Análise da Conformidade e Caracterização da Matéria- Prima Empregada na Fabricação de Blocos Cerâmicos na Região Metropolitana de Salvador

The potential market of the metropolitan area of Salvador accounts for the estimated consumption of roughly 800 million horizontally perforated extruded clay bricks a year. The growing demand of consumers along with the competitiveness of the structural ceramic sector has driven forward a number of recent efforts and investments towards improving the quality of structural ceramics. In this scenario, the present study focused on sampling and evaluating the conformity of 8-hole horizontally perforated extruded clay bricks manufactured by different plants (A, B and C) in the metropolitan area of Salvador. In addition, representative clay and sandy-clay materials were collected from each plant and characterized by conventional physical, chemical and mineralogical techniques. Finally, experimental compositions designated as A, B and C, according to the source, were prepared by mixing different contents of the raw materials collected in the plants, fired at different temperatures and characterized. The results revealed a series of non conformities regarding ABNT guidelines. The characterization of raw materials revealed the presence of kaolinite and ilite in concentrations ranging from 64 to 90 wt.% along with free quartz (10 - 25%). The sandy-clay samples consisted basically of kaolinite. All raw materials depicted low contents of organics, amorphous constituents, alkaline oxides and feldspar. An analysis of the firing behavior of all different ceramic compositions revealed that the linear contraction of composition A was rather significant considering the temperature range evaluated, and it justifies the significant dimensional non conformity that was shown by bricks made with the ceramic A

Palma forrageira (Opuntia ficus indica e Nopalea cochenillifera) como matéria-prima para produção de etanol celulósico e enzimas celulolíticas

The need for new sources of energy and the concern about the environment have pushed the search for renewable energy sources such as ethanol. The use of lignocellulosic biomass as substrate appears as an important alternative because of the abundance of this raw material and for it does not compete with food production. However, the process still meets difficulties of implementation, including the cost for production of enzymes that degrade cellulose to fermentable sugars. The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavior of the species of cactus pear Opuntia ficus indica and Nopalea cochenillifera, commonly found in northeastern Brazil, as raw materials for the production of: 1) cellulosic ethanol by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process, using two different strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (PE-2 and LNF CA-11), and 2) cellulolytic enzymes by semi-solid state fermentation (SSSF) using the filamentous fungus Penicillium chrysogenum. Before alcoholic fermentation process, the material was conditioned and pretreated by three different strategies: alkaline hydrogen peroxide, alkaline using NaOH and acid using H2SO4 followed by alkaline delignification with NaOH. Analysis of composition, crystallinity and enzymatic digestibility were carried out with the material before and after pretreatment. In addition, scanning electron microscopy images were used to compare qualitatively the material and observe the effects of pretreatments. An experimental design 2² with triplicate at the central point was used to evaluate the influence of temperature (30, 40 and 45 °C) and the initial charge of substrate (3, 4 and 5% cellulose) in the SSF process using the material obtained through the best condition and testing both strains of S. cerevisiae, one of them flocculent (LNF CA-11). For cellulase production, the filamentous fungus P. chrysogenum was tested with N. cochenillifera in the raw condition (without pretreatment) and pretrated hydrothermically, varying the pH of the fermentative medium (3, 5 and 7). The characterization of cactus pear resulted in 31.55% cellulose, 17.12% hemicellulose and 10.25% lignin for N. cochenillifera and 34.86% cellulose, 19.97% hemicellulose and 15.72% lignin for O. ficus indica. It has also been determined, to N. cochenillifera and O. ficus indica, the content of pectin (5.44% and 5.55% of calcium pectate, respectively), extractives (26.90% and 9.69%, respectively) and ashes (5.40% and 5.95%). Pretreatment using alkaline hydrogen peroxide resulted in the best cellulose recovery results (86.16% for N. cochenillifera and 93.59% for O. ficus indica) and delignification (48.79% and 23.84% for N. cochenillifera and O. ficus indica, respectively). This pretreatment was also the only one which did not increase the crystallinity index of the samples, in the case of O. ficus indica. However, when analyzing the enzymatic digestibility of cellulose, alkali pretreatment was the one which showed the best yields and therefore it was chosen for the tests in SSF. The experiments showed higher yield of conversion of cellulose to ethanol by PE-2 strain using the pretreated N. cochenillifera (93.81%) at 40 °C using 4% initial charge of cellulose. N. cochenillifera gave better yields than O. ficus indica and PE-2 strain showed better performance than CA-11. N. cochenillifera proved to be a substrate that can be used in the SSSF for enzymes production, reaching values of 1.00 U/g of CMCase and 0.85 FPU/g. The pretreatment was not effective to increase the enzymatic activity values

Incorporação do lodo de tanque séptico como matéria-prima de uma mistura asfáltica

In Natal/RN, 68% of the population uses some kind of individual system for their domestic sewers treatment, being that the most used it is septic tank, followed by sumidouro. Every treatment system of sewers, usually used, generates a by-product denominated sludge. That residue presents some components, in its constitution, undesirable under the environmental and sanitary point of view. In such case, to assure that the system treatment has satisfactory results, it is necessary to do the adjusted disposition of the sludge sewage. Several countries are looking for technical alternatives for the use and disposition of residues. Under technical and environmental conditions appropriate, these materials can be used, decreasing the consumption of the natural resources and the treatment need, storage or elimination of the wastes, what decrease the risks created. Some of the alternatives of recycling of the sludge sewage are: the application in the agriculture, in the production of energy and as raw material in the civil construction. This study evaluated asphalt mixtures behavior that partially substituted conventional aggregates by septic tank sludge. The septic tank sludge gave origin to two raw materials called raw sludge and sludge ash. The raw sludge was put as a small aggregate and the sludge ash as filler. In the first experiment it was made a comparison between the mixture with conventional aggregates and the mixtures that replaced sand by raw sludge in the proportions from 5% to 40%. In the second experiment, it was made comparison between mixtures with 1%, 2% and 3% of sludge ash and cement. The stages developed along the study were: physical characterization of the conventional materials; physical, chemistry, thermal, mineralogical characterizations and analysis of environmental risk of the raw sludge; physical characterization and analysis of environmental risk of the sludge ash; analysis of the mixtures performance through its volumetric and mechanical characteristics; forecast of the mixtures susceptibility in the moisture presence. For the grain size composition used and with the percentage asphalt adopted, the mixtures with up to 7,5% of raw sludge in his composition attend to the National Department of Transports Infrastructure (DNIT) specifications. However, in agreement with the mixtures susceptibility in the moisture presence, the mixtures with addition of raw sludge don't present satisfactory acting. In such case, they could be used in arid and semi-arid areas. The raw sludge application in mixtures increased their voids volume and their stability. However, it damaged mixtures adhesiveness. Mixtures with sludge ash and with cement presented similar behavior. However, mixtures with sludge ash presented a better performance than mixtures with cement as for their stability and their tensile strength ratio. The mixture with 1% of sludge ash is better. The wastes studied don't represent environmental risk

Veredas infinitas, Recepção italiana de Grandes sertões: veredas

L'obiettivo principale di questo lavoro è valutare le difficoltà di comprensione e di identificazione nella ricezione da parte della cultura italiana dell'opera Grande sertão: veredas, da quelle trovate, in modo pionieristico, dal traduttore italiano, a quelle che sono state percepite e indicate al momento della lettura dai critici, dagli accademici, dall'autore di questo lavoro e, soprattutto, dai lettori comuni, mostrando, allo stesso tempo, che i problemi avuti dagli italiani nella traduzione esistono, sotto certi aspetti, anche per i brasiliani urbani, poiché la dimensione linguistico-geografica presente nel romanzo è così peculiare, che perfino molti lettori di lingua portoghese ignorano il mondo plasmato dal linguaggio di Guimarães Rosa rivelando una esacerbazione della questione universale espressa nella formula "traduttori, traditori". Partendo da tutto ciò, abbiamo cercato di dimostrare che, sebbene la traduzione di Edoardo Bizzarri abbia raggiunto un eccellente risultato, l'opera rosiana, così come nella poesia e di più di qualsiasi altra narrativa, comporta, nel passaggio da un idioma all'altro, perdite irrimediabili, tanto relative all'armonia musicale e ritmica, quanto alla richezza semantica che si occulta nel testo originale