Metal Retention Experiments for the Design of Soil-Mix Technology Permeable Reactive Barriers

Soil-mix technology is effective for the construction of permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) for in situ groundwater treatment. The objective of this study was to perform initial experiments for the design of soil-mix technology PRBs according to (i) sorption isotherm, (ii) reaction kinetics and (iii) mass balance of the contaminants. The four tested reactive systems were: (i) a granular zeolite (clinoptilolite-GZ), (ii) a granular organoclay (GO), (iii) a 1:1-mixture GZ and model sandy clayey soil and (iv) a 1:1:1-mixture of GZ, GO and model soil. The laboratory experiments consisted of batch tests (volume 900mL and sorbent mass 18g) with a multimetal solution of Pb, Cu, Zn, Cd and Ni. For the adsorption experiment, the initial concentrations ranged from 0.01 to 0.5mM (2.5 to 30mg/L). The maximum metal retention was measured in a batch test (300mg/L for each metal, volume 900mL, sorbent mass 90-4.5g). The reactive material efficiency order was found to be GZ>GZ-soil mix>GZ-soil-GO mix>GO. Langmuir isotherms modelled the adsorption, even in presence of a mixed cations solution. Adsorption was energetically favourable and spontaneous in all cases. Metals were removed according to the second order reaction kinetics; GZ and the 1:1-mix were very similar. The maximum retention capacity was 0.1-0.2mmol/g for Pb in the presence of clinoptilolite; for Cu, Zn, Cd and Ni, it was below 0.05mmol/g for the four reactive systems. Mixing granular zeolite, organoclay and model soil increased the chemisorption. Providing that GZ is reactive enough for the specific conditions, GZ can be mixed to obtain the required sorption. Granular clinoptilolite addition to soil is recommended for PRBs for metal contaminated groundwater. The laboratory experiments consisted of batch tests with a multimetal solution of Pb, Cu, Zn, Cd and Ni. The four reactive materials chosen were granular zeolite, clinoptilolite and model sandy clayey soil, granular organoclay and a mix of clinoptilolite, model soil and organoclay. The reactive material efficiency order was found to be granular clinoptilolite>clinoptilolite-soil mix>clinoptilolite-soil-organoclay mix>granular organoclay. © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Exploring the impacts of the interactions between lifecycles and other dynamics that influence the development of technology-based industries

To address future uncertainty within strategy and innovation, managers extrapolate past patterns and trends into the future. Several disciplines make use of lifecycles, often with a linear sequence of identified phases, to make predictions and address likely uncertainties. Often the aggregation of several cycles is then interpreted as a new cycle - such as product lifecycles into an industry lifecycle. However, frequently different lifecycle terms - technology, product, industry - are used interchangeably and without clear definition. Within the interdisciplinary context of technology management, this juxtaposition of dynamics can create confusion, rather than clarification. This paper explores some typical dynamics associated with technology-based industries, using illustrative examples from the automotive industry. A wide range of dimensions are seen to influence the path of a technology-based industry, and stakeholders need to consider the likely causality and synchronicity of these. Some curves can simply present the aggregation of components; other dynamics incur time lags, rather than being superimposed, but still have a significant impact. To optimise alignment of the important dimensions within any development, and for future strategy decisions, understanding these interactions will be critical. © 2011 IEEE.

Understanding and communicating the value of technology: A process perspective

Technological investment is an important driver of innovation and the evaluation of technology potential is becoming increasingly important in this context. Although there is a range of possible approaches and tools for understanding and communicating the value of technology to potential customers, not all are useful or accessible in practice, where the situation is often complex and constantly evolving. Although many companies have their own customised processes in place for securing approval for technology development, often combining several techniques, very few empirical studies have been performed to learn from these practices and provide an overall view of the process of ";selling"; technologies internally or externally. In this paper, the current literature and practice related to technology valuation is reviewed and summarised in a five step process for building a business case for technology investment that gives guidance on where and when to use specific valuation tools. The seller or proposer's perspective is taken and consultative sales techniques incorporated. This provides a flexible reference for R&D managers and adds to the body of literature on the selection and use of valuation tools. A user friendly guide has been published detailing the five step approach. © 2011 IEEE.

A policy dimension required for technology roadmapping: Learning from the development of emerging wind energy industry in China

Innovation policies play an important role throughout the development process of emerging industries. However, existing policy studies view the process as a black-box, and fail to understand the policy-industry interactions through the process. This paper aims to develop an integrated technology roadmapping tool, in order to facilitate the better understanding of policy heterogeneity at the different stages of new energy industries in China. Through the case study of Chinese wind energy equipment manufacturing industry, this paper elaborates the dynamics between policy and the growth process of the industry. Further, this paper generalizes some Chinese specifics for the policy-industry interactions. As a practical output, this study proposes a policy-technology roadmapping framework that maps policy-market-product- technology interactions in response to the requirement for analyzing and planning the development of new industries in emerging economies (e.g. China). This paper will be of interest to policy makers, strategists, investors, and industrial experts. © 2011 IEEE.

A philosophical stance on developing industrially relevant strategic technology management toolkits

When considering the potential uptake and utilization of technology management tools by industry, it must be recognized that companies face the difficult challenges of selecting, adopting and integrating individual tools into a toolkit that must be implemented within their current organizational processes and systems. This situation is compounded by the lack of sound advice on integrating well-founded individual tools into a robust toolkit that has the necessary degree of flexibility such that they can be tailored for application to specific problems faced by individual organizations. As an initial stepping stone to offering a toolkit with empirically proven utility, this paper provides a conceptual foundation to the development of toolkits by outlining an underlying philosophical position based on observations from multiple research and commercial collaborations with industry. This stance is underpinned by a set of operationalized principles that can offer guidance to organizations when deciding upon the appropriate form, functions and features that should be embodied by any potential tool/toolkit. For example, a key objective of any tool is to aid decision-making and a core set of powerful, flexible, scaleable and modular tools should be sufficient to allow users to generate, explore, shape and implement possible solutions across a wide array of strategic issues. From our philosophical stance, the preferred mode of engagement is facilitated workshops with a participatory process that enables multiple perspectives and structures the conversation through visual representations in order to manage the cognitive load in the collaborative environment. The generic form of the tools should be configurable for the given context and utilized in a lightweight manner based on the premise of start small and iterate fast. © 2011 IEEE.

Physics in fish processing technology

To design, develop and put into operation an equipment either to increase the productivity or to improve the existing technique to obtain a better quality of the product, the fishery engineer/scientist should have a comprehensive knowledge of fundamental principles involved in the process. Many a technique in fish processing technology, whether it applies to freezing, dehydration or canning, involves always a type of heat transfer, which is dependent to a certain extent on the external physical parameters like temperature. humidity, pressure, air flow etc. and also on the thermodynamic properties of fish muscle in the temperature ranges encountered. Similarly informations on other physical values like dielectric constant and dielectric loss in the design of quick trawlers and in quality assessment of frozen/iced fish, refractive index and viscosity in the measurement of the saturation and polymerisation of fish oils and shear strength in the judgement of textural qualities of cooked fish are also equally important.