Biomass steam-reforming in a low throughput fluidized bed reactor

This work presents the results from biomass gasification tests in a low throughput fluidized bed membrane reactor (FBMR) and compares them with two-phase model predictions. The operating temperature was decreased to 550°C, while an equimolar steam/cellulose ratio was used. The profiles of kinetics limitation and biomass conversion were analysed when a palladium (Pd) membrane for hydrogen separation was used. The produced gases were analysed by gas chromatography, while steam composition and temperature profiles were retrieved by near-infrared imaging (NIRI) technique. As a single membrane tube did not show high permeability rates, the changes in conversions and temperatures profiles were not significant when a Pd membrane was incorporated. The experimental design and procedure allowed us to visualize low radial dispersions in the FBMR

Determination of Fatty Acids in Human Sweat during Fasting Using GC/MS

Fatty acids (FAs) are biological molecules that are used as major metabolic fuels, and are concerned in important metabolic processes. We have performed a non-invasive and technically rapid and simple method for collecting sweat from humans, followed by GC/MS determination. The sweat was collected from each volunteer (the middle finger) by spraying 70% ethanol aqueous solution (no harmful solvent) into a 1.5-cm3 plastic vial. Analysis of FAs in sweat showed that the sweat solution contains lauric acid (C12:0), myristic acid (C14:0), palmitic acid (C16:0), oleic acid (C18:1), and stearic acid (C18:0). Here, it is demonstrated that FA concentrations for 4 young subjects correlated positively with percent of body fat (r = 0.78) and that the total FA levels for them increased progressively with increasing fasting time when a subject fasted throughout the experiment

Screening wall effects of a thin fluidized bed by near-infrared imaging

Near-infrared (NIR) imaging was used to observe water vapour flow in a gas-solid fluidized bed reactor. The technique consisted of a broadband light, an optical filter with a bandwidth centred on strong water vapour absorptions, a Vidicon NIR camera, a nozzle from which an optically active mixture of gas and water vapour was trans-illuminated by an NIR beam and collected data of transmittance were normalized to actual optical path. The procedure was applied to a thin fluidized bed reactor with a low aspect ratio of tube to particle diameters (D-1/d(p)) in order to validate the wall effect on flow dynamics and mass transfer during the reduction of ceria-silica by hydrogen. High concentrations of water vapour emerged in the vicinity of the wall when the bed was operated at pseudo-static conditions but disappeared when the bed was run at minimum bubbling conditions. This result shows the capability of optical methods with affordable costs to 2D imaging opaque packed bed by using a spatially resolved probe located at the exit, which is of great benefit for in situ visualization of anisotropic concentrations in packed beds under industrially relevant conditions and thus for elucidation of the underlying reaction mechanism and diffusion interactions. Crown Copyright (c) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Measurements of Surface Temperature and Emissivity by Two-dimensional Four-color Thermometry with Narrow Bandwidth

Abstract To study characteristics of heated material surface over 600 K, non-contact measurements of two-dimensional (2D) distributions of temperature and emissivity are very useful for process monitoring in engineerings, because of remote sensing in short time. The 2D temperature distributions enable us to monitor the surface temperature quantitatively with high spatial resolution. The 2D emissivity distributions give us a capability to judge thermal degradations or defects of surfaces. In our previous studies, 2D distributions of temperature and emissivity determined by two-color method with a CCD camera and two optical filters have been reported. In this study, a four-color method is proposed to improve accuracy and precision in measurements of the 2D distributions. Four optical filters with narrow bandpass of 10 nm were used for our measurements, because the thermometry with them is advantageous over that with wide ones in terms of *Corresponding author, phone: +81-52-789-5982, fax: +81-52-789-2919. E-mail: [email protected] (Fumie Akimoto) accuracy in temperature determination. As the wavelengths of these narrow bandpass filters are selected to be free from atmospheric absorption, it gives negligibly small errors in the temperature measurement. Distributions of temperature and emissivity determined by two-color method are also discussed for comparison. The results obtained by the four-color method have high accuracy and precision and the resultant 2D emissivity distribution indicates that several conditions of surfaces are clearly illustrated