4,626 research outputs found
Co-digestion of the mechanically recovered organic fraction of municipal solid waste with slaughterhouse wastes
The current work aimed to resolve some long-standing questions about the potential benefits and limitations of co-digestion of slaughterhouse wastes. To achieve this, a laboratory-scale trial was carried out using the mechanically recovered organic fraction of municipal solid waste mixed with either sheep blood or a mixture of pig intestines with flotation fat. Both of these co-substrates are difficult to digest in isolation because of their high nitrogen and lipid concentrations, and are regulated as Category 3 materials under the Animal By-Products Regulations (EC 1069/2009). The results showed that at an organic loading rate of 2 kg VS m?3 day?1 with the slaughterhouse material making up 20% of the load on a volatile solids basis the process could operate successfully. As the loading was increased to 4 kg VS m?3 day?1 signs of inhibition appeared with both co-substrates, however, and volumetric methane production was reduced to a point where co-digestion gave no process advantage. The main operational problem encountered was an increase in the concentration of volatile fatty acids in the digestate, particularly propionic acid: this was thought to be a result of ammonia toxicity. The concentration of potentially toxic elements in the digestate made it unsuitable for agricultural application for food production, although the increased nitrogen content made it more valuable as a fertiliser for non-food crop use
Operation and recovery of a seasonally-loaded UK waste stabilisation pond system
An intermittent discharge waste stabilisation pond system was trialled for treatment of a seasonal wastewater load from a campsite. The system showed rapid acclimatisation to incoming load, with chlorophyll-a exceeding 700 mg l?1 within 2 weeks and filtered and unfiltered effluent biochemical oxygen demand below 20 and 30 mg l?1 respectively. Good performance continued for some weeks, after which photosynthetic oxygenation capacity in the first pond was seriously impaired by a shock loading believed to include fatty material. Inflow to the system was suspended and a surface film was broken up, after which the pond recovered within an 8-day period. Laboratory experiments indicated that interventions such as artificial aeration and dilution with effluent had no beneficial effect although mixing may have increased the rate of recovery
Multi-neutron transfer coupling in sub-barrier 32S+90,96Zr fusion reactions
The role of neutron transfers is investigated in the fusion process below the
Coulomb barrier by analyzing 32S+90Zr and 32S+96Zr as benchmark reactions. A
full coupled-channel calculation of the fusion excitation functions has been
performed for both systems by using multi-neutron transfer coupling for the
more neutron-rich reaction. The enhancement of fusion cross sections for
32S+96Zr is well reproduced at sub-barrier energies by NTFus code calculations
including the coupling of the neutron-transfer channels following the Zagrebaev
semiclassical model. We found similar effects for 40Ca+90Zr and 40Ca+96Zr
fusion excitation functions.Comment: Minor corrections, 11 pages, 4 figures, Fusion11 Conference, Saint
Malo, France, 2-6 mai 201
A wireless ECG plaster for real-time cardiac health monitoring in body sensor networks
10.1109/BioCAS.2011.61077632011 IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference, BioCAS 2011205-20
Evaluation of harvest aids application timing for lentil dry down
Non-Peer ReviewedHarvesting stage is a critical step for lentil producers to maintain high seed yield and good
quality. Desiccating lentil with desiccants/harvest aids can dry down lentil evenly and quickly,
and control late-growing green weeds, which enhances lentil harvest efficiency and allows early
harvesting. Since the harvest aids are applied at a late growth stage, high herbicide residue in
seeds may cause commercial issues with marketing lentil. Application timing of harvest aids is
critical for producers. Improper application timing may reduce yield and thousand seed weight,
but increase herbicide residue in seeds. Therefore, the objective of the harvest aids application
timing (% seed moisture) trial was to evaluate the responses of lentil to different herbicide
application timings at Saskatoon and Scott, Saskatchewan, over 2 years (2012 and 2013). For
this trial, glyphosate (900 g a.e. ha-1), saflufenacil (50 g a.i. ha-1), and the combination of
glyphosate plus saflufenacil (900 g a.e. ha-1 and 36 g a.i. ha-1) were applied when seed moisture
content was 60%, 50%, 40%, 30% and 20%. Apart from these herbicide treatments, there was
also an untreated control, which is desiccated naturally. Significant relationships between
evaluated variables and application timing on the basis of seed moisture content were detected.
Also, this trial indicated that early application timing (60% application seed moisture) could
result in reductions in lentil yield and thousand seed weight. Glyphosate residue in seeds was less
than 4 mg kg-1 when glyphosate was applied alone at 30% and 20% average seed moisture.
Glyphosate residue decreased when adding saflufenacil to glyphosate. Saflufenacil residue
consistently increased with earlier application timing of the harvest aids
Layered hybrid phase Li2NaV2(PO4)3/carbon dot nanocomposite cathodes for Li+/Na+ mixed-ion batteries
Hybrid phase Li2NaV2(PO4)3 (H-LNVP) is one of the most promising cathode materials for Li+/Na+ mixed-ion batteries.</p
An ECG-SoC with 535nW/channel lossless data compression for wearable sensors
10.1109/ASSCC.2013.6691003Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference, A-SSCC 2013145-14
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