Exhaust waste heat recovery from a heavy-duty truck engine: Experiments and simulations

Waste heat recovery using an (organic) Rankine cycle is an important and promising technology for improving engine efficiency and thereby reducing the CO2 emissions due to heavy-duty transport. Experiments were performed using a Rankine cycle with water for waste heat recovery from the exhaust gases of a heavy-duty Diesel engine. The experimental results were used to calibrate and validate steady-state models of the main components in the cycle: the pump, pump bypass valve, evaporator, expander, and condenser. Simulations were performed to evaluate the cycle performance over a wide range of engine operating conditions using three working fluids: water, cyclopentane, and ethanol. Additionally, cycle simulations were performed for these working fluids over a typical long haul truck driving cycle. The predicted net power output with water as the working fluid varied between 0.5 and 5.7 kW, where the optimal expander speed was dependent on the engine operating point. The net power output for simulations with cyclopentane was between 1.8 and 9.6 kW and that for ethanol was between 1.0 and 7.8 kW. Over the driving cycle, the total recovered energy was 11.2, 8.2, and 5.2 MJ for cyclopentane, ethanol, and water, respectively. These values correspond to energy recoveries of 3.4, 2.5, and 1.6%, respectively, relative to the total energy requirement of the engine. The main contribution of this paper is the presentation of experimental data on a complete Rankine cycle-based WHR system coupled to a heavy-duty engine. These results were used to validate component models for simulations, allowing for a realistic estimation of the steady-state performance under a wide range of operating conditions for this type of system

Performance Analysis of a Reciprocating Piston Expander and a Plate Type Exhaust Gas Recirculation Boiler in a Water-Based Rankine Cycle for Heat Recovery from a Heavy Duty Diesel Engine

The exhaust gas in an internal combustion engine provides favorable conditions for a waste-heat recovery (WHR) system. The highest potential is achieved by the Rankine cycle as a heat recovery technology. There are only few experimental studies that investigate full-scale systems using water-based working fluids and their effects on the performance and operation of a Rankine cycle heat recovery system. This paper discusses experimental results and practical challenges with a WHR system when utilizing heat from the exhaust gas recirculation system of a truck engine. The results showed that the boiler’s pinch point necessitated trade-offs between maintaining adequate boiling pressure while achieving acceptable cooling of the EGR and superheating of the water. The expander used in the system had a geometric compression ratio of 21 together with a steam outlet timing that caused high re-compression. Inlet pressures of up to 30 bar were therefore required for a stable expander power output. Such high pressures increased the pump power, and reduced the EGR cooling in the boiler because of pinch-point effects. Simulations indicated that reducing the expander’s compression ratio from 21 to 13 would allow 30% lower steam supply pressures without adversely affecting the expander’s power output

An inverse association between plasma benzoxazinoid metabolites and PSA after rye intake in men with prostate cancer revealed with a new method

Prostate cancer (PC) is a common cancer among men, and preventive strategies are warranted. Benzoxazinoids (BXs) in rye have shown potential against PC in vitro but human studies are lacking. The aim was to establish a quantitative method for analysis of BXs and investigate their plasma levels after a whole grain/bran rye vs refined wheat intervention, as well as exploring their association with PSA, in men with PC. A quantitative method for analysis of 22 BXs, including novel metabolites identified by mass spectrometry and NMR, was established, and applied to plasma samples from a randomized crossover study where patients with indolent PC (n = 17) consumed 485 g whole grain rye/rye bran or fiber supplemented refined wheat daily for 6 wk. Most BXs were significantly higher in plasma after rye (0.3-19.4 nmol/L in plasma) vs. refined wheat (0.05-2.9 nmol/L) intake. HBOA-glc, 2-HHPAA, HBOA-glcA, 2-HPAA-glcA were inversely correlated to PSA in plasma (p < 0.04). To conclude, BXs in plasma, including metabolites not previously analyzed, were quantified. BX metabolites were significantly higher after rye vs refined wheat consumption. Four BX-related metabolites were inversely associated with PSA, which merits further investigation

The SNARE Protein SNAP23 and the SNARE-Interacting Protein Munc18c in Human Skeletal Muscle Are Implicated in Insulin Resistance/Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE-Our previous studies suggest that the SNARE protein synaptosomal-associated protein of 23 kDa (SNAP23) is involved in the link between increased lipid levels and insulin resistance in cardiomyocytes. The objective was to determine whether SNAP23 may also be involved in the known association between lipid accumulation in skeletal muscle and insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes in humans, as well as to identify a potential regulator of SNAP23. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-We analyzed skeletal muscle biopsies from patients with type 2 diabetes and healthy, insulin-sensitive control subjects for expression (mRNA and protein) and intracellular localization (subcellular fractionation and immunohistochemistry) of SNAP23, and for expression of proteins known to interact with SNARE proteins. Insulin resistance was determined by a euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp Potential mechanisms for regulation of SNAP23 were also investigated in the skeletal muscle cell line L6. RESULTS-We showed increased SNAP23 levels in skeletal muscle from patients with type 2 diabetes compared with that from lean control subjects Moreover, SNAP23 was redistributed from the plasma membrane to the microsomal/cytosolic compartment in the patients with the type 2 diabetes Expression of the SNARE-interacting protein Munc18c was higher in skeletal muscle from patients with type 2 diabetes Studies in L6 cells showed that Munc18c promoted the expression of SNAP23. CONCLUSIONS-We have translated our previous in vitro results into humans by showing that there is a change in the distribution of SNAP23 to the interior of the cell in skeletal muscle from patients with type 2 diabetes. We also showed that Munc18c is a potential regulator of SNAP23. Diabetes 59: 1870-1878, 201

Psychological and physiological impacts of a fast-track diagnostic workup for men with suspected prostate cancer : Preliminary report from a randomized clinical trial

Funding Information: This study was funded by The Swedish Cancer Society (CF2016/795 and 2018/765) and Nyckelfonden, Örebro, Sweden (2015). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and writing and approval of the manuscript. Funding Information: This study was funded by The Swedish Cancer Society (CF2016/795 and 2018/765) and Nyckelfonden, ?rebro, Sweden (2015). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and writing and approval of the manuscript. This randomized clinical trial was approved by the ethics committee at ?rebro University Hospital and was registered at the ISRCTN registry www.isrctn.com (No. ISRCTN45953686). Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All authors accept the publication of this work and all patients provided signed inform consent to use their data. The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available to protect participant confidentiality but can be partly provided from authors on reasonable request. The authors declare that they have no competing interest. This study was funded by The Swedish Cancer Society (CF2016/795 and 2018/765) and Nyckelfonden, ?rebro, Sweden (2015). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and writing and approval of the manuscript. JZ, RC, OA, SOA, UV, FF, and KF conceived of and designed the study; JZ, SD, JC, AME, JF, OA, and SOA contributed to collection of the data; JZ and RC analyzed the data; JZ drafted the manuscript; JZ, RC, SD, JC, AME, JF, OA, SOA, UV, FF, and KF revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors thank all the subjects who have participated in this clinical trial.Peer reviewe

A randomised, double-blind, dose-finding, phase II multicentre study of ODX in the treatment of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and skeletal metastases

publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Completing Linnaeus's inventory of the Swedish insect fauna: Only 5,000 species left?

Despite more than 250 years of taxonomic research, we still have only a vague idea about the true size and composition of the faunas and floras of the planet. Many biodiversity inventories provide limited insight because they focus on a small taxonomic subsample or a tiny geographic area. Here, we report on the size and composition of the Swedish insect fauna, thought to represent roughly half of the diversity of multicellular life in one of the largest European countries. Our results are based on more than a decade of data from the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative and its massive inventory of the country's insect fauna, the Swedish Malaise Trap Project The fauna is considered one of the best known in the world, but the initiative has nevertheless revealed a surprising amount of hidden diversity: more than 3,000 new species (301 new to science) have been documented so far. Here, we use three independent methods to analyze the true size and composition of the fauna at the family or subfamily level: (1) assessments by experts who have been working on the most poorly known groups in the fauna; (2) estimates based on the proportion of new species discovered in the Malaise trap inventory; and (3) extrapolations based on species abundance and incidence data from the inventory. For the last method, we develop a new estimator, the combined non-parametric estimator, which we show is less sensitive to poor coverage of the species pool than other popular estimators. The three methods converge on similar estimates of the size and composition of the fauna, suggesting that it comprises around 33,000 species. Of those, 8,600 (26%) were unknown at the start of the inventory and 5,000 (15%) still await discovery. We analyze the taxonomic and ecological composition of the estimated fauna, and show that most of the new species belong to Hymenoptera and Diptera groups that are decomposers or parasitoids. Thus, current knowledge of the Swedish insect fauna is strongly biased taxonomically and ecologically, and we show that similar but even stronger biases have distorted our understanding of the fauna in the past. We analyze latitudinal gradients in the size and composition of known European insect faunas and show that several of the patterns contradict the Swedish data, presumably due to similar knowledge biases. Addressing these biases is critical in understanding insect biomes and the ecosystem services they provide. Our results emphasize the need to broaden the taxonomic scope of current insect monitoring efforts, a task that is all the more urgent as recent studies indicate a possible worldwide decline in insect faunas