Appraisal of Cumulative Volume of Biogas Produced from Water Hyacinth and Selected Animal Dungs Co-Digestion Mixes

Water Hyancinth (WH) was co-digested with different mix ratios of poultry manure (PM), cow dung (CD) and pig dung (PD). A comparative analysis of the cumulative volume of gas produced from the different co-digestion mixes was carried out. The monitoring of the digestion process was done on a daily basis for a retention period of 40 days. The efficacy of the digestion process as well as the best mix ratio of water hyacinth to the different animal dungs was also evaluated in terms of the volume of gas produced. A rotameter with a capacity of 0.1-1L/Min equipped with a measuring tube was used for the gas flow measurements. From the results obtained the best mix of the PD-aided WH digestion is 3 WH:7 PD while CD - aided WH digestion is 2 WH:8 CD and PM-aided WH digestion is 2 WH: 8 PM. The study also revealed that the PM-aided WH mix produced more biogas compared to the CD-aided and PD-aided WH digestion mix.

Biogas Quantity and Quality from Digestion and Co-Digestion of Food Waste and Cow Dung

The aim of this study is to assess the quantity and quality of biogas produced from single substrate digestion of food waste and cow dung as well as co-digestion of food waste and cow dung. Laboratory sized 25 litre plastic biodigesters were used in this study and the digestion processes was carried out for a 30 day retention period. The results revealed that the cumulative biogas production for the single substrate digestion of cow dung was 7,975 ml, the cumulative biogas produced for the single substrate digestion of food waste was 7,742.5 ml while the cumulative volume of biogas produced for the co-digestion of cow dung and food waste was 16,482.5 ml. The results also showed that the total volume of methane produced for the single substrate digestion of cow dung was 955 ml while the total methane produced for the single substrate digestion of the food waste was 765. The total production of methane for the co-digestion of cow dung and food waste was found to be 2,655 ml. This study revealed that though the co-digestion process improved biogas quantity and quality, the percentage methane present in the biogas very low. There would be a need to stimulate the digestion and co-digestion process in order to improve the quality of biogas produced.

Treatment Outcome and Efficacy of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange for Transplant-Associated Thrombotic Microangiopathy in a Real-World Large Cohort Study

Introduction Transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) is a severe complication following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), with mortality over 80%. Effective management of TA-TMA is hampered by obscure pathogenesis and delayed diagnosis. There are no well-acknowledged therapeutic strategies for TA-TMA. TA-TMA-directed therapy includes therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), eculizumab, rituximab, and defibrotide. The efficacy and outcome of TPE for the treatment of TA-TMA remain controversial. To our knowledge, this is the largest cohort to date of patients treated with TPE for TA-TMA after allo-HSCT. We aimed to identify predictors of response and mortality in patients with TA-TMA who received TPE, and to recognize patients who will benefit from TPE management. Methods A total of 6241 subjects who underwent allo-HSCT were performed at Peking University People's Hospital from January 2010 to December 2019, of whom 538 patients were diagnosed with TA-TMA, with a cumulative incidence of 8.6%. Among them, 82 consecutive critically ill TA-TMA patients received TPE. TA-TMA was diagnosed using the criteria proposed by Cho et al. TPE was not performed in a protocol-defined manner. Patients were classified as achieving complete response (CR) if they showed disappearance of schistocytes, resolution of any changes in mental status, normalization of lactic dehydrogenase, and were not receiving red blood cells and platelet transfusions. Patients were considered to have achieved no response (NR) when they showed no improvement of laboratory features, remained dependent on red blood cell and/or platelet transfusions, or died with active TA-TMA. Subjects were considered to have a partial response (PR) when they did not meet the criteria for either CR or NR (BMT 2010; Blood 2020). Results TA-TMA was diagnosed at a median time of 64.5 [IQR 38.8-158] days post-HSCT. The 42 men (51.2%) and 40 women (48.8%) had an average age of 35.3 years. Renal involvement (59.8%), central nervous system dysfunction (70.7%), gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding (73.2%), and concomitant acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD, 78%) were common in our cohort of TA-TMA patients. All 82 patients in our analysis received TPE, and adjunctive TA-TMA-targeted therapy included the use of rituximab (11 patients), rituximab plus eculizumab (1 patient), and defibrotide (1 patient). However, the additional therapy showed no significant difference between the response and nonresponse groups. The median time from TA-TMA to TPE initiation was 8 days [IQR 2.0-16.5], and the cumulative volume of TPE was 6 L [IQR 3.6-8.5]. Our data revealed that the overall response was 52.4% (43/82), comprising 4 CRs and 39 PRs. Early TPE initiation trended towards a better response, but this difference was not statistically significant. The multivariate analysis showed that patients with GI bleeding (OR, 6.26; 95% CI, 1.30-30.12), grade III-IV aGVHD (OR, 5.00; 95% CI, 1.50-16.68), lower cumulative volume of TPE (OR, 8.51; 95% CI, 1.91-38.05), and severe anemia (OR, 7.48; 95% CI, 2.20-25.49) were less likely to respond to TPE. Regarding treatment outcome, 57% (47/82) of cases survived 100 days post HSCT, and 20% (16/82) survived 100 days after the diagnosis of TA-TMA. With a median follow-up of 467 days [IQR 248-1002], the OS at 1 year after TA-TMA was 15%. The leading causes of death were infection, active TA-TMA, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that GI bleeding, grade III-IV aGVHD, and no response to TPE were associated with poor survival at 1-year post TA-TMA (Figure 1). By multivariate analysis, TA-TMA patients treated with TPE had dismal survival with GI bleeding, lower loading volume of TPE, and elevated total bilirubin. Conclusions The results of this large cohort of real-world practice indicate that TPE may be effective for TA-TMA depending on given clinical circumstances. Our data underscore that GI bleeding is independently associated with poor response to TPE and mortality, while grade III-IV aGVHD is again confirmed as predicting a dismal response to TPE. We hypothesize that higher volume of TPE is warranted to achieve resolution and favorable outcome of TA-TMA. Multicenter prospective studies are required to further verify whether these patients could benefit from TPE and seek a paradigm for TPE in the management of TA-TMA. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Supply Chain Modelling Based on Twelve Related Features: A Novel Iteration Feature Selection Method

Real-time prediction of hour-based order entry has been lacking in literature. Compared to previous research on supply chain problems, our proposed approach overcomes the constraints of operations management with longer time periods such as weekly and monthly by developing a novel iteration model. We performed experiments on 100 products with high cumulative volume over time. Using 3 different dataset, our proposed model proved efficient in forecasting skewed demand signals with lot of noise in supply chains.

Cost Dynamics of Clean Energy Technologies

The pace of the global decarbonization process is widely believed to hinge on the rate of cost improvements for clean energy technologies, in particular renewable power and energy storage. This paper adopts the classical learning-by-doing framework of Wright (1936), which predicts that cost will fall as a function of the cumulative volume of past deployments. We first examine the learning curves for solar photovoltaic modules, wind turbines and electrolyzers. These estimates then become the basis for estimating the dynamics of the life-cycle cost of generating the corresponding clean energy, i.e., electricity from solar and wind power as well as hydrogen. Our calculations point to significant and sustained learning curves, which, in some contexts, predict a much more rapid cost decline than suggested by the traditional 80% learning curve. Finally, we argue that the observed learning curves for individual clean energy technologies reinforce each other in advancing the transition to a decarbonized energy economy.

Home Biogas Production using Homemade Bio-activator with Chicken Manure

The previous experiment was obtained that homemade activator is the best activator to produce biogas by using food waste consist of vegetable, fruit and rice waste. The current research is carried out by adding chicken manure as a co-activator. Chicken manure content rich in nitrogen can be significantly enhance biogas production. This study is expected to increase the biogas production. There are two processes conducted at the laboratory scale, batch and semi-continuous process. The batch process aim to activate bacteria. The ratio set at food waste/chicken manure, 2 : 1 of digester #1, 3 : 1 of digester #2, 4 : 1 of digester #3 and digester control using food waste only. Stage two aims to produce biogas by adding food waste for 6 days periodically. The ratio is set at food waste/water, 1 : 2. The highest biogas yielded is digester 2 with a cumulative volume biogas 120.77 liters consist of 71.01% CH4, 26% CO2, 2.9% O2 and 0.088% H2S. The potential of methane gas produced is 0.87 kWh and methane volume per TS and VS at around 18.72 L/kg and 34.68 L/kg, respectively.

A Constitutive Model of Sandy Gravel Soil under Large-Sized Loading/Unloading Triaxial Tests

Based on large-scale triaxial tests of sandy gravel materials, the strength and deformation characteristics under loading/unloading conditions are analyzed. At the same time, the applicability of the hyperbolic constitutive model to sandy gravel is studied using experimental data. The results indicate that sandy gravel under low confining pressures (0.2 and 0.4 MPa) shows a weak softening trend; the higher the confining pressure, the more obvious the hardening tendency (0.6 and 0.8 MPa) and the greater the peak strength. During unloading tests, strain softening occurs, and the peak strength increases with increasing confining pressure. During loading tests, dilatancy appears when the confining pressure is low (0.2 MPa). With increasing confining pressure (0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 MPa), the dilatancy trend gradually weakens, and the cumulative volume tric strain increases, which reflects the relevance of the stress paths. Through research, it is found that the hyperbolic constitutive model has good applicability to sandy gravel soils, and the corresponding model parameters are obtained.

Subaerial beach morphology change from multiple storms during the 2020 hurricane season

Frequent or consecutive storms impacting coastal areas can result in unexpected or variable impacts. This study evaluates spatiotemporal variability and cumulative impacts on the subaerial beach from four major tropical storms of varying intensity and proximity impacting the study area of Palm Beach County, Florida, during the 2020 Atlantic Basin Hurricane season. Impacts from Hurricanes Isaias, Laura, Sally, and Teddy were measured using Real-Time Kinematic Global Positioning System (RTK GPS) at 14 transects throughout the northern and southern portion of the county. Alongshore morphologic variability resulted from each storm, with some expected patterns of erosion and accretion with a few unexpected impacts. The first three storms caused swash or collision regime impacts on the Sallenger scale. Hurricane Teddy was the fourth storm to impact the study area, causing overwash at numerous locations. Whereas the first two storms of the season caused mostly erosion of the subaerial beach, the southeasterly approach of Hurricane Sally reversed the cumulative volume loss trend in the northern portion of the study area with accretion. Hurricane Teddy was the most distant storm but occurred at the highest tide and produced the largest waves and highest winds. The most variable patterns in erosion and accretion resulted from Hurricane Teddy, which also dominated the overall (or cumulative) volume and contour change. Further study is recommended for a multi-storm season that includes the subaqueous portion of the beach profile to elucidate trends of cross-shore and alongshore drivers of storm-induced morphology change.

A semi-analytical approach to model drilling fluid leakage into fractured formation

Loss of circulation while drilling is a challenging problem that may interrupt operations and contaminate the subsurface formation. Analytical modeling of fluid flow in fractures is a tool that can be quickly deployed to assess drilling mud leakage into fractures. A new semi-analytical solution is developed to model the flow of non-Newtonian drilling fluid in fractured formation. The model is applicable for various fluid types exhibiting yield-power law (Herschel-Bulkley). We use finite-element simulations to verify our solutions. We also generate type curves and compare them to others in the literature. We then demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model for two field cases encountering lost circulations. To address the subsurface uncertainty, we combine the semi-analytical solutions with Monte Carlo and generate probabilistic predictions. The solution method can estimate the range of fracture conductivity, parametrized by the fracture hydraulic aperture, and time-dependent fluid loss rate that can predict the cumulative volume of lost fluid.

Using A Novel Continuous Bioreactor In Enhancing The Biogas Production

Background: Since fossil fuels are limited and their burning is considered the main reason for environmental pollution, thinkers in the energy section are looking for a substitute for them. They have considered biogas as a potent replacement. Constant composition and volumetric rate, are ones of the challenges faced in term of using biogas. Therefore, in this study, a novel easily portable continuous bioreactor was designed and constructed to produce biogas at constant composition and volumetric rate, which is suitable for human uses. Sugar beet waste and anaerobic sludge were used as substrate and inoculum with an S/I ratio of 0.5 to 1, to produce biogas. Four parameters, i.e., hydraulic retention time (HRT), pH, biogas volume, and methane composition, were measured and compared.Results: The results of the mentioned reactor were compared with those of batch ones. The measurement revealed that the continuous reactor had a good performance on biogas purity and volumetric rate. The biogas contained about 53% methane. The suitable and preferable HRT and organic loading rate (OLR) were 18 days and 34.86 g VS/day. After the 18th day of operation, the biogas production process inside the continuous reactor was stable reaching about 411.2 ml STD/g VS per day.Conclusions: The reactor designed makes the biogas production process more manageable. Besides the production of the cumulative volume of biogas and constant methane percentage was achieved. As a result, the biogas produced is consumed daily, and a certain amount of gas is available every day. Since the percentage of gas produced is constant, it is possible to adjust the gas appliances with this amount of methane.