Improvements and Evaluation on Bitter Orange Leaves (Citrus aurantium L.) Solar Drying in Humid Climates

Dried, bitter orange leaves are widely used because of their nutritious and medicinal applications. As a result, many technologies have been used to accomplish its drying process. However, drying needs a long time and high energy demand, especially in humid climates. In this paper, bitter orange leaf drying was carried out using thermal and photovoltaic solar energy (integrated system, IS), eliminating the high humidity inside of the drying chamber to improve this process. A regular solar dryer (RD) was also used to compare the kinetics, mathematical modeling, and colorimetry study (as a quality parameter), evaluating both systems’ performances. The drying leaves’ weights were stabilized after 330 min in the RD and after 240 min in the IS, with a maximum drying rate of 0.021 kg water/kg dry matter∙min, reaching a relative humidity of 7.9%. The Page and Modified Page models were the best fitting to experimental results with an Ra2 value of 0.9980. In addition, the colorimetric study showed a better-preserved color using the IS, with an ∆E of 9.12, while in the RD, the ∆E was 20.66. Thus, this system implementation can reduce agroindustry costs by reducing time and energy with a better-quality and sustainable product, avoiding 53.2 kg CO2 emissions to the environment.

Post-consumer PET Bottle Recycling: Chemical Dose Optimization

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are being used in our daily life and consequently go to the landfills after their use. Additionally, virgin PET resins are produced from nonrenewable resources, such as fossil fuels, whose reserves are depleting continuously. Therefore, to maintain ecological and environmental balances as well as for sustainable development, post-consumer PET (pcrPET) bottles should be recycled. Among many recycling processes, mechanical recycling of pcrPET is attractive due to lower cost involvement. One of the most crucial and important processes of mechanical recycling is hot washing for contaminants removal. Hot washing uses a cleaning solution made of caustic soda (NaOH) and detergent at elevated temperature. In this paper, caustic soda and FORYL LFO (FLO) detergent doses were changed gradually to investigate effective contaminants removal through colorimetric study. Finally, concentration vs. absorbance graphs from colorimetric study suggests that 2% NaOH and 2% FLO detergent is the optimum chemical dose at hot washing for pcrPET recycling.

ANALYSIS AND CHARACTERISATION OF ADOBE BLOCKS IN JOJUTLA DE JUÁREZ, MÉXICO. SEISMIC VULNERABILITY AND LOSS OF THE EARTHEN ARCHITECTURE AFTER THE 2017 PUEBLA EARTHQUAKE

The 2017 Puebla Earthquake on 19 September struck a big part of central Mexico causing the loss of historic buildings in several states, being the state of Morelos one of the most damaged in the whole country. Jojutla de Juarez was the most affected locality of Morelos presenting important structural damages or total collapse in the built heritage, being the traditional earthen buildings, made of adobe bricks, the most vulnerable buildings to seismic efforts. Some of the causes which contributed to the poor behaviour of the buildings were the improper handling of the constructive systems and materials, the insufficient resistance of the structures and the problems with the foundations. The adobe houses of Jojutla presented a mixture between the traditional building techniques and industrial materials like concrete, cement and steel; also with irregular heights and plant layouts and inadequate connections between the walls and foundations and roofs, resulting into a higher seismic vulnerability when the earthquake impacted. Also the adobe bricks presented irregularities in its composition and use of additives which resulted in completely different typologies and the loss of the traditional construction techniques. A study was conducted to determine the properties of the remains of the adobe bricks of the houses in Jojutla, considering that the structures were severely damaged and a whole study of the seismic vulnerability would not be convenient due the loss of the physical traditional buildings. The grain size and composition of the adobe samples of the buildings were determined as well as the natural aggregates like straw, sand, and its proportion. A colorimetric study of the adobes and clays was also conducted, analysing the change of colour on account of the aggregates in the bricks. Also the compressive strength of the pieces was tested with two methods: the compression test and the point-load test, in order to obtain the indicative values which could be compared to other patrimonial and vernacular study cases.

Spectral Image Processing for Museum Lighting Using CIE LED Illuminants

This work presents a spectral color-imaging procedure for the detailed colorimetric study of real artworks under arbitrary illuminants. The results demonstrate this approach to be a powerful tool for art and heritage professionals when deciding which illumination to use in museums, or which conservation or restoration techniques best maintain the color appearance of the original piece under any illuminant. Spectral imaging technology overcomes the limitations of common area-based point-measurement devices such as spectrophotometers, allowing a local study either pixelwise or by selected areas. To our knowledge, this is the first study available that uses the proposed CIE (Commission Internationale de l’Éclairage) light-emitting diode (LED) illuminants in the context of art and heritage science, comparing them with the three main CIE illuminants A, D50, and D65. For this, the corresponding colors under D65 have been calculated using a chromatic adaptation transform analogous to the one in CIECAM02. For the sample studied, the CIE LED illuminants with the lowest average CIEDE2000 color differences from the standard CIE illuminants are LED-V1 for A and LED-V2 for D50 and D65, with 1.23, 1.07, and 1.57 units, respectively. The work studied is a Moorish epigraphic frieze of plasterwork with a tiled skirting from the Nasrid period (12th–15th centuries) exhibited in the Museum of the Alhambra (Granada, Spain).

«Opus artificum universa» estudio colorimétrico de la escultura románica en mármol del Museo Arqueológico Nacional: ejemplos de Galicia y León = «Opus Artificum Universa» Colorimetric Study of the Marble Romanesque Sculpture in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional: Examples from Galicia and León

El presente estudio da a conocer los resultados de los análisisno invasivosde colorimetría y espectroscopía de reflectancia visible llevados a cabo por primera vez sobre cinco ejemplos de escultura románica en mármol del Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid) de procedencia gallega y leonesa. En concreto se han analizado dos columnas de San Paio de Antealtares (Santiago de Compostela), un parteluz de Vigo, y dos ejemplos procedentes del monasterio de San Benito de Sahagún (León).The present study reveals the results of the non-invasive analysis of colorimetry and visible reflectance spectroscopy, carried out for the first time to five examples of Spanish Romanesque marble sculpture from the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid, Spain) of Galician and Leonese origin. Specifically, two columns of San Paio de Antealtares (Santiago de Compostela), a mullion from Vigo, and two examples from the monastery of San Benito de Sahagún (León) have been analyzed.