Biomass fuel can be an alternative fuel for industries that produces a lot of agriculture waste (like FELDA), which can convert the fuel to useful heat energy. Numerous research works have been carried out to study the combustion characteristics of agricultural solid wastes, however, every result is unique due to differences in the process and hardware. This paper publishes results based on the combustion experiments of palm kernel shell and palm fiber using an under-fire inclined grate combustor developed locally. This work aims to generate combustion data for future research development of the palm oil wastes as an alternative fuel. The analysis is based on theoretical and experimental energy outputs, emission analysis and combustion behavior. In general, palm shells have a calorific value of 16.9 MJ/kg, while palm fibers reported calorific value is 9.2 MJ/kg. Actual energy released during the combustion process was determined from the flue gas compositions using thermodynamics analysis of combustion reactions. The combustion chamber design limits the actual energy conversion at a range of 24% to 32%, where the maximum flue gas energy was determined at about 5.4 MJ/kg for palm shells and 2.5 MJ/kg for palm fiber. Critical factors identified in enhancing the combustion performance are the air supply, air-fuel mixing and fuel distribution.

A study on the synthesis of black powder (La2NiO4) material using the solution combustion synthesis method at a variation of synthesis temperature of 60, 70, and 80°C was carried out. It produces a mass of black powder of 2 grams by four times of synthesis process. Then, material characterization was performed on the black powder samples obtained by using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to determine the phases formed, Scanning Electron Microscopy - Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to determine the morphology and analyze the composition elemental on the microscale and Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) to determine chemical bonds. From the whole black powder sample, XRD analysis showed the phases of Dilantanum Nickel Tetraoxide (La2NiO4), Nickel Oxide (NiO), Lanthanum Oxide (La2O3), and Lanthanum Oxide Ht x-form (La2O3 Ht (x-form)). In addition, it was seen from the visible compositions of the phases that the NiO phase looks more dominant and the variation of the synthesis tem...

Flue gas emissions and particle size distribution were investigated during combustion experiments of wood, forest residue and mixtures of these two. The combustion experiments were carried out in a grate fired multi-fuel reactor with and without air staging at stable operation conditions and constant temperature of 850 °C. The overall excess air ratio was held at 1.6, and the primary excess air ratio was 0.8 during air staged experiments. NOx emissions are reduced by air staging. Fly ash particle concentration of forest residues in the flue gas is lower than wood. Aerosols number increased in the staged experiments for fuel blends.

Electronic throttle is a DC motor driven valve that regulates air inflow into the engine's combustion system. The goal of the throttle control system is twofold: to achieve fast and accurate valve plate angle reference tracking, and to preserve outwearing of the throttle by constraining physical variables to their normal-operation domains. These high quality control demands are hard to accomplish since the plant is burdened with a strong nonlinear effects of friction and limp-home nonlinearity. For the purpose of controller synthesis first a discrete-time piecewise affine model of the throttle was developed and then a time-optimal model predictive control problem was solved. We propose a procedure to model friction in a discrete-time piecewise affine form that is suitable for simulation and control. The optimal controller action computation can be restated as a mixed-integer program. However, due to the small sampling time, solving such a program on-line (in a receding horizon fashion) is very prohibitive. In this paper we use recent theoretical results that enable off-line pre-computation of the optimal control law in the form of a look-up table. The technique employs invariant set computation and reachability analysis using multi-parametric programming. Finally, we compare experimental results of our approach with the performance of a tuned PID controller coupled with a feedforward compensation of the nonlinearities. We achieve more than two times faster transients while preserving the quality regarding the absence of an overshoot and static accuracy within the measurement resolution.

The discrete ordinates method (DOM) and discrete transfer method (DTM) were evaluated from the viewpoints of both predictive accuracy and computational economy by comparing their predictions with exact solutions available from a box-shaped enclosure problem with steep ...

In Part I the chemical and microstructural nature of Cu-K-V catalysts for diesel soot combustion was assessed. In this second communication the reaction mechanism of these catalysts is studied by testing their activity through either differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) or temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO), performed on catalyst-carbon mixtures. The following parameters were varied: the particle size of both the catalyst and the carbon powders, the catalyst-to-carbon weight ratio, the catalyst composition (besides the standard Cu-K-V catalyst defined in Part I, binary catalysts based on a single copper or potassium vanadate + KC1 were also considered).

A comparison between different emission rates of various pollutants obtained from various wastes is presented. The studied wastes were the following: polyethylene, tyres, sewage sludge, polyvinyl chloride, cotton textiles, polyester textiles, meat and bone meals, varnish wastes, olive oil solid waste (pomace), waste lube oils, paper waste, tomato plant, pine needles and cones, mobile phones and automotive shredder residue. The decomposition of these wastes was studied in a horizontal laboratory scale reactor at 850 ºC in an inert and an oxidizing atmosphere, and the analysis of the pollutants evolved comprised several compounds such as light hydrocarbons, PAHs and PCDD/Fs.

Biodiesel fuels derived from different feedstocks may have significantly different fatty acid profiles and physicochemical properties. To gain further insight into the effect of the biodiesel chemical structure, specifically its degree of unsaturation, on engine performance, combustion characteristics, and emissions, an experimental investigation was conducted on a high-speed direct-injection automotive diesel engine fueled with three mixtures of fatty acid methyl esters. The fuel matrix was designed such that the effect of the degree of unsaturation of the tested biodiesel fuels was isolated. This allowed for the maximization of the effect of the cetane number, while the other properties, such as the chain length, oxygen content, density, viscosity, and volatility, varied within a small range. Results indicated that the degree of unsaturation of biodiesel fuels did not significantly affect engine performance and the start of injection, but it had a noticeable influence on combustion characteristics and emissions, via its effect on the cetane number. A higher degree of unsaturation of biodiesel fuels led to a longer ignition delay and, consequently, a more retarded start of combustion. Regardless of the engine-operating mode, an almost fixed start of injection was attained, while the premixed portion of combustion, peak heat release rate, maximum pressure gradient, peak in-cylinder bulk-gas-averaged temperature, total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions, smoke opacity, and nitrogen oxides (NO x) emissions increased with the degree of unsaturation.

Previous investigations show that soot particle volume fraction and number density were significantly reduced by exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) diluents CO 2 and H 2 O. However, these investigations were often convoluted by their experimental flame configurations and primarily focused on soot volume fraction rather than soot inception. To isolate the effects on soot inception and the corresponding chemistry, the current study measured the reactivity of CO 2 (up to 9.5% volume fraction) for both C 2 H 2 (1.00% volume fraction) and CH 4 (1.85% volume fraction) fuels in homogeneous mixtures. Computed effect of H 2 O on these and other fuels are also presented. Experiments were performed at high temperature (1640 K and 1770 K) and high equivalence ratios (U = 55 and 75) to understand the effect of CO 2 on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and formation of nascent soot particles with negligible oxygen influence. Experimental results show that CO 2 enhanced the soot inception rate when added to C 2 H 2 but had an undetectable affect on CH 4. Gas chromatography confirmed that CO 2 increases CO mole fraction and reduces C 2 H 2 fuel concentration. Chemical kinetic simulations showed that the C 2 H 2 was being converted to soot precursors. CO 2 enhanced the soot inception rate for C 2 H 2 by producing OH radicals. Images of nascent soot particles produced in the presence of CO 2 were used to determine the size of PAH molecules in the particles and particle morphology. Both attributes were similar to particles formed without CO 2. CO 2 had little impact on the long reaction pathway from CH 4 to PAH molecules because H and CH 3 radicals propagated these reactions more readily than OH radicals.

The heats of combustion for forty-nine commercial and developmental polymers of known chemical structure were determined using an oxygen bomb calorimeter according to standard methods. The experimental results were compared to thermochemical calculations of the net heat of combustion from oxygen consumption and the gross heat of combustion from group additivity of the heats of formation of products and reactants. The polymers examined were thermally stable, char forming thermoplastics and thermoset resins containing a significant degree of aromaticity and heteroatoms including-nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, silicon, and oxygen in linear and heterocyclic structures. The gross and net heats of combustion calculated from polymer enthalpies of formation and oxygen consumption thermochemistry were within 5 percent of the experimental values from oxygen bomb calorimetry. The heat released by combustion per gram of diatomic oxygen consumed in the present study was E = 13.10 ± 0.78 kJ/g-O 2 for polymers tested (n = 48). This value is indistinguishable from the universal value E = 13.1 kJ/g-O 2 used in oxygen consumption combustion calorimetry.

Computer models of engine processes are valuable tools for predicting and analyzing engine performance and allow exploration of many engine design alternatives in an inexpensive fashion. In the present work, a zero-dimensional, two zone thermodynamic model was used to determine the knock limited operating conditions of a natural gas engine. Experimentally based burning rate models were used for flame initiation and propagation calculations. A knock model was incorporated with the zero-dimensional model. Comparison of the measured and calculated cylinder pressure data indicated that the model is able to match the measured cylinder pressure data with less than 8% error in magnitudes if the computations are started at the experimental spark timing. The knock predictions agreed with the measurements also. With the established knock model, it is possible not only to investigate whether knock is observed with changing operating and design parameters, but also to evaluate their effects on the maximum possible knock intensity.

The combustion of hydrogen in a hot, bubbling bed of quartz sand fluidized by air has been studied for the first time, by injecting hydrogen just above the distributor, via six horizontal fine tubes of Cr/Ni. Overall the fluidizing gas was oxygen-rich, with the composition varying from nearly stoichiometric to very lean mixtures. With the bed initially fluidized at room temperature, combustion (after ignition by a pilot flame) occurs in a premixed flame sitting on top of the bed. When the sand warms up, combustion becomes explosive in bubbles leaving the bed, exactly as with a hydrocarbon as fuel. However, in contrast to hydrocarbons, it is clear that when the bed reaches 500-600 • C, heat is produced both above the top of the bed (because of H 2 bypassing the bed) and very low down in the bed. In fact, with hydrogen as fuel, the location of where bubbles ignite descends abruptly to low in the sand; furthermore, the descent occurs at ∼500 • C, which is ∼100 K below the ignition temperature predicted by well-established kinetic models. However, the kinetic models do reproduce the observations, if it is assumed that the Cr/Ni hypodermic tubes, through which the fuel was injected, exert a catalytic effect, producing free H atoms, which then give rise to HO 2 radicals. In this situation, kinetic modeling indicates that bubbles ignite when they become sufficiently large and few enough to have a lifetime (i.e. the interval between their collisions) longer than the ignition delay for the temperature of the sand. The amounts of NO found in the off-gases were at a maximum (24 ppm), when the bed was at ∼500 • C for λ = [O 2 ]/[O 2 ] stoich = 1.05. The variations of [NO] with [air]/[H 2 ] and also temperature indicate that NO is produced, at least partly, via the intermediate N 2 H. In addition, the air-afterglow emission of green light (from NO +O → NO 2 +hν)

The decay of vortices in flows of an electrically conducting fluid in the presence of a magnetic field is studied. Two flow configurations are considered: 1) flow in a double array of vortices; 2) flow behind a two-dimensional grid. It is found that in the presence of a uniform transverse magnetic field, the vortices decay much faster than those in a viscous fluid in the absence of magnetic field. It is observed that in the steady flow behind a two-dimensional grid in the presence of a uniform transverse magnetic field, a pair of bound eddies appear behind the single elements of the grid. The scale of these eddies depends on the strength of the magnetic field. It is also found that the distance from the stagnation point over which the vortices decay to zero decreases with increase in the magnetic field. At large distance, however, the streamlines become parallel as in the case of a viscous fluid.

Fuel economy and emissions are the two central parameters in heavy duty engines. High EGR rates combined with turbocharging has been identified as a promising way to increase the maximum load and efficiency of heavy duty spark ignition engines. With stoichiometric conditions a three way catalyst can be used which keeps the regulated emissions at very low levels. The Lambda window which results in very low emissions is very narrow. This issue is more complex with transient operation resulting in losing brake efficiency and also catalyst converting efficiency. This paper presents different control strategies to maximize the reliability for maintaining efficiency and emissions levels under transient conditions. Different controllers are developed and tested successfully on a heavy duty 6-cylinder port injected natural gas engine. Model Predictive Control (MPC) was used to control lambda which was modeled using System Identification. Furthermore, a Proportional Integral (PI) regulator combined with a feedforward map for obtaining Maximum Brake Torque (MBT) timing was applied. The results show that excellent steady-state and transient performance can be achieved.

Baseret på simulationer af inhalerings eksponering, er det konkluderet at udskiftning af luft i forholdet 2.2. vil medføre en markant reduktion i inhalerings eksponering. Vigtigheden af disse emissioner af helbredsmaessige hensyn afhaenger af om det er maengden eller antal af partikler inhaleret som giver dårligt heldbred.

The morphology, mineralogy, and magnetic properties of technogenic magnetic particles (TMPs) were analysed in four kinds of industrial dust produced during high temperature technological processes of different branches of industry (lignite and hard coal burning, cement production, coke production). The study was carried out by means of magnetic susceptibility measurement, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and thermomagnetic analysis. To assess the total content of the magnetic fraction in bulk dust samples, mass specific magnetic susceptibility (c) was measured and then a physical separation of magnetic particles (mostly of technogenic origin) was conducted. The dusts revealed high diversity of the c value, which was dependent on the magnetic particles' concentration and mineralogical composition. Significant differences in the magnetic mineralogy of dusts coming from different branches of industry were observed. In fly ashes from coal combustion, spherical forms (typical ferromagnetic spherules) of magnetite, magnesioferrite, and maghemite were mostly observed. In dusts after lignite combustion a higher content of antiferromagnetic hematite and maghemite was observed due to the lower temperature of lignite combustion. In cement dusts a large variety of iron minerals were observed including magnetite, maghemite, hematite, ferrites, and goethite. The characteristic mineral forms for cement dusts were Ca-ferrites and co-occurrence of calcite, anhydrite, gypsum, and bassanite with a magnetic mineral fraction. The magnetic fraction produced by the coke industry was mostly in the form of tightly compacted aggregates with well-formed crystal structures where ferromagnetic pyrrhotite was characteristic feature. The TMPs could be distinctive for pollution source identification and serve as a tracer of dust origin and (if found in topsoil) identification of soil pollution sources.

On a laboratory-scale testing platform of impinging entrained-flow gasifier with four opposed burners, the flame images for diesel combustion and gasification process were measured with a single charge coupled device (CCD) camera. The two-dimensional multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis was employed to investigate the multifractal nature of the flame images. Sound powerlaw scaling in the annealed average of detrended fluctuations was unveiled when the order q > 0 and the multifractal feature of flame images were confirmed. Further analyses identified two multifractal parameters, the minimum and maximum singularity αmin and αmax, serving as characteristic parameters of the multifractal flames. These two characteristic multifractal parameters vary with respect to different experimental conditions.

If there is any patentable material or protected data in the report, the recipient, consistent with the data protection provisions of the award, must mark the appropriate block in Section K of the DOE F 241.3, clearly specify it here, and identify them on appropriate pages of the report. Other than patentable material or protected data, reports must not contain any proprietary data (limited rights data), classified information, information subject to export control classification, or other information not subject to release. Protected data is specific technical data, first produced in the performance of the award, which is protected from public release for a period of time by the terms of the award agreement. Reports delivered without such notice may be deemed to have been furnished with unlimited rights, and the Government assumes no liability for the disclosure, reproduction or use of such reports.

Particulate matter, CO and NO as well as 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in both gaseous and particulate phases were measured in the stack of a woodchip-fired 50 kW boiler used for domestic heating. The concentrations of SPAHs in both gas and particle phases varied from 1.3 to 1631.7 mg m À3. Mean CO and NO concentrations varied from 96 to 6002 ppm and from 28 to 359 ppm, respectively. The effects of fuel parameters (moisture content (MC) and tree species) and boiler operating conditions on pollutant concentrations were investigated. A relationship was established between SPAHs in gaseous and particulate phases and CO concentrations. The species of tree used for woodchip was less important than MC and boiler operating conditions in affecting pollutant concentrations. It is recommended that in order to minimise PAH release woodchip fuel should have a low MC, and the boiler should be operated with a load demand (high/moderate heat requirement). Slumber modes when the boiler has no load demand and is effectively a smouldering flame should be avoided. This can be achieved by increasing automatic operation capability of wood-fired boilers, for example, by automatically varying fire rates and having auto-start capabilities. The PAH data obtained from this study is particularly useful in contributing to emissions inventories, modelling, and predictions of ambient air quality.

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

In this paper, the procedure of designing a gas turbine combustion chamber test rig test section operating at atmospheric conditions is described. This test rig can be used to evaluate the effects of geometric variations on the performance of the combustion chamber, as well as determining the flammability, stability and ignition maps, exhaust gas composition and temperature profile, and liner wall temperature. This rig has the potentiality of performing combustion tests with a maximum airflow rate of 800m3/h and preheated air up to 1000K, as well as different types of liquid or gas fuels.

In this paper, a comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling study was undertaken by integrating the combustion of pulverized dry lignite in several combustion environments. Four different cases were investigated: an air-fired and three different oxy-fuel combustion environments (25 vol.% O 2 concentration (OF25), 27 vol.% O 2 concentration (OF27), and 29 vol.% O 2 concentration (OF29) were considered. The chemical reactions (devolatilization and char burnout), convective and radiative heat transfer, fluid and particle flow fields (homogenous and heterogenous processes), and turbulent models were employed in 3-D hybrid unstructured grid CFD simulations. The available experimental results from a lab-scale 100 KW firing lignite unit (Chalmer's furnace) were selected for the validation of these simulations. The aerodynamic effect of primary and secondary registers of the burner was included through swirl at the burner inlet in order to achieve the flame stability inside the furnace. Validation and comparison of all the combustion cases with the experimental data were made by using the temperature distribution profiles and species concentration (O 2 , CO 2 , and H 2 O) profiles at the most intense combustion locations of the furnace. The overall visualization of the flame temperature distributions and oxygen concentrations were presented in the upper part of the furnace. The numerical results showed that the flame temperature distributions and O 2 consumptions of the OF25 case were approximately similar to the reference combustion case. In contrast, in the OF27 and OF29 combustion cases, the flame temperatures were higher and more confined in the closest region of the burner exit plane. This was a result of the quick consumption of oxygen that led to improve the ignition conditions in the latter combustion cases. Therefore, it is concluded that the resident time, stoichiometry, and recycled flue gas rates are relevant parameters to optimize the design of oxy-fuel furnaces. The findings showed reasonable agreement with the qualitative and quantitative measurements of temperature distribution profiles and species concentration profiles at the most intense combustion locations inside the furnace. These numerical results can provide useful information towards future modelling of the behaviour of pulverized brown coal in a large-scale oxy-fuel furnace/boiler in order to optimize the burner's and combustor's design.

The smoke formed in the cone calorimeter during the combustion of expanded polystyrene with and without fire retardant has been analysed. Gaseous products were condensed from the smoke and identified by GC-MS. The liquid components adsorbed on solid particles of the smoke were examined by microscopy-FTIR. The solid charred particles were characterised by SEM and X-ray microanalysis. It has been shown that pyrolysis dominates over thermal oxidation during combustion. The charred particles are essentially composed of carbon rich structures with negligible oxidation having occurred. The fire retardant somewhat modifies the characteristics of the combustion of expanded polystyrene and the composition of the smoke. #

The leather waste generated by the footwear industry is considered dangerous due to the presence of trivalent chromium, derived from the salt utilized to tan hides. In Brazil, the majority of this waste is disposed on landfills and only about 3% are recycled. The thermal treatment is an alternative method for purification of such residues. By using this technique it is possible to generate energy and recover the chromium present in the ash for the production of basic chromium sulfate (tanning industry), high carbon ferrochromium or carbon-free ferrochromium (steel industry). In the last 10 years, the gasification and combustion of footwear leather waste have been intensively studied at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. The research experiment for characterization of the emissions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) were carried out in a semi-pilot unit (350 kW th ). From new investments the thermal capacity of the unit will increase to 600 kW th . The unit will produce power from the heat generated in the combustion. The experimental results indicated that during the thermal treatment of footwear leather wastes, the formation mechanism of PCDD/F is the de novo synthesis. Most of PCDD/F were found in the particulate phase (>95%). A kinetic model was used for discussion of the achieved experimental results. The model is based in the carbon gasification, PCDD/F formation, desorption and degradation. From the conclusions obtained in this work will be possible minimize the PCDD/F formation in process of combustion of footwear leather wastes.

Smouldering combustion is the driving phenomenon of wildfire in peatlands, like those causing haze episodes in Southeast Asia and Northeast Europe. These are the largest fires on Earth and an extensive source of greenhouse gases, but poorly understood, becoming an emerging research topic in climate-change mitigation. In this work, a series of multistep heterogeneous kinetics are investigated to describe the drying and decomposition in smouldering combustion of peat. The decomposition schemes cover a range of complexity, including 2, 3 or 4-step schemes, and up to 4 solid pseudo-species. The schemes aim to describe the simultaneous pyrolysis and oxidation reactions in smouldering fires. The reaction rates are expressed by Arrhenius law, and a lumped model of mass loss is used to simulate the degradation behaviour seen during thermogravimetric (TG) experiments in both nitrogen and air atmospheres. A genetic algorithm is applied to solve the corresponding inverse problem using TG data from the literature, and find the best kinetic and stoichiometric parameters for four types of boreal peat from different geographical locations (North China, Scotland and Siberia). The results show that at the TG level, all proposed schemes seem to perform well, with a high degree of agreement resulting from the forced optimization in the inverse problem approach. The chemical validity of the schemes is then investigated outside the TG realm and incorporated into a 1-D plug-flow model to study the reaction and the species distribution inside a peat smouldering front. Both lateral and in-depth spread modes are considered. The results show that the drying sub-front is essential, and that the best kinetics is the 4-step decomposition (one pyrolysis, and three oxidations) plus 1-step drying with 5 condensed species (water, peat, α-char, β-char, and ash). This is the first time that the smouldering kinetics and the reaction-zone structure of a peat fire are explained and predicted, thus helping to understand this important natural and widespread phenomenon.

A conceptual trigeneration system is proposed based on the conventional gas turbine cycle for the high temperature heat addition while adopting the heat recovery steam generator for process heat and vapor absorption refrigeration for the cold production. Combined first and ...

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling study is undertaken integrating the air-fired and oxy-fuel combustion cases for chemical reactions, radiative heat transfer, and gas compositions into a 3-D hybrid unstructured grid CFD code. A swirl injection system is used to achieve the flame stability of the turbulent non-premixed combustible gases. An Eddy Breakup (EBU) combustion model with appropriate empirical coefficients is employed for this study. Validation and comparison of both combustion cases with the experimental data, which conducted on a 100 kW facility unit, were made by comparing the temperature distribution levels and species concentration levels. The oxy-fuel combustion case showed that the flame is obviously concentrated in the central region, and it is not spread inside the furnace compared to the air-fired flame. The swirl effect is certainly used to enhance the turbulent mixing and to achieve the internal recirculation of flames. By switching to oxy-fuel fired...

This paper presents an approach to analyze events leading to pluggage of a boiler. The proposed approach involves statistics, data partitioning, parameter reduction, and data mining. Two independent data mining algorithms have been applied to detect both static and dynamic relationships among the process parameters. The multi-angle data mining approach increases the ability to locate rare events as well as the reliability of the results. The proposed approach has been tested on a 750 MW commercial coal-fired boiler affected with an ash fouling condition that leads to boiler pluggage, thus resulting in unscheduled shutdowns. The cause of the boiler pluggage is not known. The rare event detection method presented in the paper identifies several critical time-based data segments that are indicative of the boiler pluggage. The events define a set of general guidelines that when followed should reduce the likelihood of boiler pluggage. The knowledge extracted by the data mining algorithm is an important component of an intelligent alarm system.

The objective of this research was to test suitability of the Dumas combustion method to completely substitute the Kjeldahl method in routine laboratory determination of crude protein content in cereals and oilseeds. The validation of the method demonstrated that it is able to determine crude protein content in cereals and oilseeds in an efficient and accurate manner, with a detection

Size distributions of particulate hopanes, steranes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in the exhaust from four heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs) operated under idle, creep, transient, and two highspeed driving modes. Particulate matter was collected using a chassis dynamometer and a dilution sampling system equipped with cascade impactors and filter samplers. Samples were extracted using organic solvents and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Size distributions of hopanes and steranes were functions of engine load conditions and vehicle technology. Hopanes and steranes peaked in size ranges larger than 0.18 µm aerodynamic particle diameter under light load conditions and less than 0.10 µm aerodynamic particle diameter under heavier load conditions. The eight hopane size distributions emitted from newer technology (>1998) vehicles were unimodal while the four hopane size distributions emitted from older technology vehicles (<1992) were bimodal. Similar trends between older and newer vehicles were not observed for sterane size distributions. The PAH composition emitted from HDDVs was a function of driving cycle and vehicle technology. Light driving cycles produced quantifiable emissions of 3, 4, 5, and 6 ring PAHs (including coronene). Heavier driving cycles produced only the 3 and 4 ring PAHs in quantifiable amounts. PM1.8 and PM0.1 source profiles constructed using the relative abundance of hopanes and steranes to total organic carbon were functions of vehicle load condition. Increasing load reduced the relative abundance of motor oil tracers in the PM1.8 size fraction and increased the abundance of these tracers in the PM0.1 size fraction. The relative abundances of PAHs in the PM0.1 and PM1.8 size fractions emitted from the oldest vehicle tested (1985 HDDV) were significantly higher than for any other vehicle tested.

This book contains a collection of the main contributions from the first five workshops held by Ercoftac Special Interest Group on Synthetic Turbulence Models (SIG42. It is intended as an illustration of the sig’s activities and of the latest developments in the field.

This volume investigates the use of Kinematic Simulation (KS) and other synthetic turbulence models for the particular application to environmental flows.
This volume offers the best syntheses on the research status in KS, which is widely used in various domains, including Lagrangian aspects in turbulence mixing/stirring, particle dispersion/clustering, and last but not least, aeroacoustics. Flow realizations with complete spatial, and sometime spatio-temporal, dependency, are generated via superposition of random modes (mostly spatial, and sometime spatial and temporal, Fourier modes), with prescribed constraints such as: strict incompressibility (divergence-free velocity field at each point), high Reynolds energy spectrum. Recent improvements consisted in incorporating linear dynamics, for instance in rotating and/or stably-stratified flows, with possible easy generalization to MHD flows, and perhaps to plasmas. KS for channel flows have also been validated. However, the absence of "sweeping effects" in present conventional KS versions is identified as a major drawback in very different applications: inertial particle clustering as well as in aeroacoustics. Nevertheless, this issue was addressed in some reference papers, and merits to be revisited in the light of new studies in progress.

Content Level » Research

Keywords » atmospheric flows - fractal fluids - isotropic turbulence - lagrangian dispersion - multiphase flows - super fluids - synthetic turbulence models

As the waste industry continues to move from a disposal-based system to one based on a combination of recovery options, the need for information on the composition of waste increases and this is reflected by the amount of information on the physical composition of municipal solid wastes that is now available. However, there is far less information on the chemical composition of municipal solid waste. The results from a number of chemical surveys from Europe are compared and show a reasonable degree of agreement, but several problems were identified with the data. Chemical and physical compositional data are combined in a case study example to investigate the flow of key potential pollutants in an integrated solid waste management system that uses materials recycling, composting, incineration and landfilling. This case study has shown that an integrated waste management strategy diverts lead and cadmium away from composting and recycling to incineration, which effectively isolates these elements from the environment through efficient capture of the pollutants followed by secure landfilling or recycling of the residues. However, further work is needed to determine the distribution of mercury in incineration residues and its fate when the residues are landfilled.

Crude oil price hikes, energy security concerns and environmental drivers have turned the focus on alternative fuels. Gas to liquid (GTL) diesel is regarded as a promising alternative diesel fuel, considering the adeptness to use directly as a diesel fuel or in blends with petroleumderived diesel or bio-diesel. GTL fuel derived from Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is of distinctly different characteristics than fossil diesel fuel due to its paraffinic nature, virtually zero sulfur, low aromatic contents and very high cetane number. GTL fuel is referred to as a "clean fuel" for its inherent ability to reduce engine exhaust emission even with blends of diesel and Biodiesel. This paper illustrates feasibility of GTL fuel in context of comparative fuel properties with conventional diesel and bio-diesels. This review also describes the technical attributes of GTL and its blends with diesel and bio-diesel focusing their impact on engine performance and emission characteristics on the basis of the previous research works. It can introduce an efficacious guideline to devise several blends of alternative fuels, further development of engine performance and to constrain exhaust emission to cope with the relentless efforts to manufacture efficient and environment friendly powertrains.

This review covers mainly intumescent coatings, with briefer discussions of non-intumescent organic fire-resistive coatings and cementitious inorganic coatings. Emphasis is placed on the more recent developments, and the more recent patent literature is surveyed. Modeling and optimizing are covered both from basic and applied aspects. The chemistry of the production of a foamed char barrier is discussed. Enhancing the performance by adjuvants and choice of binders is shown to be possible. The important interactions of ammonium polyphosphate with other components such as titanium dioxide are described. Testing is briefly discussed, as are some shortcomings of present-day coatings, such as limited water resistance, and some opportunities for improvement.