Highly swollen liquid crystals as new reactors for the synthesis of nanomaterials

Synthesis and self-assembly of nanomaterials can be controlled by the properties of soft matter. on one hand, dedicated nanoreactors such as reverse microemulsions or miniemulsions can be designed. on the other hand, direct shape control can be provided by the topology of liquid crystals that confine the reacting medium within a specific geometry. In the first case, the preparation of micro- or miniemulsions generally requires energetic mechanical stirring. The second approach uses thermodynamically stable systems, but it remains usually limited to binary (water + surfactant) systems. We report the preparation of different families of materials in highly ordered quaternary mediums that exhibit a liquid crystal structure with a high cell parameter. They were prepared with the proper ratios of salted water, nonpolar solvent, surfactant. and cosurfactants that form spontaneously swollen hexagonal phases. These swollen liquid crystals can be prepared from all classes of surfactants (cationic, anionic, and nonionic). They contain a regular network of parallel cylinders, whose diameters can be swollen with a nonpolar solvent, that are regularly spaced in a continuous aqueous salt solution. We demonstrate in the present report that both aqueous and organic phases can be used as nanoreactors for the preparation of materials. This property is illustrated by various examples such as the synthesis of platinum nanorods prepared in the aqueous phase or zirconia needles or the photo- or gamma-ray-induced polymerization of polydiacetylene in the organic phase. In all cases, materials can be easily extracted and their final shapes are directed by the structure-directing effect imposed by the liquid crystal.

Performance of UASB reactors in two stages followed by post-treatment with activated sludge in wastewater batch of wet-processed coffee

In this study it was evaluated the efficiency of the treatment of wet-processed coffee wastewater in upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors in two stages, in bench scale, followed by post-treatment with activated sludge in batch. The first UASB reactor was submitted to an hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6.2 d and organic loading rates (OLR) of 2.3 and 4.5g CODtotal (L d)-1, and the second UASB reactor to HRT of 3.1 d with OLR of 0.4 and 1.4g CODtotal (L d)-1. The average values of the affluent CODtotal increased from 13,891 to 27,926mg L-1 and the average efficiencies of removal of the CODtotal decreased from 95 to 91%, respectively, in the UASB reactors in two stages. The volumetric methane production increased from 0.274 to 0.323L CH4 (L reactor d)-1 with increment in the OLR. The average concentrations of total phenols in the affluent were of 48 and 163mg L-1, and the removal efficiencies in the UASB reactors in two stages of 92 and 90%, respectively, and increased to 97% with post-treatment. The average values of the removal efficiencies of total nitrogen and phosphorus were of 57 to 80% and 44 to 60%, respectively, in the UASB reactors in two stages and increased to 91 and 84% with the post-treatment.

Anaerobic-aerobic treatment of swine wastewater in uasb and batch reactors in series

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Influence of inoculum on performance of anaerobic reactors for treating municipal solid waste

The influence of bovine rumen fluid inoculum during anaerobic treatment of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) was studied in this work. The parameters adopted for evaluation were the biostabilization constant of total volatile solids (TVs) and the biostabilization time of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) applied to the reactors. The work was realized in four anaerobic batch reactors of 20 1 capacity each, during a period of 365 days. The proportions between MSW/inoculum loaded in the reactors were Reactor A (100%/0%), Reactor B (95%/5%), Reactor C (90%/10%) and Reactor D (85%/15%). The necessary time for biostabilization of half of the applied COD was 459, 347, 302 and 234 days and the average of methane concentration in the biogas produced was 3.6%, 13.0%, 25.0% and 42.6% for Reactors A, B, C and D, respectively. The data obtained affirm that the inoculum used substantially improved the performance of the process. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of a microbial community associated with polychlorinated biphenyl degradation in anaerobic batch reactors

The degradation of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was investigated under fermentativemethanogenic conditions for up to 60 days in the presence of anaerobic biomass from a full-scale UASB reactor. The low methane yields in the PCBs-spiked batch reactors suggested that the biomass had an inhibitory effect on the methanogenic community. Reactors containing PCBs and co-substrates (ethanol/ sodium formate) exhibited substantial PCB reductions from 0.7 to 0.2 mg mL-1 . For the Bacteria domain, the PCBs-spiked reactors were grouped with the PCB-free reactors with a similarity of 55 %, which suggested the selection of a specific population in the presence of PCBs. Three genera of bacteria were found exclusively in the PCB-spiked reactors and were identified using pyrosequencing analysis, Sedimentibacter, Tissierela and Fusibacter. Interestingly, the Sedimentibacter, which was previously correlated with the reductive dechlorination of PCBs, had the highest relative abundance in the RCS-PCB (7.4 %) and RCS-PCB-PF (12.4 %) reactors. Thus, the anaerobic sludge from the UASB reactor contains bacteria from the Firmicutes phylum that are capable of degrading PCBs.

Performance evaluation and phylogenetic characterization of anaerobic fluidized bed reactors using ground tire and pet as support materials for biohydrogen production

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Performance and composition of bacterial communiies in anaerobic fluidized bed reactors for hydrogen production: Effects of organic loading rate and alkalinity

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

COD, TSS, nutrients and coliforms removals in UASB reactors in two stages treating swine wastewater

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Removal of total coliforms, thermotolerant coliforms, and helminth eggs in Swine production wastewater treated in anaerobic and aerobic reactors

The present work evaluated the performance of two treatment systems in reducing indicators of biological contamination in swine production wastewater. System I consisted of two upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors, with 510 and 209 L in volume, being serially arranged. System II consisted of a UASB reactor, anaerobic filter, trickling filter, and decanter, being also organized in series, with volumes of 300, 190, 250, and 150 L, respectively. Hydraulic retention times (HRT) applied in the first UASB reactors were 40, 30, 20, and 11 h in systems I and II. The average removal efficiencies of total and thermotolerant coliforms in system I were 92.92% to 99.50% and 94.29% to 99.56%, respectively, and increased in system II to 99.45% to 99.91% and 99.52% to 99.93%, respectively. Average removal rates of helminth eggs in system I were 96.44% to 99.11%, reaching 100% as in system II. In reactor sludge, the counts of total and thermotolerant coliforms ranged between 10(5) and 10(9) MPN (100 mL)(-1), while helminth eggs ranged from 0.86 to 9.27 eggs g(-1) TS.

Analysis of energy dissipation in stirred suspension polymerisation reactors using computational fluid dynamics

This work evaluates the spatial distribution of normalised rates of droplet breakage and droplet coalescence in liquidliquid dispersions maintained in agitated tanks at operation conditions normally used to perform suspension polymerisation reactions. Particularly, simulations are performed with multiphase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to represent the flow field in liquidliquid styrene suspension polymerisation reactors for the first time. CFD tools are used first to compute the spatial distribution of the turbulent energy dissipation rates (e) inside the reaction vessel; afterwards, normalised rates of droplet breakage and particle coalescence are computed as functions of e. Surprisingly, multiphase simulations showed that the rates of energy dissipation can be very high near the free vortex surfaces, which has been completely neglected in previous works. The obtained results indicate the existence of extremely large energy dissipation gradients inside the vessel, so that particle breakage occurs primarily in very small regions that surround the impeller and the free vortex surface, while particle coalescence takes place in the liquid bulk. As a consequence, particle breakage should be regarded as an independent source term or a boundary phenomenon. Based on the obtained results, it can be very difficult to justify the use of isotropic assumptions to formulate particle population balances in similar systems, even when multiple compartment models are used to describe the fluid dynamic behaviour of the agitated vessel. (C) 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

Performance and composition of bacterial communities in anaerobic fluidized bed reactors for hydrogen production: Effects of organic loading rate and alkalinity

This study evaluated the effects of the organic loading rate (OLR) and pH buffer addition on hydrogen production in two anaerobic fluidized bed reactors (AFBRs) operated simultaneously. The AFBRs were fed with glucose, and expanded clay was used as support material. The reactors were operated at a temperature of 30 degrees C, without the addition of a buffer (AFBR1) and with the addition of a pH buffer (AFBR2, sodium bicarbonate) for OLRs ranging from 19.0 to 140.6 kg COD m(-3) d(-1) (COD: chemical oxygen demand). The maximum hydrogen yields for AFBR1 and AFBR2 were 2.45 and 1.90 mol H-2 mol(-1) glucose (OLR of 84.3 kg COD m(-3) d(-1)), respectively. The highest hydrogen production rates were 0.95 and 0.76 L h(-1) L-1 for AFBR1 and AFBR2 (OLR of 140.6 kg COD m(-3) d(-1)), respectively. The operating conditions in AFBR1 favored the presence of such bacteria as Clostridium, while the bacteria in AFBR2 included Clostridium, Enterobacter, Klebsiella, Veillonellaceae, Chryseobacterium, Sporolactobacillus, and Burkholderiaceae. Copyright (C) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of sulfide concentration on autotrophic denitrification from nitrate and nitrite in vertical fixed-bed reactors

Autotrophic denitrification coupled with sulfide oxidation represents an interesting alternative for the simultaneous removal of nitrate/nitrite and sulfide from wastewaters. The applicability of such bioprocess is especially advantageous for the post treatment of effluents from anaerobic reactors, since they usually produce sulfides, which can be used as endogenous electron donor for autotrophic denitrification. This study evaluated the effect of sulfide concentration on this bioprocess using nitrate and nitrite as electron acceptors in vertical fixed-bed reactors. The results showed that intermediary sulfur compounds were mainly produced when excess of electron donor was applied, which was more evident when nitrate was used. Visual evidences suggested that elemental sulfur was the intermediary compound produced. There was also evidence that the elemental sulfur previously formed was being used when sulfide was applied in stoichiometric concentration relative to nitrate/nitrite. Nitrite was more readily consumed than nitrate. For both electron acceptors and sulfide concentrations tested, autotrophic denitrification was not affected by residual heterotrophic denitrification via endogenic activity, occurring as a minor additional nitrogen removal process. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of the intrinsic kinetic parameters of sulfide-oxidizing autotrophic denitrification in differential reactors containing immobilized biomass

Nitrogen removal coupled with sulfide oxidation has potential for the treatment of effluents from anaerobic reactors because they contain sulfide, which can be used as an endogenous electron donor for denitrification. This work evaluated the intrinsic kinetics of sulfide-oxidizing autotrophic denitrification via nitrate and nitrite in systems containing attached cells. Differential reactors were fed with nitrified synthetic domestic sewage and different sulfide concentrations. The intrinsic kinetic parameters of nitrogen removal were determined when the mass transfer resistance was negligible. This bioprocess could be described by a half-order kinetic model for biofilms. The half-order kinetic coefficients ranged from 0.425 to 0.658 mg N-1/2 L-1/2 h(-1) for denitrification via nitrite and from 0.190 to 0.609 mg N-1/2 L-1/2 h(-1) for denitrification via nitrate. In this latter, the lower value was due to the use of electrons donated from intermediary sulfur compounds whose formation and subsequent consumption were detected. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Safety, Security And safeguards In GEN IV sodium fast reactors

This work presents first a study of the national and international laws in the fields of safety, security and safeguards. The international treaties and the recommendations issued by the IAEA as well as the national regulations in force in France, the United States and Italy are analyzed. As a result of this, a comparison among them is presented. Given the interest of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency for the aspects of criminal penalties and monetary, also the Japanese case is analyzed. The main part of this work was held at the JAEA in the field of proliferation resistance (PR) and physical protection (PP) of a GEN IV sodium fast reactor. For this purpose the design of the system is completed and the PR & PP methodology is applied to obtain data usable by designers for the improvement of the system itself. Due to the presence of sensitive data, not all the details can be disclosed. The reactor site of a hypothetical and commercial sodium-cooled fast neutron nuclear reactor system (SFR) is used as the target NES for the application of the methodology. The methodology is applied to all the PR and PP scenarios: diversion, misuse and breakout; theft and sabotage. The methodology is applied to the SFR to check if this system meets the target of PR and PP as described in the GIF goal; secondly, a comparison between the SFR and a LWR is performed to evaluate if and how it would be possible to improve the PR&PP of the SFR. The comparison is implemented according to the example development target: achieving PR&PP similar or superior to domestic and international ALWR. Three main actions were performed: implement the evaluation methodology; characterize the PR&PP for the nuclear energy system; identify recommendations for system designers through the comparison.