the temperatures between 130 and 205 °C, was conducted. As a relevant outcome, using particular reaction conditions, polymer conversions similar to those obtained by means of conventional thermal methods were achieved, with the advantage of a very significant reduction of the reaction times. The structural properties of the end products were evaluated using compositional data, spectroscopic measurements, simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As a result, based on the principal component analysis (PCA) from the main experimental results collected, practically only the crystallographic features and the morphologies in the nanoscale were affected by the MW-driven polymerization conditions with respect to those obtained by classical syntheses. Therefore, MW radiation allows us to tune the morphology, size and shape of the particles from the bidimensional C=N networks which are characteristic of the NH4CN polymers by an easy, fast, low-cost and green-solvent production. These new insights make these macromolecular systems attractive for exploration in current soft-matter science.

Modern approaches to treatment and recovery of secondary sludge of domestic sewage

For today, pollution of the environment, in particular of surface waters, has led to an environmental crisis in many countries of the world. One of the reasons for this is the use of outdated approaches to the treatment and recovery of sewage sludge. The article presents the results of the study of literary sources in order to analyze the proposals for the treatment of secondary sludge of domestic sewage in different countries. To neutralize sewage sludge, scientists consider the possibility of obtaining fertilizes under conditions of biosulfidogenesis during the dissimilation recovery of poorly soluble sulfates or the use of enhanced oxidation technology. A new concept of domestic sewage treatment has also been proposed, which can solve the issue of sewage sludge control at the place of its forming. The main areas of sustainable sludge control are its use in agriculture as fertilizer and for the reclamation of devastated or degraded lands, as well as energy recovery by burning and alternative thermal methods such as pyrolysis, quasi-pyrolysis and gasification. It was established that the applicability of this or that technology of sewage sludge recovery depends on many local factors, in particular: productivity of sewage station; composition and methods of sewage treatment and its sediments; efficiency of sewage treatment plants; climatic zone of the sewage system location; availability of energy and material resources, etc. Today, it is relevant to monitor the qualitative composition of sewage sludge, as well as soils and natural waters regarding pollutants that can be detected in the sewage of the corresponding settlement, in order to make operational decisions to control environmental risks, as well as conduct scientific research to improve recycling and recovery technologies for sewage sludge of various composition in agricultural systems, which will help to protect the environment against pollution and rational use of land.

Application of calorimetry and other thermal methods in the studies of granulated blast furnace slag from the old storage yards as supplementary cementitious material

The calorimetric and DTA/TG measurements were applied in testing the effect of granulated blast furnace slag originated from the storage yards of different age, added as a supplementary cementing material to the Portland cement clinker. The studies were performed with aim to evaluate the kinetics of cement hydration and the modification of hydrated paste composition in the presence of additive. The material after 20-year storage, the crushed slag after approximately 2-years storage and the new slag from the current production in the metallurgical plant were used. The slag percentage was 5 ÷ 50%. The addition of granulated blast furnace slag stored for a long time affects the standard properties of cement reducing the compressive strength at longer maturing and with the percentage of additive. This is related mainly to the reduction in the vitreous component. However, at the additive content up to 50% the binder complying with the requirements of the relevant European standards for common cements could be produced. Basing on the results of TG measurements the role of calcium carbonate, being the product resulting from the slag weathering process, acting as a grindability and setting/hardening modifying agent, was highlighted.

Downhole Steam Generation for Green Heavy Oil Recovery

The ultimate target of heavy oil recovery is to enhance oil mobility by transferring steam's thermal energy to the oil phase, incrementing its temperature, and reducing heavy oil's viscosity. While the various types of steam floods such as Cyclic Steam Injection (CSI) and Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) are widely used worldwide, they have certain limitations that need further improvements. Notably, in surface steam generation systems, downhole steam quality is around 70% which means that 30% of latent heat is lost while steam travels from the surface to the pre-determined downhole location. Downhole steam generation (DHSG) can be a viable alternative for the surface steam injection in which steam will be generated downhole instead of on the surface. The asserted method presents significant benefits such as preventing steam quality loss, decreasing the environmental effects, and enhancing the heavy oil recovery by co-injecting the flue gas products such as CO2, and consequently, the economic outcomes will be increased. In this research, a comprehensive techno-economic case study has been conducted on a heavy oil reservoir to evaluate the economic and technical advantages of DHSG compared to surface steam generation. Various technical expenses and revenues such as investment costs, operating costs, royalties, and taxes have been considered in a simulation model in MATLAB. This DHSG feasibility assessment has been performed using data of a heavy oil reserve currently under steam flood. Results showed that DHSG could increase up to 50% economic and technical interest than conventional steam injection projects. One of the outstanding benefits of DHSG is the reduction of heat loss. Since steam is produced in-situ, either downhole or in the reservoir, no waste of heat occurs. Typically, most heat losses happen on surface lines and wellbore during steam injection from the surface, which accounts for approximately 32%. Thus, this issue is excluded using the DHSG method. The results of the recent effort fit well into the current industry's requirements. DHSG can (1) increase the rate of heavy oil production, (2) decrease the extra expenses, and (3) dwindle the environmental side effects of CO2 emission of surface steam generation. Compared with conventional thermal methods, in DHSG, the steam to oil ratio remains constant with depth change while the desired steam quality can be achieved at any location. The asserted benefits can ultimately optimize the steam injection with a significant reduction in UTC, hence, improved profitability.