The Use of Renewable and Alternative Fuel in the Heavy Clay Industry

Abstract The heavy clay industry brick is in many countries a very important economic factor with far reaching financial and environmental impacts. In the industrialized countries the use of alternative fuels in the heavy clay industry is rather limited.The European brick industries common current research activity is mainly focused on synthgas from waste streams. In-house research activity by single brick companies does, at least in Europe, not take place at the moment. The situation in the developing and industrializing countries is far different: The use of alternative,fossil and renewable, fuels in these countries is still wide spread. The use of such fuels does sometimes have severe negative impacts on the environment. This paper gives an overview of the use of various renewable and alternative fuels in the heavy clay industry in several countries and the environmental and financial impacts these fuels have or might have on the operation of a typical installation in various parts of the world (Maghreb, Europe, USA, Australia,India, Vietnam). Two examples in which alternative fuels have been or are used, one in an industrializing and one in an industrialized country, are briefly presented. A comparative product life cycle analysis, LCA, is presented

Innovative Biogas Multi-Stage Biogas Plant and Novel Analytical System

AbstractThe here presented applied research and development project is targeted to the development and application of new and improved techniques in plant design, performance analysis and process control. Hereto following the required steps are illustrated and the goals are outlined. The project covers the development of a previously patented anaerobic digestion process, adaption of flow cytometry as an analytical instrument and investigation of innovative ways of disposal of solid fermentation wastes. The preliminary experiences with a newly built research plant employing a novel anaerobic biogas digestion technique are discussed. In this paper the first outcomes concerning the construction and operation are discussed. A novel method of disposal of the fermentation wastes is also discussed and first results are shown

FLARE: A Framework for the Finite Element Simulation of Electromagnetic Interference on Buried Metallic Pipelines

The functionality of buried metallic pipelines can be compromised by the electrical lines that share the same right-of-way. Given the considerable size of shared corridors, computer simulation is an important tool for performing risk assessment and mitigation design. In this work, we introduce an open-source computational framework for the analysis of electromagnetic interference on large earth-return structures. The developed framework is based on FLARE-an efficient finite element solver developed by the authors in MATLAB((R)). FLARE includes solvers for problems involving static electric and magnetic fields, and DC and time-harmonic AC currents. Quasi-magnetostatic transient problems can be studied through time-marching or-for linear problems-with an efficient inverse-Laplace approach. In this work, we succinctly describe the optimization of time-critical operations in FLARE, as well as the implementation of a transient solver with automatic time-stepping. We validate the numerical results obtained with FLARE via a comparison with the commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics((R)). We then use the validated time-marching analysis results to test the accuracy and efficiency of three numerical inverse-Laplace algorithms. The test problem considered is the assessment of the inductive coupling between a 500 kV transmission line and a metallic pipeline buried in the soil

Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations with a High-Density Detector

We propose an experiment to test the hypothesis that the reported anomaly on atmospheric neutrino fluxes is due to nu_mu nu_x oscillations. It will rely both on a disappearance technique, exploiting the method of the dependence of the event rate on L/E, which was recently shown to be effective for detection of neutrino oscillation and measurement of the oscillation parameters, and on an appearance technique, looking for an excess of muon-less events at high energy produced by upward-going tau neutrinos. The detector will consist of iron planes interleaved by limited streamer tubes. The total mass will be about 30 kt. The possibility of recuperating most of the instrumentation from existing detectors allows to avoid R&D phases and to reduce construction time. In four years of data taking, this experiment will be sensitive to oscillations nu_mu nu_x with Delta m^2 > 10^-4 eV^2 and a mixing near to maximal, and answer the question whether nu_x is a sterile or a tau neutrino

Municipal Solid Waste treatment by integrated solutions: energy and environmental balances

This paper reports a comparison between two scenarios developed in order to manage the municipal solid waste in an area in the North part of Italy. In the proposed scenarios various technological solutions, regarding the selective collection, the energy recovery and the modality of final disposal were taken into account. The comparison was done considering both mass/energy and environmental balance, trying to focus the most suitable solution. The experience can be completed with other scenarios containing different technical solution intermediate between the two considered in this study

Incidentally discovered pheochromocytoma and aldosterone-producing adenoma in the same adrenal gland

Simultaneous occurrence of pheochromocytoma and aldosterone-producing adrenocortical tumor has been rarely reported in patients with symptoms or findings suggestive for both neoplasms. Herein, we report and discuss on a challenging case of synchronous pheochromocytoma and aldosterone-producing adenoma incidentally detected in the same adrenal gland and documented by biochemical studies and pathological examination

Renal vein obstruction and orthostatic proteinuria: a review

Objectives. The cause of orthostatic proteinuria is not clear but may often relate to obstruction of the left renal vein in the fork between the aorta and the superior mesenteric artery (= renal nutcracker). However, reports dealing with proteinuria only marginally refer to this possible cause of orthostatic proteinuria. We analysed the corresponding literature. Results. Five reports addressed the frequency of renal nutcracker in 229 subjects with orthostatic proteinuria. Their age ranged between 5.2 and 17years (female-to-male ratio: 0.96:1.00). Imaging studies demonstrated renal nutcracker in 156 (68%) subjects. Renal nutcracker was also demonstrated in 9 anecdotal reports for a total of 53 subjects with postural proteinuria. Very recently, 13 Italian subjects with orthostatic proteinuria associated with renal nutcracker were reassessed 6years after the initial diagnosis: in nine subjects, both orthostatic proteinuria and renal nutcracker had disappeared; in three, both orthostatic proteinuria and renal nutcracker had persisted; and in one, orthostatic proteinuria had persisted unassociated with renal nutcracker. Conclusions. These data provide substantial support for renal nutcracker as a common cause of orthostatic proteinuri

Claimed Co-ethnics and Kin-State Citizenship in Southeastern Europe

The paper introduces the often neglected concept of 'claimed co-ethnics' in the analysis of citizenship policies. It argues that this is an interstitial category that further complicates the triadic nexus between national minorities, nationalising states and kin-states. The 'claimed co-ethnics' are defined as people who are recognised by the citizenship (or ethnizenship) conferring state as belonging to its main ethnic group, although they themselves do not embrace that definition. In addition to bringing the issue of claimed co-ethnics into focus, the paper elucidates how citizenship policies can affect groups that challenge the exact fit between ethnicity and nation, showing how national governments through particular citizenship policies and categorisation practices engage in the construction of these groups. The paper shows that the triadic nexus framework, which has had a strong influence on citizenship and minorities scholarship, needs to be revised to include unidirectional relations between the elements of the triadic nexus. The paper is based on the comparison between the cases of ethnic Vlachs (in the context of Albania and Greece) and Bunjevci (in the context of Serbia and Croatia).European Commission - Seventh Framework Programme (FP7