New chemical engineering provision: Quality in diversity

Recent growth in chemical engineering student numbers has driven an increase in the number of UK universities offering the subject. The implications of this growth are described, along with the different challenges facing new providers in the UK compared with established departments. The approaches taken by the various new entrants are reviewed, with reference to recruitment strategies, infrastructure, the use of external facilities, and the particular flavours of chemical engineering being offered by the new providers. Information about the differentiating features of the large number of chemical engineering degree courses now available is somewhat indistinct: this should be rectified in the interests both of prospective students and of employers. Dilemmas facing new providers include the need to address the fundamentals of the subject as well as moving into more novel research-led areas; enabling students to develop the competencies to sustain them for a whole career as well as meeting immediate employer needs; and providing sufficient industry understanding when academics may lack substantial industrial experience. The central importance of practical provision and of the design project, and the approaches taken by new providers to deliver these components, are reviewed, together with the role of software tools in chemical engineering education, and measures to facilitate industry input into courses. As long as it is not used prescriptively or to inhibit innovation, the accreditation process provides constructive guidance and leverage for universities developing new chemical engineering programmes

Production of biogas - a manner of manufacturing

Advertising is commonly criticised for being pervasive, offensive, manipulative, harmful and irresponsible. This thesis focuses on the subjective criticisms and complex issues related to taste, decency, morality and offence, particularly as applied to, and understood within, the public and non-profit contexts. It is positioned at the intersection of marketing communications, marketing ethics, and social and non-profit marketing and explores how shocking, offensive and/or controversial (SOC) advertising appeals are interpreted, regulated and contested, by divergent groups of people. The approach taken is inspired by stakeholder theory and its focus on ethical decision-making for the betterment of all stakeholders. A mixed methods research design was adopted, resulting in three studies and these are presented as three discrete articles. Article I maps the field of existing research into SOC advertising and identifies gaps in our knowledge by means of a systematic literature review. It offers a critical appraisal of the field by highlighting definitional tensions, limited interdisciplinary work and an overdependence on student samples, on quantitative analysis and on non-longitudinal methodologies. It then proposes a series of remedies to these shortcomings. The second and third papers continue this reparative work by conceptualising and analysing actual SOC advertising interpretations and contestations. Article II explores the interpretations and experiences of SOC advertising within the regulatory context by analysing evidence from complainants, advertisers and regulatory bodies. It then proposes and develops an interpretation of the implicit power dynamics through which their contradictory interests overlap. The methodology underpinning this chapter combines a thematic content analysis of a substantial archive of complaints submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) with an interpretation of case adjudication reports influenced by the work of Michel Foucault. The findings suggest that the regulation of SOC advertising prioritises the interests of firms and advertisers by relegating the role of complainant to that of merely registering complaints. The focus of Article III moves from the regulatory framework to the complained-about advertisements themselves. It provides an innovative theoretical and methodological approach to analysing SOC advertisements, rooted in the classic Aristotelian notion of rhetorical appeals and figuration, by developing and analysing a carefully selected example in detail. The analysis reveals an implicit NFP sector-specific appeal to ethos and the importance of a complex appeal to pathos. Each of the papers offers a different level of analysis of the often-contradictory viewpoints represented by stakeholder groups involved in, or affected by, the use of SOC advertising tactics. These viewpoints include academics, general consumers, the vocal minority of complainants, the advertisers including the non-profit and public organisations and the advertising creatives, and the advertising regulator. Taken together, the papers amount to a thesis that makes an important contribution to debates about the appropriateness, ethics, and application of SOC themes, formats and imagery in social and non-profit advertising. By exploring the regulatory processes of the ASA, an exemplary advertising self-regulatory body, it further contributes to the discourse on self-regulatory practices and highlights an NFP sector-specific consequentialist approach that appears to stifle the voice of the offended complainant. On a practical level, this work has implications for advertising practitioners and advertising regulators who are involved in producing and regulating advertising that uses SOC tactics

Optimal start-up and operation policy for an ultrafiltration membrane unit in whey separation

Membrane filtration systems are preferred unit operations in industrial applications due to their mild operating conditions. However the performance of a membrane stack drops over time because of the membrane fouling. This decrease is overcomed by introducing clean membrane stacks. The associated scheduling problem, when to include new membrane stacks to the operation, is the main topic of this paper. We construct a dynamic optimization problem to find the optimal time instants of introducing new membrane stacks. Furthermore, the optimal operating pressure profile for the optimal scheduling strategy is constructed from the desired output specifications. The result of the simulation study indicates that the optimal scheduling strategy improves the operation by slowing down the accumulation of fouling. Keywords Ultrafiltration membrane systems; Whey separation; Scheduling; MINLP; Optimal Operatio

Recent developments towards enhancing process safety: inherent safety and cognitive engineering

Safety is paramount aspect of any chemical plant. In this paper various approaches to enhance process safety are evaluated. The specific enhancements include process design methodologies for improving inherent safety and cognitive engineering to reduce human errors. Their aim is to reduce the number and the consequences of possible deviation events, which depends predominantly on quality of the equipment and human error potential. The consequences are linked to the substances and their inventories. An inherent safety index is used to assess the properties of substances and process units while the potential for human error is characterized using various physiological measures. Our research indicates that application of process synthesis methodologies for simultaneous inherent safety assessment and advanced cognitive engineering approaches for human error reduction will lead to enhanced process safety.by Rajagopalan Srinivasan, Babji Srinivasan, M. Umair Iqbal, Andreja Nemet and Zdravko Kravanj

Optimization of biogas supply networks considering multiple objectives and auction trading prices of electricity

Abstract This contribution presents an hourly-based optimization of a biogas supply network to generate electricity, heat and organic fertilizer while considering multiple objectives and auction trading prices of electricity. The optimization model is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) utilizing a four-layer biogas supply chain. The model accounts for biogas plants based on two capacity levels of methane to produce on average 1 ± 0.1 MW and 5 ± 0.2 MW electricity. Three objectives are put forward: i) maximization of economic profit, ii) maximization of economic profit while considering cost/benefits from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (economic+GHG profit) and iii) maximization of sustainability profit. The results show that the economic profit accrued on hourly-based auction trading prices is negative (loss), hence, four additional scenarios are put forward: i) a scenario whereby carbon prices are steadily increased to the prevalent eco-costs/eco-benefits of global warming; ii) a scenario whereby all the electricity auction trading prices are multiplied by certain factors to find the profitability breakeven factor, iii) a scenario whereby shorter time periods are applied, and investment cost of biogas storage is reduced showing a relationship between cost, volume of biogas stored and the variations in electricity production and (iv) a scenario whereby the capacity of the biogas plant is varied from 1 MW and 5 MW as it affects economics of the process. The models are applied to an illustrative case study of agricultural biogas plants in Slovenia where a maximum of three biogas plants could be selected. The results hence present the effects of the simultaneous relationship of economic profit, economic+GHG profit and sustainability profit on the supply and its benefit to decision-making

Solution structure of the histidine-containing phosphocarrier protein from Staphylococcus carnosus

The solution structure of histidine-containing phosphocarrier protein fromStaphylococcus carnosus was determined by two- and three-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy on uniformly15N-enriched protein. The main structural element is an antiparallel β-pleated sheet with four strands A, B, C, and D arranged with the topology A-D-B-C. Strand A comprises residues 2 to 8, strand B residues 32 to 37, strand C reidues 40 to 43, and strand D residues 59 to 66. Three right-handed helices are arranged on top of the β-pleated sheet. Helix a reaches from residue 16 to 29, helix b from residue 48 to 53, and helix c from residue 72 to 83. Strands B and C of the β-pleated sheet are connected by a type II turn. The hydroxyl proton of Ser-31 is exchanging with the solvent so slowly that cross peaks can be detected in two-dimensional NMR spectra based on homonuclearJ-couplings. The imidazole ring of the active-center His-15, which is partly charged in the structure determined at pH 7.2, is located above the N-terminal end of helix a, perpendicular to its axis. The Nδ1 atom of His-15, accepting the phosphoryl from enzyme I, is exposed to the solvent