Solid biofuel production by mechanical pre-treatment of brewers' spent grain

The brewing industry produces large amounts of by-products and wastes like brewers' spent grain (BSG). In Germany, each year approximately 2.1 million tonnes of BSG are generated. During the last years conventional routes of BSG utilization face a remarkable change, such as the decline in the demand as animal feed. Due to its high content of organic matter energetic utilization may create an additional economic value for breweries. Furthermore, in the recent past breweries tend to shift their energy supply towards more sustainable concepts. Although, a decent number of research projects were carried out already, still no mature strategy is available. However, one possible solution can be the mechanical pretreatment of BSG. This step allows optimized energy utilization by the fractionation of BSG. Due to the transfer of digestible components, such as protein, to the liquid phase, the solid phase will largely consist of combustible components. That represents an opportunity to produce a solid biofuel with lower fuelnitrogen content compared to only thermal dried BSG. Therefore, two main purposes for the mechanical pre-treatment were determined, (1) to reduce the moisture content to at least 60 % (w/w) and (2) to diminish the protein content of the solid phase by 30 %. Moreover, the combustion trials should demonstrate whether stable processes and flue gas emissions within the legal limits in Germany are feasible. The results of the mechanical pre-treatment trials showed that a decrease of the moisture and protein content has been achieved. With regard to the combustion trials inconsistent outcomes were found. On the one hand a stable combustion was realized. On the other hand the legal emission levels of NOx (500 mgm -3) and dust (50 mgm-3) could not be kept during all trials. The further research steps will focus on the optimization of the air/fuel ratio by reducing the primary and secondary air conditions. Copyright © 2014,AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.

Evaluation of electrocoagulation for the pre-treatment of coal seam water

This work explored the applicability of electrocoagulation (EC) using aluminium electrodes for the removal of contaminants which can scale and foul reverse osmosis membranes from a coal seam (CS) water sample, predominantly comprising sodium chloride, and sodium bicarbonate. In general, the removal efficiency of species responsible for scaling and fouling was enhanced by increasing the applied current density/voltage and contact times (30–60 s) in the EC chamber. High removal efficiencies of species potentially responsible for scale formation in reverse osmosis units such as calcium (100%), magnesium (87.9%), strontium (99.3%), barium (100%) and silicates (98.3%) were achieved. Boron was more difficult to eliminate (13.3%) and this was postulated to be due to the elevated solution pH. Similarly, fluoride removal from solution (44%) was also inhibited by the presence of hydroxide ions in the pH range 9–10. Analysis of produced flocs suggested the dominant presence of relatively amorphous boehmite (AlOOH), albeit the formation of Al(OH)3 was not ruled out as the drying process employed may have converted aluminium hydroxide to aluminium oxyhydroxide species. Evidence for adsorption of contaminants on floc surface sites was determined from FTIR studies. The quantity of aluminium released during the electrocoagulation process was higher than the Faradaic amount which suggested that the high salt concentrations in the coal seam water had chemically reacted with the aluminium electrodes.

Applicability of pebble matrix filtration for the pre-treatment of surface waters containing high turbidity and NOM

Purification of drinking water is routinely achieved by use of conventional coagulants and disinfection procedures. However, there are instances such as flood events when the level of turbidity reaches extreme levels while NOM may be an issue throughout the year. Consequently, there is a need to develop technologies which can effectively treat water of high turbidity during flood events and natural organic matter (NOM) content year round. It was our hypothesis that pebble matrix filtration potentially offered a relatively cheap, simple and reliable means to clarify such challenging water samples. Therefore, a laboratory scale pebble matrix filter (PMF) column was used to evaluate the turbidity and natural organic matter (NOM) pre-treatment performance in relation to 2013 Brisbane River flood water. Since the high turbidity was only a seasonal and short term problem, the general applicability of pebble matrix filters for NOM removal was also investigated. A 1.0 m deep bed of pebbles (the matrix) partly in-filled with either sand or crushed glass was tested, upon which was situated a layer of granular activated carbon (GAC). Turbidity was measured as a surrogate for suspended solids (SS), whereas, total organic carbon (TOC) and UV Absorbance at 254 nm were measured as surrogate parameters for NOM. Experiments using natural flood water showed that without the addition of any chemical coagulants, PMF columns achieved at least 50% turbidity reduction when the source water contained moderate hardness levels. For harder water samples, above 85% turbidity reduction was obtained. The ability to remove 50% turbidity without chemical coagulants may represent significant cost savings to water treatment plants and added environmental benefits accrue due to less sludge formation. A TOC reduction of 35-47% and UV-254 nm reduction of 24-38% was also observed. In addition to turbidity removal during flood periods, the ability to remove NOM using the pebble matrix filter throughout the year may have the benefit of reducing disinfection by-products (DBP) formation potential and coagulant demand at water treatment plants. Final head losses were remarkably low, reaching only 11 cm at a filtration velocity of 0.70 m/h.

Biological treatment of wastes from corn wet milling industry /

Grant no. 12060 DPE.

Pre-treatment of Stegomyia aegypti mosquitoes with a sublethal dose of imidacloprid impairs behavioural avoidance induced by lemon oil and DEET

International audience

Simple shade plots aid better long-term choices of data pre-treatment in multivariate assemblage studies

Shade plots, simple visual representations of abundance matrices from multivariate species assemblage studies, are shown to be an effective aid in choosing an overall transformation (or other pre-treatment) of quantitative data for long-term use, striking an appropriate balance between dominant and less abundant taxa in ensuing resemblance-based multivariate analyses. Though the exposition is entirely general and applicable to all community studies, detailed illustrations of the comparative power and interpretative possibilities of shade plots are given in the case of two estuarine assemblage studies in south-western Australia: (a) macrobenthos in the upper Swan Estuary over a two-year period covering a highly significant precipitation event for the Perth area; and (b) a wide-scale spatial study of the nearshore fish fauna from five divergent estuaries. The utility of transformations of intermediate severity is again demonstrated and, with greater novelty, the potential importance seen of further mild transformation of all data after differential down-weighting (dispersion weighting) of spatially clumped' or schooled' species. Among the new techniques utilized is a two-way form of the RELATE test, which demonstrates linking of assemblage structure (fish) to continuous environmental variables (water quality), having removed a categorical factor (estuary differences). Re-orderings of sample and species axes in the associated shade plots are seen to provide transparent explanations at the species level for such continuous multivariate patterns.

Does tin pre-treatment enhance the bond strength of adhesive systems to enamel?

OBJECTIVES The study investigated the modification of composite-to-enamel bond strength by pre-treatment of enamel with a concentrated, acidic SnCl2-solution. METHODS Six groups of flat human enamel specimens (n=44 per group) were treated as follows: OB-H: H3PO4 etching, Optibond FL application (primer+adhesive; manufacturer's instructions); OB-S: SnCl2 pre-treatment, Optibond FL application (primer+adhesive); OB-HS: H3PO4 etching+SnCl2 pre-treatment, Optibond FL application (primer+adhesive); CF-N: Clearfil SE application (primer+bond; manufacturer's instructions); CF-H: H3PO4 etching, Clearfil SE application (primer+bond); CF-S: SnCl2 pre-treatment, Clearfil SE application (primer+bond). Enamel specimens were then built up with resin composite (Clearfil Majesty Esthetic) and stored (100% humidity, 37 °C, 1 week). μTBS-measurement and failure mode analysis of one-half of the specimens were performed immediately after storage, while the other half was analysed after a thermocycling procedure (8500 cycles; 5 °C and 55 °C; dwell time 30s). Additional specimens were prepared for SEM- and EDX-analysis. RESULTS Highest values were measured for OB-H before and after thermocycling, lowest values for CF-N. Compared to OB-H treatment, OB-S treatment reduced μTBS before/after thermocycling by 23%/28% and OB-HS treatment by 8%/24% (except for OB-SH before (n.s.), all p≤0.001 compared to OB-H). In the Clearfil SE treated groups pre-treatment increased μTBS significantly compared to CF-N (before/after: CF-H: +46%/+70%; CF-S: +51%/42%; all p≤0.001). CONCLUSION Pre-treatment with H3PO4 or SnCl2 markedly increased the μTBS of Clearfil SE to enamel. However, thermocycling partly reduced the gain in μTBS obtained by SnCl2 pre-treatment. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The application of an acidic and highly concentrated SnCl2 solution is a good option to increase the μTBS between enamel and a resin composite mediated by an adhesive system containing the multifunctional monomer MDP.

Comparison of the effect of pre-treatment and catalysts on liquid quality from fast pyrolysis of biomass

The overall objective of this work was to compare the effect of pre-treatment and catalysts on the quality of liquid products from fast pyrolysis of biomass. This study investigated the upgrading of bio-oil in terms of its quality as a bio-fuel and/or source of chemicals. Bio-oil used directly as a biofuel for heat or power needs to be improved particularly in terms of temperature sensitivity, oxygen content, chemical instability, solid content, and heating values. Chemicals produced from bio-oil need to be able to meet product specifications for market acceptability. There were two main objectives in this research. The first was to examine the influence of pre-treatment of biomass on the fast pyrolysis process and liquid quality. The relationship between the method of pre-treatment of biomass feedstock to fast pyrolysis oil quality was studied. The thermal decomposition behaviour of untreated and pretreated feedstocks was studied by using a TGA (thermogravimetric analysis) and a Py-GC/MS (pyroprobe-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry). Laboratory scale reactors (100g/h, 300g/h, 1kg/h) were used to process untreated and pretreated feedstocks by fast pyrolysis. The second objective was to study the influence of numerous catalysts on fast pyrolysis liquids from wheat straw. The first step applied analytical pyrolysis (Py-GC/MS) to determine which catalysts had an effect on fast pyrolysis liquid, in order to select catalysts for further laboratory fast pyrolysis. The effect of activation, temperature, and biomass pre-treatment on catalysts were also investigated. Laboratory experiments were also conducted using the existing 300g/h fluidised bed reactor system with a secondary catalytic fixed bed reactor. The screening of catalysts showed that CoMo was a highly active catalyst, which particularly reduced the higher molecular weight products of fast pyrolysis. From these screening tests, CoMo catalyst was selected for larger scale laboratory experiments. With reference to the effect of pre-treatment work on fast pyrolysis process, a significant effect occurred on the thermal decomposition of biomass, as well as the pyrolysis products composition, and the proportion of key components in bio-oil. Torrefaction proved to have a mild influence on pyrolysis products, when compared to aquathermolysis and steam pre-treatment.

The pre-treatment and pyrolysis of biomass for the production of liquids for fuels and speciality chemicals

Fast pyrolysis of biomass is a significant technology for producing pyrolysis liquids [also known as bio-oil], which contain a number of chemicals. The pyrolysis liquid can be used as a fuel, can be produced solely as a source of chemicals or can have some of the chemicals extracted and the residue used as a fuel. There were two primary objectives of this work. The first was to determine the fast pyrolysis conditions required to maximise the pyrolysis liquid yield from a number of biomass feedstocks. The second objective was to selectively increase the yield of certain chemicals in the pyrolysis liquid by pre-treatment of the feedstock prior to pyrolysis. For a particular biomass feedstock the pyrolysis liquid yield is affected by the reactor process parameters. It has been found that, providing the other process parameters are restricted to the values shown below, reactor temperature is the controlling parameter. The maximum pyrolysis liquid yield and the temperature at which it occurs has been found by a series of pyrolysis experiments over the temperature range 400-600°C. high heating rates > 1000°C/s; pyrolysis vapour residence times <2 seconds; pyrolysis vapour temperatures >400 but <500°C; rapid quenching of the product vapours. Pre-treatment techniques have been devised to modify the chemical composition and/or structure of the biomass in such a way as to influence the chemical composition of the pyrolysis liquid product. The pre-treatments were divided into two groups, those that remove material from the biomass and those which add material to the biomass. Component removal techniques have selectively increased the yield of levoglucosan from 2.45 to 18.58 mf wt.% [dry feedstock basis]. Additive techniques have selectively increased the yield of hydroxyacetaldehyde from 7.26 to 11.63 mf w.% [dry feedstock basis]. Techno-economic assessment has been carried out on an integrated levoglucosan production process [incorporating pre-treatment, pyrolysis and chemical extraction stages] to assess which method of chemical production is the more cost effective. It has been found that it is better to pre-treat the biomass in order to increase the yield of specific chemicals in the pyrolysis liquid and hence improve subsequent chemicals extraction.

Performance evaluation of reverse osmosis (RO) pre-treatment technologies for in-land brackish water treatment

Integration of renewable energy with desalination technologies has emerged as an attractive solution to augment fresh water supply sustainably. Fouling and scaling are still considered as limiting factors in membrane desalination processes. For brackish water treatment, pre-treatment of reverse osmosis (RO) feed water is a key step in designing RO plants avoiding membrane fouling. This study aims to compare at pilot scale the rejection efficiency of RO membranes with multiple pre-treatment options at different water recoveries (30, 35, 40, 45 and 50%) and TDS concentrations (3500, 4000, and 4500mg/L). Synthetic brackish water was prepared and performance evaluation were carried out using brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) membranes (Filmtec LC-LE-4040 and Hydranautics CPA5-LD-4040) preceded by 5 and 1μm cartridge filters, 0.02μm ultra-filtration (UF) membrane, and forward osmosis (FO) membrane using 0.25M NaCl and MgCl2 as draw solutions (DS). It was revealed that FO membrane with 0.25M MgCl2 used as a draw solution (DS) and Ultra-filtration (UF) membrane followed by Filmtec membrane gave overall 98% rejection but UF facing high fouling potential due to high applied pressure. Use of 5 and 1μm cartridge filter prior to Filmtec membrane also showed effective results with 95% salt rejection.

Improvement of coating durability, interfacial adhesion and compressive strength of UHMWPE fiber/epoxy composites through plasma pre-treatment and polypyrrole coating

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers have exceptionally higher specific strength and stiffness compared with other high-performance fibers. However, the interfacial adhesion and compressive performance of UHMWPE fiber-reinforced polymer composites (FPCs) are extremely low. The challenges are to achieve load transfer at the interface between the fiber and matrix at a molecular level. Here, we show that plasma pre-treatment of UHMWPE fibers followed by coating with polypyrrole (PPy) results in an 848% improvement in the interfacial adhesion and 54% enhancement in compressive performance. This method takes advantage of a toughening mechanism observed in spider silk and collagen, which the hydrogen bond power the load transfer. The results showed that these improvements of interfacial adhesion and compressive strength were attributed to hydrogen-bonding interactions between the plasma pre-treated UHMWPE and PPy, which improves the fiber-matrix-fiber load transfer process. In addition, the hydrogen-bonded PPy coatings also endowed durability electrical conductivity properties of the UHMWPE fiber.

Electrocoagulation as a pre-treatment stage to reverse osmosis units

Reverse osmosis (RO) is used by coal seam gas (CSG) operators to treat produced water as it is a well-established and proven technology worldwide. Despite the suitability of RO, there are problems associated with RO technology such as membrane fouling which although not preventing use of RO does decrease effectiveness and increase operating costs. Hence, effective pre-treatment of water samples is essential. Electrocoagulation (EC) potentially can provide improved water purification compared to conventional coagulation prior to an RO unit. This paper provides the first reported study of EC for CSG water pre-treatment and compares the performance to a range of aluminium and iron based coagulants. It was found that EC was superior in terms of removal of silica, calcium, magnesium, barium and strontium in the produced water.

Co-incineração em fornos de cimenteiras

Com o objectivo de conhecer o processo da co-incineração, foram realizadas visitas ao sistema integrado de tratamento e eliminação de resíduos, sA (sisAV), na chamusca, e à cimpor, em souselas. pode concluir-se que o tratamento das emissões gasosas, principal questão conflituosa associada à co-incineração, não difere substancialmente daquele realizado nas instalações onde se procede à queima de combustíveis fósseis, excepto no tocante à instalação de algum equipamento adicional. Não podendo afirmar-se que se trate da solução ideal para a eliminação dos resíduos perigosos, apresenta vantagens como seja o aproveitamento de instalações pré-existentes, ao mesmo tempo que se minimiza a utilização de energia não renovável. Aiming to understand the co-incineration process, the sistema integrado de tratamento e eliminação de resíduos, sA (sisAV), in chamusca, and the cimpor, in souselas, both in portugal, were the two facilities visited to that purpose. It is possible to conclude that the treatment of atmospheric emissions, the main concern associated to conflicts in co-incineration, does not substantially differ from the one used in facilities where fossil fuel is burnt,except in what concerns to some additional equipment that must be installed. though it is not possible to state that this is the ideal solution to solve the hazard waste problem, it has advantages such as the use of pre-existing facilities and, at the same time, the use of nonrenewable energy sources is minimized.