Design and Integration Analysis of Cryogenic Air Separation Unit

Industrial Gas market is expected to grow to $106 billion from$76 billion by 2022 parallel to the global energy and chemical production sector growth. Air separation is one of the major technologies utilized within this industry to supply Nitrogen, Oxygen and Inert gasses for various industrial applications. Cryogenic separation has emerged as a technology of choice for high capacity and high purity units, but it is also known for its high energy intensive characteristic. Cryogenic air separation units (CASU) utilize electricity to produce refrigeration for liquefaction and separation of air components, operating near temperatures as low as 78 K and consuming around 200kWh/ton oxygen product. Even 1% increase in efficiency can result in millions of dollars of energy savings annually. CASU technology inherits tight heat integration with approach temperatures of up to ~1oC in the heat exchangers due to refrigeration at very low temperatures. This work is intended to systematically study and analyze the dependence of energy usage of this technology on process design, utilize the insights of this analysis to develop a framework for design improvement and operation of the plant, and develop heat integration map of the unit operations. Benchmarking of this heat integration is performed using pinch analysis. As part of the work, sensitivity analysis of the complex thermally coupled sequential distillation system is also presented. Well established benchmarking and targeting techniques pioneered by Dr. El- Halwagi are used to investigate the ‘big picture’ without getting into heat exchanger network details. The novel insight presented by this research is the dependence of enthalpy flow into the separation section on the product recoveries. A unique way to assess heat flow by dissecting the process into smaller control volume helps in overall enthalpy balance which helps in estimating important process parameters. This helps in reducing the handles available for process modification. Finally, a case study is presented where the implementation of control volume approach and resultant process improvement is demonstrated

Marine natural products: the new generation of pharmacotherapeutics

The biomedical potential of the sea has gone largely unexplored so far, despite the fact that it covers three quarters of the planet surface and the fact that life on Earth originated from the sea. However, with the arrival of the professional deep sea divers, the marine researchers have gained access to all sorts of marine creatures like sponges, corals, sea urchins, sea squirts, hydroids, sea anemones, fishes and mollusks as well as to varied types of sea plants including algae and the other micro-organisms embedded in the sea bed. The biomedical scientists are exploiting these all to extract marine natural products (MNPs) having pharmacological properties that may one day cure long list of illnesses varying from bacterial infections to cancer, Alzheimer's and AIDS and is the focus of this review article

Therapeutic potential of seaweeds

Seaweeds in general are known to contribute to the maintenance of health through their nutritional and medicinal properties and are served in soups and salads, cooked with grains, legumes or miso-soup broth, vegetable pies, stews and even consumed dried. The medicinal properties of seaweeds or vegetables have long been known in many cultures of people particularly those living in the coastal regions who are consuming these from centuries. Traditional Chinese dietotherapy (TCD) makes good use of natural marine nutrients and food to preserve health. Koreans wrap their bodies in seaweeds to get rid of deadly body toxins and Japanese who eat large quantities of seaweeds have very low incidence of cancers. The compounds with diverse biological activities such as antioxidant, antiviral, antifungal, antineoplastic, antimicrobial etc. have been isolated from the flora in the sea. A score of these bio-medicinal compounds are in different stages of clinical trials & analysis and are the focus of this article.

Error Measures for Noise-Free Surrogate Approximations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76064/1/AIAA-2008-901-367.pd

Improving the Hydrodynamic Performance of Diffuser Vanes via Shape Optimization

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77366/1/AIAA-2007-5551-433.pd

Performance Estimate and Simultaneous Application of Multiple Surrogates

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76133/1/AIAA-2006-7047-645.pd

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus in rural population of Mullana, district Ambala, Haryana, India

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major cause of avoidable blindness in developing and developed countries. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF)’s Diabetes Atlas reports that India has the highest number of people with diabetes (nearly 25%) in the world, and hence considered to be the “Diabetes Capital of the World”.Methods: This is a hospital record based study was planned to estimate the prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus in various age groups in rural population of Mullana, District Ambala(Haryana).Results: Out of 1050 patients screened 50 were found to be having Diabetes mellitus (DM) 1000 were non-diabetic i.e. prevalence of Diabetes mellitus (DM) was found to be 4.76%. Out of 362 males screened 22 were suffering from Diabetes mellitus (DM) i.e. prevalence of 6.07%. Whereas out of 688 females screened 28 were suffering from Diabetes mellitus (DM) i.e. prevalence of 4.06%. Prevalence of Diabetes mellitus (DM) in males was found to be maximum in age group of more than 70 years i.e. 6.97% as compare to female i.e.5.29%.Conclusions: Thus, the current study recorded high prevalence of Diabetes mellitus (DM) among rural population which should be a cause of concern for health care providers.

Pointwise RMS bias error estimates for design of experiments

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76728/1/AIAA-2006-724-915.pd

Preoperative pain associated with peribulbar injection for cataract surgery

Background: Patients admitted for cataract surgery have a fear of worst pain due to peribulbar injection for anaesthesia rather than surgery itself. The aim of this study is to find out the threshold of pain associated with the anaesthetic peribulbar injection for cataract surgery.Methods: This prospective randomised study was carried out at Ophthalmology department of Maharishi Markandeshwar University from 10 January 2017 to 22 March 2017. 100 patients undergoing elective cataract surgery were administered a peribulbar block. Before injection all patients were briefed about the procedure and counselled regarding the degree of pain that they may experience. Patients were asked to grade the pain of peribulbar anaesthetic injection, using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).Results: Focus of the study was on the degree of pain associated with anaesthetic peribulbar injection for cataract surgery. 100 patients (60 males and 40 females) were included in the study. 90 (90%) patients were having their first surgery, they were more apprehensive especially about the injection associated pain. 10 (10%) patients with history of previous cataract surgery were calm, confident and claimed that they felt no pain at all. 92 (92%) patients had just needle prick lead to heaviness or mild pain. Only small percentage of patients i.e. 8 (8%) had injection associated moderate to severe pain.Conclusions: The study revealed that the peribulbar anaesthesia for cataract surgery is safe and highly effective. The degree of pain associated with peribulbar injection is much less than what the patients actually have in their mind and fear of. The study also shows ‘pain threshold’ and anxiety level as major factors for pain perception

To study the correlation of mean macular thickness using optical coherence tomography with distant and near visual acuity in patients of diabetic maculopathy

Background: to study the correlation of mean macular thickness using optical coherence tomography with distant and near visual acuity in patients of diabetic maculopathy.Methods: A prospective, single centre study was conducted on 50 eyes of diabetic patients, with Diabetic Retinopathy with CSME in which patients macular thickness was measured on Ocular Coherence Tomography using fast macular thickness scan. The unaided and best corrected visual acuity was measured in all patients using Snellens distant vision and Jaggers near vision charts.Results: A linear correlation between the OCT measured macular thickness and both the distance visual acuity and the near visual acuity. That means that for a given level of macular thickness, we can predict visual acuity for it. In our series correlation coefficient was 0.921 for distance visual acuity and 0.899 for near visual acuity. Although the correlation value is high in our study, we did find a range of visual acuities for a given range of macular thickness. For every 100 micron change in mean macular thickness, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) changed 0.3 LogMAR units, for distance as well as for near.Conclusions: Macular thickness and visual acuities (distance as well as near) are strongly correlated but there can be variations. And a wide range of visual acuities is possible for a given degree of macular edema. Macular thickness though a strong predictor of visual acuity; other factors might also play a role in determining visual acuity for a particular patient