Interaction of biomass with NOx during the re-burning process

The interaction between biomass and NOx is very important to understand because it can revolutionise the way industrial furnaces are used. The technology that was discussed was re-burning. Re-burning is essentially changing the atmosphere in a furnace where the biomass is being combusted. This zone is known as the re-burning zone. The re-burning zone is a medium where NOx and biomass can interact. The type of biomass that was experimented on was a wood-based biomass. In terms of the characterisation, an ultimate and proximate analysis was done in conjunction with a bomb calorimeter test. The results from the characterisation, when tested with four different sources of biomass, yielded that all the biomass samples have similar properties. The four samples that were tested were pine, eucalyptus, miscanthus and oak. Since they all had similar properties it was safe to perform a test on one of these biomass samples. The test that was being performed was the diffused reflectance infrared fourier transform spectroscopy analysis also know as the DRIFTS analysis and the sample of biomass that was chosen was the miscanthus as seen from the results of the characterisation, it made no difference which biomass sample was picked. The DRIFTS analysis was also done in four different atmospheres to assess the interaction between NOx and biomass. The four different atmospheres included the following; inert atmosphere which would provide data for oxygen-fuel ratio when burning biomass, inert and NOx The conclusion that was drawn due to the DRIFTS analysis is that biomass can interact with NOx in gas-gas and gas-solid reaction. This implies that NOx can interact with wood-based biomass before combustion even occurs. This information is useful as it would help decrease the biomass emissions. The DRIFTS analysis did have its limitations and this was the fact that there no quantifiable data was extracted although this is easily fixed by running the same types of test in a thermogravitimetric analyser (TGA) with the same atmosphere. This would yield the actual amount of NOx that has interacted with the biomass

Natural history and management of hepatitis C in East London

PhdChronic infection with the hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) affects over 170 million individuals worldwide. In this thesis the natural history and management of hepatitis C in North- East London was investigated. The prevalence of cirrhosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C rises with increasing duration of infection. In Asian patients infected at birth, infection over 60 years causes cirrhosis in 71 % of infected individuals. Since the rate of fibrosis progression in Asian patients is the same as that seen in Caucasian patients, it is likely that similar rates of cirrhosis will be seen in all patients who are infected with HCV for over 60 years. Factors found to be associated with fibrosis progression were:- age and alcohol excess. Insulin resistance was associated with fibrosis progression. However, elevated serum ferritin or hepatiC iron were not. Knowledge of hepatitis C in the East of London was examined and found to be poor despite the Department of Health information campaign. Educational meetings and postal surveys improved the level of knowledge of HCV. However as our group only assessed knowledge immediately after completion of the sessions, such a testing regime does not address long-term knowledge retention. We examined current and novel management strategies for patients with chronic HCV. Current therapy involves pegylated interferon and ribavirin. We found that insulin resistance was a poor predictor of sustained virological response. Chinese herbal treatments for hepatitis C are widely used but poorly studied. Our group designed a randomised controlled double blind study to assess whether Chinese herbal treatment is effective and results from this study show that recruitment and retention in trials of alternative therapies are problematic and that the herbal remedy had little effect on viraemia and quality of life, although liver function tests did improve a little

Recent Advances in Photoinduced Electron Transfer Processes of Fullerene-Based Molecular Assemblies and Nanocomposites

This article surveys photosensitized electron-transfer processes of fullerenes hybridized with electron donating or other electron accepting molecules

Congenital Absence of Uvula: Case Report

Traditional Uvulectomy has been an age-long practice throughout Africa and certain parts of the Middle East. It is performed as a treatment to prevent throat infections for centuries and is carried out usually during infancy and childhood. Uvula is a fleshy projection hanging at the back of the throat from the posterior margin of the soft palate. Congenital absence of uvula has been observed to be associated with other congenital abnormalities such as cleft palate. This case report concerns a 26 year old male from Nigeria, examined at a health fair conducted at All Saints University School of Medicine in Dominica who on an incidental finding was diagnosed with the absence of uvula without any other abnormality nor a history of uvulectomy. To the best of our knowledge, we report the first case in medical literature of the congenital absence of uvula in a patient with no other known abnormalities

A hybrid soft solar cell based on the mycobacterial porin MspA linked to a sensitizer-viologen diad

A prototype of a nano solar cell containing the mycobacterial channel protein MspA has been successfully designed. MspA, an octameric transmembrane channel protein from Mycobacterium smegmatis, is one of the most stable proteins known to date. Eight Ruthenium(II) aminophenanthroline-viologen maleimide Diads (Ru-Diads) have been successfully bound to the MspA mutant MspAA96C via cysteine-maleimide bonds. MspA is known to form double layers in which it acts as nanoscopic surfactant. The nanostructured layer that is formed by (Ru-Diad)(8)MspA at the TiO2 electrode is photochemically active. The resulting "protein nano solar cell" features an incident photon conversion efficiency of 1% at 400 nm. This can be regarded as a proof-of-principle that stable proteins can be successfully integrated into the design of solar cells

Assembling Artificial Photosynthetic Models in Water Using β-Cyclodextrin-Conjugated Phthalocyanines as Building Blocks

Article describes how two water-soluble zinc(II) phthalocyanines substituted with two or four permethylated β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) moieties at the α positions have been utilized as building blocks for the construction of artificial photosynthetic models in water. The hydrophilic and bulky β-CD moieties not only can increase the water solubility of the phthalocyanine core and prevent its stacking in water but can also bind with a tetrasulfonated zinc(II) porphyrin (ZnTPPS) and/or sodium 2-anthraquinonesulfonate (AQ) in water through host–guest interactions

A covalently linked nickel(II) porphyrin–ruthenium(II) tris(bipyridyl) dyad for efficient photocatalytic water oxidation

Article describes how photocatalytic water splitting into H2 and O2 has attracted significant scientific interest for solar energy conversion applications during the last two decades. Authors of the article further elaborate that One of the half-reactions of this process, water oxidation, is known to be the key step in natural and artificial photosynthesis to convert and store solar energy

Optimizing energy costs in a zinc and lead mine

Boliden Tara Mines Ltd. consumed 184.7 GWh of electricity in 2014, equating to over 1% of the national demand of Ireland or approximately 35,000 homes. Ireland's industrial electricity prices, at an average of 13 c/KWh in 2014, are amongst the most expensive in Europe. Cost effective electricity procurement is ever more pressing for businesses to remain competitive. In parallel, the proliferation of intelligent devices has led to the industrial Internet of Things paradigm becoming mainstream. As more and more devices become equipped with network connectivity, smart metering is fast becoming a means of giving energy users access to a rich array of consumption data. These modern sensor networks have facilitated the development of applications to process, analyse, and react to continuous data streams in real-time. Subsequently, future procurement and consumption decisions can be informed by a highly detailed evaluation of energy usage. With these considerations in mind, this paper uses variable energy prices from Ireland’s Single Electricity Market, along with smart meter sensor data, to simulate the scheduling of an industrial-sized underground pump station in Tara Mines. The objective is to reduce the overall energy costs whilst still functioning within the system's operational constraints. An evaluation using real-world electricity prices and detailed sensor data for 2014 demonstrates significant savings of up to 10.72% over the year compared to the existing control systems