Fixed bed pyrolysis of pulm seed waste for liquid oil production

Among various thermo-chemical conversion processes, pyrolysis is considered as an emerging technology for liquid oil production. The conversion of biomass waste in the form of plum seed into pyrolysis oil by fixed bed pyrolysis reactor has been taken into consideration in this study. A fixed bed pyrolysis has been designed and fabricated for obtaining liquid fuel from this plum seeds. The major component of the system are fixed bed pyrolysis reactor, liquid condenser and liquid collectors. The plum seed in particle form is pyrolysed in an externally heated 7.6 cm diameter and 46 cm high fixed bed reactor with nitrogen as the carrier gas. The reactor is heated by means of a biomass source cylindrical heater from 4000C to 6000C. The products are oil, char and gas. The reactor bed temperature, running time and feed particle size are considered as process parameters. The parameters are found to influence the product yield significantly. A maximum liquid yield of 39 wt% of biomass feed is obtained with particle size of 2.36-4.75 mm at a reactor bed temperature of 520oC with a running time of 120 minutes. The pyrolysis oil obtained at this optimum process conditions are analyzed for some fuel properties and compared with some other biomass derived pyrolysis oils and conventional fuels. The oil is found to possess favorable flash point and reasonable density and viscosity. The higher calorific value is found to be 22.39 MJ/kg which is higher than other biomass derived pyrolysis oils.

Production of liquid fuel and activated carbon from mahogany seed by using pyrolysis technology

The renovation of biomass waste in the form of Mahogany seed waste into bio-fuel as well as activated carbon by fixed bed pyrolysis reactor has been taken into consideration in this study. The mahogany seed in particle form is pyrolyzed in an enormously heated fixed bed reactor with nitrogen as the carrier gas. The reactor is heated from 4000C to 6000C using a external heater in which rice husk and charcoal are used as the heater biomass fuel. Reactor bed temperature, running time and feed particle size have been varied to get the optimum operating conditions of the system. The parameters are found to influence the product yields to a large extent. A maximum liquid and char yield are 49 wt. % and 35 wt. % respectively obtained at a reactor bed temperature 5000C when the running time is 90 minutes. Acquired pyrolyzed oil at these optimal process conditions were analyzed for some of their properties as an alternative fuel. The oil possesses comparable flame temperature, favorable flash point and reasonable viscosity along with somewhat higher density. The kinematic viscosity of the derived fuel is 3.8 cSt and density is 1525 kg/m3. The higher calorific value is found 32.4 MJ/kg which is significantly higher than other biomass derived fuel. Moderate adsorption capacity of the prepared activated carbon in case of methyl blue & tea water was also revealed.

A comparative study on pyrolysis for liquid oil from different biomass solid wastes

Locally available different bbiomass solid wastes, pine seed, date seed, plum seed, nutshell, hay of catkin, rice husk, jute stick, saw-dust, wheat straw and linseed residue in the particle form have been pyrolyzed in laboratory scale fixed bed reactor. The products obtained are pyrolysis oil, solid char and gas. The oil and char are collected while the gas is flared into atmosphere. The variation of oil yield for different biomass feedstock with reaction parameters like, reactor bed temperature, feed size and running time is presented in a comparative way in the paper. A maximum liquid yield of 55 wt% of dry feedstock is obtained at an optimum temperature of 500 °C for a feed size of 300-600 μm with a running time of 55 min with nutshell as the feedstock while the minimum liquid yield is found to be 30 wt% of feedstock at an optimum temperature of 400 °C for a feed size of 2.36 mm with a running time of 65 min for linseed residue. A detailed study on the variation of product yields with reaction parameters is presented for the latest investigation with pine seed as the feedstock where a maximum liquid yield of 40 wt% of dry feedstock is obtained at an optimum temperature of 500 °C for a feed size of 2.36-2.76 mm with a running time of 120 min. The characterization of the pyrolysis oil is carried out and a comparison of some selected properties of the oil is presented. From the study it is exhibited that the biomass solid wastes have the potential to be converted into liquid oil as a source of renewable energy with some further upgrading of the products.

Towards a model of spray-canopy interactions : interception, shatter, bounce and retention of droplets on horizontal leaves

Pesticides used in agricultural systems must be applied in economically viable and environmentally sensitive ways, and this often requires expensive field trials on spray deposition and retention by plant foliage. Computational models to describe whether a spray droplet sticks (adheres), bounces or shatters on impact, and if any rebounding parent or shatter daughter droplets are recaptured, would provide an estimate of spray retention and thereby act as a useful guide prior to any field trials. Parameter-driven interactive software has been implemented to enable the end-user to study and visualise droplet interception and impaction on a single, horizontal leaf. Living chenopodium, wheat and cotton leaves have been scanned to capture the surface topography and realistic virtual leaf surface models have been generated. Individual leaf models have then been subjected to virtual spray droplets and predictions made of droplet interception with the virtual plant leaf. Thereafter, the impaction behaviour of the droplets and the subsequent behaviour of any daughter droplets, up until re-capture, are simulated to give the predicted total spray retention by the leaf. A series of critical thresholds for the stick, bounce, and shatter elements in the impaction process have been developed for different combinations of formulation, droplet size and velocity, and leaf surface characteristics to provide this output. The results show that droplet properties, spray formulations and leaf surface characteristics all influence the predicted amount of spray retained on a horizontal leaf surface. Overall the predicted spray retention increases as formulation surface tension, static contact angle, droplet size and velocity decreases. Predicted retention on cotton is much higher than on chenopodium. The average predicted retention on a single horizontal leaf across all droplet size, velocity and formulations scenarios tested, is 18, 30 and 85% for chenopodium, wheat and cotton, respectively.

Effect of palygorskite clay on pyrolysis of rape straw : an in situ catalysis study

Biomass tar restricts the wide application and development of biomass gasification technology. In the present paper, palygorskite, a natural magnesium-containing clay mineral, was investigated for catalytic pyrolysis of rape straw in situ and compared with the dolomite researched widely. The two types of natural minerals were characterized with XRD and BET. The results showed that combustible gas derived from the pyrolysis increased with an increase in gasification temperature. The Hconversion and Cconversion increased to 44.7% and 31% for the addition of palygorskite and increased to 41.3% and 31.3% for the addition of dolomite at the gasification temperature of 800 °C, compared with 15.1% and 5.6% without addition of the two types of material. It indicated that more biomass was converted into combustible gases implying the decrease in biomass tar under the function of palygorskite or dolomite and palygorskite had a slightly better efficiency than that of dolomite in the experimental conditions.

The Deleuze Spray, New York 1977 : an Interview with Sanford Kwinter, Professor of Architectural Theory and Criticism at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, on the Architectural Reception of Gilles Deleuze in America

So what do you want to know? I was in Paris between ‘75 and ‘78. But about half way through, Sylvère published the Anti-Oedipus issue of Semiotext(e) and, actually, that was for me one of the deciding events that made me decide to come to the United States, to come study at Columbia University. There appeared to be this little group working at Columbia working around these issues. In 1970, in Paris even, Deleuze was a cult – there was an incredibly small number of people following Deleuze... A transcript of my Interview with Kwinter about the Architectural Reception of Deleuze in America, which took place at Jerry’s,' Soho, New York, 15 January 2003. The transcript appeared as an Appendix at the back of my Masters Thesis undertaken at Yale School of Architecture, printed May 2003.

Paint spray mass spectrometry for the detection of additives from polymers on conducting surfaces

Paint Spray is developed as a direct sampling ionisation method for mass spectrometric analysis of additives in polymer-based surface coatings. The technique simply involves applying an external high voltage (5 kV) to the wetted sample placed in front of the mass spectrometer inlet and represents a much simpler ionisation technique compared to those currently available. The capabilities of Paint Spray are demonstrated herein with the detection of four commercially available hindered amine light stabilisers; TINUVIN® 770, TINUVIN® 292, TINUVIN® 123 and TINUVIN® 152 directly from thermoset polyester-based coil coatings. Paint Spray requires no sample preparation or pre-treatment and combined with its simplicity - requiring no specialised equipment - makes it ideal for use by non-specialists. The application of Paint Spray for industrial use has significant potential as sample collection from a coil coating production line and Paint Spray ionisation could enable fast quality control screening at high sensitivity.

Solar Assisted Fast Pyrolysis: A Novel Approach of Renewable Energy Production

Biofuel produced by fast pyrolysis from biomass is a promising candidate. The heart of the system is a reactor which is directly or indirectly heated to approximately 500°C by exhaust gases from a combustor that burns pyrolysis gas and some of the by-product char. In most of the cases, external biomass heater is used as heating source of the system while internal electrical heating is recently implemented as source of reactor heating. However, this heating system causes biomass or other conventional forms of fuel consumption to produce renewable energy and contributes to environmental pollution. In order to overcome these, the feasibility of incorporating solar energy with fast pyrolysis has been investigated. The main advantages of solar reactor heating include renewable source of energy, comparatively simpler devices, and no environmental pollution. A lab scale pyrolysis setup has been examined along with 1.2 m diameter parabolic reflector concentrator that provides hot exhaust gas up to 162°C. The study shows that about 32.4% carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and almost one-third portion of fuel cost are reduced by incorporating solar heating system. Successful implementation of this proposed solar assisted pyrolysis would open a prospective window of renewable energy.

Sources and composition of sub-200 nm sea spray aerosol inferred from volatility and hygroscopicity

Enrichment of marine organics in remote marine aerosols can influence their ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), which are sites for water vapour to condense into cloud droplets. This project identified the composition and hygroscopicity of sea spray aerosol (SSA) formed at the ocean surface due to bursting of entrained air bubbles. SSA from organically enriched waters in the southwest Pacific and Southern Oceans were investigated. Results indicate that current emission schemes may not adequately predict SSA CCN, influencing the representation of cloud formation in climate modelling.

Influence of the structural characteristic of pyrolysis products on thermal stability of styrene-butadiene rubber composites reinforced by different particle sized kaolinites

A series of rubber composites were prepared by blending styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) latex and the different particle sized kaolinites. The thermal stabilities of the rubber composites were characterized using thermogravimetry, digital photography, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Kaolinite SBR composites showed much greater thermal stability when compared with that of the pure SBR. With the increase of kaolinite particle size, the pyrolysis products became much looser; the char layer and crystalline carbon content gradually decreased in the pyrolysis residues. The pyrolysis residues of the SBR composites filled with the different particle sized kaolinites showed some remarkable changes in structural characteristics. The increase of kaolinite particle size was not beneficial to form the compact and stable crystalline carbon in the pyrolysis process, and resulted in a negative influence in improving the thermal stability of kaolinite/SBR composites.

The development of virtual leaf surface models for interactive agrichemical spray applications

This project constructed virtual plant leaf surfaces from digitised data sets for use in droplet spray models. Digitisation techniques for obtaining data sets for cotton, chenopodium and wheat leaves are discussed and novel algorithms for the reconstruction of the leaves from these three plant species are developed. The reconstructed leaf surfaces are included into agricultural droplet spray models to investigate the effect of the nozzle and spray formulation combination on the proportion of spray retained by the plant. A numerical study of the post-impaction motion of large droplets that have formed on the leaf surface is also considered.

Impaction of spray droplets on leaves: Influence of formulation and leaf character on shatter, bounce and adhesion

This paper combines experimental data with simple mathematical models to investigate the influence of spray formulation type and leaf character (wettability) on shatter, bounce and adhesion of droplets impacting with cotton, rice and wheat leaves. Impaction criteria that allow for different angles of the leaf surface and the droplet impact trajectory are presented; their predictions are based on whether combinations of droplet size and velocity lie above or below bounce and shatter boundaries. In the experimental component, real leaves are used, with all their inherent natural variability. Further, commercial agricultural spray nozzles are employed, resulting in a range of droplet characteristics. Given this natural variability, there is broad agreement between the data and predictions. As predicted, the shatter of droplets was found to increase as droplet size and velocity increased, and the surface became harder to wet. Bouncing of droplets occurred most frequently on hard to wet surfaces with high surface tension mixtures. On the other hand, a number of small droplets with low impact velocity were observed to bounce when predicted to lie well within the adhering regime. We believe this discrepancy between the predictions and experimental data could be due to air layer effects that were not taken into account in the current bounce equations. Other discrepancies between experiment and theory are thought to be due to the current assumption of a dry impact surface, whereas, in practice, the leaf surfaces became increasingly covered with fluid throughout the spray test runs.

Sodium and lithium storage properties of spray-dried molybdenum disulfide-graphene hierarchical microspheres

Developing nano/micro-structures which can effectively upgrade the intriguing properties of electrode materials for energy storage devices is always a key research topic. Ultrathin nanosheets were proved to be one of the potential nanostructures due to their high specific surface area, good active contact areas and porous channels. Herein, we report a unique hierarchical micro-spherical morphology of well-stacked and completely miscible molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets and graphene sheets, were successfully synthesized via a simple and industrial scale spray-drying technique to take the advantages of both MoS2 and graphene in terms of their high practical capacity values and high electronic conductivity, respectively. Computational studies were performed to understand the interfacial behaviour of MoS2 and graphene, which proves high stability of the composite with high interfacial binding energy (−2.02 eV) among them. Further, the lithium and sodium storage properties have been tested and reveal excellent cyclic stability over 250 and 500 cycles, respectively, with the highest initial capacity values of 1300 mAh g−1 and 640 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1.

Nutritional status and the foraging behaviour of Bactrocera tryoni with particular reference to protein bait spray

Poisoned protein baits comprise a recognized method for controlling tephritid fruit flies in the form of a ‘lure-and-kill’ technique. However, little is known about how a fly's internal protein and carbohydrate levels (i.e. nutritional status) might influence the efficacy of this control. In the present study, the relationships between the internal levels of protein (as measured by total body nitrogen) and carbohydrate (as measured by total body carbon) of the fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Diptera: Tephritidae) are investigated, as well as its foraging behaviours in response to protein, fruit and cue-lure (a male-specific attractant) baits. Small cage behavioural experiments are conducted using flies from cultures of different nutritional status and wild flies sampled from the field during the fruiting cycle of a guava crop. For female flies, increasing total body nitrogen is correlated with decreased protein foraging and increased oviposition activity; increasing total body carbon levels generate the same behavioural changes except that the oviposition response is not significant. For males, there are no significant correlations between changes in total body nitrogen and total body carbon and protein or cue-lure foraging. For wild flies from the guava orchard, almost all of them are sexually mature when entering the crop and, over the entire season, total body nitrogen and total body carbon levels are such that protein hunger is unlikely for most flies. The results infer strongly that the requirements of wild, sexually mature flies for protein are minimal and that flies can readily gain sufficient nutrients from wild sources for their physiological needs. The results offer a mechanistic explanation for the poor response of male and mature female fruit flies to protein bait spray.

Mathematical modelling of the impaction and spreading of spray droplets on leaves

This thesis concerns the development of mathematical models to describe the interactions that occur between spray droplets and leaves. Models are presented that not only provide a contribution to mathematical knowledge in the field of fluid dynamics, but are also of utility within the agrichemical industry. The thesis is presented in two parts. First, thin film models are implemented with efficient numerical schemes in order to simulate droplets on virtual leaf surfaces. Then the interception event is considered, whereby energy balance techniques are employed to instantaneously predict whether an impacting droplet will bounce, splash, or adhere to a leaf.