Facilitated crystal handling using a simple device for evaporation reduction in microtiter plates

In the past two decades, most of the steps in a macromolecular crystallography experiment have undergone tremendous development with respect to speed, feasibility and increase of throughput. The part of the experimental workflow that is still a bottleneck, despite significant efforts, involves the manipulation and harvesting of the crystals for the diffraction experiment. Here, a novel low-cost device is presented that functions as a cover for 96-well crystallization plates. This device enables access to the individual experiments one at a time by its movable parts, while minimizing evaporation of all other experiments of the plate. In initial tests, drops of many typically used crystallization cocktails could be successfully protected for up to 6 h. Therefore, the manipulation and harvesting of crystals is straightforward for the experimenter, enabling significantly higher throughput. This is useful for many macromolecular crystallography experiments, especially multi-crystal screening campaigns.

Floating PV; an assessment of water quality and evaporation reduction in semi-arid regions

This work addresses the potential impact on water quality and quantifies the benefit of the low carbon power source of floating solar panels in evaporation reduction when using them on an open water body, such as an agricultural irrigation pond in semi-arid regions. By utilizing agricultural ponds for low carbon energy conversion, and saving precious water through evaporation reduction, the highly vulnerable agricultural sector will be empowered. A pilot size setup is prepared, key water quality parameters were monitored and evaporation quantities in a PV-covered pond are compared to those from an adjacent open water pond used as a control. Several inclination angles for the panels were tested. Results showed no adverse impact on the water quality; on the contrary, there is evidence of improvement particularly in nitrate and chlorophyll concentrations. Moreover, a reduction of ~60% in evaporation was observed; power generation from the floating panels, on the other hand, was statistically similar to that from ground-mounted panels.

Scenarios to reduce evaporation from class A evaporation pan by using windbreaks

Evaporation from reservoirs and lakes is an important processes frequently occurring in dry, hot regions such as Iraq. In order to preserve the environment and to reduce the amount of evaporation from open water bodies in this study, simulation was performed to reduce evaporation from evaporation basin class A by using windbreaks natural (Conocarpus trees). Three basic scenarios were made that depended on the values of the atmospheric elements affecting the evaporation process in summer according to the modified Penman equation for the conditions of Iraq, the climate factors are temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, dew point, and the effect of the number of windbreaks and their height was also introduced in sub- scenario. Experiments have shown that the best sub-scenario for all basic scenarios is when the windbreaks are placed in a direct direction to the wind blowing on the evaporation basin in the form of three rows, each row contains three trees where the windbreaks are in case cross and the height of the trees is 100 cm and the distance between each tree and another, and between each row and row 15 × 15 cm, the results of this subscenario recorded the highest rate of evaporation reduction up to 35% of its original value before using windbreaks.

Methods for calculating phreatic evaporation on bare grounds on rainy and dry days

In order to depict the impact of rainfall on phreatic evaporation, this study analyzes phreatic evaporation and the phreatic evaporation coefficient between surface evaporation and soil depth in Shajiang black soil and Fluyo-aquic soil. We have improved the existing commonly used mathematical framework, established two rainless day phreatic evaporation calculation models, and then calculated the calculation model of the phreatic evaporation reduction on rainy days. Finally, rainy day evaporation calculation models on two soils were proposed. The results show that the evaporation coefficient is affected by both depth and the evaporation ability of the surface water. The evaporation reduction of Shajiang black soil increased with depth and the increasing trend gradually slowed down until it approached zero. The evaporation reduction of the Fluyo-aquic soil phreatic decreased first and then increased with depth, reaching a minimum at 0.4 m. The reduction of phreatic evaporation in both soils decreased with the increase in rainfall level and decreased with the increase in rainfall duration showing ‘inverted S-type’. In summary, the phreatic evaporation composite calculation models on rainy days and rainless days have good fitting and prediction results, which can improve the accuracy of phreatic evaporation calculations.

Evaluation of Factors Governing the Use of Floating Solar System: A Study on Iran's Important Water Infrastructures

The issue of water and energy crisis have been turned into global matters which need to be tackled jointly. Accordingly, floating solar power plants, in which photovoltaic modules are used on the surface of water infrastructures, has recently been attracting much interest. This system provides some additional advantages over the ground-based system such as conserving the land and the water and increasing the efficiency of the module. This study first reviews the relevant literature comprehensively and then evaluates the potential of using floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV) on some of Iran’s water infrastructures which have experienced a large amount of evaporation every year due to high solar radiation. To this end, the five important dam reservoirs are selected as the representatives of the five important watersheds in Iran, and the advantages of the FSPV plant is analyzed in terms of energy generation, evaporation reduction, economic and environmental aspects considering different coverage percentages of reservoir’s surfaces. Considering Iran's vast potential for solar radiation, and, on the other hand, huge energy demand and critical water situation, results indicated that Iran can effectively harness solar energy through FSPV systems which help conserve the water in addition to support sustainable energy production.

How eyelashes can protect the eye through inhibiting ocular water evaporation: a chemical engineering perspective

Bionics is a fascinating subject that has inspired many inventions through learning from biological structures and functions. In this work, a coupled multi-physics model has been developed to characterize ocular water evaporation with realistic eyelash structures taken into account. From a chemical engineering perspective, the protective function of human eyelashes in terms of evaporation inhibition has been rationally revealed. Systematic investigations were carried out to elucidate the effects of different eyelash lengths, orientations and inlet air directions on water evaporation on the ocular surface. The results clearly demonstrate that regardless of inlet air directions and eyelash orientations, increasing eyelash length from zero to an optimal length can effectively reduce water evaporation. However, further increase in the eyelash length can lead to enhanced evaporation. For the normal and parallel inlet air directions, the optimal eyelash length is around 15–30% of the eye width and can offer approximately 10–30% evaporation reduction when compared with the cases without eyelashes. These values are independent of the eyelash orientation. This investigation provides valuable data for in-depth understanding of the protective function of the eyelashes, which can be used in the future to improve and optimize bionic designs inspired by human eyelashes.

A Review of Evaporation Reduction Methods from Water Surfaces

Many methods have been tested and developed all over the world to save water from evaporation process. This paper presents a state-of-art review of published research work in the last 14 years (from 2014 to 2018) in which it was focused on the physical, chemical and biological methods of evaporation reduction from water surfaces. The main characteristics, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each method are indicated. Among these used techniques for reducing evaporation are physical methods that use floating or suspended covers and can save a large percentage of water (between 70 and 95%). The use of thermal mixing by compressed air seems to be very important for evaporation suppression on deep reservoirs (greater than +18 m). Moreover, currently chemicals are widely used to reduce water evaporation, such as WaterSavr, and can save relatively a small percentage of water (between 20 - 40%). Biological methods such as floating plants, wind breakers and palm fronds can provide a significant decrease in the volume of evaporation but they have some restrictions on their uses.