Experimental Testing of the Water Distillation System with Regard to Heat and Cooling Generation by Means of Reversible Thermochemical Reactions

The paper presents the results of an experimental study on the exothermal heat and endothermal cooling generation under vacuum conditions using a water distillation system of special design. The heat and cooling are generated when KOH and NH4NO3 crystals are dissolved as a result of natural mixing in the water, distilled from NH4NO3 and KOH liquid solutions, respectively. The time evolutions of the temperatures measured in KOH→H2O→NH4NO3 and NH4NO3→H2O→KOH experiments are presented and discussed. It has been shown that under vacuum conditions, the endothermal effect of NH4NO3 dissolution in water is stronger than that observed at atmospheric pressure, while the exothermal effect of KOH dissolution in water is weaker. The experimental results obtained will be used to develop the dual thermochemical heat storage and cooling generating system in order to utilize solar heat in the summer.

BRUCITE-BASED MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE BONDING AGENT, ITS ANALYSIS AND APPLICATION FOR PERICLASE SINTERING

Some results on magnesium phosphate binder obtained from natural brucite (mainly Mg(OH)2) and H3PO4 were discussed. Hereafter, it was named brucite phosphate (BPB). This binder then was used to the sintering of MgO (periclase). MgO is one of the most high-refractory materials and chemically stable to various aggressive mediums, so the aim was presented as actual. To determine the phase composition data on sample weight loss in different temperature intervals were compared. All weight losses were related to the multistage water moving away. Up to 140 °С it was the removal of crystalline hydrate water. Then monosubstituted magnesium hydrophosphate transformed into MgH2P2O7 and Mg2P4O12, that in principle was in accordance with literature data. Dehydration was accompanied with appropriate endothermal effects. There was a slight exothermal effect which could relate to a structure rearrangement (cyclization) of primary magnesium metaphosphates and/or some crystallization of anhydrous cyclophosphates from primarily obtained amorphous phase non-connected with a weight loss in the interval of 450-575 °С. At 500–1000 °С the phase composition remained constant that was in a good accordance with data obtained by other methods. By means of IR-spectroscopy, it was confirmed the formation of structure cycles composed from oxygen-phosphor tetrahedrons. To determine kinetics parameters of periclase sintering with BPB it was used a model being proposed that took the role of a physical consolidation and a chemical binding in the presence of binder into account under heating. The obtained parameters analysis showed that the forming conglomerate strength was provided with the sintering properly as well as with binder action; an estimated chemical factor contribution was maximal at low temperatures (1100-1200 °C). The activation energy value was practically identical to the activation energy of oxygen diffusion in MgO.

Microbial enzymatic activity and thermal effect in a tropical soil treated with organic materials

Bacteria and fungi are the most active decomposers of organic materials in soil. They directly affect plant nutrient availability, and chemical and physical properties of soils. This investigation aimed at quantifying the effect of several organic materials on microbial activity of a Rhodic Eutrudox. Soil samples were incubated over a period of 91 days with the following organic materials: cattle manure (CM), earthworm humus (HM), and city sewage sludge from Barueri (BA) and Franca (FR). The activities of cellulase, protease and urease enzymes, the soil microbial carbon content (by fumigation-extraction method) and the exothermal effect were evaluated. Experimental design was randomized and arranged as factorial scheme five treatments x seven samplings with five replications. Organic materials promoted oscillations in microbial carbon (mg C g-1 soil), and enzyme activities - cellulase (µg glucose g-1 soil 24 h-1), protease (mg Tyr g-1 soil 2 h-1), urease (mg NH4+-N g-1 soil 2 h-1) - and the total thermal effect (J g-1 soil), in the following decreasing order: (1) CM - 21.47; 655.90; 49.68; 24.55; 477.90; (2) BA - 12.98; 367.70; 32.76; 10.66; 426.29; (3) FR - 11.60; 273.40; 18.77; 19.35; 368.00; (4) HM - 11.77; 261.00; 17.05; 9.02; 202.79; (5) control. Correlations were obtained between microbial carbon and cellulase and protease activities (r = 0.54; p < 0.001), and between the exothermal effect and protease activity (r = 0.34; p < 0.005). Enzyme activity was closely related to soil microorganisms, therefore, reflecting on the total thermal effect.

Thermal behavior of ground talc mineral

Microstructure development and thermal behavior of ground talc mineral samples (from locality Puebla de Lillo, Spain) was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy(SEM),surface area measurements differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetry and emanation thermal analysis (ETA).A vibratory mill and grinding time 5 min. was used to prepare the ground talc sample. It was found that grinding caused an increase in the surface area of the natural talc from 3 m2g-1 to 110 m2g-1. A decrease of particle size after sample grinding was observed by SEM. The increase of structure disorder of the ground sample and the crystallite size reduction from 40 to 10 nm were determined from the XRD results. ETA results revealed a closing up of surface micro-cracks and healing of microstructure irregularities on heating in the range 200-500?C of both un-ground and ground talc samples. For the ground talc sample a crystallization of non-crystalline phase into orthorhombic enstatite was characterized as by a decrease of radon mobility in the range 785-825?C and by a DTA exothermal effect with the maximum at 830?C. ETA results were used for the assessment of transport properties of the talc samples on heating.