Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrochar and Bio-oil from Hydrothermal Carbonization of Sargassum sp. using Choline Chloride (ChCl) Catalyst

The purpose of this study is to alter the biomass of Sargassum sp. into elective fills and high valuable biomaterials in a hydrothermal process at 200oC for 90 minutes, using ZnCl2 and CaCl2 activating agents, withChClas a catalyst. This method generatedthree primaryoutputs: hydrochar, bio-oil, and gasproducts. ChCl to water ratio varies from 1:3, 1:1, and 3:1. The hydrochar yield improved when the catalyst ratio was increased, but the bio-oil and gas yield declined. The highest hydrochar yields were 76.95, 63.25, and 44.16 percent in ZnCl2, CaCl2, and no activating agent samples, respectively.The porosity analysis observed mesopore structures with the most pore diameters between 3.9-5.2 nm with a surface area between44.71-55.2. The attribute of interaction between activator and catalyst plays a role in pore formation. The hydrochar products with CaCl2 showed the best thermal stability. From the whole experiment, the optimum hydrochar yield (76.95%), optimum surface area (55.42 m2 g-1), and the increase in carbon content from 21.11 to 37.8% were achieved at the ratio of ChCl to water was three, and the activating agent of ZnCl2. The predominant bio-oil components were hexadecane, hexadecanoic, and 9-octadecenoic acids, with a composition of 51.65, 21.44, and 9.87%, respectively the remaining contained aromatic alkanes and other fatty acids. The findings of this study reported that adding activating agents and catalysts improve hydrochar yield and characteristics of hydrochar and bio-oil products, suggesting the potential of hydrochar as a solid fuel or biomaterial and bio-oil as liquid biofuel

Assessment of the effectiveness of liquid hot water and steam explosion pretreatments of fast-growing poplar (Populus trichocarpa) wood

In this paper, the influence of physicochemical pretreatment methods on the chemical composition, enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency and porosity of fast-growing Populus trichocarpa wood was compared. Among the pretreatment methods, the liquid hot water (LHW) and steam explosion (SE) were used, which were performed at three different temperatures (160 °C, 175 °C and 190 °C) and two residence times (15 min and 1 h). The chemical composition, enzymatic hydrolysis and porosity analysis were done for native wood and solid fraction obtained after LHW and SE pretreatments. The porosity analysis was performed by inverse size exclusion chromatography method. Additionally, inhibitors of hydrolysis and fermentation processes in the liquid and solid fractions obtained after pretreatments were examined. Based on the results, it was found that the tested pretreatments caused the greatest changes in the chemical content of hemicelluloses. It was found that after LHW and SE pretreatments up to 99.1% or 94.0%, respectively, of hemicelluloses were removed from the obtained solid fraction. Moreover, the LHW and SE processes greatly enhanced the enzymatic digestibility of fast-growing poplar wood. The highest glucose yield was achieved after 15 min of SE pretreatment at 190 °C and was 676.4 mg/g pretreated biomass, while in the case of xylose the highest value (119.3 mg/g pretreated biomass) was obtained after 15 min of LHW pretreatment at 160 °C. Generally, after SE pretreatment process, more inhibitors were formed, and a greater effect of porous structure development was noticed than after LHW pretreatment. Despite this difference, the average glucose contents and yields after enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated biomass were generally similar regardless of the pretreatment used.

Importance of Velocity Deviation Technique and Negative Secondary Porosity in Detection of Hydrocarbon Zones in Khasib Formation, East Baghdad Oil Field

The velocity deviation technique is one of the important techniques in hydrocarbon investigations, through which it is possible to identify the types and the content of rock pores. The current study aimed to demonstrate the benefit of this technique in discovering the oil sites of the Khasib formation in the East Baghdad oil field, as well as the possibility of separating the oil and gas zones by combining the velocity deviation technique with the anomalous primary porosity information that leads to negative secondary porosity. In this study, log data of three wells distributed in the study area (EB-04, EB-16, and EB-34) were used. From these data, the velocity was estimated by the sonic log, the porosity was estimated by the neutron and the density log, while the velocity deviation was determined by subtracting the velocity calculated from the density log from the sonic log velocity. The result showed that there is significant agreement between the secondary porosity values that turned positive after the oil effect was removed and the confirmed oil zones derived from the core information. Also, there was a clear correlation between velocity deviation values above -500 m/s and the permeability zone of formation, which may reflect the importance of this technique in the identification of the permeability zone. Both techniques (Velocity Deviation and log porosity analysis) can be correlated to predict the locations of gas, large-scale fractures, and unconsolidated beds in sites of high negative secondary porosity and low-velocity deviation (under -500 m/s).

Residual stress, distortion, and porosity analysis of LED heat sink printed by SLM process using machine learning

In recent years, Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are dominating the traditional lighting system. Besides mercury-free, they have small size, good break resistance and long life. Although LEDs are cool to touch, they generate a lot of unnecessary heat inside the gadgets. It is important to remove the heat using efficient thermal management component such as heat sink. Instead of using a conventional manufacturing process, selective laser melting (SLM) process is used to manufacture the heat sink. The quick solidification and various thermal regimes of the material during the SLM process led to the development of residual stresses that causes the part distortion and harm the mechanical properties of the component. The objective of the current study is to find the optimum value of laser power, scanning speed, and hatch spacing to bring down the residual stress and distortion in the SLM process to an acceptable range. Residual stress and distortion values of the heat sink are simulated using MSC Simufact additive and ANSYS Additive software. The conflicting nature between residual stress and porosity was observed. Hence, grey relation analysis was used to convert residual stress & porosity into a single objective. Optimum process parameters obtained were, laser power 80 (W), scanning speed 950 (mm/s), and hatch spacing of 70 (μm). The values of residual stress and porosity at optimum parameters were found to be 385.58 MPa and 12.21 %. Multiple regressions algorithm of machine learning was used to form a relationship between residual stresses and porosity. It was also observed that the magnitude of residual stress and distortion were low at lower energy densities and high at higher energy densities and the residual stress and porosities were high in the z-direction.

Sink or float: microtextural controls on the fate of pumice deposition during the 2012 submarine Havre eruption

Silicic submarine volcanic eruptions can produce large volumes of pumices that may rise buoyantly to the ocean surface and/or sink to the seafloor. For eruptions that release significant volumes of pumice into rafts, the proximal to medial submarine geologic record is thus depleted in large volumes of pumice that would have sedimented closer to source in any subaerial eruption. The 2012 eruption of Havre volcano, a submarine volcano in the Kermadec Arc, presents a unique opportunity to study the partitioning of well-constrained rafted and seafloor pumice. Macro- and microtextural analysis was performed on clasts from the Havre pumice raft and from coeval pumiceous seafloor units around the Havre caldera. The raft and seafloor clasts have indistinguishable macrotextures, componentry, and vesicularity ranges. Microtextural differences are apparent as raft pumices have higher vesicle number densities (109 cm−3 vs. 108 cm−3) and significantly lower pore space connectivity (0.3–0.95 vs. 0.9–1.0) than seafloor pumices. Porosity analysis shows that high vesicularity raft pumices required trapping of gas in the connected porosity to remain afloat, whereas lower vesicularity raft pumices could float just from gas within isolated porosity. Measurements of minimum vesicle throat openings further show that raft pumices have a larger proportion of small vesicle throats than seafloor pumices. Narrow throats increase gas trapping as a result of higher capillary pressures acting over gas–water interfaces between vesicles and lower capillary number inhibiting gas bubble escape. Differences in isolated porosity and pore throat distribution ultimately control whether pumices sink or float and thus whether pumice deposits are preserved or not on the seafloor.

Comparative Characterization of Different Cutting Strategies for the Sintered ZnO Electroceramics

Sintered zinc oxide (ZnO) ceramic is a fragile and difficult-to-cut material, so finishing operations demand handling cautious and accurate surface tolerances by polishing, grinding, or machining. The conventional machining methods based on grinding and lapping offer limited productivity and high scalability; therefore, their incapacity to prepare tight tolerances usually end up with uncontrolled edge chipping and rough surfaces in the final products. This study investigates microstructural features with surface roughness in a comparative mode for conventional milling and abrasive waterjet cutting (AWJ). Edge topography and roughness maps are presented in this study to weigh the benefits of AWJ cutting over the conventional material removal methods by altering the feed rates. The porosity analysis implies that the differences during the multi-channel processing of varistors, which tend to alter the microstructure, should in turn exhibit a different response during cutting. The surface roughness, edge contours, and porosity generation due to shear forces are interpreted with the help of 3D optical and electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that the surface microstructure can have a noteworthy impact on the machining/cutting characteristics and functionality, and in addition, mechanical properties of ZnO varistors can fluctuate with non-uniform microstructures.

The Impact of Pore Structure on Kerogen Geomechanics

Production stimulation techniques such as the combination of hydraulic fracturing and lateral drilling have made exploiting unconventional formations economically feasible. Advancements in production aspects are not always in lockstep with our ability to predict and model the extent of a fracturing job. Shale is a clastic sedimentary rock composed of a complex mineralogy of clay, quartz, calcite, and fragments of an organic material known as kerogen. The latter, which consists of large chains of aromatic and aliphatic carbons, is highly elastic, a characteristic that impacts the geomechanics of a shale matrix. Following a molecular simulation approach, the objective of this work is to investigate kerogen’s petrophysics on a molecular level and link it to kerogen’s mechanical properties, considering some range of kerogen structures. Nanoporous kerogen structures across a range of densities were formed from single macromolecule units. Eight units were initially placed in a low-density cell. Then, a molecular dynamic protocol was followed to form a final structure with a density of 1.1 g/cc; the range of density values was consistent with what has been reported in the literature. The structures were subjected to petrophysical assessments including a helium porosity analysis and pore size distribution characterization. Mechanical properties such as Young’s modulus, bulk modulus, and Poisson ratio were calculated. The results revealed strong correlations among kerogen’s mechanical properties and petrophysics. The kerogen with the lowest porosity showed the highest degree of elasticity, followed by other structures that exhibited larger pores. The effect temperature and the fluid occupying the pore volume were also investigated. The results signify the impact of kerogen’s microscale intricacies on its mechanical properties and hence on the shale matrix. This work provides a novel methodology for constructing kerogen structures with different microscale properties that will be useful for delineating fundamental characteristics such as mechanical properties. The findings of this work can be used in a larger scale model for a better description of shale’s geomechanics.