Optimal conditions for the wetting balance test

Wetting balance tests of copper sheets submerged in tin solder baths were carried out in a completely automatic wetting balance. Wetting curves were examined for three different values of sheet thickness and four different solder bath temperatures. Most of the wetting curves showed a distorted shape relative to that of a standard curve, preventing calculation of important wetting parameters, such as the wetting rate and the wetting force. The wetting tests showed that the distortion increased for a thicker sheet thickness and a lower solder bath temperature, being the result of solder bath solidification around the submerged sheet substrate. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of phosphorylated resins in the removal of Pb(2+) from aqueous solutions

Phosphinic-derivative poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene)-based on PS-DVB copolymers with different porosity degrees have been prepared by aromatic electrophilic substitution reaction using PCl(3)/AlCl(3) followed by base-promoted hydrolysis. The phosphorylation reaction was analyzed by infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetry (TG/DTG). In addition, the phosphorous content of the phosphorylated copolymers was determined by spectrophotometry using the method based on sodium molybdate reactant so that the extension of that modification could be assessed. The performance of the phosphorylated resins in the extraction of Pb(2+) from aqueous solutions in a batch system was also evaluated. The Pb(2+) content was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). These materials presented excellent extraction capacity under the contact time of 30 min and pH 6.

Gas flow analysis in a Kraft recovery boiler

Demands for optimal boiler performance and increased concerns in lowering emission have always been the driving force in the reevaluation and evolution of the Kraft boiler: specifically the air distribution strategies that are directly related to achieving increased residence time of flue gas combustion inside the furnace which in turn lowers atmosphere emission levels and enhances boiler operation. This paper presents the results of a study that analyzes the interaction of the different multilevel air injections have on flue gas flow patterns including various quaternary air supply arrangements. Additionally, this study assesses the performance of the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model against data available in literature. Simulations were performed considering isothermal and incompressible flows, and did not take into account thermal phenomena or chemical reactions. The numerical solutions generated proved to be coherently related to the data available in literature, and provided proof of the efficiency of tertiary level air injection, as well as revealed that quaternary air injection ports arranged in a symmetrical configuration is most suitable for optimal equipment operation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Batch Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Phenol from Aqueous Solutions

The aim of this work is the study of batch liquid-liquid extraction of phenol from aqueous solutions in a bench-scale well-mixed reactor. The influence of the ratio of phase volumes, temperature, and rotational speed on phenol removal (0.72-1.1% w/w) was investigated using methyl isobutyl ketone as an extracting solvent. For this purpose, the ratio of phase volumes were set at 0.1 and 0.2, the temperature at 10, 20, and 30 degrees C, and the rotational speed at 300, 400, and 500 rpm. A physical model based on the material balance of the phases as well as the equation of mass flux between the phases allowed the estimation of the overall coefficient of mass transfer coupled with the superficial area. Moreover, it proved to fit, satisfactorily well, the experimental data of residual phenol concentration in the organic phase versus time under all the conditions investigated.

WATER ACTIVITY OF AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS OF ETHYLENE OXIDE-PROPYLENE OXIDE BLOCK COPOLYMERS AND MALTODEXTRINS

The water activity of aqueous solutions of EO-PO block copolymers of six different molar masses and EO/PO ratios and of maltodextrins of three different molar masses was determined at 298.15 K. The results showed that these aqueous solutions present a negative deviation from Raoult`s law. The Flory-Huggins and UNIFAC excess Gibbs energy models were employed to model the experimental data. While a good agreement was obtained with the Flory-Huggins equation, discrepancies were observed when predicting the experimental behavior with the UNIFAC model. The water activities of ternary systems formed by a synthetic polymer, maltodextrin and water were also measured and used to test the predictive capability of both models.

Stable Model Predictive Control for Integrating Systems with Optimizing Targets

This paper concern the development of a stable model predictive controller (MPC) to be integrated with real time optimization (RTO) in the control structure of a process system with stable and integrating outputs. The real time process optimizer produces Optimal targets for the system inputs and for Outputs that Should be dynamically implemented by the MPC controller. This paper is based oil a previous work (Comput. Chem. Eng. 2005, 29, 1089) where a nominally stable MPC was proposed for systems with the conventional control approach where only the outputs have set points. This work is also based oil the work of Gonzalez et at. (J. Process Control 2009, 19, 110) where the zone control of stable systems is studied. The new control for is obtained by defining ail extended control objective that includes input targets and zone controller the outputs. Additional decision variables are also defined to increase the set of feasible solutions to the control problem. The hard constraints resulting from the cancellation of the integrating modes Lit the end of the control horizon are softened,, and the resulting control problem is made feasible to a large class of unknown disturbances and changes of the optimizing targets. The methods are illustrated with the simulated application of the proposed,approaches to a distillation column of the oil refining industry.

A systemic approach for optimal cooling tower operation

The thermal performance of a cooling tower and its cooling water system is critical for industrial plants, and small deviations from the design conditions may cause severe instability in the operation and economics of the process. External disturbances such as variation in the thermal demand of the process or oscillations in atmospheric conditions may be suppressed in multiple ways. Nevertheless, such alternatives are hardly ever implemented in the industrial operation due to the poor coordination between the utility and process sectors. The complexity of the operation increases because of the strong interaction among the process variables. In the present work, an integrated model for the minimization of the operating costs of a cooling water system is developed. The system is composed of a cooling tower as well as a network of heat exchangers. After the model is verified, several cases are studied with the objective of determining the optimal operation. It is observed that the most important operational resources to mitigate disturbances in the thermal demand of the process are, in this order: the increase in recycle water flow rate, the increase in air flow rate and finally the forced removal of a portion of the water flow rate that enters the cooling tower with the corresponding make-up flow rate. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimal synthesis of anaerobic digester networks

The objective of this paper is to develop a mathematical model for the synthesis of anaerobic digester networks based on the optimization of a superstructure that relies on a non-linear programming formulation. The proposed model contains the kinetic and hydraulic equations developed by Pontes and Pinto [Chemical Engineering journal 122 (2006) 65-80] for two types of digesters, namely UASB (Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket) and EGSB (Expanded Granular Sludge Bed) reactors. The objective function minimizes the overall sum of the reactor volumes. The optimization results show that a recycle stream is only effective in case of a reactor with short-circuit, such as the UASB reactor. Sensitivity analysis was performed in the one and two-digester network superstructures, for the following parameters: UASB reactor short-circuit fraction and the EGSB reactor maximum organic load, and the corresponding results vary considerably in terms of digester volumes. Scenarios for three and four-digester network superstructures were optimized and compared with the results from fewer digesters. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermodynamics of aqueous solutions of polyelectrolytes: Experimental results for the activity of water in aqueous solutions of (a single synthetic polyelectrolyte and sodium chloride)

Experimental results for the activity of water in aqueous solutions of 10 single, synthetic polyelectrolytes (polysodium acrylate, polysodium methacrylate, polyammonium acrylate, polysodium ethylene sulfonate, and polysodium styrene sulfonate) and sodium chloride at 298.2 K are presented. The experimental work was performed by applying the isopiestic method with sodium chloride as a reference substance. As expected, the activity of water decreases when the concentration of a polyelectrolyte and/or sodium chloride increases. At constant concentration of a polyelectrolyte and sodium chloride, the activity of water depends on the monomer unit and the molecular mass of the polyelectrolyte. The new data are to be used in future work to develop and test models for the Gibbs excess energy of aqueous solutions of polyelectrolytes.

An extension of the Pitzer equation for the excess Gibbs energy of aqueous electrolyte systems to aqueous polyelectrolyte solutions

Pitzer`s equation for the excess Gibbs energy of aqueous solutions of low-molecular electrolytes is extended to aqueous solutions of polyelectrolytes. The model retains the original form of Pitzer`s model (combining a long-range term, based on the Debye-Huckel equation, with a short-range term similar to the virial equation where the second osmotic virial coefficient depends on the ionic strength). The extension consists of two parts: at first, it is assumed that a constant fraction of the monomer units of the polyelectrolyte is dissociated, i.e., that fraction does not depend on the concentration of the polyelectrolyte, and at second, a modified expression for the ionic strength (wherein each charged monomer group is taken into account individually) is introduced. This modification is to account for the presence of charged polyelectrolyte chains, which cannot be regarded as punctual charges. The resulting equation was used to correlate osmotic coefficient data of aqueous solutions of a single polyelectrolyte as well as of binary mixtures of a single polyelectrolyte and a salt with low-molecular weight. It was additionally applied to correlate liquid-liquid equilibrium data of some aqueous two-phase systems that might form when a polyelectrolyte and another hydrophilic but neutral polymer are simultaneously dissolved in water. A good agreement between the experimental data and the correlation result is observed for all investigated systems. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermodynamics of aqueous solutions of polyelectrolytes: Experimental results for the activity of water in aqueous solutions of some single synthetic polyelectrolytes

Experimental results for the activity of water in aqueous solutions of 10 single polyelectrolytes (two polysodium acrylates, two polysodium methacrylates, three polyammonium acrylates, two polysodium ethylene sulfonates, and one polysodium styrene sulfonate) at (298.2 and 323.2) K are reported. The isopiestic method was employed in these experiments with aqueous solutions of sodium chloride as references. The polyelectrolytes were characterized by three averaged molecular masses determined by gel permeation chromatography. Furthermore, the density and the refractive index increments of the aqueous polyelectrolyte solutions are reported. Although a similar pattern for the activity of water was observed for all systems (i.e., the osmotic coefficient increases with rising polyelectrolyte concentration), the experimental results show that this property depends on the monomer type as well as on the size of the polymer chain. The temperature (varied from (298.2 to 323.2) K) has only a small influence on the activity of water.

Discrete-time mean variance optimal control of linear systems with Markovian jumps and multiplicative noise

In this article, we consider the stochastic optimal control problem of discrete-time linear systems subject to Markov jumps and multiplicative noise under three kinds of performance criterions related to the final value of the expectation and variance of the output. In the first problem it is desired to minimise the final variance of the output subject to a restriction on its final expectation, in the second one it is desired to maximise the final expectation of the output subject to a restriction on its final variance, and in the third one it is considered a performance criterion composed by a linear combination of the final variance and expectation of the output of the system. We present explicit sufficient conditions for the existence of an optimal control strategy for these problems, generalising previous results in the literature. We conclude this article presenting a numerical example of an asset liabilities management model for pension funds with regime switching.

Generalized Coupled Algebraic Riccati Equations for Discrete-time Markov Jump with Multiplicative Noise Systems

In this paper we consider the existence of the maximal and mean square stabilizing solutions for a set of generalized coupled algebraic Riccati equations (GCARE for short) associated to the infinite-horizon stochastic optimal control problem of discrete-time Markov jump with multiplicative noise linear systems. The weighting matrices of the state and control for the quadratic part are allowed to be indefinite. We present a sufficient condition, based only on some positive semi-definite and kernel restrictions on some matrices, under which there exists the maximal solution and a necessary and sufficient condition under which there exists the mean square stabilizing solution fir the GCARE. We also present a solution for the discounted and long run average cost problems when the performance criterion is assumed be composed by a linear combination of an indefinite quadratic part and a linear part in the state and control variables. The paper is concluded with a numerical example for pension fund with regime switching.

Non-linear modal analysis for beams subjected to axial loads: Analytical and finite-element solutions

A rigorous derivation of non-linear equations governing the dynamics of an axially loaded beam is given with a clear focus to develop robust low-dimensional models. Two important loading scenarios were considered, where a structure is subjected to a uniformly distributed axial and a thrust force. These loads are to mimic the main forces acting on an offshore riser, for which an analytical methodology has been developed and applied. In particular, non-linear normal modes (NNMs) and non-linear multi-modes (NMMs) have been constructed by using the method of multiple scales. This is to effectively analyse the transversal vibration responses by monitoring the modal responses and mode interactions. The developed analytical models have been crosschecked against the results from FEM simulation. The FEM model having 26 elements and 77 degrees-of-freedom gave similar results as the low-dimensional (one degree-of-freedom) non-linear oscillator, which was developed by constructing a so-called invariant manifold. The comparisons of the dynamical responses were made in terms of time histories, phase portraits and mode shapes. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extension of a Recent Method for Obtaining Exact Solutions of the Bruce and Klute Equation

A method based on a specific power-law relationship between the hydraulic head and the Boltzmann variable was recently presented. We generalized this relationship to a range of powers and extended the solution to include the saturated zone. As a result, the new solution satisfies the Bruce and Klute equation exactly.