Plasma reforming of naphthalene as a tar model compound of biomass gasification

The contamination of producer gas with tars from biomass gasification remains a significant challenge in the bioenergy industry and a critical barrier, limiting the commercial applications of biomass gasification. Non-thermal and non-equilibrium plasma offers an unconventional and emerging technology for the effective reduction of problematic tars from gasification. In this study, we investigated plasma reforming of naphthalene as a two-ring tar model compound using a gliding arc discharge (GAD) reactor with/without steam. The influence on the plasma conversion of naphthalene based on the inlet naphthalene concentration, discharge power and steam-to-carbon ratio was examined to understand the effects of these operating parameters on the destruction of tar, gas selectivity/yield and energy efficiency. Adding H2O in the plasma process generates oxidative OH radicals, creating additional reaction routes for the step-wised oxidation of naphthalene and its fragments towards the CO, CO2 and water. The optimum ratio (2.0) of steam-to-carbon was identified to achieve the highest naphthalene conversion (84.8%), C2H2 yield (33.0%), total gas yield (72.2%) and energy efficiency (5.7 g/kWh). The effect of the amount of steam on the plasma reduction of tars was dependent on the balance between two opposite effects due to the presence of steam: positive effect of OH radicals and the negative effect of electron attachment on water molecules. Introducing an appropriate amount of steam to the plasma reduction of naphthalene also substantially minimized the formation of by-products and enhanced the carbon balance. Plausible reaction mechanisms for the plasma decomposition of naphthalene were proposed through a comprehensive analysis of gaseous and condensable products combined with plasma spectroscopic diagnostics

Bearing degradation assessment based on entropy with time parameter and fuzzy c-means clustering

Bearings are one of the most crucial elements in rotating machine. The condition of bearings decides the operation of machine. Consequently, it is necessary to study the assessment of bearing degradation in order to develop condition-based maintenance. This paper improves an indicator based on entropy which is calculated by wavelet packet decomposition and auto-regressive model. By introducing time parameter, the indicator solves the problem of instability in the initial stage of operation and it is less influenced by the operational conditions. Then, fuzzy c-means clustering can evaluate the process of degradation. Moreover, it can provide the threshold adaptively and help to repair by unit replacement. To ensure the applicability, the data of this paper comes from two laboratories, FEMTO-ST Institute and Intelligent Maintenance System Center. The result indicates that the method is effective to assess bearing degradation process

Service Quality Evaluation Model of Public Living Facilities in a Community

Accurate evaluating the service quality of public living facilities in a community by quantitative method is significant to urban planning. However, the performances of existing methods are usually limited for service quality evaluation due to single data source or single index. To solve the above problems, we propose a service quality evaluation model of public living facilities in a community. Firstly, POI data and subjective residents\u27 satisfaction evaluation data was pre-processed for data preparation. Then, the four evaluation indicators included in the model were established, namely, accessibility, diversity, selectivity, and satisfaction. Finally, after the completion of the calculation of the four indexes, standardized processing of the calculation results was performed, and the entropy method was used to assign different weights to the indexes, thereby achieving the quantitative evaluation of the service quality of community public living facilities. We chose the central urban area of Chengdu, China, as a case study for modeling analysis, and the case study successfully estimated the service quality and spatial difference of community living facilities. The results of this model can provide a reliable basis for future urban planning and the location of commercial facilities

7-Piperazinethylchrysin inhibits melanoma cell proliferation by targeting Mek 1/2 kinase activity

Purpose: To investigate the growth-inhibitory effect of 7-piperazinethylchrysin (PEC) on melanoma cell lines.Methods: Cell viability was analyzed by trypan blue exclusion assays and the cell cycle by flow cytometry using ModFit LT software. Specifically, cells were stained with propidium iodide (0.5 mg/mL) supplemented with RNase A (50 mg/mL), and analyzed using flow cytometry and ModFit LT software.Results: In A375 and B16F10 cell cultures, proliferation was reduced to 79 and 72 %, respectively, on treatment with 30 μM PEC. PEC increased the proportion of A375 cells in G1/G0 phase to 71.23 %, versus 42.76 % in untreated cells. In B16F10 and A375 cells, treatment with PEC caused the inhibition of Mek 1/2 kinase activity and suppressed Erk 1/2 phosphorylation. The level of cAMP-response element binding protein was increased by PEC. The expression of microphthalmia-linked transcription factor was also increased by PEC treatment. Marked enhancement was observed in the level of tyrosinase in melanoma cells on treatment with PEC. Analysis of PBG-D expression showed a marked increase in B16F10 and A375 cells on the addition of PEC to cell cultures at 72 h. The level of PBG D expression was increased by 9- and 8.5-fold in B16F10 and A375 cells, respectively, on incubation with 30 μM PEC. The addition of a Mek 1/2 inhibitor (U0126) to the cultures promoted PEC-mediated growth inhibition.Conclusion: PEC inhibited melanoma cell proliferation, apparently by blocking the cell cycle at G0/G1 and downregulating the Ras/Raf/Mek/Erk pathway.Keywords: Tyrosinase, Kinase, Microphthalmia, Phosphorylation, 7-Piperazinethylchrysi

Integrated gasification and non-thermal plasma-catalysis system for cleaner syngas production from cellulose

Abstract An innovative integrated gasification and plasma-catalytic system has been developed to produce cleaner syngas from a model biofeedstock (α-cellulose). The influence of Co/γ-Al2O3 catalyst on the plasma reforming of tar-contaminated syngas has been investigated using a cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge reactor. The results show that plasma-catalytic processing of the syngas from biomass gasification significantly reduces the concentration of tars by 88% and enhances the total gas product yield and the syngas ratio (H2/CO) by up to 90%.</jats:p